The Indian sarus crane Grus antigone antigone is the world's graceful and tallest flying bird. It is a nonmigratory
          and only resident breeding crane of Indian sub continent. It has been declared as 'State Bird' by
          Government of Uttar Pradesh. Pairing of the bird for life long and legendry marital devotion of the species has earned
          its global popularity. Ecological and environmental condition of this lake is quite supportive for the survival of this
          vulnerable species. The present study deals with the distribution and conservation of this vulnerable species in and
          around the Alwara lake of district Kaushambi, Uttar Pradesh. A total of 335 cranes were actually observed in 2012,
          425 in 2013, 510 in 2014 and 537 in 2015, although more cranes were claimed to exist in this area by the local people.
          This communication is clearly depicting continuous increasing trend in population of Indian sarus crane during their
          exploration from 2012-2015 in the area studied, although its population is decreasing at global level

Shri, Prakash

Verma, Ak

English

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1ISSN : 0972-995X (Print), 2321-7960 (Online)National Journal of Life Science, Vol. 14(2) Dec. 2017 : 143-146*Corresponding author (email : akv.apexz@gmail.com) Received 18.08.2017                                        Accepted 24.09.2017CONTINUOUS INCREASE IN POPULATION OF INDIAN SARUS CRANEGRUS ANTIGONE ANTIGONE IN AND AROUND ALWARA LAKE OFDISTRICT KAUSHAMBI (U.P.)1* 2ASHOK KUMAR VERMA  and SHRI PRAKASH1Department of Zoology, Govt. P.G. College, Saidabad, Allahabad (U.P.)2Department of Zoology, K.A. P.G. College, Allahabad (U.P.)ABSTRACT : The Indian sarus crane Grus antigone antigone is the world's graceful and tallest flying bird. It is a non-migratory and only resident breeding crane of Indian sub continent. It has been declared as 'State Bird' by Government of Uttar Pradesh. Pairing of the bird for life long and legendry marital devotion of the species has earned its global popularity. Ecological and environmental condition of this lake is quite supportive for the survival of this vulnerable species. The present study deals with the distribution and conservation of this vulnerable species in and around the Alwara lake of district Kaushambi, Uttar Pradesh. A total of 335 cranes were actually observed in 2012, 425 in 2013, 510 in 2014 and 537 in 2015, although more cranes were claimed to exist in this area by the local people. This communication is clearly depicting continuous increasing trend in population of Indian sarus crane during their exploration from 2012-2015 in the area studied, although its population is decreasing at global level.Key words : Alwara lake, Sarus crane, Increasing trends, Conservation, Population comparison.INTRODUCTIONThe Indian sarus crane, Grus antigone antigone (Linnaeus,1758) is the largest of the crane species found in India. Its population density is inseparably associated with wetland habitats and prefers to inhabit close to human habita-tion. The Indian sarus crane has been listed as globally threat-ened i.e. vulnerable avian species (Bird Life International) be-cause of its declining numbers. The name "Sarus" has its ori-gin from Sanskrit word- 'sarasa', which means 'lake bird' and the dance of the sarus has undoubtedly led to the species get-ting the name. The skin of this bird was first studied and de-scribed by Carolus Linnaeus who named it as Antigone in 1758.A few investigators (Sundar et al.,2000a,b; Sundar, 2010; Jha & McKinley,2014; Prakash et al.,2014; Ansari, 2015; Verma et al.,2015,2016a and Prakash et al.,2016a,b) have tried to study the demography, ecology and status of Indian sarus crane on large scale in Uttar Pradesh. Sundar and Choudhary (2003) gave the literature review of sarus crane in detail. As far as the study of this sarus crane in and around the Alwara lake is concerned, it is done only by few zoologists  like Verma et al. (2015,2016a,b) and Prakash et al. (2016a), who reported an increasing population trend of Indian sarus crane in and around of this said lake.Verma et al. (2016c) and Prakash et al. (2016c) worked a little on the nesting materials, their medicinal values and suit-able selection of nesting sites of this crane present exploration is aimed to study the month wise population of sarus crane dur-ing the year 2015 in and around the Alwara lake of district Kaushambi and their comparison to month wise sarus crane population recorded in 2012 and 2014 in the same study area.MATERIAL AND METHODSStudy area : The Alwara lake (Google Map-1) is a natural lake (Fig.1) and a part of perennial wetland and is situated be-tween the latitude 25°24'05.84"S-25°25'10.63"N and longi-tude 81°11'39.49"E-81°12'57.95"W with altitude MSL-81.08 meter. It is surrounded by agricultural fields and connected to the river Yamuna and covers more than 1750 hectares. It is lo-cated in Sarsawan block of Manjhanpur tehsil of Kaushambi district of Uttar Pradesh.This lake is surrounded by Ranipur, Dundi, Hatwa and Bhawansuri in East, Paur Kashi Rampur, Alwara and Gaura in the North, Shahpur, Umrawan in the South and Mawai, Tikra and Dalelaganj in the West.Authors used binocular, camera, motorbike, chappu boat, field stick etc. for different purposes during survey programme. As the sarus crane is a huge bird and visible from a distance hence it was easy to count sarus properly. The study area was visited regularly during first and third Sunday of ev-ery month in 2015 but the crane was counted on first Sunday of June,2015 on a single day.Besides actual sightings, inquiries from local people were also made to ensure the estimate of existing population and their perceptions about the existence of the crane.  All the observations were made while moving through the chappu boat and walking along the crop lands, mud lands, natural ar-eas using binoculars (7x35 and 8x40-BEZIF BM-9) and canon cameras.The identification, counting methods and other study parameters were aided by using Wild Life Institute of India Wetland Research Methodology (1999), Ali et al. (1999) and Aryal et al. (2009). 2RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONSarus cranes are seen mostly in pair (Fig.3) or in pairs with juvenile (Fig.4) and rarely in solo condition. The family group occurs in whole year but during non-breeding season, cranes are seen in congregation for mate finding or pair for-mation. The authors counting included the crane pairs along with juvenile.Google Map. 1  Study area in Kaushambi district of Uttar Pradesh.Table. 1  Month wise comparison of sarus crane population from 2012-2015.Month No. of cranes (2012) No. of cranes (2013) No. of cranes (2014) No. of cranes in (2015)January 36 41 48 51 February 33 38 44 45 March 29 39 45 46 April 22 30 34 35 May 09 25 36 37 June 12 20 28 30 July 27 38 47 49 August 24 35 46 50 September 34 41 47 49 October 38 43 48 53 November 35 38 43 47 December 36 37 44 45 Total 335 425 510 537 VERMA and PRAKASH144Fig. 1  A view of Alwara lake of Kaushambi (U.P.).Fig. 2  Graphic representation of month wise populationof sarus cranes from 2012-2015.National Journal of Life Sciences, Vol. 14(2) December 20173Prakash et al. (2014) counted a population of 335 cranes in 2012 (Table.1) in three different transects of Alwara lake, Verma et al. (2016a) counted their population as 425 in 2013 while Verma et al. (2016b) reported 510 cranes in total in and around Alwara lake in 2014. In present survey, authors collected a data of 537 cranes in the same study area in 2015, as shown in Table.1 and Bar diagram (Fig.2).Above representation clearly indicates a continuous growth in the population of sarus cranes from 2012-2015. The reason behind this increase in population is due to openness, suitable agricultural land and seasonal marshes dominated over the climatic factors and occurrence of favourable ecolog-ical, feeding, mating and nesting conditions as well. The number of sarus cranes is gradually decreasing at global level due to widespread reductions in the extent and quality of their wetland habitats, exploitation and the effects of pollutants, unplanned farming, irrigation and non-adoption of wild life rules and regulations as well. Due to its declining number, Indian sarus crane has been now listed as globally threatened i.e. vulnerable avian species (Bird Life International,2012).However, in the present study, a continuous gradual in-crease is clearly indicated in the table and bar diagram. This in-creasing trend in the population of sarus crane is an important aspect of ecological balance. Prakash et al. (2014) and Verma et al. (2015,2016a,b) strongly argued that this is happening only because of favourable environmental conditions for sarus crane in and around the Alwara lake and the Alwara lake is good natural habitat for this species (Verma et al.,2016d).ACKNOWLEDGMENTSAuthors are highly grateful to the Professor Asish Joshi Principal Govt. P. G. College, Saidabad, Allahabad for providing necessary laboratory facilities. The authors are also obliged to local Gram Pradhans and authorities of district ad-ministration Kaushambi, Uttar Pradesh for their co-operation during entire survey programme.REFERENCESAli, Salim and Ripley, S. D. (1999). Handbook of the birds of India and Pakistan. Oxford University Press, India, 4 : 2Ansari, N. A. (2015). Population composition and distribu-tion of Indian Sarus Crane Grus antigone antigone in Gautam Budh Nagar district, with special reference to Surajpur Wetland, National Capital Region, India. Int. J. of Plant, Animal and Environmental Sci., 5(3) : 41-46. Aryal, A.; Shrestha, T. K.; Sen, D. S., Upreti, B. and Gautam, N. (2009). Conservation regime and local population ecology of Sarus crane (Grus antigone antigone) in West-Central region of Nepal. Journal of Wetlands Ecology, 3 : 1-11.Bird Life International (2012). Grus antigone. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. <www. iucnredlist.org>.Jha, K. K. and McKinley, C. R. (2014). Demography and Ecology of Indian Sarus Crane Grus antigone antigone in Uttar Pradesh, Northern India. Asian Journal of Conservation Biology, 3(1) : 8-18.Linnaeus Carolus (1758). Systema nature per regna tria na-ture, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum thcharacteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis 1 : 10  edn. Laurentius Salvius Stockholm,  pp. 1-4, 1-824.Prakash, S.; Narain, S. and Kumar, S. (2014). Conservation of the threatened Sarus Crane Grus antigone antigone (Linnaeus, 1758) around Alwara lake in Kaushambi dis-trict (U.P.). Journal of Threatened Taxa, 6 : 5726-5730.Prakash, S. and Verma, A. K. (2016a). Marital fidelity and con-gregation of Indian sarus crane, Grus antigone antigone in and around Alwara lake of district Kaushambi (U.P.). Int. Journal of Biological Research, 4(1) : 10-13.Prakash, S. and Verma, A. K. (2016b). Impact of awareness programme on growth and conservation of vulnerable avian species Grus antigone antigone in and around Alwara lake of district Kaushambi (U.P.). The Journal of Zoology Studies, 3(2) : 1-5.145POPULATION  STATUS  OF  INDIAN  SARUS  CRANE  OF  KAUSHAMBIFig. 3  Paired sarus crane in agro paddy field aroundAlwara lake.Fig. 4  Sarus crane pair with juvenile in agro-field aroundAlwara lake.National Journal of Life Sciences, Vol. 14(2) December 20174Prakash, S. and Verma, A. K. (2016c). Studies on Use of Local Medicinal Flora in Nest Building by Threatened Bird, Grus antigone antigone in and around Alwara kake of district Kaushambi (U.P.). Journal of Applied Life Sciences International, 5(3) : 1-7. Sundar, K. S. G. (2010). Sarus cranes in Uttar Pradesh. Kat's Eye, 2 : 2-4.Sundar, K. S. G. and Choudhary, B. C. (2003). The Indian Sarus Crane Grus antigone. antigone : a literature re-view. J. Ecol. Soc., 16 : 16-41.Sundar, K. S. G.; Chaudhary, B. C. and Kaur, J. (2000a). Sarus crane count-2000. Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun.Sundar, K. S. G., Chaudhary, B. C. and Kaur, J. (2000b). Distribution, demography and conservation status of the Indian Sarus Crane Grus antigone antigone in India. Journal Bombay Natural History Society, 97(3) : 319-339.Verma, A. K.; Prakash,. S. and Kumar, Sunil (2015). Status and Ecology of Sarus Crane, Grus antigone antigone in and around the Alwara lake of district Kaushambi (U.P.). International Journal on Environmental Sciences, 6(2) : 331-335.Verma, A. K. and Prakash, S. (2016a). Demographic studies of Indian Sarus Crane, Grus antigone antigone in and around Alwara lake of district Kaushambi (U.P.). International Journal of Innovative Biological Research, 5(1) :1-4.Verma, A. K. and Prakash, S. (2016b). Population dynamics of Indian Sarus Crane, Grus antigone antigone (Linnaeus,1758) in and around Alwara lake of Kaushambi district (U.P.). International Journal of Biological Research, 4(2) : 206-210.Verma, A. K. and Prakash, S. (2016c). Selective behaviour of Indian Sarus Crane in choosing plant species for nest con-struction in and around Alwara lake of district Kaushambi (U.P.). International Journal of Zoology and Research, 6(3) : 1-6.Verma, A. K. and Prakash, S. (2016d). Alwara lake : Good nat-ural habitat for vulnerable avian species Grus antigone antigone (Linnaeus,1758). Journal of the Kalash Science, 4(1) : 45-47.Wildlife Institute of India (1999). Training workshop on wet-land research methodology measuring and monitoring bi-ological diversity. Wild Life Institute India, Dehra Dun, pp. 5-10.VERMA and PRAKASH146National Journal of Life Sciences, Vol. 14(2) December 2017

CONTINUOUS INCREASE IN POPULATION OF INDIAN SARUS CRANE GRUS ANTIGONE ANTIGONE IN AND AROUND ALWARA LAKE OF DISTRICT KAUSHAMBI (U.P.)

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CONTINUOUS INCREASE IN POPULATION OF INDIAN SARUS CRANE GRUS ANTIGONE ANTIGONE IN AND AROUND ALWARA LAKE OF DISTRICT KAUSHAMBI (U.P.)

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