Butterflies ( Lepidoptera : Papilionoidea and Hesperoidea ) and other protected fauna of Jones Estate , a dying watershed in the Kumaon Himalaya , Uttarakhand , India

Acknowledgements: I am grateful to my late father, Fred Smetacek Sr.; to the Times Fellowship Council, New Delhi, for a Fellowship to study Indian rivers in 1992 and to the Rufford Small Grant Foundation, U.K., for funding the work on Lepidoptera and Himalayan forest ecosystems between 2006 and the present study via a series of grants. I am indebted to Rudi Mattoni, Argentina for encouragement to write this and valuable suggestions on an earlier draft and drawing my attention to the format developed by him and used in Table 1 and to Zdenek Faltynek Fric, Ceske Budejovice in the Czech Republic, for valuable taxonomic comments on Table 1. Also, I am indebted to the anonymous referees whose recommendations considerably improved the paper and to my children, Kanika and Pius, who spent many hours sorting through note books, loose leaf lists, books and specimens to compile the enormous amount of data that went into the making of Table 1.


INTRODUCTION
Jones Estate ("June State" on Revenue Department records) is a forested microwatershed in Nainital district, Uttarakhand (29 0 21'17"N & 79 0 32'34.27"E),separating the Bhimtal and Sattal lake systems (Image 1).In the Himalaya, it is a unique geographical feature, being the only forested watershed separating two lake systems comprising a total of eight perennial and seasonal lakes.Bhimtal (tal = lake in Hindi) lies at the southeastern end while the Sattal lies along the northern half of the western face of the Estate.Comprising roughly 4.8 sq.km (1200 acres) of private forest in 1951, the forest area of Jones Estate has been reduced by roughly 30% due to cultivation and habitation over the years.
The lowest point is 1200m at the conjoined Ram and Sita lakes of the Sattal (seven lakes) system, while the highest point is Thala at 1731m.The range runs northwest to southeast for a distance of roughly 3km from Dhupchaura pass on the northwest to Tallital market and Bohrakun Village on its southeastern and southern faces respectively (Image 1).To the east lies the Bhimtal lake system comprising of three lakes-Nal-Damayantital, Kuatal and Bhimtal.To the west lies the Sattal lake system comprising of Pannatal (=Garurtal) (Image 2); Ramtal and Sitatal, Lakshmantal, Sukhatal, Sariyatal and Lokhamtal.
Jones Estate lies in the outermost range of the Himalayan foothills and receives heavy rainfall.Although Osmaston (1927) gives a range of 2000-3000 mm of rainfall for this area, actual precipitation is rather less nowadays, averaging 1443mm for the fiveyear period from 2005 to 2009 (Anonymous 2010).
The forest consists of three plant associations, namely sub-tropical broadleaf with Himalayan Oak Quercus leucotrichophora as a nodal species; Chir Pine Pinus roxburghii forest and elements of miscellaneous deciduous forest.In addition, there is a patch of naturalized Himalayan Cypress Cupressus torulosa several acres in extent.

HISTORY
The Bhimtal Valley has been inhabited and cultivated for over a millennium and Atkinson (1882) noted that it was one of the largest single sheets of cultivation in the Kumaon Himalaya.
Jones Estate watershed and the Sattal Valley were not inhabited during past centuries, although some small patches of cultivation were attempted by share-croppers and itinerant families until 1952.The major part of the Estate has always been forested.It came into existence in 1867 as a fee-simple estate, with the main aim of developing it for the production of green tea for the Tibetan market.Since then, it has remained in private hands.
On 17 January 2001 the then Minister for Environment and Forests, Mr. Kandari, stated in the Uttarakhand State Assembly that all concerned government departments, including the Public Works Department, Forest Department, Pollution Control Department, etc. in their reports on the possibility of construction of buildings on the Jones Estate watershed, had stressed that any such move would result in disastrous consequences for Bhimtal and for the water storage capability of the Sattal lakes (Special Correspondent 2001).
In 1954, a Forest Working Plan was passed for Jones Estate by the Forest Department.In the Land Record Settlement known as the Bandobast in 1957, land use of the greater part of Jones Estate was recorded as "forest".Under the provisions of the Forest Conservation Act 1980, no land use change is permitted on such land without the permission of the Central Government.
Despite this, numerous houses and resorts are being constructed and there is no doubt that the eventual urbanization of the Estate is well under way, to the detriment of the Bhimtal and Sattal lake systems and the wildlife inhabiting the Estate at present.Therefore, the present paper documents the butterflies recorded on the Estate (   (Anonymous 2006) that have been recorded on the Estate (Table 2).In total, these constitute 49 species, 11 on Schedule 1 and 39 on Schedule 2 (Hypolimnas misippus Linnaeus figures on both Schedules and is counted only once).

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The butterflies of the Estate have been studied since 1951.Some original specimens still exist, but the major resource from this era is in the form of notes maintained by my father, the late Fred Smetacek Sr.In the course of studying local butterflies, two butterfly subspecies new to science were discovered on the Estate, namely Neptis miah varshneyi Smetacek and Neptis clinia praedicta Smetacek (both Nymphalidae) (Smetacek 2002;2011b).Besides, several butterflies previously unrecorded from the Western Himalaya have been reported (Smetacek 2010).Moths have been studied since 1972.Several species new to science have been described from the Estate (Smetacek 2002;2005;2010a).Besides, the population of hawkmoths (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) on the Estate provided material for pioneering work in using members of an insect community as bio-indicators to predict and track climate change (Smetacek 1994;2004).
The sightings of mammals and birds included in Annexure 2 were compiled mostly during the 1980s, when much time was spent patrolling the forest.They are all based on actual sightings by the author.The most recent sighting of a mammal protected under the provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 and listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red Data List is of a Himalayan Serow (Capricornis sumatraensis thar) which was sighted and photographed outside the Butterfly Research Centre, Jones Estate at 10am on 07 November 2011.
The use of a lepidopteran community as an indicator of forest health and consequently the health of the ecosystem including sub-surface water resources has been explored on the Estate by the author for the past 30 years (Smetacek 1993(Smetacek -2010)).The format of Image 1, which enables a great deal of information to be presented concisely, has been taken with kind  face of the watershed and three on its western face.In addition, there are several sub surface springs on the lake beds of both lake systems.Of the over-ground springs, both eastern face springs used to be perennial but one is now almost seasonal, with its flow reduced to a thin trickle during the dry season.Similarly, all of the three western-face springs, which used to be perennial, are seasonal today, due, presumably, to depleted Oak forest in the catchment areas of these springs.It is clear that as long as the Oak forest was in good condition, the springs were perennial.Changes to the Oak forest ecosystem in the form of the large scale drying up of trees due to forest fires, destruction of the canopy due to lopping for fodder, cutting of trees, etc were reflected in reduced flow during the dry season and increased flow, sometimes even forming new outlets, during the wet season.

DISCUSSION
The Jones Estate watershed separates two lake systems which together constitute five perennial lakes and several seasonal ones.These lakes are an inestimably valuable resource of drinking quality water for future generations.However, with the urbanization of the Jones Estate watershed, their future looks uncertain, especially the Sattal lake system, which has no over-ground tributaries and a very small catchment area.
Of the 400+ species of butterflies known from Uttarakhand (Mackinnon & de Nicéville 1899; Hannyngton 1910Hannyngton , 1915;;Smetacek 1987Smetacek , 1992Smetacek , 1993aSmetacek , 1995Smetacek , 1999Smetacek , 2001Smetacek , 2002, in press b, unpub.data; If the Bhimtal and Sattal lakes systems are to be stabilized in the long term, then the following points may be taken into consideration: 1.An immediate ban be put into effect on construction of roads, houses and commercial establishments within the catchment areas of Bhimtal and Sattal lakes, i.e. extending from the Catholic Church in Bhowali, east along the crest line to Ghorakhal, thence along the ridges to the hamlet of Binayak, south along the crest of Karkot and thence west to Bohrakoon hamlet, then further west to Suriya Gaon and northwards along the crest of Hidamba (Hirrup) to the crest of Hatchhina and thence again following the line of crests to the Catholic Church in Bhowali.The same provisions as applied in Nainital or Mussoorie Municipalities regarding construction be made applicable within this area.
2. Within this area, so as not to alienate residents, a provision be made to permit residents for at least two generations (i.e.40 years) to construct additional housing for extended families or build commercial establishments for a source of family income.The verification for this may be made sensible but strict so that lower officials do not consider the possibility of issuing fake reports or certificates, as the case may be.
3. A ban on cattle and goat breeding be implemented within the jurisdiction of the Bhimtal Town Area Committee, on the same lines as that in force within Nainital Cantonment and Municipality.
4. A ban on free range grazing by cattle within the catchment area, to be enforced by concerned agencies, i.e.Forest Department and Van Panchayats.
5. A wood depot be set up in Bhimtal so that residents are able to purchase fuel legally, as in other small towns throughout Kumaon.
6.If necessary, one or more fodder depot(s) be set up in the higher reaches of the catchment area, eg. in Farsoli, to cater to the needs of villages in that area and reduce dependence on lopping forest trees.
All these recommendations are well within the scope of the Government, require no extra funds and will have to be implemented in due course in the Bhimtal Valley in any case.If it is done now, then the action will come into force before the damage is irreversible, unlike Nainital and Mussoorie, where the bans came into effect after the damage had been done.

Image 1 .
Google map showing Jones Estate watershed outlined in white and adjoining lake systems.Source: Googlemaps Image 2. Garurtal with the western face of Jones Estate in the background.

Table
1) so as to get a better idea of what is being lost and the eventual consequences of urbanization of the Jones Estate watershed.

Table 1 . Butterflies recorded in Jones Estate, Bhimtal, Between 1951 and 2011.
Robinson et al. (2001) plant (FP) preferences: M -Monophagous, feeds on plant species within one genus; O -Oligophagous, feeds on plant genera within one family; P -Polyphagous, feeds on plants in two or more families.10-Larvalfoodplant families; in cases where the spectrum of families is very wide, only two of the most important families in the area are included.For others, reference may be made toRobinson et al. (2001).Throughout the paper, the symbol ?indicates the lack of dependable data.