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

Peter Smetacek

Butterfly Research Centre, The Retreat, Jones Estate, Bhimtal, Uttarakhand 263136, India
Email: petersmetacek@rediffmail.com

Date of publication (online): 26 August 2012

Date of publication (print): 26 August 2012

ISSN 0974-7907 (online) | 0974-7893 (print)

Editor: Rudi Mattoni

Manuscript details:

Ms # o3020

Received 25 November 2011

Final received 02 February 2012

Finally accepted 15 July 2012

Citation: Smetacek, P. (2012). Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea and Hesperoidea) and other protected fauna of Jones Estate, a dying watershed in the Kumaon Himalaya, Uttarakhand, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 4(9): 2857–2874.

Copyright: © Peter Smetacek 2012. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article in any medium for non-profit purposes, reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publication.

Author Details: Peter Smetacek is an authority on Indian Lepidoptera and has pioneered the use of insect communities as bio-indicators of climatic change and ground water.

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.

Abstract:Two hundred and forty three species of butterflies recorded from Jones Estate, Uttarakhand between 1951 and 2010 are reported. The ongoing rapid urbanization of Jones Estate micro-watershed will destroy the habitat of 49 species of wildlife protected under Indian law, as well as several species of narrow endemic moths and butterflies. The only known Indian habitat for the butterfly Lister’s Hairstreak Pamela dudgeoni will be destroyed. The effect on the water flow of both the Bhimtal and Sattal lake systems will clearly be adverse, as is evident from the drying up of Kua Tal and the reduced flow of perennial water springs during the dry season on the Estate. The undoubtedly negative effect of urbanization on these valuable fresh water resources will be irreversible in the long term. The trend can be reversed by extending protection to Jones Estate by re-declaring it a Green Belt of Bhimtal and by banning construction in the catchment area of Bhimtal lake, as has been done in Nainital and Mussoorie, both in Uttarakhand.

Keywords: Bhimtal, drinking water, drying lakes, freshwater resources, Green Belt, Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972, Pamela dudgeoni.

For figures, images, tables -- click here

INTRODUCTION

Jones Estate (“June State” on Revenue Department records) is a forested microwatershed in Nainital district, Uttarakhand (29⁰21’17”N & 79⁰32’34.27”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 five-year 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 (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.

The present paper also documents the butterflies and vertebrates afforded
protection under the Schedules of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 (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 1993–2010). The format of Image 1, which enables a great deal of information to be presented concisely, has been taken with kind permission from Mattoni (1990) and Mattoni & Vannucci (2008), for which I am grateful.

The information recorded in Table 1 regarding voltinism is based on specimens recorded or bred, while the information regarding diapause is based on breeding experiments by Fred Smetacek Sr. and the author.

WATERSHED FUNCTIONS

Both the Bhimtal and Sattal lake systems depend largely on subsurface water from this watershed to sustain them. This fact was acknowledged by Atkinson (1882) in the words, “The hills on the western side of the [Bhimtal] lake [i.e. present day Jones Estate] are considerably higher than on the east, and are of such formation that it is highly improbable that the lake can ever dry up.” Of course, back then,it was improbable that Mr. Atkinson could even conceive of the present threat of urbanization facing Bhimtal in
general and Jones Estate in particular (Image 3).

Today, one lake of the system, Kuatal, has actually dried up during the last decade. With regard to Kuatal, the only thing that has changed during the past 30 years is that the Himalayan Oak forest in its catchment area in Jones Estate has been severely degraded (Image 4). In the wake of nearly unprecedented rain during July and September 2010, Kuatal filled twice for the first time in over 60 years. A photograph from around 1890 (Image 5) shows the area as it apparently used to be and Image 6 shows Kuatal when it was full in 2010. The loss of Kuatal is not recognized by any level of Government. Government maps used by the Lakes Development Authority and other Governmental departments do not even have a lake marked at the spot.

The only over-ground feeder for any of the lakes, is a small stream that rises on the Aru Plain north of Bhimtal and enters the northern end of Bhimtal after a course of roughly 3km, of which nearly 1km is underground. This stream entirely dried up for two months between May 2012 and July 2012, for the first time in history. This is an extremely worrisome development since the prospect of Bhimtal lake becoming seasonal in the coming years is a very real probability. For the first time, too, water supply from Bhimtal Lake to Haldwani City was extended from 15–30 June 2012 by the State Irrigation Department due to the lack of alternate water resources to supply the city. In addition to the subsurface springs feeding the lakes, there are two over-ground water springs on the eastern 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 1910, 1915; Smetacek 1987, 1992, 1993a, 1995, 1999, 2001, 2002, in press b, unpub. data; Singh 2003, 2005, 2005a, 2006, 2007), 243 species of butterflies (Annexure 1) and approximately 550 species of macro-moths (Smetacek 2008, 2009) have been recorded from the Jones Estate watershed. This may be compared with the entire Indian Peninsula, which is home to 330 species of butterflies (Gaonkar 1996)
and an undetermined number of moth species.

Forty nine species of wildlife included in the Schedules of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 have been recorded on the watershed (Table 2), yet even this impressive figure is not enough to prevent the ongoing destruction of this forest ecosystem.

Of special interest is the record of Lister’s Hairstreak Pamela dudgeoni de Nicéville (=Listeria dudgeoni) (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) in March 1974 in Jones Estate. This butterfly was known from Sikkim (Type locality: specimen described in 1894) and Mussoorie (Evans 1932). Wynter-Blyth (1957) noted a specimen from Siuni camping ground near Ranikhet in Kumaon. The single specimen was recorded in 1909 and is currently in the collection of the Natural History Museum, London. It has not been recorded from Sikkim since the type was reported and was evidently recorded from Mussoorie between 1899 and 1932, since Mackinnon & de Nicéville (1899) do not report it. The male specimen on
whose basis Evans (1932) reported it from 1829m (6000ft) elevation in Mussooorie is currently in the collection of the Forest Research Institute, Dehradun. Sidhu (2011) has reported the substantial loss of habitat for the Lycaenidae in Mussoorie. It is almost certain that Pamela dudgeoni will not be found in that area now. This leaves Jones Estate as the only known habitat where this extremely rare butterfly has been recorded recently. The genus is monobasic and was believed to be confined to the Himalaya (Varshney 1997; 2010) although Inayoshi (1996–2011) has reported it from Thailand. It is not improbable that the ongoing destruction of the insect’s habitat in Jones Estate will result in the global extinction of the species.

Besides this, Jones Estate is one of three known localities for Euaspa ziha de Nicéville (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) (P. Smetacek unpub. data); one of two known localities for Neptis miah varshneyi Smetacek; one of two known localities for Comostola hauensteiniSmetacek (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) (Smetacek 2002). It supports one of the two known populations of Hestina persimilis Westwood in Uttarakhand (Schedule 2, Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972) (P. Smetacek unpub. data).

Populations of most butterfly species listed in Tables 1 and 2 are now concentrated around the Butterfly Research Centre, due to the destruction of habitat in other parts of the Estate, prior to the process of building houses. However, the area where these butterfly and moth species are now confined is very small and the possibility that they become locally extripated from the Estate in the near future is a very real probability.

The only way to have prevented the ongoing destruction and to stabilize the Bhimtal and Sattal lake systems as a drinking water resource for future generations would be, as earlier, to ban the construction of houses, resorts and cottages on the Estate. However, lacking Governmental will to do so, the future outlook for this watershed is bleak from the point of view of insect communities, water resources, the existing forest ecosystems and especially for the residents of the areas downstream, who might have relied upon the Bhimtal and Sattal lakes for a dependable supply of drinking quality water.

RECOMMENDATIONS

If competent decision making bodies make the following decisions and ensure their implementation, the gravity of the situation outlined above can be reduced or reversed in the long term:

1. Re-declare Jones Estate a Green Belt, with the area extended to include the area outlined in Fig. 1.

2. Establish a competent Central Government committee to look into the implementation of existing laws, especially the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 and the bylaws of the Lakes Development Authority, in Jones Estate, and break down illegal constructions to restore the status quo ante.

3. Ban the keeping of cattle and goats within the jurisdiction of the Bhimtal Town Area Committee in the same way this is banned within the Nainital Municipal Area.

Extrapolating the results of the above findings to the catchment area of Bhimtal and Sattal lake systems is not difficult, since the areas are contiguous and within the same altitudinal limits.

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 bemade 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 beset 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.

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