The Chhilchhila Wildlife Sanctuary (Hindi: छिलछिला वन्यजीव अभयारण्य), also known as Seonthi Reserve Forest, is located near
Kurukshetra University
Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra (KUK) is a university established on 11January 1956 in Kurukshetra, in the Indian state of Haryana, from the capital, Delhi. It is a member of Association of Commonwealth Universities.
History
The univer ...
in
Kurukshetra district
Kurukshetra district is one of the 22 districts of Haryana state in northern India. The town of Kurukshetra, a sacred place for the Hindus, is the administrative headquarters of this district. The district occupies an area of 1530.00 km² ...
in the Indian state of
Haryana
Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ar ...
. Baba Rodanath Dera temple is on the periphery of the Chhilchhila Sanctuary.
[
The sanctuary is about to the west of Kurukshetra University. From the ]Pehowa
Pehowa is a town and a municipal committee in Kurukshetra district in the Indian state of Haryana. It is an important sacred Hindu pilgrimage site, related to Krishna and Mahabharata, within the 48 Kos Parikrama of Kurukshetra. The Hindu geneal ...
-Kurukshetra Road at Bhor Saidan
The Bhor Saidan, formerly also spelled Bhour Saidan and Bhoor Saiydan, is a village located 22 km from Kurukshetra and 13 km west of Thanesar on the Kurukshetra-Pehowa road near Bhureeshwar Temple, one of the pilgrimage sites on the ri ...
, it is nearly 10 km south on Bhor Saidan - Sarsa Road. Crocodile Breeding Centre, Kurukshetra
Bhor Saidan Crocodile Breeding Centre (Hindi: भौर सैदां मगरमच्छ प्रजनन केंद्र), managed by the Haryana Forests Department to captive breed and conserve the freshwater mugger crocodile (Croc ...
is located at Bhor Saidan
The Bhor Saidan, formerly also spelled Bhour Saidan and Bhoor Saiydan, is a village located 22 km from Kurukshetra and 13 km west of Thanesar on the Kurukshetra-Pehowa road near Bhureeshwar Temple, one of the pilgrimage sites on the ri ...
on Pehowa-Kurukshetra Road.
The Chhilchhila Sanctuary is located in a depression which has a small lake created by an embankment. The sanctuary, as a staging and wintering ground of avifauna, has recorded (between April 2009 and March 2012) 57 species (33 winter migrants, 2 summer migrants and 22 resident species) of both resident and migrant wetland birds which belong to 37 genera and 16 families. Two species which have been classified Near Endangered have been identified in the sanctuary: the Oriental darter
The Oriental darter (''Anhinga melanogaster'') is a water bird of tropical South Asia and Southeast Asia. It has a long and slender neck with a straight, pointed bill and, like the cormorant, it hunts for fish while its body is submerged in water ...
(''Anhinga melanogaster'') and the painted stork
The painted stork (''Mycteria leucocephala'') is a large wading bird, wader in the stork family. It is found in the wetlands of the plains of tropical Asia south of the Himalayas in the Indian Subcontinent and extending into Southeast Asia. Thei ...
(''Mycteria leucocephala'').
Background
History
Chhilchhila lake was notified as a Bird Sanctuary on 28 November 1986.[Chhilchhila Wildlife Sanctuary Notification dt. 28 Nov., 1986]
Haryana Forests Department.
Under the provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 (53 of 1972) of the Government of India, a zone of surrounding the sanctuary has been declared an Eco-sensitive Zone
Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZs) or Ecologically Fragile Areas (EFAs) are areas in India notified by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Government of India around Protected Areas, National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries ...
to preserve its ecology
Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...
and environment
Environment most often refers to:
__NOTOC__
* Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally
* Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...
.
Folklore
According to a local legend, the lake in the sanctuary had an ancient link during the epic Mahabharata
The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kuruk ...
days when the Pandavas
The Pandavas (Sanskrit: पाण्डव, IAST: Pāṇḍava) refers to the five legendary brothers— Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva—who are the central characters of the Hindu epic ''Mahabharata''. They are acknowledg ...
escaped to Haridwar
Haridwar (; ) is a city and municipal corporation in the Haridwar district of Uttarakhand, India. With a population of 228,832 in 2011, it is the second-largest city in the state and the largest in the district.
The city is situated on the righ ...
through a tunnel under the lake.
Sanctuary
The sanctuary, as a wetland which is encircled by agricultural lands, provides adequate feeding grounds and safety for the birds that visit. The farmlands with scattered trees provide foraging areas and the lake provides a food supply to the birds in the form of crustaceans
Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...
and invertebrates
Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...
, as well as the water plants and plankton
Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in Hydrosphere, water (or atmosphere, air) that are unable to propel themselves against a Ocean current, current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankt ...
that flourish in the lake.[
]
Topography
The sanctuary covers an area of .[
The sanctuary experiences three climatic seasons: summer (March–June), monsoon (July–September) and winter (October –February). Normal rainfall is an average of per year. Temperatures experienced in the sanctuary are a maximum of in the summer and a low of during winter.][
]
Flora
Dry deciduous type vegetation is dominant in the sanctuary. The tree species identified are the: ''Acacia arabica
''Vachellia nilotica'', more commonly known as ''Acacia nilotica'', and by the vernacular names of gum arabic tree, babul, thorn mimosa, Egyptian acacia or thorny acacia, is a flowering tree in the family Fabaceae. It is native to Africa, the Mi ...
'', ''Azadirachta indica
''Azadirachta indica'', commonly known as neem, nimtree or Indian lilac, is a tree in the mahogany family Meliaceae. It is one of two species in the genus ''Azadirachta'', and is native to the Indian subcontinent and most of the countries in Afri ...
'', ''Prosopis cineraria
''Prosopis cineraria'', also known as ghaf, is a species of flowering tree in the pea family, Fabaceae. It is native to arid portions of Western Asia and the Indian Subcontinent, including Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iran, India, Oman, Pakistan, Saud ...
'', eucalyptus
''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as euca ...
, ''Ficus benghalensis
''Ficus benghalensis'', commonly known as the banyan, banyan fig and Indian banyan, is a tree native to the Indian Subcontinent. Specimens in India are among the largest trees in the world by canopy coverage. It also known as the " strangler fig" ...
'', ''Ziziphus jujuba
Jujube (), sometimes jujuba, known by the scientific name ''Ziziphus jujuba'' and also called red date, Chinese date, and Chinese jujube, is a species in the genus ''Ziziphus'' in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae.
Description
It is a small ...
'', ''Prosopis juliflora
''Prosopis juliflora'' ( es, bayahonda blanca, Cuji Venezuela, Trupillo Colombia, Aippia Wayuunaiki and long-thorn kiawe in Hawaii) is a shrub or small tree in the family Fabaceae, a kind of mesquite. It is native to Mexico, South America and ...
'', ''Cassia tora
:''This page is about the ''Cassia tora'' described by Linnaeus. Later authors usually applied the taxon to ''Senna obtusifolia.
''Senna tora'' (originally described by Linnaeus as ''Cassia tora'') is a plant species in the family Fabaceae and t ...
'', ''Ficus religiosa
''Ficus religiosa'' or sacred fig is a species of Ficus, fig native to the Indian subcontinent and Indochina that belongs to Moraceae, the fig or mulberry family. It is also known as the bodhi tree, pippala tree, peepul tree, peepal tree, pipa ...
'', ''Dalbergia sissoo
''Dalbergia sissoo'', known commonly as North Indian rosewood or ''shisham'', is a fast-growing, hardy, deciduous rosewood tree native to the Indian subcontinent and southern Iran. ''D. sissoo'' is a large, crooked tree with long, leathery leav ...
''. Small and medium-sized woody plants found are ''Capparis decidua
''Capparis decidua'', commonly known as karira, is a useful plant in its marginal habitat.
Description
It is a small much-branched tree or shrub. It bears a mass of slender, gray-green leafless branches, the small caducous leaves being found ...
'', ''Calotropis procera
''Calotropis procera'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Apocynaceae that is native to North Africa, Pakistan,tropical Africa, Western Asia, South Asia, and Indochina. The green fruits contain a toxic milky sap that is extremely bi ...
'', '' Adhatoda vasica'', ''Alhagi maurorum
''Alhagi maurorum'' is a species of legume commonly known, variously, as camelthorn, camelthorn-bush, Caspian manna, and Persian mannaplant. This shrub is native to the region extending from the Mediterranean to Russia, but has been introduced ...
'' and ''Xanthium strumarium
''Xanthium strumarium'' (rough cocklebur, clotbur, common cocklebur, large cocklebur, woolgarie bur) is a species of annual plants of the family Asteraceae. Some sources claim it originates in southern Europe and Asia, but has been extensively na ...
.'' Weeds have also been noted in the sanctuary and these are ''Achyranthes aspera
''Achyranthes aspera'' (common names: chaff-flower, prickly chaff flower, devil's horsewhip, Sanskrit: अपामार्ग ''apāmārga'') is a species of plant in the family Amaranthaceae. It is distributed throughout the tropical world. I ...
'', ''Amaranthus spinosus
''Amaranthus spinosus'', commonly known as the spiny amaranth, spiny pigweed, prickly amaranth or thorny amaranth, is a plant that is native to the tropical Americas, but is present on most continents as an introduced species and sometimes a noxi ...
'', ''Boerhavia diffusa
''Boerhaavia diffusa'' is a species of flowering plant in the Nyctaginaceae, four o'clock family which is commonly known as punarnava (meaning that which rejuvenates or renews the body in Ayurveda), red spiderling, spreading hogweed, or tarvine. ...
'', '' Chenopodium ambrosioides '', ''Malvastrum'', and ''Parthenium
''Parthenium'' is a genus of North American shrubs in the tribe Heliantheae within the family Asteraceae and subfamily Asteroideae.
The name ''Parthenium'' is an evolution of the Ancient Greek name παρθένιον (''parthenion''), which ref ...
''. Some of the aquatic plant species recorded are ''Azolla
''Azolla'' (mosquito fern, duckweed fern, fairy moss, water fern) is a genus of seven species of aquatic ferns in the family Salviniaceae. They are extremely reduced in form and specialized, looking nothing like other typical ferns but more rese ...
'', ''Cyperus
''Cyperus'' is a large genus of about 700 species of sedges, distributed throughout all continents in both tropical and temperate regions.
Description
They are annual or perennial plants, mostly aquatic and growing in still or slow-moving w ...
'', ''Hydrilla
''Hydrilla'' (waterthyme) is a genus of aquatic plant
Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments (saltwater or freshwater). They are also referred to as hydrophytes or macrophytes to distinguish them from ...
'', and ''Typha
''Typha'' is a genus of about 30 species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Typhaceae. These plants have a variety of common names, in British English as bulrush or reedmace, in American English as reed, cattail, or punks, in A ...
''.[
]
Avifauna
The wintering migrant birds which flock to the sanctuary were recorded at different periods during the winter months. The early arrivals in October were gadwall
The gadwall (''Mareca strepera'') is a common and widespread dabbling duck in the family Anatidae.
Taxonomy
The gadwall was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae''. DNA studies have shown that ...
(''Aythya ferina''), northern pintail
The pintail or northern pintail (''Anas acuta'') is a duck species with wide geographic distribution that breeds in the northern areas of Europe and across the Palearctic and North America. It is migratory and winters south of its breeding ra ...
(''Anas acuta''), northern shoveller
The northern shoveler (; ''Spatula clypeata''), known simply in Britain as the shoveler, is a common and widespread duck. It breeds in northern areas of Europe and across the Palearctic and across most of North America, wintering in southern Euro ...
(''Anas clypeata''), common teal
The Eurasian teal (''Anas crecca''), common teal, or Eurasian green-winged teal is a common and widespread duck that breeds in temperate Eurosiberia and migrates south in winter. The Eurasian teal is often called simply the teal due to being th ...
(''Anas crecca''), common pochard
The common pochard (; ''Aythya ferina'') is a medium-sized diving duck. The scientific name is derived from Greek '' aithuia'', an unidentified seabird mentioned by authors including Hesychius and Aristotle, and Latin ''ferina'', "wild game", f ...
(''Aythya ferina''), and common coot
The Eurasian coot (''Fulica atra''), also known as the common coot, or Australian coot, is a member of the rail and crake bird family, the Rallidae. It is found in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and parts of North Africa. It has a slaty-bla ...
(''Fulica atra''). The birds recorded during November were mallard
The mallard () or wild duck (''Anas platyrhynchos'') is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Arge ...
(''Anas platyrhynchos''), Indian spot-billed duck
The Indian spot-billed duck (''Anas poecilorhyncha'') is a large dabbling duck that is a non-migratory breeding duck throughout freshwater wetlands in the Indian subcontinent. The name is derived from the red spot at the base of the bill that is ...
(''Anas poecilorhyncha''), and knob-billed duck
The knob-billed duck (''Sarkidiornis melanotos''), or African comb duck, is a duck found in tropical wetlands in Sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar and the Indian Subcontinent from northern India to Laos and extreme southern China.
Most taxonomic au ...
(''Sarkidiornis melanotos''). The departure of the birds from the sanctuary was also noted in different months, towards the end of the winter season. The summer birds recorded were the lesser whistling duck
The lesser whistling duck (''Dendrocygna javanica''), also known as Indian whistling duck or lesser whistling teal, is a species of whistling duck that breeds in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. They are nocturnal feeders that during ...
(''Dendrocygna javanica'') and the cotton teal
The cotton pygmy goose or cotton teal (''Nettapus coromandelianus'') is a small perching duck which breeds in Asia, Southeast Asia extending south and east to Queensland where they are sometimes called white-quilled pygmy goose. They are among t ...
(''Nettapus coromandelianus'').[
]
Conservation
Threats
Major threats identified to the sanctuary are anthropogenic pressure involving encroachment of land, collection of firewood, grazing of cattle, and clearing of new vegetation on the borders of the wetland. During severe summer months, water reserves in the lake are inadequate to maintain the biodiversity
Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...
of the environment. Improper management is also said to be causing problems.[
]
Required conservation efforts
Due to the threats faced by the sanctuary, the conservation measures which need to be addressed are: establishing patrols to minimize disturbance when the birds visit to breed; and enhancing the water supply to the lake, which is purely rain-fed, from any nearby canal system.[
]
See also
*
References
{{National Parks of India
Wildlife sanctuaries in Haryana
Protected areas of Haryana
Tourist attractions in Kurukshetra district
Protected areas with year of establishment missing