Essay on the Growth of Animal Ecology in India !
Animal ecology in India is still in the state of infancy. Except some progress in the understanding of ecology and fish ecology little advance has been made in this field in India. Some of the notable contributions of certain animal ecologists can be listed in a chronological order which is as follows.
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Sterndale (1884) studied the natural history of Indian mammals. Baker (1921, 1935) made certain ecological observations on birds of India, Burma and Ceylon. Dharmakumar-Sinhji (1937- 1975) studied extensively the biology and ecology (migration, etc.) of water fowls and other birds of Gujrat Ayyar and Marga- bandhu (1941) made ecological observations on the cotton stem weevil. Pempharulus affinis under controlled physical conditions.
Trehan (1945) studied the ecology of the soil fauna of cotton-fields of Lyallpur (Pakistan). Mani (1953-1974) worked on the ecology of certain insects specially ladybird beetle of high altitudes (Himalaya).
Atwal (1955) recorded the effects of temperature, photoperiod and food on the rate of development, longevity, fecundity, etc., of the diamond black moth, Plutella. Prakash (1958, 1961, 1963) studied the ecology of a variety of vertebrates including reptiles, bats ana other mammals of Rajasthan deserts.
In the year 1975, in the coauthor ship of Gupta, Prakash published a book on ” Wildlife Ecology and Conservation’, in which the wildlife ecology of Rajasthan deserts has been discussed. Purohit (1968) studied ecology of mammals in the Great Indian Desert.
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Ramalingam (1961) studied ecology of larval forms of the trematode Echinochasmus bugulei. Southwick er ah, (1961) carried out a population survey of rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatto) in villages, towns and temples of northern India. Beeson (1961) published the book ‘The Ecology and Control of Forest Insects of India and Neighbouring Countries’.
Ananthasubramaniam and Ananthakrishnan (1963) studied ecology of microarthropods such as Symphvlella of pasture soil Bhalla and Venkataraman (1963) studied the ecology of parasitism of a hymenopteran Vipio deisae on stalk borer Chilo zonellus.
Nayar and Prabhu (1965) worked on the soil fauna of tea-growing tracts of Kerala. Oppenheimer (1973) studied the effects of environmental factors on the activity of village dwelling langurs (primates) in West Bengal.
In 1975, Singh etah, and Bains and Shukla made autecological observations on the effect of temperature on population dynamics, fecundity, and development of Chilo partellus. Davidar (1976) studied population ecology of thar in Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu.