Urban Avifaunal Biodiversity in Context of Udaipur, Rajasthan, India

Abstract

"The beginning of the 21st century can be characterized by tremendous growth of urban areas and associated process of globalization and unification of urban environments. Urban environment as new ecosystems is of great interest all over the world. Urban ecosystems are complex social-ecological systems with important functions. These man-made ecosystems have certain areas with high biological diversity, including both remnant species and species purposefully or unintentionally introduced by human actions. There can be important habitats and valuable corridors for both common and less common species within the urban sprawl. As per our preliminary studies in the urban areas of southern parts of Rajasthan, local people were interested in local biodiversity, especially on phenological events, and benefited from it by getting aesthetic pleasure, and information on seasonal changes. The cities such as Udaipur have the artificially developed diversified habitat within the urban limits which provide shelter and protection to many floral and faunal species. Urban areas are rich in species particularly vascular plants and many groups of animals especially birds. The artificially managed parks such as Sajjan Niwas have the diversity of flora whereas artificial lakes are the sites of great wetland avifauna. The diversity of avifauna is taken for identifying the importance of biodiversity for Udaipur which is among the top ten tourism sites of world. The role of urban areas in functions such as provision of ecosystem services will largely be determined by patterns of biodiversity within that area. This paper aims to respond to the call for integrative research by studying relationships between the anthropogenic activities and urban biodiversity of the cities from the southern part of Rajasthan. To support an integrative approach in urban green planning, both ecological and social research has to be incorporated to the planning process."