Species Diversity and Abundance of Birds of Chilli Lake, Fatehabad, Haryana

Avian diversity around Chilli, the historical lake of district Fatehabad, Haryana, India, has been studied for a period of one year. It is situated along the historical fort of Mogul Emperor, Firoz Shah Tughlak for providing the security to the fort from three sides. Once a place for recreation, its existence is in danger now, due to dumping of sewage water and garbage from whole of the town which is affecting the biodiversity severely. To record the avian diversity, periodic weekly visits were conducted in the morning  and later in the evening using line transect method and point count method. A total of 21 species of wetland birds belonging to 6 orders and 9 families have been recorded during the study period. Maximum values of Shannon-Weiner index (2.76) and Simpson’s diversity index (0.85) were recorded in the month of December while Margalef index value was highest (3.63) in the month of January. Minimum values of Shannon-Weiner index (1.63), Simpson’s diversity index (0.49) and Margalef richness index (1.39) were recorded in the month of July. As no previous record of research studies on wetland avian faunal diversity of Chilli lake was found, so the present study was planned to fulfill the lacuna of research on different aspects of avian fauna as well as major threats to them due to anthropogenic activities in the study area.