Food and Feeding Habit of Indian Gazelle (Gazella bennettii), in the Thar Desert of Rajasthan

The Indian gazelle or Chinkara (Gazella bennettii), is distributed sparsely in the Thar Desert of Rajasthan. Food and feeding habits of this endangered gazelle were studied from Nov. 1999 to Oct. 2001, in two districts of semi-arid part of Rajasthan. They were found to be browsers and concentrate feeders, with a range of 63 plant species, including 56 species of wild and 7 species of crop plants in the study area. Their feeding habit changes from browser to grazer for a short span in early monsoon season. Four plants, namely Crotalaria burhia (42%), Ziziphus nummularia (15%), Maytenus emerginata (11%) and Prosopis cineraria (9%), constitute about 77% of the gazelles' total dietary requirements. They feed on all parts of these plants in different seasons. The animal was also observed to take in large amount of pods and fruits constituting 68 % of its diet as pods in its daily diet intake, of Crotalaria burhia (38.19%), Meytenus emerginatus (15.75%) and Prosopis cineraria (14.32%). Measures for the conservation of these gazelles and their largest stronghold in this part of India, to protect their habitat and reduce other detrimental activities are discussed in this paper.