Impacts of agricultural mechanization on avian diversity in Ludhiana district
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Date
2021
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Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
Abstract
The present investigation was carried out to study the impacts of agricultural mechanization
on avian diversity at nine selected rice-wheat fields from three locations, Sarabha (Location
I), Pakhowal (Location II) and Dangon (Location III) from April 2020 to March 2021. A total
of 50 avian species were recorded from the selected fields during the study period. Rock
Pigeon (8.63%), Cattle Egret (8.55%), House Crow (8.50%), Common Myna (7.61%),
Eurasian Collared Dove (7.17%) and Red-wattled Lapwing (6.46%) were the most abundant
species found. During the Kharif season, a total of 48 bird species of 46 genera were recorded
while 49 bird species belonging to 45 genera during the Rabi season. The mechanical
operations like ploughing, harvesting and other post harvesting operations with disc plough
harrow, plougher, combine harvester and straw baller have shown much higher avian species
richness and diversity irrespective of the field type. Higher values of species richness and
diversity were recorded from the organically cultivated fields and fields with agronomic
practices recommended by PAU as compared to fields with conventional cultivation
practices. Increase in species richness and diversity was observed during the harvesting and
post-harvesting operations due to use of combine harvesters, thresher, straw baller, disc
plough harrow and land leveller. As evident from the present study cultivating crops both
organically and by following PAU recommended agronomic practices might help in
sustaining higher avian species richness and diversity.
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Citation
Harnoor Kaur (2021). Impacts of agricultural mechanization on avian diversity in Ludhiana district (Unpublished M.Sc. thesis). Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India.