Fauna associated with wheat cultivation in high altitudes of the Nilgiris, India

Abstract

Wheat cultivation in southern India is unique as it isgrown in high altitudes (1500 m amsl), surrounded bythe pristine environment of the Western Ghats. Also, itcan be grown throughout the year, unlike only once ayear in India’s central and northern plains. The faunalpressure on wheat cultivation in southern India is differ-ent from the other wheat-growing regions in the country.However, information on faunal diversity associatedwith wheat crops in this unique ecosystem is meagre.Hence, the present study aimed to acquire knowledgebased on the fauna associated with and their influenceon wheat cultivation in the Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu, SouthIndia. Our results indicated that the phylum Arthropodadominated the ecosystem with 61 species, followed by theChordata with 41 species, and the Nematoda with 22 spe-cies. The coleopterans were found to be dominant amongarthropods followed by lepidopterans. In chordates, smallbirds such as spotted munia and common rosefinch wereobserved often, while among the Nematoda, the plant-parasitic order Tylenchida topped the list. During differ-ent phases of cultivation, the overall diversity was highestduring the early stages of the crop and least during thevegetative phase. This study also highlights the human–animal interaction in the context of agriculture, as it wasobserved that the damage caused by Nilgiri gaur, spottedmunia and common rosefinch was one of the majorreasons for non-preference of wheat crops by the farmersbesides the lack of cost-effective technologies to ward-offwild animals. This initiative may encourage researchers toperform more comprehensive studies on the faunal di-versity of the entire crop-growing areas in the southernhill regions of India.