TY - JOUR
T1 - The cause and consequences of road mortality of herpetofauna in durgapur, West Bengal, India
AU - Dutta, Sachinandan
AU - Jana, Himanish Prasad
AU - Saha, Subhajit
AU - Mukhopadhyay, Subhra Kumar
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016, Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.
PY - 2016/1/1
Y1 - 2016/1/1
N2 - The mortality rate of herpetofauna due to road accidents in one of the busiest tarmacked metalled roads of Durgapur, an industrial town of West Bengal, India was studied. Road survey for 27 days covering a total distance of 94.5 km was conducted. Within this span of time and the total stretch of road, 354 amphibians belonging to 6 species and 133 reptiles belonging to 11 species were observed to be killed in road-accidents. Among amphibians, Duttaphrynus melanostictus and amongst the reptiles Hemidactylus spp. were killed in highest numbers. The stretch of road under survey passed through different habitat patches like’s agricultural land, human habitation, dumping area, fragmented forest and wetland. On an average, 18 herpetofauna was noted to be killed daily. It was difficult to identify the species as the key characters were missing in the remains in a few cases of road casualties. High road mortality of herpetofauna would surely affect the balance of adjoining ecosystems as well as may be crucial for the local herpetofaunal population attributes.
AB - The mortality rate of herpetofauna due to road accidents in one of the busiest tarmacked metalled roads of Durgapur, an industrial town of West Bengal, India was studied. Road survey for 27 days covering a total distance of 94.5 km was conducted. Within this span of time and the total stretch of road, 354 amphibians belonging to 6 species and 133 reptiles belonging to 11 species were observed to be killed in road-accidents. Among amphibians, Duttaphrynus melanostictus and amongst the reptiles Hemidactylus spp. were killed in highest numbers. The stretch of road under survey passed through different habitat patches like’s agricultural land, human habitation, dumping area, fragmented forest and wetland. On an average, 18 herpetofauna was noted to be killed daily. It was difficult to identify the species as the key characters were missing in the remains in a few cases of road casualties. High road mortality of herpetofauna would surely affect the balance of adjoining ecosystems as well as may be crucial for the local herpetofaunal population attributes.
KW - amphibians
KW - Durgapur
KW - herpetofauna
KW - metalled road
KW - reptiles
KW - Road kill
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U2 - 10.1134/S1067413616010033
DO - 10.1134/S1067413616010033
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84955498443
SN - 1067-4136
VL - 47
SP - 88
EP - 95
JO - Russian Journal of Ecology
JF - Russian Journal of Ecology
IS - 1
ER -