Characteristics of habitat structure and its impact on nest success, breeding bird density and reduction of mortality in Pelicans by the participation of rural community connected to biosphere of PSKB area, India

The main purpose of this study was to explore the consistency in the species diversity and evenness of Pelicans in the different locales of natural habitations by the participation of rural people at Pelican Sanctuary, Kokkare Bellur (PSKB), Mandya district, Karnataka, India. The subsequent objective was to assess the characteristic habitation and its compositions facilitating nest success, breeding bird density and reduction of mortality in Pelicans in the PSKB area. The survey was undertaken during 2018-2020 to analyse the relationship between natural habitation and Pelican's ecology. The natural habitation was categorized into forest land, farmland, grass land, river Shimsha basin connected with fresh water wetland, living area of village population respectively. The different ecological index was employed to study these objectives and the results reveals that, forest land connected with river basin area decreased the Pelican bird numbers, whereas, the farmland associated with natural habitation increased the Pelican's species richness. Further, the village area coupled with mixed tall trees and its vegetation were found to be important factors for nest success and breeding bird density of Pelican birds thereby the mortality was considerably reduced. Hence, the total inhabitation organization has been accomplished as two-tier habitats in the village for promoting higher bird species richness and evenness by the dynamic participation of rural community which is constantly connected to the Pelican biosphere.