A survey of Point Calimere Wildlife sanctuary was done between December 2004 and May
2005. Various ecological aspects of the sanctuary were examined. The most important finding is that Prosopis is now a problem weed destroying both
tropical dry everygreen forest critical to birds and coastal grasslands critical to a
healthy blackbuck population. This threat needs to be eliminated. This can be done in
a manner as to benefit landless people living on the fringes of the sanctuary. Line transects are a more efficient way of estimating animal numbers in the park
than the existing method of total counts. Hypersalinity in the salt pans, in the areas surrounding the park will likely affect
the bird populations negatively since the marine organisms lower in the food chain
may not be able to survive in them. This becomes a priority study for future action. A CD is supplied with this report that contains background reading on line transects and
digital copies of the maps generated for this report. It also has LANDSAT imagery for the
sanctuary for 1978, 1991 and 1999. These can be viewed using MULTISPEC, a freeware
available on the Internet; we recommend that the latest available version be downloaded.
A survey of Point Calimere Wildlife sanctuary was done between December 2004 and May
2005. Various ecological aspects of the sanctuary were examined. The most important finding is that Prosopis is now a problem weed destroying both
tropical dry everygreen forest critical to birds and coastal grasslands critical to a
healthy blackbuck population. This threat needs to be eliminated. This can be done in
a manner as to benefit landless people living on the fringes of the sanctuary. Line transects are a more efficient way of estimating animal numbers in the park
than the existing method of total counts. Hypersalinity in the salt pans, in the areas surrounding the park will likely affect
the bird populations negatively since the marine organisms lower in the food chain
may not be able to survive in them. This becomes a priority study for future action. A CD is supplied with this report that contains background reading on line transects and
digital copies of the maps generated for this report. It also has LANDSAT imagery for the
sanctuary for 1978, 1991 and 1999. These can be viewed using MULTISPEC, a freeware
available on the Internet; we recommend that the latest available version be downloaded.