Avifaunal study was carried out in Panipat refinery area before and after commissioning. A total of 63 birds were observed during the study, of which 39 and 49 birds were present during 1992 and 2001 respectively. Of these, 25 birds were common during both the study period. Blue rock pigeon was most dominant during 1992 whereas house sparrow was dominant during 2001. Species diversity index was found to be 5.26 and 6.64 in respective years. Jaccard's and Sorenson similarity indices were 0.40 and 0.57 respectively. Majority of birds were insectivorous in habits followed by granivorous birds in 1992 and piscivorous birds in 2001. The study reveals that less diversity was observed in 1992 when Panipat refinery was commissioned, but more birds especially aquatic ones were observed after the commissioning of the refinery. This has been attributed to increase in birds habitats due to developments of wetlands in and outside refinery, development of green belt around refinery and increase in green cover of area due to boosting of agroforestry and social forestry.

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The  natural forests   of  Uttara  Kannada  district   range  from  evergreen  through  dry  deciduous  types.   The   characteristic   species   of  such   forests  are   Tectona  grandis,   Xylia xylocarpa, Terminalia panniculata and Meliosma tomentosa. The diversity  of avifauna was critically studied  within  an area of 30 km  radius of Kaiga in  Uttara Kannada  during  summer  season   A  total   of  55  varieties   of birds  were  encountered   in  14 locations  during  the  survey,  of which  7.27%  were  inhabitants  of  aquatic  ecosystems.  While most of the types  of birds were  arboreal  in habit, cattle  egret was  recorded as most dominant species   (28.75  %),  followed   by  house crow  ( 12 55  %),  little egret  (9.42  %)  and jungle  crow (8.71  %)  In terms  of species  richness, Kaiga was very  rich with  19 species  of birds followed by Chendiya  and Yellapur with  17 species  each.  Majority of the  birds  were  omnivorous  in   habit preferring   insects,  worms and  arachnids  as  their  principal  food  (36.52  %)  items  followed by frugivorous and granivorous birds comprising  12.1  and 11.8 % respectively. Shannon-Weiner  diversity   index  and  evenness  index  values  for  the  encountered birds  were estimated  to  be 3.90  and 0.67  respectively,  indicating better  environment and rich  diversity  of the avifauna.

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