Patterns of crop rading by wild ungulates and elephants in Ramnagar Forest Division, Uttarakhand

Crop raiding is a major form of human–wildlife conflict that not only affects livelihoods of farmers living close to forest areas but also jeopardizes the objective of wildlife conservation. In this study, we report patterns associated with crop raiding based on periodic fi eld inspections of 95 crop fields spread across 16 villages in India. Average raided area of the fi eld was highest in seedling stage (21%). Fields closer to the forest edge incurred higher damage in the seedling (22%) and mature stages (7%) than fields farther from the forest edge, although this was not statistically significant. Guarding was found to be ineffective in decreasing crop raiding, with no statistical difference in the mean area of damage between guarded and unguarded fields. Cheetal (Axis axis), sambar (Rusa unicolor), nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus), and wild pig (Sus scrofa) were the main raiders in fields close to the forest edge whereas nilgai and wild pig were chief raiders in fields farther from the forest edge. Results of this study suggest that in the study area, wild pig and nilgai are more problematic species than elephants (Elephas maximus), which are reported to cause the most damage in other landscapes

2013. Connectivity of tiger (Panthera tigris) populations in the humaninfluenced forest mosaic of central India. PLoS One 8:e77980

Abstract Today, most wild tigers live in small, isolated Protected Areas within human dominated landscapes in the Indian subcontinent. Future survival of tigers depends on increasing local population size, as well as maintaining connectivity between populations. While significant conservation effort has been invested in increasing tiger population size, few initiatives have focused on landscape-level connectivity and on understanding the effect different landscape elements have on maintaining connectivity. We combined individual-based genetic and landscape ecology approaches to address this issue in six protected areas with varying tiger densities and separation in the Central Indian tiger landscape. We noninvasively sampled 55 tigers from different protected areas within this landscape. Maximum-likelihood and Bayesian genetic assignment tests indicate long-range tiger dispersal (on the order of 650 km) between protected areas. Further geo-spatial analyses revealed that tiger connectivity was affected by landscape elements such as human settlements, road density and host-population tiger density, but not by distance between populations. Our results elucidate the importance of landscape and habitat viability outside and between protected areas and provide a quantitative approach to test functionality of tiger corridors. We suggest future management strategies aim to minimize urban expansion between protected areas to maximize tiger connectivity. Achieving this goal in the context of ongoing urbanization and need to sustain current economic growth exerts enormous pressure on the remaining tiger habitats and emerges as a big challenge to conserve wild tigers in the Indian subcontinent

Diet composition of Golden Jackals Canis aureus (Mammalia: Carnivora: Canidae) in Van Vihar National Park, India, a small enclosed area.

Food habits of Golden Jackals were estimated by an analysis of 200 scats in Van Vihar National Park, India, a small park of 4.45km2 with a very high density of jackals and ungulates.  A total of 10 items including fruits (40.74%), vegetative matter (24.38%), Chital (21.61%), Nilgai (9.57%), rodent (1.54%), birds (1.23%), Sambar (0.62%) and Wild Pig (0.31%) were consumed.  We estimated relative biomass consumption for the top potential ungulate prey and found that for every 100kg of potential prey killed by jackals, 89.4kg came from Chital and 10.6kg came from Nilgai calves.  The impact that predation can have on the ungulate population in an enclosed area is discussed. </div

Status of Golden Jackal Canis aureus and ungulates in a small enclosed area- Van Vihar National Park, Madhya Pradesh, India

We estimated densities of Golden Jackals and five ungulate species in Van Vihar National Park, Madhya Pradesh, India.  It is an enclosed area of about 4.45km², out of which 3.5km² is available for free ranging animals.  Twenty-six transects with a combined length of 22.6km and an effort of 50.2km were walked.  A total of 1079 animal detections belonging to six different species were made.  The density of jackals was (17±3.8SE)/km2. Among the ungulates, chital had the highest density (118±18.8SE)/km2 followed by Sambar (34.1±6.9 SE)/km2, Nilgai (13.1±2.8SE)/km2, Blackbuck (6.6±1.5 SE)/km2 and Wild Pig (3.7±0.8 SE)/km2.  The ungulate biomass was found to be (12979.2±2463.26 SE)kg/km2.  Chital biomass was the highest at (5574.2±886.58 SE)kg/km2, followed by Sambar biomass of (4569.4±913.75 SE)kg/km2, Nilgai (2358±523.24 SE)kg/km2, Blackbuck (211.2±66.18 SE)kg/km2 and Wild Pig (118.4±28.37 SE)kg/km2.  The sex ratio was calculated and most ungulates had female-biased adult sex ratio. </div

Connectivity of Tiger (<i>Panthera tigris</i>) Populations in the Human-Influenced Forest Mosaic of Central India

<div><p>Today, most wild tigers live in small, isolated Protected Areas within human dominated landscapes in the Indian subcontinent. Future survival of tigers depends on increasing local population size, as well as maintaining connectivity between populations. While significant conservation effort has been invested in increasing tiger population size, few initiatives have focused on landscape-level connectivity and on understanding the effect different landscape elements have on maintaining connectivity. We combined individual-based genetic and landscape ecology approaches to address this issue in six protected areas with varying tiger densities and separation in the Central Indian tiger landscape. We non-invasively sampled 55 tigers from different protected areas within this landscape. Maximum-likelihood and Bayesian genetic assignment tests indicate long-range tiger dispersal (on the order of 650 km) between protected areas. Further geo-spatial analyses revealed that tiger connectivity was affected by landscape elements such as human settlements, road density and host-population tiger density, but not by distance between populations. Our results elucidate the importance of landscape and habitat viability outside and between protected areas and provide a quantitative approach to test functionality of tiger corridors. We suggest future management strategies aim to minimize urban expansion between protected areas to maximize tiger connectivity. Achieving this goal in the context of ongoing urbanization and need to sustain current economic growth exerts enormous pressure on the remaining tiger habitats and emerges as a big challenge to conserve wild tigers in the Indian subcontinent.</p></div

Population structure in the Central Indian landscape.

<p>STRUCTURE plot showing the distribution of genetic variation (at K = 3). Individuals with ‘*’ mark indicate migrants detected by STRUCTURE.</p

Mantel tests between various measures of genetic subdivision and geographic distance.

<p>Mantel tests between various measures of genetic subdivision and geographic distance.</p

Individual assignment across populations.

<p>(a) Barplot showing the percent assignment of each individual to a population. Each bar represents an individual and the colour represents the population to which it was assigned. The highlighted bars (*) represent the dispersed individuals. Score of >95% was used as a threshold for complete assignment (b) the inferred Tiger dispersal events over varying distances. The assignment results suggest that apart from relatively short distance (i.e. ∼165 km, between KTR & PTR) individuals are also moving over very large distances, on the order of 600 km (NSTR-KTR and PTR-NSTR), 500 km (NSTR-NGWLS) and 300 km (MTR-KTR and MTR-NGWLS).</p

Non-parametric Mantel tests between immigration rate and landscape resistance.

<p>Non-parametric Mantel tests between immigration rate and landscape resistance.</p