Research options for controlling Zoonotic disease in India, 2010-2015

BACKGROUND: Zoonotic infections pose a significant public health challenge for low- and middle-income countries and have traditionally been a neglected area of research. The Roadmap to Combat Zoonoses in India (RCZI) initiative conducted an exercise to systematically identify and prioritize research options needed to control zoonoses in India. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Priority setting methods developed by the Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative were adapted for the diversity of sectors, disciplines, diseases and populations relevant for zoonoses in India. A multidisciplinary group of experts identified priority zoonotic diseases and knowledge gaps and proposed research options to address key knowledge gaps within the next five years. Each option was scored using predefined criteria by another group of experts. The scores were weighted using relative ranks among the criteria based upon the feedback of a larger reference group. We categorized each research option by type of research, disease targeted, factorials, and level of collaboration required. We analysed the research options by tabulating them along these categories. Seventeen experts generated four universal research themes and 103 specific research options, the majority of which required a high to medium level of collaboration across sectors. Research options designated as pertaining to 'social, political and economic' factorials predominated and scored higher than options focussing on ecological, genetic and biological, or environmental factors. Research options related to 'health policy and systems' scored highest while those related to 'research for development of new interventions' scored the lowest. CONCLUSIONS: We methodically identified research themes and specific research options incorporating perspectives of a diverse group of stakeholders. These outputs reflect the diverse nature of challenges posed by zoonoses and should be acceptable across diseases, disciplines, and sectors. The identified research options capture the need for 'actionable research' for advancing the prevention and control of zoonoses in India

Using design methods to identify opportunities to prevent train-elephant collisions in India

Asian elephants are an endangered species of ecological and cultural significance in India. Human development activities frequently pose a threat to the elephant population in the country. Trains are believed to be the second highest contributors (after electrocution) to the unnatural deaths of elephants. With faster trains and a demand for connectivity, the threat to elephants and passengers alike due to elephant-train collisions is bound to increase. Addressing train-elephant collisions requires engagement with both the Indian Railways and the state Forest Departments. This project was an attempt to use participatory design tools and methods to involve grassroot stakeholders and identify opportunities to reduce train-elephant collisions within the scope of the operations of the Railway and Forest Departments. The stakeholders served as experts and were involved through qualitative discussion sessions to help us understand train-elephant collisions and ideate on the potential interventions. The problem was subdivided based on the major contributing factors which could each be tackled individually to contribute to mitigating train- elephant collisions: attraction of elephants to the track, detection of elephants on or near the tracks, conveying information about elephants on the tracks to relevant loco pilots, and easing exit of elephants from the tracks. Interventions to address each of these challenges are discussed

Asian elephants are essential as seed dispersers in a disturbed tropical forest

Large animals are disproportionately prone to extinction, and the resulting effects on ecosystem processes are unclear. Megaherbivores--animals weighing over 1000 kg--are thought to be functionally unique in their contribution to many ecological processes. One such ecosystem process is seed dispersal, but few studies have measured the relative importance of a megaherbivore species and sympatric seed dispersers. This dissertation explores how the loss of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) would affect the dispersal of three large-fruited tree species. Research was conducted in Buxa Tiger Reserve, India, a disturbed tropical forest system resembling much of the region. I found that elephants were a top frugivore of all three tree study species: Dillenia indica (chalta), Careya arborea (kumbhi), and Artocarpus chaplasha (lator). The main alternative frugivores were domestic bovids (the cow, Bos primigenius, and the buffalo, Bubalus bubalis), and Rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). Elephants consumed the most D. indica fruit; once eaten, seeds from D. indica were over 16 times more likely to pass undigested into elephant dung than into the dung of domestic bovids. Elephants ate 18% and 10% of frugivore-consumed kumbhi and lator fruits, respectively, defecating 2-3 times as many seeds per fruit as domestic bovids. I show that seed predation of D. indica seeds from elephant dung is unlikely to negate elephants' role in their dispersal. Seeds taken from elephant dung germinated as well or better than seeds from bovid dung or directly from fruit. Elephants were calculated to move seeds up to 10 times as far as domestic bovids. An empirical probability model estimated that the loss of elephants would result in reductions of about 66%, 42%, and 26% in the number of successfully dispersed seeds of each species without compensation. In compensation scenarios, other frugivores could ameliorate reductions in dispersal, making them as low as 6% if species such as gaur (Bos gaurus) persist. Thus the importance of elephants as seed dispersers is amplified by the population reductions of other large disperser species throughout tropical Asia. My findings suggest that losing the largest and most physiologically unique species is likely to have measurable effects on ecological processes

Tigers, Tribes, and Bureaucrats: the voluntariness and socioeconomic consequences of village relocations from Melghat Tiger Reserve, India

Relocations of indigenous peoples from protected areas to promote wildlife conservation have typically resulted in negative socioeconomic results for those displaced. The international indigenous peoples' movement has begun to coalesce around the use of free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) as a legal mechanism to prevent disadvantageous relocations. In 2006, India's parliament passed the Forest Rights Act, which requires any village relocation of tribal people be conditional upon their FPIC. I used household surveys and qualitative interviews of relocated and forest (not-yet relocated) villagers from Melghat Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra, to examine (a) the extent to which putatively voluntary relocations were conditional upon FPIC and (b) how such relocations affect socioeconomic metrics and overall quality of life for those relocated. I found that while consent to relocate was mostly free, consent was not fully informed across the villages examined. The socioeconomic results indicate that relocated villagers make a trade-off, leaving a familiar, healthier environment for better access to modern services and employment. Finally, I found that forest villagers in favor of relocation emphasized how the social and economic costs of remaining in the forest had become greater due to the relocation of neighboring villages. This field study suggests that strong implementation of FPIC and state responsiveness post-relocation are both necessary to safeguard forest-dwelling people from disadvantageous relocations

The Asian elephant is amongst the top three frugivores of two tree species with easily edible fruit

Large animal species are prone to local extirpation, but ecologists cannot yet predict how the loss of megaherbivores affects ecosystem processes such as seed dispersal. Few studies have compared the quantity and quality of seed dispersal by megaherbivores versus alternative frugivores in the wild, particularly for plant species with fruit easily consumed by many frugivorous species. In a disturbed tropical moist forest in India, we examine whether megaherbivores are a major frugivore of two tree species with easily edible, mammal-dispersed fruit. We quantify the relative fruit removal rates of Artocarpus chaplasha and Careya arborea, by the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) and alternative dispersers. Through focal watches and camera trapping, we found the elephant to be amongst the top three frugivores for each tree species. Furthermore, seed transects under A. chaplasha show that arboreal frugivores discard seeds only a short distance from the parental tree, underscoring the elephant's role as a long-distance disperser. Our data provide unprecedented support for an old notion: megaherbivores may be key dispersers for a broad set of mammal-dispersed fruiting species, and not just fruit inaccessible to smaller frugivores. As such, the elephant may be particularly important for the functional ecology of the disturbed forests it still inhabits across tropical Asia

Waiting for Gajah: an elephant mutualist's contingency plan for an endangered megafaunal disperser

Large animals are disproportionately likely to go extinct, and the effects of this on ecosystem processes are unclear. Megaherbivores (weighing over 1000kg) are thought to be particularly effective seed dispersers, yet only a few plant species solely or predominantly adapted for dispersal by megaherbivores have been identified. The reasons for this paradox may be elucidated by examining the ecology of so-called megafaunal fruiting species in Asia, where large-fruited species have been only sparsely researched. We conducted focal tree watches, camera trapping, fruit ageing trials, dung seed counts and germination trials to understand the ecology of Dillenia indica, a large-fruited species thought to be elephant-dispersed, in a tropical moist forest (Buxa Tiger Reserve, India). We find that the initial hardness of the fruit of D.indica ensures that its small (6mm) seeds will primarily be consumed and dispersed by elephants and perhaps other megaherbivores. Elephants removed 63.3% of camera trap-monitored fruits taken by frugivores. If the fruit of D.indica is not removed by a large animal, the seeds of D.indica become available to successively smaller frugivores as its fruits soften. Seeds from both hard and soft fruits are able to germinate, meaning these smaller frugivores may provide a mechanism for dispersal without megaherbivores.Synthesis. Dillenia indica's strategy for dispersal allows it to realize the benefits of dispersal by megaherbivores without becoming fully reliant on these less abundant species. This risk-spreading dispersal behaviour suggests D.indica will be able to persist even if its megafaunal disperser becomes extinct

In the elephant's seed shadow: the prospects of domestic bovids as replacement dispersers of three tropical Asian trees

As populations of the world's largest animal species decline, it is unclear how ecosystems will react to their local extirpation. Due to the unique ecological characteristics of megaherbivores such as elephants, seed dispersal is one ecosystem process that may be affected as populations of large animals are decimated. In typically disturbed South Asian ecosystems, domestic bovids (cattle, Bos primigenius, and buffalo, Bubalus bubalis) may often be the species most available to replace Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) as endozoochorous dispersers of large-fruited mammal-dispersed species. We use feeding trials, germination trials, and movement data from the tropical moist forests of Buxa Tiger Reserve (India) to examine whether domestic bovids are viable replacements for elephants in the dispersal of three largefruited species: Dillenia indica, Artocarpus chaplasha, and Careya arborea. We find that (1) once consumed, seeds are between 2.5 (C. arborea) and 26.5 (D. indica) times more likely to pass undigested into elephant dung than domestic bovid dung; and (2) seeds from elephant dung germinated as well as or better than seeds taken from bovid dung for all plant species, with D. indica seeds from elephant dung 1.5 times more likely to germinate. Furthermore, since wild elephants have less constrained movements than even free-roaming domestic bovids, we calculate that maximum dispersal by elephants is between 9.5 and 11.2 times farther than that of domestic bovids, with about 20% of elephant-dispersed seeds being moved farther than the maximum distance seeds are moved by bovids. Our findings suggest that, while bovids are able to disperse substantial numbers of seeds over moderate distances for two of the three study species, domestic bovids will be unable to routinely emulate the reliable, long-distance dispersal of seeds executed by elephants in this tropical moist forest. Thus while domestic bovids can attenuate the effects of losing elephants as dispersers, they may not be able to prevent the decline of various mammal-dispersed fruiting species in the face of overhunting, habitat fragmentation, and climate change