Death in the Hills: Mithun Calves, Arunachal Pradesh's hill symbols, are threatened by an epidemic of foot-and-mouth disease.

The two-month-old mithun calf lay by the side of the road. Its lifeless glassy eyes stared into nothingness, but its feet twitched occasionally in spasms before death finally came. The young mother stood unsurely beside the calf, licking it at intervals, Scenes like this played out virtually every day in the last few months, reminding us of the epidemic that had besieged this remote corner of Arunachal Pradesh. The killer was a virus (Aphthae epizooticae) belonging to the picornaviridae family, causing the dreaded foot and mouth disease

Data from: Shifting to settled cultivation: changing practices among the Adis in Central Arunachal Pradesh, north-east India

In the hilly tropics, although shifting cultivation is a widespread practice, government policies have attempted to replace it with other land uses. However, several factors determine whether farming communities can make the shift. We tried understanding the factors that facilitate or impede the shift to settled cultivation through interviews with the Adi tribe in north-east India. Although settled cultivation was initiated in the 60s, about 90% of the families still practise shifting cultivation, observing 13 festivals associated with the annual agricultural calendar. Our results indicate that the economic status of a household determined whether a family undertook settled cultivation, while labour availability was important for shifting cultivation. Often, these nuances are ignored in the Government policies. We conclude that future policies should be mindful of cultural and socio-economic factors that affect the community and of the social-ecological resilience of the landscapes and not use a one-size-fits-all strategy

Data from: Field to a forest: patterns of forest recovery following shifting cultivation in the eastern Himalaya

The patterns of vegetation recovery in shifting cultivation landscapes that undergo a cycle of clearing, cultivation and forest regeneration are not well understood in Asian tropical forests. We determined forest recovery patterns by comparing species composition, richness and forest structure in early and late fallows formed following shifting cultivation and in an uncut forest site in a mid-elevation subtropical forest in the Indian Eastern Himalaya. We also examined changes in functional traits of tree species to understand recovery processes with succession. Tree species richness in the 12, 25 and 50-year old sites was 37%, 54% and 82% the value of the richness in uncut forest, respectively, while basal area was 33%, 25% and 41% of the value in uncut forest, respectively. Species composition recovery, however, was low; with even the oldest fallow (50-year fallow) being less than 50% similar to uncut forest in terms of composition. Successional sites that recover over long periods may differ compositionally from uncut forest within a shifting cultivation landscape as these forests are often prone to other anthropogenic disturbances. Functional trait analysis revealed that early fallows were colonized by tree species that are animal-dispersed, insect-pollinated with small fruits and seeds, whereas uncut forest and late successional forests were dominated by species that were tall, self-dispersed, wind-pollinated and of high wood density that are dominant mature forest species in the Himalaya. These results are in contrast with the patterns in functional traits of tree species in successional sites from the Neotropics. This points to the importance of site-specificity in succession following shifting cultivation

Teegalapalli & Datta FE&M

Vegetation data (trees and regeneration) was collected from different-aged successional sites formed following shifting cultivation and uncut forest sites. Data was collected from two replicate sites each from 2 year, 12 year, 25 year and 50 year old successional sites and two uncut forest sites. Trees (diameter at breast height, dbh>=3 cm) were inventoried and identified to species or genus level in twelve 7 m radius plots located 25 m from each other on alternating sides of a 250-m transect. We enumerated the regeneration comprising of seedlings (height<=25 cm) and saplings (height>25 cm & <=100 cm) of tree species in each of the four successional stages and the uncut forest sites in 1-m and 3-m radius nested within the 7-m radius plots, respectively. Detailed methods are provided in the methods section of the main article

The Role of Perches in Accelerating Seed Arrival in Human abandoned Clearings Within Bhadra Tiger Reserve, India

Seed arrival is often the primary limitation to forest regeneration in denuded landscapes, with the number of seeds arriving diminishing rapidly with increase in distance from remnant seed sources. We compared seed rain collected at different distances from the forest edge in seed rain traps with and without introduced bamboo perches in human abandoned agricultural clearings in Bhadra Tiger Reserve. The number of seeds collected per trap below perches was 38 times greater than the number of seeds collected in traps without perches. The species richness of seeds collected per trap below perches was ten-fold greater than in traps without perches. Our study showed that introducing artificial perches is an effective method to improve seed arrival into tree-less habitats, as has been found in studies elsewhere

Teegalapalli & Datta interviews data

The data contains household level socio-economic information collected from five villages in the Upper Siang district, Arunachal Pradesh. The information was collected based on interview questionnaires

Patterns of seed rain and seedling regeneration in abandoned agricultural clearings in a seasonally dry tropical forest in India

Forest recovery in abandoned pastures and agricultural fields is often impeded, therefore it is important to understand the factors limiting regeneration. Patterns of seed arrival and regeneration in five abandoned agricultural clearings nested within a seasonally dry tropical forest in India were examined along five transects radiating from the forest edge into the clearings. Wind-dispersed seeds dominated the seed arrival in clearings compared with vertebrate dispersed seeds: 5563 wind-dispersed seeds and 1094 vertebrate-dispersed seeds of 14 and 13 tree species, respectively, were recorded. Numbers of the former declined steeply with increasing distance from the forest, whereas the latter showed no evident pattern with distance. Seeds of the invasive herb, Chromolaena odorata, were abundant in clearings. Although wind-dispersed seeds greatly outnumbered vertebrate-dispersed seeds, seedlings and saplings of vertebrate dispersed species were three times more abundant than those of wind-dispersed species, indicating distinct differences in patterns of actual and effective seed dispersal. This points to recruitment limitation, and suggests that seed arrival may not be the principal barrier to regeneration in these clearings. Nonetheless, the clearings are likely to revert to forest over time

The Role of Perches in Accelerating Seed Arrival in Human abandoned Clearings Within Bhadra Tiger Reserve, India

Volume: 105Start Page: 317End Page: 32