Decline of suitable habitats and
conservation of the endangered
lion-tailed macaque: land-cover change
at a proposed protected area in Sirsi–
Honnavara, Western Ghats, India
Habitat fragmentation, loss of habitat and other
anthropogenic activities have caused a population
decline in many species, caused restriction in their
distribution or even led to their local extinction. We
attempted to understand the impact of such pressures
on the newly identified and possibly the largest population
of the endangered lion-tailed macaque, Macaca
silenus in the Reserve Forests of Sirsi and Honnavara,
Karnataka, using a temporal series of satellite images.
Classified images showed a major increase in open
area with a rapid decline in vegetation cover of about
11.5% in the wet evergreen forests over the last
decade, amounting to a loss at the rate of 1.9% per
year. We thus consider habitat protection and restoration
of evergreen forest as the top priority along with
the enforcement of conservation steps, including legal
action against encroachment, extraction of timber and
further fragmentation, to protect this critically important
habitat of the lion-tailed macaque
