PhD Theses (WII)

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    Human-tiger conflict, ranging pattern and habitat use by tiger in Sundarban Tiger Reserve, India
    (Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2015) Naha, Dipanjan; Sankar, K.; Qureshi, Qamar
    The Sundarban tiger inhabits a unique mangrove habitat type, isolated from neighboring tiger populations by hundreds of kilometers of agricultural and urban land. The main objectives of the present study were to (a) understand ranging pattern and habitat use of tiger (b) to quantify livestock losses by tiger predation and identify spatio-temporal patterns in conflict in and around the Tiger Reserve (c) to document and quantify the geographic distribution of tiger-human incidents and (d) to evaluate the perception and level of tolerance of people living in the vicinity of Tiger Reserve. This study showed that tiger home range range sizes are much larger than reported from Bangladesh Sundarban. The Sundarban Tiger Population is of global importance for the conservation of the species due to the size of the contiguous nature of the habitat and the unique adaptations of the tigers that inhabit these mangrove forests. In spite of only four tigers that could be radio-collared and monitored this study enhances our understanding aspects of tiger ecology in this unique landscape. Sundarban tigers are primarily diurnal, prefer certain habitat types and are reluctant to cross wide expanse of water. This information can be used to minimize human-tiger conflict which is a major impediment to tiger conservation in this region.
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    Ranging patterns and habitat use of re-introduced gaur (Bos gaurus gaurus) in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh.
    (Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2014) Navneethan, B.; Qureshi, Qamar; Sankar, K.
    Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR), situated in Central India, supported a small population of gaur (38. individuals) till 1995. This gaur population became locally extinct in 1998, and the reason for the same is attributed to disruption of the migratory corridor between the forests of Bandhavgarh and Ghunghuti and Amarkantak. Even after the local extinction of gaur, BTR continued to be an excellent habitat for gaur and hence it was decided to reintroduce gaur in BTR as it would be a major conservation initiative for this endangered species. The present study on reintroduced gaur was carried out from March 2011 to February 2013 covering all seasons in a year, summer (March - June), monsoon (July - October) and winter (November - February) in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh, Central India, to study the ranging pattern and habitat use.
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    Prey selection, ranging pattern and habitat utilization of the reintroduced tigers in Sariska Tiger Reserve, Rajasthan, western India.
    (Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2015) Bhattacharjee, Subhadeep; Sankar, K.; Qureshi, Qamar
    In a forest ecosystem, large felids are generally the top predators in almost every food chain influencing the structure and dynamics of the subsequent descending trophic levels. Evaluation of last fifty years’ presence and absence status of large felids in Protected Areas (PAs) of Indian subcontinent revealed that local extinction was highest in the dry deciduous habitat. Tiger, among all large felids had already become locally extinct from 70% of semi-arid dry thorn and 35% of dry deciduous forest areas. Tigers in dry semi-arid forests with its global western most limit, survive in small isolated populations. The present study assessed the movements and ranging patterns, prey availability, prey utilization and resource selection of reintroduced tigers in Sariska Tiger Reserve from July 2008 to June 2012. After the local extermination of the tiger population in Sariska Tiger Reserve (STR), during December, 2005 with the consent of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the Rajasthan Forest Department a recovery plan for tigers in Sariska was prepared by the Wildlife Institute of India along with a detailed protocol for tiger reintroduction. The present study was conducted in 400 km2 area which is the notified National Park area of Sariska Tiger Reserve from July 2008 to June 2012 covering all the three seasons monsoon (July to October), winter (November to February) and summer (March to June) with the following objectives: a) to evaluate the prey availability for the reintroduced tigers, b) to assess the prey selection patterns of the reintroduced tigers, c) to study the movement and ranging patterns of the reintroduced tigers and d) to assess the habitat utilization patterns, resource selection and response of tiger to various anthropogenic pressure in the study area. In Sariska, peafowl was observed to be the most abundant prey species throughout the study period.