WII Technical Reports/Books/Manuals
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Item Capacity building initiative on the dispersal and ranging patterns of elephants for effective management of human-elephant interactions(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2022) Nigam, P.; Pandav, B.; Mondol, S.; Lakshmiarayanan, N.; Kumar, A.; Nandwanshi, V.B.; Das, J.; Biswas, S.; Udhayaraj, A.D.; Vishwakarma, R.; Habib, B.; Miachieo, K.; Narasingh Rao, P.V.Wild Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) populations are distributed in four major regions namely North West, North-East, East-Central and Southern regional meta-populations across India. Amongst them, the East-central regional population spread across the States of Odisha, Jharkhand, southern West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, and lately in Madhya Pradesh suffers disproportionately high levels of human elephant conflict. Among the myriad challenges facing management of human-elephant conflict in the region, elephant range expansion into new areas is overriding. One such range expansion that resulted in acute human-elephant conflict is being witnessed in the State of Chhattisgarh. Although northern Chhattisgarh was historically an elephant range, elephants reportedly disappeared during the period 1920 to late 1980s. While episodes of sporadic elephant occurrence in Chhattisgarh was reported during the period 1988- 1993, contemporary range expansion and concomitant human-elephant conflict began from the year 2000, and has accelerated during the last one decade. Faced with an enormous challenge of managing human-elephant conflict that is spatiotemporally dynamic unlike that of other elephant range States, constrained by limited Institutional capacities to assess and deal with the issue. Chhattisgarh Forest Department has been trying diversity its conflict mitigation strategies. Recognizing the need to objectively evaluate human-elephant conflict situation in the State, during the year 2017 Chhattisgarh Forest Department invited Wildlife Institute of India to conduct ecological research on elephants in Chhattisgarh with a three-year budget outlay. The project was a collaborative effort between Chhattisgarh Forest Department and WII. Considering the scope of the project, the project duration was further extended and eventually, the project lasted for the period July 2017 to March 2022. Being the final project report, the activities carried out as part of the project is summarized as under. Distribution and Demography In Chhattisgarh, the elephant distribution during the period 2012 to 2017 was reported from 16 Forest Divisions and four Protected Areas in the north and north-central regions of the state. The elephant population, as enumerated by Chhattisgarh Forest Department during 2021 , ranged from 250 to 300. The adult sex ratio recorded during the study was 1: 4.5. About 44% of the female segment of the population comprised of adults. Chhattisgarh elephant population is presently contiguous with other elephant populations in the neighboring states i.e., Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and in Odisha occurring as a meta-population 1 and thus cannot be considered as an isolated population. However, within Chhattisgarh, the population is relatively small and it occurs scattered over a large area as small and disjunctive groups facing a perpetual risk of getting isolated by ongoing linear infrastructure and other associated developmental activities in the State. If such groups get isolated, then they will not be viable in the long run. 1 Meta-population: Population of small populations that are connected through dispersals 1 O. ~ . -~ 1 -WU.d.U.fe .In.s-titu-te. o.f .In.di a Home Range, Movement Patterns & Dispersal, and Habitat Selection by Elephants During the period 2018-2022, WII-CGFD collaborative effort resulted in 10 elephant radio collaring in Chhattisgarh. The resultant effort provided 3106 elephant days of tracking information. Each of the radiocollared elephants provided an average of 310.6 (± 273) days of tracking data. As on 31 51 March 2022 when WII-CGFD collaborative project ended, two of the collared elephants (SD - Sehradev and MT - Maitri) were having functional collars. The estimated average home range (95% minimum convex polygon) of elephants in Chhattisgarh was 3172.8 km2 (± 2002.2 km2, Range: 462.3 - 6969.7 km2). The 95% kernel density home ranges of elephants were much lower averaging 512.3 km2 (± 235.3 km2, Range: 126.5 - 748.9 km2). The elephant home ranges were not wholly well defined, and marked by inter-annual shifts caused by exploratory behaviour. The elephant home ranges were relatively large. The dry season home ranges were significantly lower than monsoon and winter ranges. However, dry season home ranges of elephants are larger. The present study indicates that habitat quality in some of the forest patches - particularly those that are large and contiguous with minimal of human interference can potentially support elephants in the landscape. Thus, dry season ranges of elephants could serve as a surrogate for habitat quality. Monthly variations in home ranges were significant, and best explained by idiosyncrasies of individual elephants. Among the forest types open, moderately dense and very dense forests classified by Forest Survey of India based on crown densities, elephants selected open forests, that were predominantly juxtaposed with human-use areas. Although the crown density was low, the patches of open forests support dense stands of Sal (Shorea robusta) coppice with rank undergrowth offering adequate cover for elephants. Elephant habitat selection of these open forest patches appears to be influenced by potential foraging opportunities in human-use areas, and further facilitated by low inter-patch distance. Genetic Structure of Elephants Using 258 genetic samples collected from 9 Forest Divisions, elephant genetic structure in northern Chhattisgarh was evaluated. Analysis indicates that at least two different elephant lineages occur in Chhattisgarh. This implies that elephants occurring in Chhattisgarh have possibly come from different areas. Within the two different lineages, high relatedness amongst the individuals was observed corroborating with the general social structure of Asian elephant clans where individuals are mostly related. Crop Losses and Human Fatalities due to Elephants Crop losses caused by elephants were acute and widespread in Chhattisgarh. To draw an analogy, Karnataka's ex gratia payment towards crop losses by elephants during the period 2015-2020 was comparable with Chhattisgarh, although the former's elephant population is 93% more than the latter. The landscape-level assessment covering the whole of northern Chhattisgarh, and fine-scale assessment covering select areas in Surguja circle identified correlates of crop losses at both spatial scales. Elephant-related human deaths were widespread in the state. However, nearly 70% of incidences occurred in areas of high intensity of habitat-use by elephants. The human fatalities due to elephants were both temporally and spatially auto-correlated. 2Item Ecology of two endemic turtles in the Western Ghats(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2010) Vasudevan, K.; Pandav, B.; Deepak, V.This project was initiated on the 16th January 2006 with an aim to generate natural history information on two out of the three endemic species of terrestrial turtles. India has 28 species of freshwater turtles and tortoises, of them three species are endemic. The endemic species: Caneturtle, Vijayachelys silvatica; Travancore tortoise Indotestudo travancorica; Leith’s softshell Nilssonia leithii, are restricted to the southern peninsula and the Western Ghats. In this study the focal species were the Cane turtle and the Travancore tortoise which had their distribution in the Western Ghats. The objectives of the project were (i) to estimate the population density of Travancore tortoise and cane turtle in a fragmented landscape; (ii) to quantify the diet of these two species and describe the feeding ecology with respect to their role in seed dispersal; (iii) to identify threats to the turtle population based on their habitat use ranging pattern and food habits and recommend measures for their conservation; (iv) to carry out a survey of these two species along the Western Ghats to ascertain the exact distribution in the context of Protected area network in the region. The study employed methods to study the population, diet and ranging patterns of the Cane turtle and the Travancore tortoise in Anamalai and Parambikulam Tiger Reserves. In the case of Travancore tortoise, the animals were searched on forest trails scattered in the reserves and repeated over three years to determine the proportion of area occupied accounting for imperfect detections. These surveys revealed that about 82% of the area surveyed is occupied by the tortoise, suggesting that the reserves hold sizeable population of the tortoise. The occupancy of the Travancore tortoise was negatively influenced by anthropogenic disturbance levels and positively influenced by the availability of water bodies and grass marsh in different sites. Only 35% of the sites occupied by the species resulted in detections, suggesting that it was cryptic. The important constituents of its diet were grass, other plant matter, invertebrates and other animal matter. The vayal (grass openings within woodland) habitat might be crucial for foraging by Travancore tortoise. The five individuals that were radio-tagged used an area from 5 to 35 ha covering evergreen, bamboo and open scurb-grass marshes. The animals spent about 98% of their time under leaf litter, logs, rocks crevices, tree holes, termite or pangolin burrows, bamboo tickets and under grass. In the case of cane turtle, various search methods employed did not yield detections and therefore, an intensive area was combed intensively. This resulted in detections of the elusive cane turtle. During the study spanning over four years, 42 ha of the evergreen forests in the reserve resulted in sightings of 27 different individuals of the cane turtle. This suggests that the species occurs in high density in the evergreen forests. Six cane turtles were fixed with radio-transmitters and monitored for two years. They used an area from 3.5 to 14.2 ha restricted to the evergreen forests alone. They also had extensive overlap in their home-ranges, suggesting no territoriality in the species. The movement of the animals were influenced by temperature and rainfall in the intensive study area. Diet of the species consisted of forest floor invertebrates, seeds and other plant material. The field observations on feeding on a large land snail and aggressive encounters between males of the cane turtle were the highlights of the study on the species. A survey of the three endemic species of turtles was taken up in the fifth year of the project. The survey involved visiting 12 sites in the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The potential sites where the species might be found were visited and the locals were interviewed in order to document the occurrence of the species. This resulted in one new locality record for cane turtle and two new records for Travancore tortoise. The Leith’s softshell was reported from five different locations in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu based on the interviews with locals. The sites occupied by the species were located within and outside protected areas. So far the study has resulted in three peer reviewed publications and two presentations in international conference. Based on the findings of the study it could be inferred that the Travancore tortoise is sensitive to human disturbance. This might be the consequence of exploitation of the animal by the locals in the reserves where the study was conducted. It is not uncommon to find locals using domesticogs during their forays into the forest. We speculate that there is some level of subsistence exploitation of the species in the region. The behaviour and ranging pattern of the species make them cryptic for detection by humans, but vulnerable to detection by domestic dogs. The study revealed that there is poor awareness among wildlife protection staff in the reserves on the species in general. Increasing the awareness of the staff could result in curbing subsistence exploitation of the species in the reserves. The vayals in the reserve are crucial habitats for the species; therefore, their protection and monitoring should be of importance for the persistence of the tortoise population. In the case the cane turtle, contrary to our initial expectations they survive in high densities (60 individuals in 1 sq. km) in the middle and low elevation evergreen forests (between 10 – 1000 m above mean sea level). The Karian Shola National Park is having a large population of this species which is of importance of the management of the protected area. The species is extremely stenotypic, showing strong preference to a narrow range of microclimatic variation prevailing in evergreen forests that are below 1000 m elevation in the Western Ghats. This indicates that the low elevation evergreen forest areas are crucial habitats for the species. Our intensive study on the species spanning over four years did not yield much information on the reproductive ecology of the species, because of their secretive lives. We recommend studies on the reproductive biology of the species, which might be important in the context of conservation breeding of the species. In the case of Leith’s softshell, we suggest extensive surveys to document the distribution, the status of population and, the genetic and morphological variation in the populations in peninsular India.