WII Technical Reports/Books/Manuals
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Item Priority areas for ecological assessment along samruddi corridor, Maharashtra, India: preliminary report(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2019) WIIGlobal conservation strategies depend strongly on the creation and strengthening of the protected area network. However, several protected areas are facing new challenges of development In their surroundings leading to habitat f fragmentation and species loss. Roads are essential transport infrastructure to support India's endeavors of fulfilling vital transportation needs across the country. In the last decade, negative impacts of road network has been significant. .Special attention. is therefore required to protect wildlife values like corridors and distribution ranges of wildlife species that overlay the alignment of the expressway. The task, therefore, is to foresee conservation beyond protected areas that undergo modification due to growing infrastructural development, which eventually exerts pressure on protected areas. Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has proposed to build a smart green expressway connecting Nagpur to Mumbai. The highway aims at strengthening the rural agriculture sector while enhancing mobility. Although, the proposed alignment does not cross through any existing protected areas nevertheless MSRDC has envisaged developing the road as wildlife friendly infrastructure aiming at conservation outside protected area network. The objective of this report is to assist MSRDC and Government of Maharashtra in addressing ecological concerns at an early stage of planning the highway for safeguarding wildlife values. The preliminary report by the Wildlife Institute of India provides a framework for the protection of wildlife along the proposed alignment (701 km) of Nagpur Mumbai expressway, Maharashtra, India. This report aims at developing a roadmap to assess and evaluate ecological implications of future road development in the landscape with special emphasis on wildlife corridor function. Relevant mitigation measures shall avoid these impacts (direct, indirect and cumulative) of road infrastructure on various wildlife taxa and their habitats within the three landscapes of Maharashtra. The consecutive assessments conducted post this report will provide a strategic mitigation plan to present and minimize impacts of the proposed expressway on ecological habitats and wildlife. The Nagpur-Mumbai expressway is planned to be the first of Its kind project, where mitigation measures for wildlife are planned before? the road is built. This report helps in identifying the Important wildlife habltats that may require further assessment to design appropriate mitigation structuresItem Recovery of Dugongs and their habitats in India : an integrated participatory approach - Annual Progress Report III(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2019) WIIDugong (Dugong dugon), also called 'Sea Cow', occurs in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Gulf of Mannar, Palk Bay, and Gulf of Kutch in India. These marine mammals are herbivores which spend their full life in the sea. They are the only extant species of the family Dugongidae. All existing members of the order Sirenia (including the Dugong) are listed as vulnerable to extinction. All populations of Dugong are also listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and Appendix II of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS). Several reasons have been attributed to their population decline, some of which include seagrass habitat loss and degradation, gill netting, disease, chemical pollutants, consumptive use, and hunting. 2. Major objectives of this program is to a) Assess dugong population status through advanced census techniques and determine its abundance and distribution, identify critical habitats, classify threats and develop site-specific monitoring plan to reduce poaching and incidental entanglements, b) Characterize the critical dugong habitats, reduce direct and indirect threats, c) Raise awareness on the species and encourage the participation of the local communities; and d) Enhance the capacity of the State Forest Department staff and develop/implement smart patrolling tools to improve protection enforcement; train forest staff and local communities in underwater surveys for long-term habitat monitoring. 3. A participatory approach to recover dugongs and their habitat in India: Year 2018-19 was excellent because of active involvements of major stakeholders in this project. All state Forest Departments, Indian Navy, Coast Guard, Marine Police, State Fisheries Departments, State Education Departments, local universities and NGOs could actively participate in implementing this project in the field that not only helped to minimise the dugong mortalities and helped to conserve overall marine biodiversity of the region. We involved the Indian Navy, the Coast Guard, Fisheries and Marine Police personals in our volunteering network by conducting several short orientation workshops with them on dugongs and seagrasses. For example, 15 Indian Navy officers from INS-Utkrosh participated in the program where the CAMPA-Dugong team (ANI) briefed them about basic data documentation on sighting a dugong and other marine mammals in the logbooks distributed. Similarly, integrated trainings towards marine biodiversity monitoring and management was given to group of frontline staff from Forest, Fisheries, Marine Police and local youths in all three regions. An orientation program was conducted with the glass bottom boat operators, to sensitize them about the importance of this stretch for dugongs in terms of controlled boat speeds when a dugong is spotted. Further, these operators were included as a part of the dugong monitoring network. All these efforts helped us in reporting of dugongs by these trainees including fishermen from these regions otherwise those sightings were never reported earlier. Further, volunteer release of incidentally captured dugong by fishermen, identification of leaking site of dugong in Palk Bay, sightings of dugongs by Navy and Coast Guard are all few examples for the outcomes of this participatory approach.Item Integration of sophisticated technology for wildlife protection, conflict resolution and monitoring in Uttar Pradesh(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2019) Ramesh, K.Item Fourth cycle of Management Effectiveness Evaluation (MEE) of Tiger Reserves in India, 2018(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2019) Mathur, V.B.Item Human wildlife conflict: Assessment of Socio-psychological perspectives and actual threat from Leopard in Motichur range, Rajaji Tiger Reserve(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2019) Yadav. S.; Mohan, M.; Sandilaya, D.; Boro, P.; Sharma, A.; Sanatan, S.; Ramesh, K.As the proverbs go, “the deeper the roots, the greater the fruits” & “the devil is in the details”, for conservation management to be successful, one must look at multiple aspects and require comprehensive approach. Human-wildlife conflict is not a singular issue of management since it has wider implications and more so, in cases where species restoration in the form of conservation is involved, because social acceptance and better preparations are keys for success of such programs. In this report, information gathered from three different but linked studies carried out under the larger and long-term framework are synthesized, providing an overview of (1) socio-economic conditions and Quality of Life of people, (2) temporal landscape change and people perception on the conflict and (3) comparative status of leopard behavior in the conflict versus non-conflict zones. By studying “Quality of Life”, one can assess the impact of forest resources on the living conditions of people and vice versa. Chapter 1 shows the results of “QOL” study conducted within the villages falling under the 1 km buffer in the Eco-sensitive zone villages of Rajaji Tiger Reserve, Uttarakhand from January 2019 to June 2019. This study evaluates the socio-economic dimension of people and focused on demographic status, human dependency on utilization of forest resources and the role of people in management actions. The utilization of forest resources was found to be high in the three districts and there is hardly any participation of the people in the management inputs. The qualitative wellbeing assessment revealed that people are less satisfied with their living condition. The global environment change is increasingly forcing the already dwindled wildlife areas to be even more susceptible to disturbances. Localisation, shifting or disappearance of resources can severely impact wildlife and can even lead to local extinctions. There are many evidences to support this narrative. A study analysing the “changes in landscape” from 1995 to 2018 was also undertaken, which showed an increase in barrenness. Because “Human-Wildlife Conflict” explicitly revolves around the costs of sharing land with dangerous wild animals, it is important to understand the patterns of landscape change. While highlighting the landscape changes over a 20 years period, the second study also focused on the damages done by wild animals, the compensatory schemes, and most importantly the perception of people about wild animals. Though one can never truly eradicate human-wildlife conflict completely, any conflict is a situation of paramount importance to be solved, because any conservation effort does require the support of public at large, particularly the local people who share the space with wildlife. Any spike or change in trend of conflict requires further investigation not for the sole reason saving human fatalities but also for building better human relationships between wildlife managers and public. Since 2014, Motichur range of Rajaji Tiger Reserve has experienced 31 attacks on humans by the resident leopard (Panthera pardus) population. It resulted in 19 human deaths and grievous injuries to 12 people. The epicenter of the conflict is the space surrounding national highway 58, connecting the cities of Rishikesh and Haridwar. Rajaji forest department has been deploying camera traps in the conflict space to reckon the leopard movement patterns and to circle out any suspect animals responsible for the conflict. We intensified the camera trap study focusing on entire Motichur range (excluding the conflict locations) from November 2018 to February 2019. In addition, we visited each conflict site with the forest department officials, and collected information on various attributes related to the site. We found an extremely high leopard count for the winters i.e. 47, with a very high density of 45 animals per 100 square kilometers. We listed down the most suspected leopards involved in conflict based on 3-point criteria. The results of our work will increase our understanding of the adaptability of leopards. The results also reiterate the imperative to shift from a PA centric to a landscape level conservation approach, analyzing the source and drivers of conflicts, including the carrying capacity analysis. There is also an urgent need to include engage communities more closely and develop a short-term and long-term conservation programs.Item Feasibility study of proposed small dams in Kalesar Wildlife Sanctuary, Haryana(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2019) WIIThis study carried out for a rapid assessment of the proposed dam sites scoping to: (a) assess wildlife values with respect to faunal, floral and aquatic values and potential impacts of dam, and (b) assess the feasibility of alternative sites. Keeping the aforesaid objectives in view, carried out a feasibility study in the context of impact on flora, fauna (mammals) and ichthyofauna in the proposed dam sites.Item Status of tigers, co-predators and prey in India 2018 : Summary report(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2019) Jhala, Y.V.; Qureshi, Q.; Nayak, A.K.Item Spatial analysis of livestock predation by leopards in the Greater Gir Landscape(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2019) Jhala, Y.V.; Vasavada, D.T.; Gogoi, K.; Chakrabarti, S.Data on livestock kill by leopard were collected from the districts of Junagadh, Amreli, Gir Somnath and Bhavnagar, accounting for 711 villages between 2012 to 2016. These data were further translated into English, digitized and spatially mapped in GIS. We obtained remotely sensed as well as spatial covariate layers of forest cover, refuge patches, drainages and nigh-light intensity. We conducted a fixed Kernel analysis of spatially explicit livestock predation events at the village resolution to obtain a consolidate “predation risk map” by leopards of the landscape and used it for subsequent analysis. The tehsils of Talala, Sutrapada, Kodinar, Visavadar, Palitana, Gir Gadhada, Junagadh, Una and Mendarada recorded highest livestock predation by leopards. A temporal increasing trend was observed for number of leopard-predation events as well as in the spatial extent of predations. However, the intensity (number of livestock kills/village/year) of livestock predation did not show any increasing trend, this suggests that though there is an increase in the geographical extent of conflict, the intensity in a given area has remained constant. This could be interpretate as geographical range exapansion of the leopard without increasing its density within occupied areas. Proximity to wildlife habitats, proportion of wildlife area and urbanization enhanced chances of leopard predation. A significant deficit between the market rate and compensated amount for leopard predation was observed with an increasing trend. As a management strategy we recommend a revision of compensation rates to match the market price and an efficient system to pay compensation promptly. Improved husbandary practices and, as well as managing leopard density below social carrying capacity is recommended. This would help maintaining tolerance towards leopards under an increasingly conflict scenario. iiItem E-Bird technology for tiger conservation: development and integration of unmanned Aerial vehicles as Surveillance and Monitoring tool for protection of tigers and capacity building of the Frontline staff(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2019) Ramesh, K.; Singh, B.; swan, S.; Krishnakumar, T.; Mondal, T.; Ghosh, R.; Mathur, V.; Verma, N.; Williams, A.C.; Yadav, S.P.; Nayak, A.K.; Mathur, V.B.Un-manned Aerial Vehicles also known as Remotely Piloted Aerial Vehicles (RPAV), have the potential to solve many problems related to wildlife research and conservation. UAVs are small and medium-sized aircraft, which are equipped with advanced electro-optics (EO) such as thermal, night-vision and various other sensors for remote-sensing and surveillance activities. Objectives: The project was conceived as a new initiative, collaboratively by Wildlife Institute of India and National Tiger Conservation Authority in order to (1) integrate Un-manned Aerial Vehicle (UAV or Drone) for surveillance in selected tiger reserves based on pilot testing experience in the reserve, (2) undertake need and feasibility analyses for integration of Drone technology in tiger reserves, (3) map locations of poaching and conflict-prone areas, which would serve as a basis for drone implementation, (4) experiment and implement specialized drone units in a phased manner, and (5) build capacity of frontline staff for integration of drone technology as a part of regular management efforts.Item Diversity and ecology of herpetofauna of Panna Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh : Final Report(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2019) Das, Abijit; Prasad, V.K.; Murthy, S.This study was conducted to know the status of herpetofauna even in the most protected areas such as Tiger Reserves and National Parks in India to protect the species from any local extinction. Hence, inventory and documentation of herpetofauna in protected areas becomes critical. In order to fill this lacuna, we executed systematic surveys using standard and integrated protocols to document the herpetofauna assemblage in Panna Tiger Reserve. The project was sanctioned for two years starting from 2017 to 2019 with two major seasons of monsoon, post monsoon, summers and winters) to collect data from the field. The objectives of the project are follows as:- To determine the species richness and diversity of herpetofauna in Panna Tiger Reserve. 2. To map and identify the distribution pattern of herpetofauna species with respect to their habitats and breeding sites. 3. To classify the herpetofauna community assemblage across various major habitats and to identify the species diversity, richness and evenness within the various major habitats in Panna Tiger Reserve landscape. 4. To discover and describe any potentially novel species in the region. 5. To obtain the information on species ecology and natural history. Describing ecological and behavioral interaction within species and describe novel characters which be used in species monitoring programmes. 6. To build capacity and create awareness and education amongst the various major stakeholders including forest department, officials, local villagers and students to promote conservation of herpetofauna.