MSc Dissertation (SACON)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://192.168.202.180:4000/handle/123456789/139
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Item Effects of Sterilization on social organization and behaviour of free ranging rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta(SACON, 2020) Fulzele, Abhilasha S; Kumara, H NNon-human primates are frequently at conflict with humans due to their adaptability towards human-modified environments. Rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) co-occur with humans throughout the North and Central parts of India. In the past two decades, there has been a significant increase in the intolerance towards macaques as they are continuously forced to share space with humans. Using birth control to limit population growth is believed to be an ethical alternative to culling. Hence, owing to the human-macaque conflict in Himachal Pradesh, the State Government and Forest Department of the state initiated the ‘Monkey Sterilization Programme’. The study was conducted to understand and assess the consequences of long-term sterilization on the macaques’ social organization and in turn, on their behavior. Field work for sampling was carried out from December 2019 to March 2020. To address the set objectives, a 12-day survey was pursued within a radius of 31 km of a Monkey Sterilization Centre at Una, Himachal Pradesh, to understand the social organization of rhesus macaques in the study area. An ethological study was carried out with a group of 21 individuals of rhesus macaque to understand their behavior. The results indicate that the mean group size of rhesus macaque in Una was 12.27±10.24SD, is relatively smaller when compared to other sites e.g., North India (41.9), Central India (41.9), Bangladesh (urban) (41.3) and Bangladesh (rural) (30.2), where there was no sterilization of individuals done. Also, the size of the group in the population was much smaller (~51% of groups).Item Dry season forage selection by Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) in a fragmented landscape, northern West Bengal(SACON, 2020) Das, Priyanka; Kumara, H N; Kshettry, AritraThe Asian elephant is a wide-ranging species with just 51% of its range across Asia covered by forest land. Hence, it is imperative to plan conservation action in the other half comprising of multiuse landscapes. With food being an important resource determining elephant use and movement, understanding their forage selection in a heterogeneous landscape can help us prioritise allocation of limited conservation resources. I studied forage selection by Asian elephants during December 2019 to June 2020 in a tea-estate-agriculture-forest mosaic in northern West Bengal, a landscape which typifies land-use mosaics used by elephants across India. Asian elephants in the landscape consumed 132 plant species, of which 21 species constituted 85.3% of the total feeding signs recorded, while non-reproductive plant parts dominated the diet. The mean (±SE) feeding frequency was found to be highest in villages [50.15 (±22.85)] followed by forests [40.51 (±9.42)], semi-open forests [12.14 (±9.42)], tea estates [5.79 (±1.95)] and open forests [3.31(±1.44)]. However, the high variance in village indicates that elephants use villages for movement and forages occasionally. Food grain from household was consumed rarely (0.25%). Overall, they used dicots (52.73%) more than monocots (47.27%) and browse (65.23%) more than herb (34.77%). Elephants consumed more monocots in forests and tea estates whereas in semi-open forests, open forests and villages they consumed more dicots. The availability of monocots was lesser than dicots in all these land use and land cover types. In forest, they consumed more herbs, whereas browse was consumed more in all other land use and land cover types.Item An assessment of butterfly species composition across a disturbance gradient in Garo Hills, North-east India(SACON, 2020) SUBHIKSHA, LAKSHMI MAXIMA S; Karunakaran, PV; Jha, Rohit RSShifting cultivation is a predominant form of land use in the hilly tracts of the tropics. Despite being under the scanner for one of the major causes of habitat degradation and forest cover loss, it is very much still prevalent in North-east India where it is one of the important sources of livelihood. Though a multitude of studies look at the nutrient and water losses and vegetation recovery in shifting agriculture lands, studies on the responses of fauna, following habitat alterations like slash and burn and further abandonment of the lands following cultivation are limited.Item Influence of timber plantations on high-altitude understorey insectivorous birds in the Nilgiris landscape(SACON, 2020) LAWRENCE, SWAPNA; Mukherjee, Shomita; Robin, V VThe Shola Sky Islands of the Western Ghats have undergone drastic land use changes for over a century due to several anthropogenic activities. One of the main reasons for significant habitat loss and fragmentation in this landscape is the establishment of plantations of many invasive and non-native species such as Acacia spp., Pine spp., and Eucalyptus spp. These are major threats for numerous endemic species that are found in the region including the endangered Nilgiri Sholakili Sholicola major and Nilgiri Laughingthrush Montecincla cachinnans. This study is an attempt at understanding the effects of exotic tree species on high-elevation birds found in the Nilgiris. Under an occupancy framework, I examined the habitat variables that best predict the distribution and abundance of four species of high-elevation understorey insectivorous birds in the Upper Nilgiris PlateauItem Urban Green Spaces and their Effect on Bat Activity in Pune, Maharashtra(SACON, 2020) IYER, SHRIRANJANI L.; Manchi, Shirish S; Krishnan, AnandThe increase in urbanisation over the years has affected wildlife and negatively impacted their habitats. The impact of urbanisation can be at a global-scale such as carbon emissions from cities and at a regional-scale like the effects of urban sprawl on the neighbouring habitats and species. The effect of urbanisation is often documented as negatively influencing wildlife. Although urbanisation does have a negative impact on different species, some species have learnt to tolerate and even thrive in human habitations. Such species-specific responses to different urban areas dictate which species dominate the urban ecosystem.Item Factors influencing the habitat use of owls in a mosaic landscape in Garo Hills, Meghalaya(SACON, 2020) SAILAS, S. SANGEETH; Pramod, P; Babu, SHabitat use of owls is under-studied in the tropics, and more so in North-eastern India, a part of the Indo-Burma region, one of the biodiversity hotspots of the world. Twenty species of owls have been recorded in North-eastern India, and yet there have not been much studies on any of them from the region. Hence, a study on the habitat use of owls was conceived, selecting the Garo Hills in Meghalaya as the study site, where the landscape is a mosaic made up of plantations, agricultural fields, settlements, disturbed and undisturbed forests. The presence of Community Reserves, a type of Community Conserved Area, adds to the heterogeneity in the landscape.Item Composition of Intertidal Rock Pool Sedentary Fauna from Select Beaches of Southern Coast of Maharashtra(SACON, 2020) MOHITE, PAURNIMA; QUADROS,GOLDINTidepools are common features of rocky shores worldwide. They are poorly studied than the adjacent emergent substratum (rocky patch) and very little information is available about patterns and processes of communities in them. Considering this paucity of literature, the present study was conducted from January to March, 2020 to know the community composition and structure of rocky intertidal tidepool sedentary fauna (macrobenthos) from two rocky shores – Ladghar and Pajpandhari in Dapoli Taluk, Ratnagiri District, Maharashtra. The objective of the study was to compare the community composition and structure of sedentary organisms present in the tidepools in different intertidal zones as well as shores. By keeping this objective in the mind, answers to following questions were attempted: 1) How do physico-chemical parameters affect community composition and structure of sedentary organisms in tidepools? To test this, correlation analyses were carried out between the physico-chemical variables and the diversity attributes. 2) What is the distribution pattern of organisms within high tide, mid tide and low tide zones of the intertidal regions. 3) What is the effect of anthropogenic disturbance on the community composition and structure of tidepools. For the second and third questions, tests of community similarity like ANOSIM and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis were done.Item Insectivorous bird communities of monoculture plantations in Konkan region, Maharashtra(SACON, 2020) Joshi, Shardul; JAYAPAL, RAJAHTropical forests worldwide are increasingly fragmented and converted into human-modified landscapes owing to the mounting anthropogenic pressures. The forest fragments remain as habitat islands situated amidst a matrix of human-modified land uses. Though such landscapes of multiple land use are known to negatively impact wild biodiversity, some human-modified land uses are known to act as secondary habitats for select taxa. One such land use type is agricultural plantations. Large amounts of forests around the world have been converted into commercial plantations of cash crops and the role of such plantations in sustaining local biodiversity is of key conservation interest.Item Influence of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors on Anti-predatory Behaviour of Penisular Rock Agama Psammophilus dorsalis(2020) CHAVAN, DEEPAK; Babu, S; Isvaran, KavitaIn response to human disturbance in the form of habitat alteration, lizards inhabiting distinct habitats should modify their anti-predatory behaviour to match the level of risk imposed by the habitat parameters. Apart from habitat, escape decisions are expected to be influenced by multiple factors, however, most studies examine one or a few factors acting individually which hinders our understanding of their relative importance. In this study, I looked at the influence of habitat alteration on escape decisions of juvenile Peninsular Rock agama Psammophilus dorsalis by comparing two populations, one inhabiting a restored scrub and thorny habitat, which is naturally found and the other inhabiting an open habitat degraded because of heavy grazing. The study was conducted in thorny scrub forests around Rishy Valley School, Andhra Pradesh during January to August 2020.