M Sc Dissertation(WII)

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    Assessing Habitat Use and Activity Pattern of Hoolock Gibbons (Hoolock hoolock) in the Mosaic Landscape of Garo Hills
    (Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2025) Passah, Betwonsaoo; Lyngdoh, Salvador; Kumara, H.N.
    Primates react to environmental disruption in a variety of ways. Their home range and activity pattern are often linked with anthropogenic disturbance of the landscape. This study focuses on Hoolock Gibbons (Hoolock hoolock) in Garo Hills, Meghalaya, which is a highly arboreal primate and the only ape in India. Hoolock gibbon’s habitat in the Garo hills is being degraded due to the increase in the conversion of forest land into plantations. As most of these forests where the gibbons are located are managed by the community, these forests face overexploitation, which threatens the endangered Hoolock Gibbons habitat. This study aims to establish a baseline Hoolock Gibbon Ecology in the community-managed forest and protected area in the mosaic landscape of Garo Hills, Meghalaya, by examining their habitat use and activity pattern. The main objective is to determine the Gibbon's habitat use within its home range and examine their activity patterns in different forest types. The study is conducted in Daribokgre CR (a continuous forest patch adjoining Nokrek National Park), Dura Kalakgre CR (a small strip of CR which is surrounded by abandoned jhum and active jhum), and an Areca nut plantation which is located in Rensengre close to Selbalgre CR. In each area, one group is chosen and tracked for 20 days. Geo-coordinates and behavioural data were collected, with vegetation sampling and disturbances within a 1 ha cell size grid, which was overlaid on the location points. QGIS was used to map habitat use based on the geospatial data, and the Generalised Linear Model (GLM) was used to check the influencing factors. The activity budget was calculated to understand the behaviour patterns. Across the three studied groups, the habitat types were different group in Daribokgre (Forest group) is dominated by forest patches, the group in Dura Kalkgre (Jhum group) was dominated by abandoned jhum, and the group in Rensengre (Plantation group) was dominated by plantation, and their home range size were 24 hectares, 30 hectares, and 23 hectares, respectively. GLM reveals a significant effect only for the group in the disturbed habitat on the intensity of use. Overall, habitat use patterns and activity patterns varied across the groups, reflecting in behavioural and habitat preference.
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    Habitat Utilisation of Asian Water Monitor (Varanus salvator) in and Around Bhitarkanika National Park, Odisha
    (Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2025) Rayen, W. Michael Isaac V.; Pandav, Bivash; Das, Abhijit
    The water monitor lizard Varanus salvator is the largest of all lizards in India, and its distribution is restricted to certain pockets of the northeast, eastern coast and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Despite being the largest lizard, only limited studies have been done on this species, especially on the movement pattern and home range. This study focuses on the space use pattern of Varanus salvator in the mangrove habitats of Bhitarkanika National Park, Odisha. In total, five individuals were radio-tagged with VHF transmitters in the form of a backpack. All the tagged individuals were located twice in a day, and the location(coordinates), activity and other habitat variables were recorded. The data collected were analysed for their movement pattern, activity range and overlap between individuals and the human-dominated landscape was estimated using KDE. Along with the space use environmental variables (Ambient temperature, Relative humidity, vegetation species, canopy openness, etc) were analysed individually with behaviour to the relation between them using Fisher’s test. The results from this study add more information about its activity range, movement pattern and behavioural aspects in the mangrove landscape of India, which can be useful in the rescue, rehabilitation and management of the species.