Theses and Dissertations
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Item Patterns of distribution and multiscale-habitat correlates of riverine birds in the upper Ganges, Western Himalaya.(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2021) Sinha, Ankita; Ramesh, K.; Jayapal, R.Fauna associated with riverine ecosystems vary considerably at the global scale ranging from obligate terrestrial to obligate aquatic. Birds constitute key components of wildlife along running water systems. 2. The global river bird community is diverse with 66 species, spanning across 19 families with 37 non-passerines and 29 passerines. Asia has the maximum number of species followed by South America and Africa. 3. The global distribution ranges of specialist river birds show that large areas of the world hold few or no specialist riverine birds. Richness peaks in the eastern Himalaya and the Myanmar-China border, around the Kakabo Raazi mountains where more than 15 species of specialist river birds overlap in range. 4. Species richness reflects considerable radiation in particular groups; Muscicapidae (small passerine insectivorous birds mostly belonging to the old world) in Asia, ovenbirds (Funariidae) and tyrant flycatchers (Tyrannidae)in South America, and the Pratincoles (Glareolidae) in Africa. 5. Ecological understanding and conservation efforts of specialist river birds remain rudimentary especially in the tropics where rivers are faced with a host of threats. 6. In this particular study, field surveys were undertaken to understand bird community composition and river habitat characteristics across summer (breeding) and autumn (wintering/non-breeding) seasons in the Bhagirathi basin, a major headstream of the Upper Ganges in the state of Uttarakhand in the western Indian Himalaya between years 2014 and 2018.Item Proximate drivers of human-tiger interface and conflict in Sariska and Panna Tiger Reserves, India.(wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2021) Malviya, Majari; Ramesh, K.; Sankar, K.Human-wildlife conflict poses the most complex challenge to achieving ‘coexistence’. It has resulted in the decline of many species globally. Tigers are one of the three most conflict-prone large-bodied felids in the world. In some of its range states, about 50% of tiger deaths have reportedly occurred due to retaliatory killing by humans in response to domestic cattle depredation. Because of the implications of human-tiger conflict (HTC) on the persistence of tiger especially in human-dominated landscapes, management of HTC is of great conservation importance. However, efficient management steps can only be taken when the reasons for conflict are exposed. For this purpose, we need to identify and understand the factors operating in a conflict that determines its occurrence in a certain place and certain time i.e., the drivers of HTC. This study thus introduces an analytical framework, the conflict determinant model, to study human-carnivore conflict aimed at identifying various socio-ecological factors linked with conflict and model these factors to understand the mechanism and dynamics of HTC in the two study sites, viz. Sariska Tiger Reserve (STR), Rajasthan and Panna Tiger Reserve (PTR), Madhya Pradesh, India, with the goal to help design effective mitigation measures. To identify ecological drivers of HTC, data was collected on key habitat parameters for tigers i.e., prey, cover, water, and anthropogenic disturbance using line transect, circular plots, camera traps, and GIS. Additionally, to identify biological drivers, data on biological parameters of the tigers involved in conflict, viz. ID, sex, age, home range, and physiological stress were also collectedItem Seasonal Pattern in Habitat Selection by Birds of Jhimil Jheel Conservation Reserve Uttarakhand(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2022) Das, Ankita; Ramesh, K.The present study was initiated to assess seasonal pattern in habitat selection by birds in Jhilmil Jheel Conservation Reserve (JJCR) which is a small-sized Protected Area (PA). This work also focuses on both ‘process’ and ‘pattern’ of bird community structure. The work also focusses on how small-sized PAs are equally important in conserving wildlife species such as birds. Understanding the relationship of birds with habitat provides insights into habitat use, which contributes in the conservation of species. Habitat selection of birds is one of the foremost steps to understand the complexity of their community. Some factors influencing habitat selection are habitat heterogeneity, structure and composition of vegetation, seasonality and co-occurrence. Habitat heterogeneity helps in maintaining high bird diversity. Abundance and distribution of species in a community also depends on the physiognomic, floristic composition of the forest vegetation and seasonality. For the present research work, the study area was stratified into six habitats: plantation, mixed deciduous forest (mixed forest), riverine habitat, scrub forest, grasslands and agriculture fields-human settlement.Item Playing it Safe Tiger Movement and Livestock Depredation Patterns in Panna Tiger Reserve, Central India(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2021) Mohan, Manu K.; Ramesh, K.; Sathyakumar, S.The movement of large carnivores in human-dominated landscapes is not uncommon anymore. While their presence is superficially tolerated or ignored, it is a consistent cause of concern to the people living in its proximity, due to competing interests in sharing of resources and direct threat to human lives. Carnivores incur energetic costs in the form of restricted activity and having to make spatial and temporal activity adjustments. Humans, on the other hand, face losses from livestock depredation and/or loss of lives. Depredation patterns of livestock by carnivores are associated with a variety of factors including habitat structure as well as movement patterns of carnivores in relation to anthropogenic and livestock activity. Hence, deducing movement patterns of the groups in conflict is an important step in understanding the dynamics of conflict patterns at fine scales. Supplemented by models to predict the probability of conflicts spatially which delineates conflict hotspots, site-specific mitigation measures could be devised. To understand such patterns of carnivore movement and relation to livestock depredation events, I conducted this study in a human-dominated region adjacent to the Critical Tiger Habitat of Panna Tiger Reserve in central India from December 2020 to April 2021, within an area of 200 km2. The broad objective was to model the conflict probability based on the proportion of the human-dominated area used by tigers, its intensity of use and spatio-temporal activity within the area, in response to human disturbances. For this, I used intensive camera trap sampling at fine-scale within grids (1 km x 1 km) across the entire study area. Movement parameters of tigers such as displacement and distance to villages in day and night were also analysed by monitoring two GPS-collared tigers in the study area. Occupancy estimates showed 74% of the sampled area being used by tigers, with the relative abundance of a large bodied wild prey (sambar) as the strongest predictor. In addition, a clear positive trend in the relative abundance index of tigers with distance to villages was observed. The temporal activities of the tigers also showed a significant difference in median activity time, shifting towards the night along with moderate diurnal activity at higher distances from villages. The tigers exhibited both crepuscular and nocturnal activity at close distances to villages. The movement range analyses of the tigers using camera traps showed the study area being used by 17 tigers, with 9 of them being adults (>3 years of age). Fixed Kernel Density home-range estimates of the two GPS-collared tigers showed a considerable proportion of their home range areas falling within village boundaries (10%) and an average of 16% of all GPS locations of the tigers fell within 0-100 metres from villages. Despite such high exploratory use of areas within and close distances to villages by sub-adults, there were relatively low incidences of conflict between the tigers and villagers in the study area. Finally, to assess the extent of risk and predict the probability of livestock depredation in the area, Generalized Linear Models were used. The best-fit model indicated a significant negative effect of distance to villages and highway to the probability of livestock depredation. Linear intrusions through highway and forest trails from villages allow easy access to livestock and herders for the utilization of the multi-use buffer areas of the Reserve as well as the tigers to come in proximity to settlements. Corralling of livestock in the night, avoiding free-ranging and grazing of livestock in the identified conflict hotspots, incentivization of alternate source of livelihood by strengthening the institutions such as Eco-Development Committees, along with continuous monitoring of tigers which range close to human settlements are discussed as some of the important measures which can be adopted to decrease the interfaces leading to tiger-human conflict in Panna Tiger Reserve.