Theses and Dissertations

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    Patterns of Avian Diversity in different land-use and forest patch size of Kumaon Himalayas, Uttarakhand
    (Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2021) Arya, Sumit Kumar; Gopi, G.V.
    The present study was conducted in the Pithoragarh districts of the Kumaon Himalayas in Uttarakhand. The point count method was performed in matrices of agriculture land and forests of the lower Pithoragarh district to assess bird diversity patterns in different land use, habitat types, and disturbance regimes. A multiscale landscape heterogeneity approach was performed for determining the impact of forest patch size and vegetation structure on bird diversity. For assessment of the seasonal changes in the bird diversity pattern, a village ecosystem was monitored in the landscape.
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    A geospatial framework to assess ecological connectivity & their persistence for Central India Landscape.
    (Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2019) Saini, Swati; Qureshi, Qamar
    The study explored the occupancy probability for carnivores in 100 sq km grids and at 25 sq.km for herbivore to surrogate, their habitat suitability. These models were further used to model corridors between protected areas using Circuit theory least cost pathway analysis and estimated the changes in land use land cover in and around the identified corridors using the time series and change detection technique. The region of central India comprising five states viz. Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Jharkhand has been taken up as study area. . The research work was carried out with three objectives: 1. Mapping Ecological connectivity between source populations of representative species of central Indian Landscape. 2. Assessment of spatio-temporal land use /land cover changes using time series & predictive change modelling in and around corridor habitats of the central Indian Landscape. 3. To evaluate the macro drivers of change across major linkages and attempt to model their persistence.
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    Land use, forest fragmentation and river dynamics in Dudhwa landscape and their conservation implications
    (Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2008) Midha, Neha; Mathur, P.K.
    The present study aimed to assess land use, forest fragmentation and river dynamics in Dudhwa landscape and their effect on diversity, vegetation, and species of concern i.e. swamp deer ( ). Specific objectives addressed description of viii landscape spatial patterns, and evaluation of efficacy of high resolution satellite data in the development of spatial database; quantification of forest fragmentation, and assessment of structure and composition of forest vegetation; and understanding channel planform, changes in Sharda River, construction of Locational Probability Model of a stretch of Sharda River, and implications for conservation of endangered swamp deer and its prime habitat i.e. Jhadi in Kisanpur Wildlife Sanctuary. The study focused on the Dudhwa landscape which represents the part of The Sal ( ecosystem in the foothills of the Himalaya. In view of the multi-facet study objectives and vast area, it was imperative to adopt a holistic approach so as to have an insight on land use, forest fragmentation, and vegetation in the constituent areas of the landscape, and also on the river dynamics, a major disturbance factor influencing the floodplain and swamp deer. The field studies were carried out during 2005 and 2006. A combination of well tested field assessment methods and modern techniques Remote Sensing and GIS were employed in the present study.
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    Geospatial modelling of ungulate-habitat relationship in Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve
    (2008) Paliwal, Ambika; Mathur, V.B.
    The present study is an amalgamation of ecological theory, scientific technology and modern statistical modeling. It provides a sound basis for effective management of Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve TATR including preparation of science based management plans. the study aims to map landuse/landcover patterns and to assess spatial structure and configuration of landscape; structure and composition of vegetation types in landscape; spatial and ecological distribution of ungulate species in response to seasons and management status and habitat suitability and site occupancy using spatially explicit ungulate-habitat model. The study was carried out in Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR). It lies in civil district of Chandrapur, eastern edge of Maharashtra. Field work was carried out between February 2005 and January 2007.
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    Development of spatial database in Geographical Information System Domain for Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve and assessment of land use/land cover changes.
    (Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2008) Lal, Panna; Mathur, V.B.; Qureshi, Qamar
    The study on “Development of spatial database in Geographical Information System Domain for Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve and Assessment of Landuse/Landcover Changes” was carried out between 2001 and 2006. The major objectives of the study were (a) Mapping of major vegetation communities using remotely sensed data, (b) Assessment of changes in landuse/landcover using time series analyses with a focus on areas from which villages have been relocated as part of the ecodevelopment initiative (c) Development of a resource database on ecological and management attributes for management of Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve. The study has covered the physical, floral and faunal aspects of Tiger Reserve.
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    Patterns of Bird Community Structure in Relation to Land-Use Driven Habitat Changes in the Arid Grasslands of Thar Desert
    (Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2019) Kher, Varun; Dutta, Sutirtha; Uniyal, V.P.; Page, Navendu V.
    The Indian Thar desert has seen a massive loss of grassland habitat in the last few decades. The main driver of this habitat loss has been the large-scale change in landuse from pastoralism to agriculture, leading to expansion of cultivated land over grasslands. This expansion, further compounded by a simultaneous rise in livestock population has drastically increased grazing pressure on the remaining rangelands. To complicate things further, irrigation schemes (notably the Indira Gandhi Canal) have led to intensification of agriculture in many areas. Protected area network in this landscape is minimal and ineffective, making the multiple-use agro-pastoral landscapes very important for conservation of wildlife. The largest protected area in the landscape – the “DNP WLS” – is also a multiple-use landscape and home to more than 50k people whose livelihood is tied to the federal mandate of conservation in the sanctuary. 1. Understanding the impact of land use change on native biodiversity is thus very important for conservation of biodiversity in this critical habitat. In this context, my study tries to find effects of land-use change on community structure of birds in the arid grassland of Jaisalmer district in the Thar Desert. 2. Understanding ecology or distribution and abundance of species is incomplete without holistically understanding the patterns and processes occurring at the community level. To this end, I explored the patterns of bird community structure in the Thar Desert and tried to understand how these properties change with land-use driven habitat change, by comparing fundamental properties of biological communities like species richness, abundance and composition. Additionally, I tried to find out potential habitat correlates of these properties, so as to shed some light on the processes that might be driving community assembly in response to land-use change. 3. Bird community structure: My results indicate that local-scale species richness,abundance and composition did not differ significantly between protected grasslands, rangelands and extensive rain-fed croplands, during either of the seasons. However, intensive irrigated croplands had a notably different community structure with higher species richness and abundance, during both winter and summer. The change is community structure of intensive croplands was influenced by the change in native species along with ingression of newly colonised species. Most of the newly colonised species were restricted to areas with intensive agriculture where their survival was potentially facilitated by the new microhabitats created by irrigation and associated changes (Rahmani & Soni, 1997). 4. Regional species pool: Intensive agriculture increased the overall species of birds in the region by sustaining newly colonised bird species; while the number of native species in this pool was only marginally lower than protected grasslands and comparable to all the other land-uses in both the seasons. Considering both the seasons together, protected grasslands had the highest naïve and estimated number of native species while the naïve and estimated number of native species in other three land-uses – Rangelands, extensive croplands and intensive croplands – was only marginally lower. This signifies that most species found in the region can use the entire gradient of land-use types at their current levels of intensification. Although this result by itself does not indicate that, all land-use types can sustain all the native species. 5. Seasonality of patterns: In winter, protected grasslands, rangelands and extensive croplands had similar bird communities, which together were significantly different from the communities in intensive croplands. The same pattern repeated in summer, but the magnitude of difference between bird communities in intensive agriculture and other land-uses was much lower. This pattern was correlated to the pattern shown by vegetation structure of intensive agriculture, which also became more similar to other land-uses after harvesting of crops in the summer. This potentially suggests that bird communities are influenced by vegetation structure and areas with similar vegetation structure would have similar bird communities. 6. Habitat correlates of species richness and bird community composition: In both the seasons, species richness was positively associated with the foliar volume of woody vegetation and negatively associated with forb volume (which in turn was negatively correlated with grass volume). During winter, species richness was positively related to crop volume and during summer, with compositional diversity of vegetation. Community composition like richness was influenced significantly by woody plant foliar biomass in both the seasons. Crop volume also had a significant influence on bird communities during both winter and summer, whereas grass volume was significantly influential only in winters. Conservation implications: This study corroborates many others in indicating that low-impact land-uses are important secondary habitats for conservation of grassland species (Dutta & Jhala, 2014; Wright, Lake, & Dolman, 2012). The inferences further support the commonly advocated approach of conserving grasslands at a landscape scale by strategically placing them as mosaics of low-impact agro pastoral land-use with small protected areas embedded within them (Dutta & Jhala, 2014; Dutta, Rahmani, & Jhala, 2011; Singh et al., 2006).