Theses and Dissertations

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    Assessing the Impact of Traditional Practice of Frog Consumption Amphibian Population from Mizoram India Culture -Nat
    (Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2021) Malsawmdawngliana; Das, Abhijit; Kawlni, Lallianpuii; Lalronunga, Samuel
    Cultural practices have shaped the natural resources around the area in all parts of the world. The traditional practices involving wildlife and their meat as food resources is widely practised by many tribes of the world. Such practice also involves amphibian exploitation as food, one of the critical reasons for the decline in the global amphibian population. Such practice is widespread in the Northeast part of India, including Mizoram. However, the population-level impact of such traditional practice is poorly known. The study was carried out in the buffer and core zone of Dampa Tiger Reserve (DTR) to assess the abundance and species richness. We surveyed four villages around DTR to see how the pattern of frog consumption by the local communities. The study tried to understand how the species diversity and abundance is affected by the off-take of frogs for food in the study area. Time constrained nocturnal Visual Encounter Survey method was used to see the species composition and abundances in the study area. Random sampling using questionnaires and interactions were used to see the frogs’ consumption pattern, medicinal use and preferred species for food of the local communities in the study area.
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    Responses of Wild Ungulates to Anthropogenic Pressure and Perception of Local Communities Towards Conservation of Wild Ungulates in Dampa Tiger Reserve, Mizoram India
    (Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2021) Chakama, Joonu; Sathyakumar, S.; Kawlni, Lallaianpuii; Kolipakam, Vishnupriya
    With the increasing anthropogenic pressures, conservation of ungulates is ever more crucial as they help in maintaining the forest structure. The impact of anthropogenic pressures such as hunting of wild ungulates by local communities in Mizoram, India, is limited and lacks reliable information. This study was conducted in Dampa Tiger Reserve (DTR), Mamit district, Mizoram from January-Mid May, 2021 to quantify the responses of wild ungulates to the anthropogenic pressures, as a measure of conservation efforts. This study focussed on the population and distribution of ungulates in Dampa Tiger Reserve (DTR), Mizoram and assessed how the ungulates responded to human use areas. Stratified systematic sampling was done in an intensive study area (40 km2) to assess the ungulate density, distribution and activity pattern. In addition to that, the perception and attitude of local communities towards wild ungulates were also assessed. Estimates of the distribution, population and activity pattern of ungulates were obtained using single season occupancy model and cameratrap based distance sampling method whereas the local people perception and attitude were analysed based on answers from the semi-structured interview. The study was carried out on the Teirei and Phuldungsei range of the DTR. A total of 40 grids (1 km2 each) were sampled following the above framework. The grids were sampled using Camera-based distance sampling for population estimation in which the cameras were placed at the centroid of the grid. The density of the ungulates in two areas (high and low human use) could not be compared as the anthropogenic disturbance was homogenous throughout the study area. However, the pooled density of wild pig (0.55±0.23) was the highest among the other species, followed by barking deer (0.28±0.06) and sambar (0.20±0.09). The activities of the ungulates were at the peak from the crepuscular period to early morning and late evening. Occupancy pattern showed that barking deer distribution was influenced by the food availability/ground cover including areas near human habitations whereas sambar occurrence was negatively influenced by non-forest and presence of anthropogenic disturbance. Perception survey revealed that villagers showed positive perception towards ungulate conservation, however, in contrast to these responses, conservation practices in DTR by the local communities still lacks as intensive hunting still prevails. This study highlights the impact of anthropogenic pressure towards ungulates and how strengthen management interventions is necessary to ensure the conservation of ungulates in DTR.
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    Effect of Habitat Alteration On Herpetofaunal Assemblages on Evergreen Forest in Mizoram, North-East India
    (Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 1999) Choudhury, B.C.; Panwar, Samraat; Rawat, G.S.
    The response of frogs and Lizards to habitat alteration was studied in South Mizoram. Chronoseres were selected such that two successional gradient were represented- jhum fallows regenerating to mature forest. and jhum allows converted to teak plantations. Herpetofauna were sampled by three techniques- strip transects, pitfall trapping. and systematic searching. Species richness of herpetofauna increased along the jhum-mature forest gradient. However. teak plantation had a depauperate herpetofauna. similar in composition to the 1- year jhul1l fallows. All frogs and lizards were c1assilied into 6 guilds on the basis of their activity period (diurnal or nocturnal) along with whether they were terrestrial , arboreoterrestrial or arboreal. Analysis of the strip-transect data showed that there were distinct differences in the distribution and abundance patterns of diurnal and nocturnal species. To examine patterns, multidimensional scaling (MDS) was used for indirect gradient analysis in two ways- firstly to summarize differences between sites and secondly, to explore possible associations between herpetofaunal guilds and habitat parameters across categories. The MDS differentiated two different groups of habitat variables. One group makes up the gross structural components of the habitats. while the other represents microhabitat parameters. All guilds were more strongly associated with trends in microhabitat distribution. than macrohabitat-parameters. while species richness showed diffuse associations with habitat parameters. The assemblages in the I to 10 yr. jhum fallows and teak plantations were dominated by a set of terrestrial and arboreo-terrestrial lizard species. Most of those species are distributed widely. either in the Indian subcontinent. or further east and south. into South-east Asia. On the other hand. a number of frogs and some lizards were restricted to mature forest. Most of these species are restricted either to North-east India. or to the study area itself. and some are apparently hitherto undescribed species. The fact that so many narrowly distributed species were found in mature forest has obvious conservation implications. Overall. the results suggest that in a mosaic of habitats resulting from jhum-cultivation. even remnants of primary forest may be of immense importance for persistence and recolonization by mature forest herpetofauna. Teak plantations offer a very marginal habitat for a large set of herpetofauna. even after a long period of growth.
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    Shifting Cultivation and Conservation of Tropical Forest Bird Communities in Mizoram, North-East India
    (Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 1995) Raman, T.R. Shankar; Johnsingh, A.J.T.
    The impact of the traditional practice of shifting cultivation or jhum on evergreen and semievergreen forest bird communities was studied in Dampa Tiger Reserve in western Mizoram, north-east India. Bird community changes through vegetation succession was studied by comparing sites that were jhum 1,5, 10,25, and 100 years ago with primary forest that has never been cleared. Systematic line transect sampling showed that bird species richness, abundance, and diversity, increased from very low levels in the I-year old fallow to maximum levels in undisturbed and 100-year old forest, with intermediate values in the 5-25 year fallows (bamboo forests). The trend of increase was not linear but hyperbolic, with a rapid increase up to 25 years approaching an asymptote at 100 years . Similarity in bird community composition between two sites was inversely related to the difference in the logarithm of their ages. Trends in bird communities were closely related to changes during vegetation succession. Vegetation variables measured were summarised by Principal Components Analysis, which yielded two components (PCI and PC2), accounting for 91.9% percent of the variance in the data-set. PCI was correlated positively with tree density, woody plant species richness, vertical stratification, depth of leaf litter, and canopy cover, and negatively with horizontal heterogeneity in the vegetation. PC 1 thus represents the changes occurring during woody plant succession. PC2 was correlated strongly with bamboo density, which shows an increase from 1 to at least 25 years after jhuming and declines in mature forest, and this axis was taken to represent bamboo succession . Bird species richness and abundance were positively correlated with PCI (woody plant succession). When the effects of PC I were removed by partial correlation, both variables were negatively correlated with PC2. The number of species in guilds such as frugivores, nectarivore insectivores, bark-feeder, canopy insectivores were positively related to PC 1. Only the bamboo-substrate feeding guild was related to PC2. These results suggest that bird community structure is largely determined by ,woody plant succession. Mature forests were found to be the main habitat for forest specialists, rare birds, and altitudinal migrants. Thirteen specialised open-country birds and two species of latitudinal migrants occurred mainly in jhumed areas. These were generally common and widespread species that will likely persist in highly disturbed areas. In terms of conservation of the forest birds of the region, mature forests are most important. The major implication of the study relates to the observed hyperbolic changes in bird species richness, and vegetation variables such as woody plant species richness. This suggests species loss in jhumed areas will be a logarithmic and not linear function of the age, i.e. a decline in jhum cycle from 100 to 50 years Ca 2-fold difference) will have less impact than a decline from 25 to 5 years Ca 5-fold difference). This implies that under the 5-10 year jhum cycles that are prevalent in most parts of north-east India today, there will be substantial losses in bird species richness. This effect may be accentuated if primary forests are not part of the jhum habitat matrix.