Technical Reports
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Item Ecology of Asiatic lions in Saurashtra, Gujarat - Final Project report (2011-2016)(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2016) Jhala, Y.V.; Banerjee, K.; Basu, P.; Chakrabarti, S.; Gayen, S.; Gogoi, K.; Basu, A.Asiatic lion (Panthera leo persica) is a conservation icon and elucidates a success story of conservation in modern India. With single isolated population and a small founder base, it typifies all the challenges of global carnivore conservation. Lions ranged from Persia to Palamau in eastern India till early 18th century, but were almost driven to extinction by indiscriminate hunting and habitat loss by late 1880‟s. A single relict population of less than 50 lions persisted in the Gir forests of Gujarat by 1890's. With stringent protection offered by the Nawabs of Junagadh and subsequently by the State run Gujarat Forest department, Gir lions have increased to a current population of over 500 accompanied by a subsequent range expansion. Lions were restricted to the Gir forests (1,800 km2) till the early 1980's, but have since dispersed to occupy over 20,000 km2 of human dominated agro-pastoral landscape of Saurashtra. Currently lions occupy the Gir Protected Area (PA), 180 km2 Girnar forests and over 15,000 km2 of coastal scrublands and agro-pastoral landscapes of Junagadh, Amreli, Gir Somnath and Bhavnagar districts. An in-depth understanding is required on how lions live within and outside the Protected Area. The magnitude and dimensions of conflict with human interests, and gene flow between different widely spaced breeding units in light of current and future development within the Greater Gir landscape. The current study investigates lion ecology with emphasis on space use, resource selection and aspects of human-lion conflicts to assist formulating a viable future lion conservation strategy for the landscape. On submission of first phase‟s findings to the Gujarat Forest Department (GFD) and WII-TRAC through technical reports, an extension for the second phase of this project was procured in 2011 with the aim of assisting the managers to formulate landscape level lion conservation policies based on informed research and robust scientific approaches. During the tenure of this project, WII was mandated by the CWLW, Gujarat state to take up three additional research components – 1) assessment of potential habitat corridor landscape between Gir and Girnar and 2) estimation of leopard (Panthera pardus) abundance in Girnar and 3) ecological and social potential of Barda for reintroduction of Asiatic lions. All these components were successfully addressed and findings were communicated to the GFD as individual reports as well as summarized herein.Item Ecology of lion in agro-pastoral Gir landscape, Gujarat - Final project report(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2014) Jhala, Y.V.; Banerjee, K.; Basu, P.Asiatic lion (Panthera leo persica) is a conservation icon and elucidates India’s conservation commitments. However, with single isolated population with small founder base, it typifies all the formidable challenges of global carnivore conservation. Once ranged from Persia to Palamau in eastern India, lions were almost driven to extinction by indiscriminate hunting and habitat loss. A single relict population of less than 50 lions persisted in the Gir forests of Gujarat by 1890's. With stringent protection offered by the Nawabs of Junagadh and subsequently by the State run Gujarat Forest department, Gir lions have increased to a current population of over 400. This also accompanied with an increase in the extent of the species. Lions were restricted to the Gir forests (1,800 km2) till the early 1980's, but have since dispersed to occupy over 10,000 km2 of human dominated agro-pastoral landscape of Saurashtra. Currently lions occupy human-dominated Saurashtra landscape encompassing the Gir Protected Area (PA), 180 km2 Girnar forests and over 8,000 km2 of coastal scrublands and agro-pastoral landscapes of Junagadh, Amreli and Bhavnagar districts. However, the lion population is believed to be inbred and susceptible to extinction events. Moreover, with lions living in close proximity with humans, conflicts are inevitable. Long-term persistence of Gir lions is therefore possible by maintaining a metapopulation structure wherein individual lions from different breeding populations can potentially disperse among these populations. Traditional land-use pattern in Saurashtra is fast changing under urban sprawl and intensive agro-industrial infrastructural developments. Understanding these for planning conservation strategies based on lion ecology and implementing them will ensure lions’ future survival in the Gir landscape. The current study investigates lion ecology with emphasis on space use, resource selection and aspects of human-lion conflicts to assist formulating a viable lion conservation strategy for future. Wildlife Institute of India’s (WII) current project in the Gir landscape has been amongst the few projects within India that has been able to sustain long-term research. On submission of first phase’s findings to the Gujarat Forest Department (GFD) and WII-TRAC through technical reports, an extension for the second phase of this project aiming at studying coastal lion populations was procured in 2011. However, owing to WII’s research involvement in Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary, Madhya Pradesh and input in ongoing lion reintroduction legal battle in the Supreme Court, radio-collaring lions were not permitted by GFD after 2011. Therefore, some of the research objectives of the second phase of this project could not be achieved as proposed. However, we continued studying lion ranging and resource selection in the human-dominated Gir landscape based on radio-collared lions before 2011; achieved quantifying landscape architecture in and around Gir PA, assessed lion diet (prey abundance and preference) and evaluated aspects of lion-human conflicts during the tenure of this research project. With lions’ dispersal from the Gir PA in a highly fragmented landscape, we expected to find a gradation in sex and age composition of lions from the ‘source’ Gir PA to peripheral populations (‘sink’). In sink populations the sex ratio and age composition would be skewed with a bias towards males, young dispersal aged lions, and old-ousted lions. We hypothesized that if the lions outside of Gir PA exist in a metapopulation structure, it is likely that subadult dispersal aged lions bide their time in this high risk sink habitats and those that survive return to the Gir PA to claim prime territories. Alternatively dispersing lions from the Gir PA may permanently settle down in “suitable” habitats outside the PA and form breeding populations that occasionally exchange individuals with the Gir PA. It is therefore evident that conservation of ‘source’ (Gir PA) alone may not be a sufficient strategy to ensure long term survival of lions; rather it is enhanced by maintaining connectivity among different metapopulations so as to permit lion movement across human-dominated areas. Landscape architecture and variation of vegetation cover of Gir Protected Area and its surroundings: We used ordination technique (TWINSPAN) and supervised and unsupervised classifications of vegetation plot data (n = 900) using cloud free LANDSAT TM satellite imageries (Bands 1-5 and 7 for the years 1998, 2002 and 2009) to identify vegetation communities within Gir PA. We quantified the rate of change in land use and vegetation patterns within Gir PA between 1998 and 2009 and based on the probability matrix obtained, we simulated land cover map for the Gir PA of 2020 (Figure E.2) with the cellular automata markov analysis tool (CA-MARKOV). Ten vegetation communities were identified in the Gir PA (Figure E.1) i.e. Ziziphus mauritiana-Tectona grandis community, pure Tectona grandis community, mixed teak communities like Wrightia tinctoria-Tectona grandis community and Tectona grandis- Wrightia tinctoria community, Terminalia alata-Tectona grandis-Lannea coromandelica- Acacia catechu community, Boswellia serrata-Acacia catechu community, Acacia catechu- Ziziphus mauritiana community, Anogeissus latifolia-Boswellia serrata community, Terminalia alata-Acacia leucophloea-Anogeissus latifolia-Butea monosperma community, Acacia nilotica-Butea monosperma-Ziziphus mauritiana community. Quality and quantity of different forest types varied substantially during the time period from 1998 to 2009. The trend in land use land cover changes showed thickening of teak dominated forest types inside the Gir PA till 2002 and it might be due to a response to the canopy opening and uprooting of trees after 1984 cyclone following succession of the respective vegetation communities. Our study has demonstrated that although areas under agriculture have increased in 2009 resulting into fragmentation and patchiness of the area, the Gir PA is nevertheless effective in preserving lion's habitats against the alarming rate of forest land transformation into human conducive land use classes outside the PA boundaries. Lion demography: An objective scientifically credible population estimation of lions using individual ID based on mark recapture framework was developed and implemented in the Gir landscape. Demographic parameters of Gir lions were deduced by intensively monitoring 75 adult lions and 91 cubs from 38 litters of 31 females sing telemetry and individual lion ID profiles. Record of opportunistic mortality events (n = 88) was used to understand the mortality causes. A population viability analysis (PVA) model was run for Girnar lions to understand the impact of various stochastic events (epidemics, loss of habitat, poaching) on their long-term persistence. Capture probability of Girnar lions was 0.31 and the population estimate under Mo was 10 (SE 1.2) lions. Average capture probability of lions in the eastern landscape was 0.65 and the population estimate under Mth was 67 (SE 1.1) lions. Adult lion densities were estimated to be 5.6 (SE 0.7) lions/100 km2 in Girnar and 2 (SE 0.1) lions/100 km2 in the eastern landscape. Gir lions increased from about 177 in 1968 to about 411 by 2010 with an r = 0.022 (SE 0.001) translated into an annual population growth of 2.2%. A large proportion of the lion population was in recruitment classes indicative of a healthy growing population. Larger proportion of adult males (43%) than adult females (26%) in the eastern landscape was probably because of male biased dispersals from the ‘source’ Gir PA into the ‘sink’ eastern landscape and lower availability of suitable habitat patches for breeding lionesses in the human-dominated landscape. Male: female ratio was 0.63 (SE 0.04) while cub: adult lioness ratio was 0.37 (SE 0.02). Mating peaked in winter while birth peaked in late summer. Average litter size was 2.39 (SE 0.12). Inter-birth interval was 1.37 (SE 0.25) years (n = 7 lionesses) and was higher [2.25 (SE 0.41) years] when cubs of the previous litter survived to independence. Cub (< 1 year) survival was 0.57 (SE 0.04) while survival from cub to recruitment age (3 years) was 51% (SE 4%) with mortalities due to infanticides being 30% (SE 7 %). Juvenile (1-2 years) and sub-adult (2-3 years) survival rates were 0.87 (SE 0.04)Item Site inspection report on the ecological impacts of Jamrani Multipurpose Project of Uttarakhand Irrigation Department, Nainital district, Uttarakhand(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2023) Gopi, G.V.; Arya, S.K.; Yadav, A.; Zangmo, S.; Saini, S.; Laha, D.R.; Banerjee, K.The WII team visited the field site and collected primary field data, had meetings with the stakeholders and collated the necessary secondary information pertaining to this project. The proposed project falls within the Dudwa-Lagga Tiger Corridor, which is an important corridor for tigers in the Terai Arc Landscape. As this report is to facilitate and guide informed decision making by the NTCA, we present two decision making scenarios with differing objectives: (i) Keeping the Dudwa-Lagga Tiger Corridor intact and conserving this as utmost importance or (ii) Balancing the interests of both development and conservation values. Should the objective (i) be chosen, then the proposal has to be rejected, and if the objective (ii) is chosen then stringent compliance conditions has to be stipulated and an independent multidisciplinary committee comprising of members from NTCA, WII, FRI/ICFRE, State FD may be constituted to oversee the implementation of mitigation measures on a half yearly basis and submit their report to NTCA for strict compliance by the project proponent. This will facilitate a regular, transparent and stringent monitoring of compliance by the project proponent.