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Item Cumulative impact study of a 10 km radius landscape area around Ranthambhore tiger reserve towards identifying critical zones for wildlife and ensuring environment-friendly mining practices(Wildlife Institute of India, 2023) Jha, R.R.S.,; Zangmo, S.; Das, P.; Gopi, G.V.The Standing Committee of the National Board for Wild Life (SC-NBWL) had been receiving several mining proposals for consideration from around Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve (RTR), and often in a piecemeal manner. This had made it difficult for SC-NBWL to assess these projects’ overall impacts on wildlife and forest connectivity in RTR’s surrounding landscape. On the receipt of two mining proposals, a decision was taken in the SC-NBWL’s 70th meeting held in October 2022 to defer all mining proposals around RTR until a ‘Cumulative Impact Study Report’ was prepared by the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun (WII) towards protecting wildlife habitats and corridors in RTR’s vicinity. Accordingly, an area of c. 3,798 sq.km within Rajasthan in a 10 km-radius width around RTR was delineated as the “Cumulative Impact Study Area” (or CISA) encompassing parts of the administrative districts of Karauli, Sawai Madhopur, Tonk, Bundi and Kota. The CISA also encompasses parts of RTR Division-I, RTR Division-II, Ramgarh-Vishdhari Tiger Reserve (RVTR), National Chambal Sanctuary Project, and Social Forestry/ Territorial Divisions of Karauli, Sawai Madhopur, Tonk, Bundi and Kota. RTR (core & buffer) itself though is not part of the CISA as the assignment concerns areas in its vicinity. The CISA is described in terms of its forests, wildlife (including surrounding Protected Areas and connectivity between them), land use/ land cover, geology, geomorphology, climate etc. Impacts of mining activities on ecosystems, biodiversity and the environment, in general, are also described. Utilising available data from ongoing or completed research projects within WII and other data as available from published literature and government repositories, an area of c. 2136 sq.km within the CISA (56.26%) has been determined as “critical zone” for wildlife, especially concerning their persistence in the larger Ranthambhore landscape. These are areas with the occupancy and/ or (modelled) potentially suitable habitat of globally threatened and/ or locally rare Schedule-I mammalian species, as per the amended (until 2022) Wild Life Protection Act, 1972, such as tiger Panthera tigris (EN), leopard Panthera pardus (VU), caracal Caracal caracal (LC, but India’s most threatened wild cat species), Indian grey wolf Canis lupus pallipes (LC, but genetically distinct subspecies and locally rare), dhole (or Asiatic wild dog) Cuon alpinus (EN), Indian pangolin Manis crassicaudata (EN) and sloth bear Melursus ursinus (VU), including their identified movement corridors. The delineated critical zone also includes areas within PAs around RTR and areas satisfying the current legal definition of an Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ), within which all commercial mining is prohibited, as per the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change’s (MoEF&CC) February 2011 guidelines on the matter. Within the CISA, a “non-critical zone” from the perspective of inhabiting wildlife of c. 1,661 sq.km (43.74%) is identified where mining activities may be appropriately appraised, subject to site-specific critical and cumulative impact assessments of the received proposals. If received/ pending proposals are positively appraised, the lessees/ user agencies must strictly adhere to all relevant extant laws, rules and guidelines issued by the Union and State governments from time to time, along with following all relevant orders passed by Hon’ble higher courts of judicature and statutory clearance conditions issued by national and state-level authorities. Pillar locations’ coordinates (intermediate/ all corners) and other associated details of a total 145 mining leases within the CISA were informed through the concerned district offices of the Department of Mining and Geology (DMG), Govt. of Rajasthan. Of these, majority (100) mining leases are located within Karauli district, while there are none in the Tonk district. It is, however, unclear if the data provided through DMG offices is comprehensive or complete. The statuses of these leases – whether operational/ lease expired/ applied for renewal etc. – is also either unclear or not known. Given these facts, we found that a total of sixty (60) mining leases – twenty-seven (27), six (06), three (03) and twenty-four (24) in Karauli, Sawai Madhopur, Bundi and Kota districts, respectively – are located within the “critical zone” for wildlife delineated in this assessment. Of these 60 leases, thirteen (13) are located either partly or wholly within the legally valid ESZs (as on date of submission of this report) where commercial mining and associated industries is listed as a prohibited activity, while as many as twenty-two (22) mining leases are located within identified wildlife corridors (all in the Ranthambhore-Ramgarh Vishdhari Mukundara corridor). Three (03) mining leases – two in Bundi district (ML nos. 389/1998, 333/2002) and one in Kota district (23/2003) – are, in fact, located within both ESZs and wildlife corridors. We observe an enormous scope to regulate and streamline mining activities around RTR towards a more sustainable framework accounting for the needs of both people/ industries and wildlife. While sufficient information on flora and fauna exists (and is being generated) within RTR, a general lack of scientific investigations coupled with insufficient monitoring of wildlife in RTR’s immediate vicinity limits this assessment exercise. This is especially concerning since RTR acts as a significant source population of threatened wildlife, including tiger, in the Central India-Eastern Ghats (CIEG) landscape, enabling their long-term persistence in and gradual range expansion into other parts of Rajasthan and the larger CIEG. Hence, we recommend carrying out comprehensive wildlife diversity, distribution, movements, species-habitat relationships, human-wildlife interactions and other such studies towards generating relevant information on these aspects in RTR’s vicinity. If several mining and/ or allied industries (such as mineral grinding/ processing plants) are proposed/ exist closely situated to each other, we also recommend conducting cumulative impact (of mining and allied industrial units) assessment studies funded through the State government ascertaining impacts of these activities on biodiversity, ecosystems, environment, and on the lives and livelihoods of human communities living nearby by reputed research institutions having such expertise, using modern research and analytical tools. Such studies may be commissioned immediately for the already existing cluster of proposals in the CISA where mining and/ or allied activities have been taking place since the past few decades (Karauli, Bundi and Kota clusters). The formation and effective functioning of a participatory monitoring mechanism is necessary to ensure that the short- and long-term requirements and concerns of the most important stakeholders – wild life and local human communities – are not overlooked. We also provide relevant shape and Keyhole Markup Language (KML) files along with full resolution images and maps generated from this project as a “Decision Support System” to the NBWL towards more informed proposal appraisals in the future. Informed decision making with respect to resource extractive projects backed with robust and regular on ground data/ monitoring of statutory and relevant laws, rules, guidelines, policies and compliance conditions will greatly facilitate the persistence of threatened species, and ensure the long-term survival and persistence of threatened wildlife in the biodiversity rich and crucial larger Ranthambhore landscape.Item Implementing artificial canopy bridges to connect fragmented population of Hoolock gibbon in Hollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary, Assam(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2023) Jha, R.R.S; Zangmo, S.; Gopi, G.V.Habitat loss and habitat fragmentation are two principal threats to most terrestrial biodiversity across ecosystems and geographies. Gibbons are a particularly vulnerable group of primates inhabiting the forests of South and Southeast Asia. Of the 20 gibbon species – all threatened, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature or IUCN – the endangered Western Hoolock gibbon Hoolock hoolock is the only one found in India inhabiting the forests in the southern bank of the Brahmaputra-Dibang river system. The Hollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary (HGS) is a small ~21 sq.km Protected Area (PA) in Jorhat, Assam and is one of the species’ stronghold supporting around 125 individuals living in more than two dozen family groups. It is also the only PA in India named after a primate species. Apart from the W. Hoolock gibbon, the Sanctuary also harbours six other primate species – capped langur Trachypithecus pileatus, stump-tailed macaque Macaca arctoides, northern pig-tailed macaque M. leonina, Assamese macaque M. assamensis, rhesus macaque M. mulatta, and Bengal slow loris Nycticebus bengalensis, thereby having the distinction of harbouring the highest primate species diversity for any Indian PA. However, a single track ~1.65 route-km long railway line (currently broad-gauge, but un-electrified as yet) has fragmented the Sanctuary since 1887 into two unequal parts. Over time, the Sanctuary has become a ‘forest island’ having lost connectivity with surrounding forest patches. Since gibbons are exclusively arboreal animals inhabiting the forest upper canopy, they are particularly sensitive to canopy gaps. Gibbon families on both sides of the railway track have, thus, been effectively isolated from each other, thereby compromising their population genetic variability and further endangering their already threatened survival in the HGS. Worldwide, and even in India, several conservation initiatives have attempted bridging such canopy gaps in forests through artificial canopy bridge (ACB) structures to facilitate arboreal species’ movements. The Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun was approached by the Divisional Forest Officer, Jorhat (Territorial) Division of the Assam State Forest Department (ASFD) to provide specific design inputs towards the installation of such canopy bridges at the HGS. In this context, this report provides design guidelines and considerations as well as specific location-wise details of seven (07) potential sites within HGS for such canopy bridges installation, following thorough literature survey, field data collection and interaction with stakeholders such as ASFD officials and field staff, railway officials and consultants, and local conservationists. We recognise and emphasise that the design, successful installation and post-installation monitoring of canopy bridges require the involvement of several individuals with professional expertise in fields such as forestry, ecology/primatology, engineering and mountaineering/climbing. Post-installation monitoring of the canopy bridge structures – both behavioural observations of animals around canopy gaps and installed structures as well as through arboreal camera traps to assess bridges’ use – is one of the most important aspect of this project. As is clear, the present un-electrified single-track ~1.65 route-km railway line passing through the HGS has caused distress and posed significant conservation issues to arboreal animals. Hence, a future doubling of the line (if planned) will increase the canopy gap to a large extent and render any conservation interventions (such as ACB installations) futile. Over the longer period of time, it will be best if the status quo is maintained, although electrification of the existing single track may be permitted subject to necessary statutory approvals with appropriate mitigation and compensation measures implemented after detailed investigation of its ecological impacts. Forest regeneration on both sides of the existing track through afforestation activities to gradually enable natural canopy connectivity, adherence of trains to speed limits when passing through HGS and its Eco-Sensitive Zone/wildlife corridors, ensuring landscape connectivity of the isolated ‘forest island’ HGS with neighbouring patches of forests, and rerouting of the existing railway line outside Sanctuary limits, and establishing and supporting low-impact home-stay based ecotourism facilities are some of the longer-term interventions necessary to ensure that W. Hoolock gibbons and other canopy-dwelling species persist and thrive within HGS and in the immediate larger landscape.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.