Search

Background: Human-wildlife conflict (HWC) is a serious management problem in India where humans and wildlife share space and resources. This problem is particularly acute in the Himalayan Mountain region. As the lives and livelihoods of local residents are inextricably linked to wildlife, it is important to know the extent of damage caused by HWC to local people. Methods: In this work, the pattern of HWC was assessed in the Chowkibal-Tangdhar sector of Kupwara district, Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, based on self-reported losses of livestock to large carnivores by local people (N = 217). Results: The carnivores that were perceived by local stakeholders to be responsible for livestock depredation were identified as the Asiatic black bear, Himalayan brown bear and Common leopard. It was found that the leopards reportedly killed livestock throughout the year at the relatively low altitude zones, but black bears and brown bears reportedly killed livestock in the monsoon months at the relatively higher altitude zones. It was also reported that the leopards prefer to kill small to medium-sized livestock, but the bears had no such preferences. Conclusion: This work recommends that the Forest and Wildlife Department or community-based livestock insurance schemes should practice quick and efficient compensation systems, improve night livestock shelters, and community-based supervised livestock grazing practices to reduce livestock losses due to wild carnivores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is becoming more widely recognised that free-ranging dogs, which have a nearly global distribution, threatening native wildlife. Their increasing population and spread to new areas is of growing concern for the long-term viability of wildlife species. Hence, it is imperative to understand the factors responsible for their infestation and map areas where native species are most vulnerable. Using the random forests algorithm, we modelled the free-ranging dog infestation in the Trans-Himalayan region to pinpoint the high-risk areas where free-ranging dogs are threatening the native wildlife species. We found that the likelihood of free-ranging dog occurrence is most in valley regions and up to 4000 m, often in proximity to roads. Our results also indicated that free-ranging dog prefers areas with wildlife near to protected areas. The predictor variables, such as potential evapotranspiration of the coldest quarter, distance to protected areas, elevation, distance to roads, and potential evapotranspiration of the driest quarter, significantly influence the distribution of the free-ranging dogs. We found that within the Ladakh region of the Trans-Himalayan area, the high-risk zones for free-ranging dogs are located in and around Hemis National Park, Karakoram Wildlife Sanctuary, and Changthang Wildlife Sanctuary. While, in the Lahaul and Spiti region the high-risk areas encompass Pin Valley National Park, Inderkilla National Park, Khirganga National Park, Kugti Wildlife Sanctuary, and several other protected areas. We identified the potentially high-risk areas for implementing strategies to mitigate the possible impact of free-ranging dogs on native wildlife of the Himalayas. Hence, the identified high priority areas can be used for implementing actions for controlling the population growth and further preventing the infestation of the free-ranging dogs into the new areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A modern approach to understanding biodiversity variation is to deconstruct beta diversity patterns into the local contribution to beta diversity (LCBD–uniqueness in species composition of a site) and species contribution to beta diversity (SCBD–influence of a species in the beta diversity within the region) which is a good approach to improving knowledge of the beta diversity. We carried out this work to understand the pattern and relationship of LCBD, SCBD and the rarity of the spider community in the riparian habitat of the Ganga River. We calculated the correlation between LCBD and species richness of both all the species and rare species. We used the first order and second order terms to find the relationship between SCBD and the number of sites occupied by species and to find the relationship between SCBD and the index of rarity for all the species and three ecological guilds of spiders. We found that the LCBD of the spider community had a significant relationship with total species richness but not with rare species richness. Spider species with intermediate occurrence across the study sites contributed more to SCBD values than species with high and low occurrence. We found that the index of rarity of spider species had a significant relationship with SCBD values. The non-parametric permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) tests revealed no significant differences in the distribution of different ecological guilds of spiders between the study sites. The integrated LCBD and SCBD approach can be used to carry out effective conservation and restoration programmes that preserve the structural, functional, and ecological diversity of spiders, as well as other biological communities in riparian ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]