Linkages in Western Indian Landscape: The Ranthambhore-Kunno-Madhav landscape in the Aravalli and vindhya hill ranges of the Western Indian Fragmented landscape is a good number of vital tiger population units of the India. The landscape comprises One Project Tiger area and One Wildlife Sanctuary and One National Park (Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve-RTR (Raj), Kela devi Sanctuary (Raj.), Sawi Mansingh Sanctuary, Kunno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary (M.P), Madhav National Park (M.P) .) and is therefore vital for the long term conservation of the tiger. The most vital and the major part of the landscape is the portion that connects Ranthambhore to kela devi sanctuary and further from Kela devi to Kunno Sanctuary. The river banas putting Ranthambhore and kela devi separate from each other. And The Chambal river separates RTR, Keladevi from Kunno Wildlife Sanctuary. Ranthambhore is most important conservation area and becoming increasingly surrounded by high density human population, modified environments and cattle population that threaten the park and reducing it to small isolated habitat blocks of natural eco systems in the long term. Landscape is also a abode of Gharials –The National Chambal river gharial Sanctuary.
Habitat loss, isolation and Human –Wildlife Conflict:-
Increased illegal cattle grazing inside the Tiger Reserve is resulting in fodder less forests - that have tree cover, but virtually no fodder to support even small populations of the tiger’s prey. Further such direct and indirect conflicts between human and wildlife leads to increased crop raiding, cattle lifting incidents. And this will turn up in to retaliation killing of wildlife and Tigers.
The habitat loss and fragmentation has different consequences for different animals. While this has serious effects on some animals like woodland birds, and large herbivores and carnivores, it may not be so disastrous for some animals like Wild boar and Nilgai (et al ). While the loss of forest cover and depletion of prey base has obvious decimating effects on the tiger, the tiger has the proven ability to disperse through tenuous linkages for short distances maintaining vital genetic links between metapopulations. The present state of the link has the potential of supporting tiger metapopulations in several large small to large forested patches relatively free of biotic pressure connected by forested linkages. It is expected that if the availability of prey, water and Refuge cover in these forested patches and linkages is ensured, the RTR- Kunno-Madhav Landscape has potential for maintaining a viable, linked population of tigers.
The changes in the land use in the area, mainly through the building of Canals, rail lines, hotels and highways is biggest threat to linkages. In between RTR and Kunno water canal born from the the dam “ “is transecting both PA horizontally up to 80 km south to north.
Introduction of the PA’s-
Connectivity between PA’s or linkages between the PA’s federally falls in two states those are Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. However linkages majorly fall in North- western Madhya Pradesh in the banks of The Chambal River. And North-East of Rajasthan there spilling over population of Tigers are lives in Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve.
The Aravalli mountain system divides the state into two unequal parts with the arid and semi-arid tracts to the west of the Aravallis and the eastern plains of Banas and Chappan, the Hadoti and the Malwa Plateau, to the east. These diverse geological formations coupled with different climatic regimes have led to the diversity of flora and fauna, some of which are endemic to the region.
Biogeographically, Rajasthan falls under two Zones as per the Rodgers and Panwar Classification (1988): Biogeographic Zone
Zone 3 Indian Desert and Zone 4 Semi Arid Zone.
Biotic Province Zone 3-Indian Desert 3B Thar Desert Zone 4-Semi Arid 4A Punjab Plains 4B Gujarat Rajwara
Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve: Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve is located between 25º54’ -26º12’N , 76 º23’-76º35’ E in the South Eastern part of the Sawai Madhopur district of Rajasthan, largest state of India. The dense forest of Anogeissus Pendula Edgew. (Dhok), along with other tree associates and shrubby and herbaceous layers provides shelter to ample of wildlife and especially Panthera Tigris (Bengal Tiger).
RTR spreads over 1394.48 km2 of dry deciduous forest and in a unique area where two hill systems meet — the Aravallis and the Vindhyas. The tiger reserve derives its name from the fortress of Ranthambhore which goes back in time for 1000 years. The area around is dotted with the crumbling ruins of a historic past. Ranthambhore National Park was one of the first of nine tiger reserves declared in 1973. It was also one of the smallest tiger reserves. By the mid 1980’s this area shot to both national and international fame. It is where the tiger ‘rewrote’ its natural history. It became one of the finest areas in the world to see wild tigers. This is a fragile ecological system, which the tiger share with other carnivores like the leopard and the caracal. Thousands of sambar deer roam the rich forests and both tiger and sambar deer are totally diurnal in their habits. Several lake systems in the National Park have healthy populations of the Indian Marsh Crocodile and are favorite haunts of the tiger. Today the Naitonal Park has 35 to 45 tigers which is also the figure for the state of Rajasthan. It is therefore the last surviving population in Rajasthan.
Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve faces immense biotic pressure from the resource dependent human populations residing both inside and on the periphery. There are 42 villages within the boundary of Keladevi Sanctuary and another 190 villages within 5 km of the sanctuary boundary. There are 60 villages located within 2 km of Ranthambhore National Park and 36 villages located within 2 km of Sawai Man Singh Sanctuary.
All the villages are primarily dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. Their economy is supplemented by animal husbandry. They have numerous buffaloes and goats but very few herds of sheep and camel. The villagers tend to graze their animals in the fallow agricultural lands and the village commons during the lean periods of the year, viz., January to June. However, during the monsoon, the villagers enter the forest to graze their animals. The grazing problem in the RTR has attained ominous levels and if unchecked at this stage, the Rathambhore Core area might go the Sariska way. It is like an army of livestock that enter the very fragile core area and plunder the biomass. The Ranthambhore National Park which is the core of the Tiger Reserve is the only area left for the breeding tigers in the entire range of Aravalli. This is the last surviving western population and is the only one alive in Rajasthan. The conservation of the tigers and the ecosystems in the whole region depends on the survival of this breeding population. Unabated grazing is probably encouraging poaching, which threatens the existence of this last surviving population The Ranthambhore core area has severe grazing problems particularly in the three areas, on the eastern side the Indaladang and Khatola Valley region, on the western side the Anatpura, Bakola, areas and with less intensity near the Sawai Madhopur town. The villagers start entering the park soon after the monsoon. They camp inside the park during the entire monsoon period and only go back to their villages sometime in December/ January depending on the availability of the grass. The villagers have informally demarcated the grazing areas for each village which are called ‘Kakad’. During the day they graze their cattle in the Kakad and camp at one place called ‘Kirkadi’. The group size of the herds may range from 30-40 during the day time and the number becomes almost double as their relievers join them. Identified Corridor Areas in Rajasthan: 1. RTR- Nain ya ki quadi-Keladevi (SWM-Karauli division) 2. Keladevi-Karanpur-Chambal (Kaurauli division) Forest Department has also identified some of the areas that has potential to act as a corridor to abode dispersal population of animals from RTR. 1. Bundi Division 2. Dholpur Division 3. Tonk division
Kunno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary-
Kuno Wildlife Division is situated on the north western part of Chambal commissionary in the Sheopur kalan district, between latitudes 250 30' 74" N to 260 5 '22" N and longitude 760 58' 42" E to 770 19' 40" E. The boundary of Shivpuri district forms the part of the eastern and southern boundaries of the division while Sheopur kalan (territorial) division has the rest of the boundary in common with the Kuno wildlife division. The total area of the division is 1235.38 Sq. Km. The sanctuary notified in 1981 has the forests of six ranges (890 sq. km.) providing buffer to the sanctuary. The topography of Kuno wildlife division is typical of a river valley formation. The Kuno river, flowing from south to north almost bisects the area division. The eastern parts and western plateau part of the division are relatively flat and less undulating as compared to the northern and southern parts which have steep hillocks and deep gorges. The highest and lowest points of the division are 213m to 520 meters above sea level. The main river systems of the division are Parvati, Seep, Padam, Kuno and Kunwari. There is plenty of water in the rivers during rainy season, but most of them dry up by summer. Kuno river inside the sanctury remains in the form of small water pools called "deh" which provide perennial water source, along with the perennial spring kair khoh. Geologically the plan area of Kuno falls in vindhyan series, composed of sand stone. The plan area has mainly Bhander sandstone, Bhander limestone and Rewa sandstone. The majority of the plain area contains shallow soil. The layout of the underlying rock is all over the area is horizontal. As a result the disintegration is slow. Due to excessive runoff the whole country side becomes dry. The major portion of the area contains vindhyan sandstone, which disintegrates slowly and results in formation of shallow and murum soil. Along the slopes and foothills where the weathering of the rock is faster, the soil is generally deep. The climate of the plan area is tropical. The mean annual temperature is 24.73 degree Celsius and average annual rainfall is 764 mm. there are three distinct seasons viz. Rainy season : middle of June to September Winter season : October to March Summer season : Middle of March to Mid June The water supply in the plan area is not satisfactory. The scarcity of water from January to June becomes absolutely acute. The water in all the rivers almost dries up. Even the hand-pumps and wells dry up. The plan area has 22.33 %( 27,358 ha) Kardhai (Anogeissus pendula) forests, 21.25% (26,036 ha) Salai (Boswellia serrata) forests, 10.24% (12,545 ha) khair (Acacia catechu) forests and 38.91%(47,680 ha) mixed deciduous forests. The Kunno wildlife sanctuary has also a history of village relocation. There were 24 villages relocated outside the kunno for the reintroduction of Asiatic lion. Over 5000 people resided in these 24 villages inside the sanctuary prior to the initiation of this project. A majority of these inhabitants comprised of sahariya tribals, a primitive tribal group that has historically been almost completely dependent upon forest for survival. In addition to the Sahariya, the affected villages were also home to other caste groups, including Jatav (SC), Brahmin., Gujjar, Kushwaha, Yadav and so on.
Identified corridors for Tigers around Kunno Wildlife Sanctuary:
1. Keladevi- Karanpur-Gota village-Chambal Ravines-Kunno Palpur WLS 2. Kunno WLS-Pahauri Forest-Madhav National Park
There is some anecdotal information on Tiger presence in Kunno. Forest department has located one tiger which is migrated from RTR. There are direct sightings, photo captures and signs records available with Kunno Wildlife Division on RTR tiger in Kunno.
WWF India Initiatives and Activities for the Landscape:
The main objectives of the exercise are as follows:
1. To monitor the status of tigers, co-predators and prey in corridors and buffer of RTR. 2. To assess the connectivity between the Ranthambhore and adjoining forests. 3. Monitoring and mitigating human wildlife conflict.
Activities and Methodology: As per our objectives main activities would be as follow.
1. To assess the connectivity between the Ranthambhore and adjoining forest, Protected Areas. a. Ground surveys b. Questionnaire surveys-Semi structured Interviews Sign surveys. c. GIS based mapping, Ground survey by team of biologist would be carried out in the corridor and adjoining areas of RTR to understand the use by wildlife. Data set on carnivore sign encounter, prey sign encounter, human disturbance indices and habitat status indices would be collected. Data generated thus would be attached to a spatial location in the Geographic Information System (Arc GIS 9.1), by GPS coordinates from field sites. We would use GIS to conduct further analysis at spatial scales of 10x10 km grids (Jhala et al 2011) for generating distribution maps and area coverage of target species. Data on socio- economic, demography, threats, land cover, and on more aspects would be collected during the comprehensive study.
2. To monitor the status of tigers, co-predators and prey in corridors and buffer of RTR. a. Occupancy surveys b. Line transect Sampling, c. Camera trapping, d. Habitat sampling e. Scat analysis. Occupancy survey would be conducted in 10x10 km grid size mapped spatially for the area. Each of the grids would have several spatial independent replicate surveys (of 3-5 kilometer each) for detecting tiger and other carnivore signs. The number of surveys in each 100 km2 grid would be proportional to the amount of best available habitat in that grid. We would conduct spatially different searches in a forest patch. Thus a 10x10 km grid area would have spatially independent searches for tiger signs, which would be used to model imperfect detections (MacKenzie and Royle 2005; Kendall and White 2009). Isolated forest patches of < 15 km2 would be discarded from this analysis as tigers would be unlikely to occupy these small sized habitats (Jhala et al 2011).Tiger occupancy is likely to be influenced by · Habitat quality and extent, Prey availability and · Anthropogenic pressures. In the case of tigers, we would assess the role of imperfect detections and covariates in estimating occupancy (MacKenzie et al. 2006).
We also plan to carry out camera trapping to determine the abundance as well as to confirm the use of corridors by wildlife. Camera trapping would be done in PA’s as per the protocol of Jhala et al 2011. Camera traps would be systematically distributed within the study area by superimposing a 2x2 km grid and deploying at least one double sided camera unit within each grid. Study areas would be extensively searched while conducting sign surveys to find the ideal location within each grid for camera deployment so as to maximize the chances of photo-capturing a tiger. The camera density would be maintained at one double sided unit per 4 km2 and trapping effort of about 500 trap nights per 100 km2 would be carried out in PA’s, while in corridors and areas adjacent to villages, it would be done opportunistically as per requirement. Capture data would be analyzed using population models (Amstrup et al. 2005) and spatially explicit likelihood based approaches (Efford et al. 2004; Royle et al. 2009).
We would also estimate the prey availability using standard line transects of 2-3 km length within each grid. Transects would be walked and data recorded on species sighting, group size, group composition, bearing of walk, bearing of the animal(s) sighted, and distance of the animals(s) using a laser range finder and see through compass. Program DISTANCE (Thomas et al. 2009) would be used to compute density of individual species (for species with a reasonable number of sightings) and of two other categories which comprised of ungulate prey and all tiger prey (inclusive of peafowl, langur and all ungulates). 3. Monitoring and mitigating human wildlife conflict. · Interim relief scheme,
• Livestock kill monitoring through camera trapping Livestock depredation or kill record would be collected from the different areas to determine the extent of such conflicts. This would also help us to understand the movement of wildlife. Interim relief scheme (IRS) can be initiated in such conflict prone areas to increase tolerance towards tigers and wildlife and also to reduce retaliatory killings of tigers by villagers, if any. Such scheme would be done according to the government norms and which might prove beneficial in long run. IRS will be implemented in association with Forest Department and local NGOs. Outcome of the scheme will be shared with Forest Department to develop a long term conservation plan. Objective of the activities will be communicated to community members, stake holders to improvise activity time on field. Initially INR 500- 1000 would be compensated to the villagers whose cattle have been killed or mauled by tiger or leopard. Immediate payment of a fixed amount will be made on the basis of Information by any individual, forest official, WWF team representative or any local NGO and confirming the same on the spot. Incentive will be given in a day to villager who lost his animal in depredation. Livestock kills would also be monitored through camera traps to determine which species is most likely to be involved in such cases. This would also help in identifying such animal involved in depredating livestocks particularly in corridor area. Camera trapping on tiger kills (only cattle kills) will be monitored only in corridor areas to know the movement pattern of tiger and other predators. 8. Outcome: The study would be the first comprehensive study on the corridors connecting RTR to Kailadevi and Kuno WLS. The landscape is very much important for the source tiger population of RTR. The study would have following outcome: a. Establish the functionality of the corridors. b. Determining wildlife movement across the corridor and adjacent forest patches. c. Short term strategy that is IRS will curb the retaliation killing of Tigers and other predators and supplement government compensation. d. Enhance our knowledge on albeit lesser studied potential tiger areas. The above mention activities are intended for corridor villages and not for villages proposed for relocation. Success of the activity and learning from the project can be replicated in other areas by multiple agencies. As per Jhala et al 2011, revival of Kailadevi as good tiger habitat would have the added advantage of providing connectivity to the landscape of Kuno-Sheopur which together with Ranthambore Tiger Reserve could be managed as a meta-population to ensure long term survival of tigers in this semiarid ecosystem.