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Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Communication

Innovative way of human-elephant competition mitigation

Sanjit Kumar Saha

26 August 2020 | Vol. 12 | No. 11 | Pages: 16494–16501 DOI: 10.11609/jot.5886.12.11.16494-16501

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Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 August 2020 | 12(11): 16494-16501 ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) PLATINUM OPEN ACCESS DOI: htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.5886.12.11.16494-16501

#5886 | Received 27 March 2020 | Final received 19 August 2020 | Finally accepted 20 August 2020

C o m m Innovatve way of human-elephant competton mitgaton u n i Sanjit Kumar Saha c a t Forest Service, Government of West Bengal, Directorate of Forests, Jaldapara Wildlife Division, Coochbehar, i West Bengal 736101, . o n [email protected]

Abstract: The negatve interacton between humans and elephants is ofen referred to as confict, however it is also seen as competton. Human-elephant competton (HEC) is a major protecton threat in the fringe villages of the Jaldapara Natonal Park (JPNP) of West Bengal, India. JPNP is facing challenges from the highly populated fringe villages, which exist in elephant corridors. Between 2015 and 2018 there were 12 elephant deaths. During the same period elephants caused 34 human deaths. As per data, most of the elephant interactons occurred in the fringe villages of and Jaldapara North Range. Per reports of human deaths, Chekamari and Khairbari villages of Madarihat Range are in the most vulnerable list. Most of the human deaths occurred in the early morning (05.00–06.00 h) and in the evening, when people are going outside for open defecaton (OD). On a pilot basis Chekamari and Khairbari villages of Madarihat Range were selected for a door to door household survey with the objectve to develop an innovatve strategy as a mitgaton measure of HEC. The results of the survey show that both villages are tribal and minority populaton, the socio-economic conditon of the people is very poor, on an average 5–6 members are in each household, the source of drinking water is a community well for most of the households, and 50 households are devoid of toilet facilites so automatcally the members of those households go outside for OD. Out of the total human deaths, 16 occurred in the Madarihat area; out of these 16 cases, six were from the Chekamari and Khairbari villages. For this reason, between April 2019 to September 2019, with available funds 20 toilets with tube-well were built in the 20 neediest households of these two villages. Due to the communicaton with the community, behavioural changes were made and their partcipaton for 100% usage of those toilets was assured. Afer the constructon of the toilets untl now, no human death cases have been reported.

Keywords: Behavioural changes, communicaton, mitgaton, open defecaton, toilets.

Editor: Heidi Riddle, Riddle’s Elephant and Wildlife Sanctuary, Arkansas, USA. Date of publicaton: 26 August 2020 (online & print)

Citaton: Saha, S.K. (2020). Innovatve way of human-elephant competton mitgaton. Journal of Threatened Taxa 12(11): 16494–16501. htps://doi.org/10.11609/ jot.5886.12.11.16494-16501

Copyright: © Saha 2020. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of this artcle in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton.

Funding: West Bengal Compensatory Aforestaton Fund Management and Planning Authority (WB CAMPA), Jaldapara Wildlife Division, Directorate of Forests, Government of West Bengal.

Competng interests: The author declares no competng interests.

Author details: Sanjit Kumar Saha, WBFS works as Assistant Divisional Forest Ofcer (ADFO) of Jaldapara Wildlife Division, Nilkuthi, Coochbehar, Directorate of Forests, Government of West Bengal. His research interests include human-wildlife coexistence (HWC), compassionate conservaton, joint forest protecton, economic ornithology, science communicaton, ethno botany, ecotoxicology, wildlife protecton and crime control.

Acknowledgements: I acknowlede the guidance and facilitaton of Shri Kumar Vimal, IFS, DFO, Jaldapara Wildlife Division during the study and presence of Shri Manish Kumar Yadav, WBFS, AWLW of Jaldapara Natonal Park at the toilet distributon programme to the benefciaries. Besides that, I extend my heartelt thanks to all the feld staf of the Madarihat Range for their contributon at the tme of communicaton process to the community. I acknowlede the range ofcer, Madarihat for his contributon to arrange consecutve meetng with the community people. I recognise the contributon of Shri Debdarshan Roy, ACF, Madarihat for his assistance in monitoring the executon of toilet constructons work. I am thankful to Ms. Rinki Mukherjee for her assistance in checking of draf manuscript. Above all I am extending my sincere thanks to all the community people to make this study successful by assuring the usage of constructed toilets.

16494 J TT human-elephant competton mitgaton Saha

INTRODUCTION is increased to INR two lakh (INR 200,000) per person, subject to certfcaton by a doctor from a government The interacton between humans and elephants hospital or dispensary regarding the extent and cause is ofen referred to as confict, however, it is also seen of disability (West Bengal Forest Department 2018). as competton. Human-elephant competton (HEC) Ex-grata payments regarding grievous injury requiring (Davidar 2018) is a negatve interacton between the two hospitalizaton are between INR 12,700 and INR 4,300 species, resultng in crop loss, property damage, and can per person when requiring hospitalizaton for more lead to the loss of life of both humans and elephants. than a week and less than a week, respectvely (West Competton may be direct and indirect. Loss of property, Bengal Forest Department 2018). So, this background crops, and lives is the result of direct competton. In informaton is clear enough to understand that the indirect competton people live in fear of elephants, forest department is adoptng all sorts of strategies to which restricts free movement and day to day actvites mitgate HEC in the forest fringe villages. No mitgaton of people in forest fringe areas. The forest department measures, however, are found to be 100% successful promotes coexistence through diferent means with the in avoiding competton between elephants and help of local joint forest protecton commitees (JFPCs) forest fringe villages. Where a JFPC exists as per the in the forest fringe villages. In southern Bengal, in the government norms, local people receive 40% of the adjacent forest fringe areas of Jhargram, Medinipur, revenue generated from eco-tourism actvity and tmber Rupnarayan, and Kharagpur a special team “Hulla Party” operaton for community infrastructure development drives the elephants from the village towards the forest. from the forest department. This provides a platorm to But in recent tmes there has been a total ban of the usage the department to address elephant conservaton and to of “spike and fre balls, i.e. Hulla” by a recent Supreme tackle HEC. But the problem is massive in villages where Court order. In northern Bengal the concept of Hulla no JFPCs exist and the forest department is unable to Party does not exist, but JFPC members are provided with support community infrastructure work by providing crackers and searchlights from the forest department to JFPC share money and other benefts. This study mainly drive elephants to the forest. So, at present, the forest focused on assessing the problem and adoptng other department in both northern and southern Bengal innovatve strategies to mitgate and tackle HEC in the solely depend on high beam searchlights and crackers to areas of non JFPC villages in elephant corridors, where mitgate the elephant depredaton problem. Apart from the issue of elephant depredaton is signifcant. this direct acton in the feld, the forest department also compensates the loss of crop, property, livestock, and human life which occur from HEC (Davidar 2018), per MATERIALS AND METHODS the order of the Government of West Bengal. A person who is afected by an elephant atack as specifed in Study Area the government order (No. 195-For/11M-95/2011 pt-I Jaldapara Wildlife Division of West Bengal, India dated 30.i.2015), whose crop and/or house is damaged (Figure 1) covers an area of 306.96km² with the natonal by wild animals, and if any domestc animal is injured/ park area of 216.53km². The Chekamari and Khairbari died due to a wild animal atack, is eligible to claim ex- villages of Madarihat Range of Jaldapara Wildlife Division grata compensaton (West Bengal Forest Department (Figure 2) lies between 26.700–26.718N & 89.243– 2015). Ex-grata compensaton for injuries and loss of 89.264E. The study area is a non-forest elephant corridor human life is duly and promptly paid within 24 hours of in between the forest land of Dhumchi and Jaldapara the incident. In present tmes, the government order (Figure 1, 2). The average normal annual rainfall of (No.1805-For/O/11M-95/2011 (Pt.I) , 29 October the area is about 293cm. The southwest monsoon 2018) regarding payment of compensaton for the loss starts from the middle of May and lasts untl the end of life and property due to elephant depredaton has of September. The heaviest rainfall occurs during the been revised by the Government of West Bengal. The month of June, July, and August. During the rainy season family of the deceased should receive four lakh rupees humidity is high. The approximate water table positon for loss of life subject to certfcaton regarding the of Madarihat Range and locality in summer is 2.80m cause of death from the appropriate authority. Ex-grata (Conservator of Forest & Divisional Forest Ofcer 2012). payment for the loss of a limb or eye(s) is INR 59,100 People are working in agriculture mainly for subsistence; per person, when the disability is between 40–60%, maize, paddy, potato are principal crops, which are also and when the disability is more than 60% that amount the preferred food crops for the elephants.

Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 August 2020 | 12(11): 16494–16501 16495 J TT human-elephant competton mitgaton Saha

Figure 1. Jaldapara Wildlife Division.

Figure 2. Chekamari and Khairbari villages.

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Data collecton and analysis observed? To understand the background of human-elephant a) 60 to 70 individuals in a herd during monsoon. antagonism a preliminary study was conducted to b) The herd divides into maximum 25 to 35 collect primary data from Jaldapara Wildlife Division individuals during rest of the year. through a prepared questonnaire. Primary data analysis 5. What is the minimum group size of elephants provided the estmated number of wild elephants in the observed? Jaldapara Wildlife Division, season-wise maximum and Minimum 2 to 3 adults in a small group during crop minimum group size of elephants during crop raids, area raids. of common habitat shared by elephants and humans, 6. What is the total area (in km2) of the Division? total number of elephants and human deaths during 306.96km2. three years (2015–2018), details on age and gender of 7. How many elephants died in past three years elephant and human death cases, causes of elephant and from 2015 to 2018? human deaths (Tables 1, 2), level of aggression of local 12 people, methods used for driving away lone elephants/ 8. Is any data available regarding the age and herds, total cases of crop-damage between 2015–2018, gender of elephant death cases? (For example: How season of intensive crop damage, type of crop damage, many females or males? How many adults/sub adults/ total cases of property damages between 2015–2018, juveniles/calves?) Data Available in Table 1 total compensaton paid in cases of human-death, crop- 9. Are GPS locatons available where these cases damage and cases of property-damage between 2015– happened? 2018. The primary data analysis helped to identfy the Not Available most vulnerable site of human and elephant deaths 10. What were the causes of elephant death? (Tables 1, 2). With this basic informaton feld foresters a) Electrocuton- 4 of Madarihat Range, led by the author, went to the b) Cardiorespiratory failure- 3. community platorm of competton prone villages and c) Rail Accident- 1 through consecutve meetngs by the author and feld d) Infghtng- 2 staf of Madarihat Range, awareness was created in the e) Natural Death- 2 schools and other village insttutons. The objectve to 11. How many cases of human deaths by wild mitgate HEC was communicated to the local people elephant atack occurred in past three years from 2015 through audio-visual aids and door to door visits. These to 2018? visits helped the local people to communicate their 34 problem, livelihood, and socio-economic status. Based 12. Is any data available regarding the age and on the communicaton, the specifc tme of incidences gender of human death cases? (For example: How many of human death was assessed and this provided the females or males? How many of them were old/young?) incentve to adopt an innovatve strategy to build toilets Year wise Detail Data available in Table 2 with tube-well on a priority basis to avoid the chance of Male Female Year HEC. Old Age Young Old age Young

2015–16 2 2 1 -

2016–17 - 9 - 2 RESULTS 2017–18 8 1 1 3

Primary data from the Jaldapara Wildlife Division, 2018–19 3 2 - - West Bengal collected through the Questonnaire 13. Is GPS locatons available of where these cases Method by the following questonnaire. happened? 1. What is the name of the division? Not Available Jaldapara Wildlife Division, Coochbehar. 14. Generally what is tme of elephant depredaton 2. How many forest-ranges are there in the in the villages? division? In the evening and night for raiding in the crop felds. 14. 15. What were the causes of human deaths? 3. How many elephants are there in the wild? Injury through direct interacton with elephants. 100–130 (Last estmaton) 16. Generally what was the tme of injury or direct 4. What is the maximum group size of elephants interacton with elephants?

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In most of the cases in the early morning when Year Compensaton paid (Rs.)

elephant herds returned back to the forest from the 2015–16 40,800.00 villages, and in a few cases in the evening at the tme of 2016–17 8,80,355.00 elephant depredaton during crop raiding. 2017–18 6,38,200.00 17. What was the level of aggression of local people 2018–19 36,05,950.00 (high, moderate or low)? Moderate 18. What are the methods used for driving away RESULTS OF PRIMARY DATA ANALYSIS lone elephants/herds of elephants from the villages? Elephant driving by using high beam searchlights From the preliminary data available in Table 2 it is and crackers. known that most human deaths occurred in the fringe 19. How much crop area damaged in between 2015– villages of the Madarihat Police Staton (Madarihat PS) 2018? and Range, which shares a boundary with Jaldapara

Year Crop damaged Area (in ha) Natonal Park. The data of the site of human deaths of

2015–16 100.84 Table 2 shows that Chekamari and Khairbari villages of Madarihat are very vulnerable. The questonnaire data 2016–17 166.39 shows that deceased included both old and young. The 2017–18 49.31 questonnaire shows that elephants raid mainly in the 2018–19 293.15 crop season of maize, paddy, and potato. In northern 19. Which seasons (months), more crops was Bengal, farmers grow maize in summer, then paddy in damaged? Is any specifc tming or months of raiding the monsoon, then potato in the winter. As a result, observed? local farmers are atractng elephant raids throughout Throughout the year. the year. The questonnaire data shows that elephant 20. What crops were damaged most? depredaton in the villages occurred in the evening Maize, paddy, potato. and night mainly during raiding in the crop felds, and 22. How many hut damages between 2015–2018? cause of human death is direct Injury or interacton

Year Huts damaged (number) with elephants. But as a follow up door to door

2015–16 619 communicaton, it appeared that in most cases the tme of injury or direct interacton with elephants occurred 2016–17 308 early in the morning when elephant herds returned to 2017–18 193 the forest from the villages, and in a few cases in the 2018–19 827 evening at the tme of elephant depredaton during crop 23. How much compensaton paid in cases of human raiding. death (2015–2018)? Through preliminary data analysis, we understand Year Compensaton paid (IN Rs.) that Chekamari and Khairbari villages of Madarihat 2015–16 7,90,000.00 Range and PS are vulnerable areas (Table 2) and, for that 2016–17 18,00,000.00 reason, a second phase of feld study was conducted by

2017–18 13,92,500.00 the author and his feld foresters of Madarihat Range in 8,25,000.00 (Current year-5 cases) that area through door to door communicaton. Door 2018–19 +11,70,000.00 (Old cases-11 cases) to door communicaton was made by onsite visits 24. How much compensaton paid in cases of crop and discussion with every household for the purpose damage (2015–2018)? of assessing the primary reason of HEC, to know the

Year Compensaton paid (IN Rs.) reason for open defecaton (OD), to get the data of

2015–16 2,65,000.00 availability of toilets in those households, to know the educaton status of the family members of those 2016–17 15,41,506.00 households, and, most importantly to communicate 2017–18 6,05,000.00 the mitgaton measures of HEC. The main result of this 2018–19 38,40,870.00 communicaton was learning the fact that 50 households 25. How much compensaton paid in cases of hut were devoid of toilet facilites in these two villages, and damage (2015–2018)? the members of those households were going outside for OD in the early morning and in the evening. On an

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Table 1. List of elephant deaths.

Year Site Age (in years) Gender Assigned cause Remarks Tulsipara Das Ghar Village, P.S. 4 Female Electrocuton Accidental Tulsipara Bara Line, P.S. Birpara 30 Female Electrocuton Accidental Satali Nakadala Village area - Male Electrocuton Accidental BD-8 Compartment of Jaldapara Cardio respiratory 2015 Adult Female Natural Natonal Park failure JP-5 Compartment of Jaldapara Cardio respiratory 15 Female Natural Natonal Park failure Railway track near Haripur, - Male Tusker Railway accident Accidental Madarihat, District BD-4 Compartment of Jaldapara Cardio respiratory Adult Male Natural Natonal Park failure BN-4 Compartment of Jaldapara Cardio respiratory 4 Male Natural 2016 Natonal Park failure Gopalpur Tea Garden - Male Tusker Electrocuton Accidental BN-4 Compartment of Jaldapara 25 Male Infghtng Natural Natonal Park Tit-4 Compartment of Jaldapara 2017 Natonal Park, near 2 Male Calf - Natural Death bed.

BD-3(a) Compartment of 2018 40 Male In fghtng Natural Kodalbast Range, Jaldapara

average, 5–6 members live in each household of those over to those benefciaries and behavioural changes villages. So, approximately 250–300 people were going were made to assure 100% usage of toilets through outside for OD, with the fear of direct competton with consecutve household visits, meetngs, and seminars. elephants and other wild animals at that specifc tme. Villagers also adopted the good practce of toilet usage As per the objectve of our study, we were searching instead of OD, and as a result direct confrontaton with for an innovatve strategy to mitgate competton in elephants was avoided. No human death has occurred the villages of non JFPC areas. Interestngly, these to date in that area. All the toilets with tube-well two villages, Chekamari and Khairbari, do not have were tagged with their GPS locaton and a benefciary JFPCs. Middle-aged adult men and women were, to list is kept in the Madarihat Range Ofce and with the some extent, more cautous to avoid interacton with Jaldapara Wildlife Division. Afer seeing the success elephants at that specifc tme. Young and older people of the pilot project, the CAMPA authority sanctoned by nature are less concerned with the interactons and funds for those remaining 30 households devoid of some lost their life with the direct competton at the toilet facilites. Constructon is ongoing and very soon tme of OD outside. The community and the relatves of we will be able to ofcially distribute those toilets to the deceased confrmed the fact that almost all of the make the Chekamari and Khairbari villages OD free. In cases of human deaths by wild elephant atack occurred the meantme, people are using community toilets and when the deceased went for OD outside. the toilets of relatves. To date no human deaths have been reported from those areas where toilets were constructed and usage was assured among the people DISCUSSION through community partcipaton.

Based on the interpretaton of the survey and communicaton results, and the availability of CAMPA CONCLUSION (Compensatory Aforestaton Fund Management Planning Authority), 20 toilets with tube-well were By constructng toilets with tube-well as an innovatve constructed on a priority basis for the 20 neediest strategy a big problem of human-elephant competton households of those villages. These households are and elephant conservaton was addressed through unable to construct a toilet due to poor socio-economic door to door communicaton and with community conditon. Afer constructon, the toilets were handed partcipaton. For the frst tme a protected area has

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Table 2. List of human deaths.

Age (in Compensaton Paid (IN Year Site Gender Possible Cause years) Rupees) Jaldapara Village near forest boundary, - Male Atacked by wild elephant 2,50,000.00 Alipurduar Near house premises, Utar Rangalibazna, 98 Female Atacked by wild elephant 2,50,000.00 Madarihat, Alipurduar. Near house premises, Madhya Chekamari, 2015–16 56 Male Atacked by wild elephant 2,50,000.00 Madarihat, Alipurduar. Near house premises, Purba Khairbari, 55 Male Atacked by wild elephant Part payment 20,000.00 Madarihat, Alipurduar. Near house premises, Utar Khairbari, 40 Male Atacked by wild elephant Part payment 20,000.00 Madarihat, Alipurduar. Sidhabari Village area, Alipurduar 42 - Atacked by wild elephant 2,50,000.00 Inside Khairbari Forest, Paschim Salkumar, Not eligible for compensaton 40 Male Atacked by wild elephant Madarihat in forest land Kalikhola, Ballalguri, , Alipurduar 45 Male Atacked by wild elephant 2,50,000.00 Near house premises, Gopalpur Tea Garden, 6 Female Atacked by wild elephant 2,50,000.00 Madarihat

2016–17 Near house premises, Chapaguri, Madarihat 27 Male Atacked by wild elephant 2,50,000.00 In natonal park (on duty), Alipurduar 25 Male Atacked by captve elephant 1,87,500.00 Near house premises, Paschim Khairbari, 35 Male Atacked by wild elephant 1,75,000.00 Madarihat Ranbahadur Bast, village, Dalsingpara, - - Atacked by wild elephant 1,87,500.00 (75% payment) Alipurduar Satali Mandalpara, Madhya Satali Village, 46 Male Atacked by wild elephant 2,50,000.00 , Alipurduar Inside Jaldapara Natonal Park (on duty) 23 Male Atacked by captve elephant - Moiradanga (inside forest), Mairadanga 40 Female Atacked by wild elephant - Village, , Alipurduar Totopara Road, Hollapara village, Ballalguri, 59 Male Atacked by wild elephant 1,87,500.00 Totopara, Madarihat, Alipurduar Inside Jaldapara Natonal Park in JP-1 Compartment, NWC Beat, Madarihat, 45 Female Atacked by wild elephant - Alipurduar Not eligible to get Inside Natonal Park in JP-1 Compartment, 44 Female Atacked by wild elephant compensaton inside the NWC Beat, Madarihat, Alipurduar natonal park 2017–18 Inside the Forest land of BD-3 Compartment, Not eligible to get Kodalbast Beat under Kodalbast Range, 65 Male Atacked by wild elephant compensaton inside forest Jaldapara Natonal Park, Alipurduar land. Madhya Madarihat, Madhya Khairbari village, 68 Male Atacked by wild elephant 80,000.00 Madarihat, Alipurduar Purba Khairbari, Torsa Tea Garden, 45 Female Atacked by wild elephant 1,25,000.00 Dalsingpara, Alipurduar In Jaldapara Natonal Park (On duty), 47 Male Atacked by captve elephant 2,50,000.00 Madarihat, Alipurduar River side of Bhangri river, Garganda Tea - Female Atacked by wild elephant 1,25,000.00 Garden, Madarihat, Alipurduar In Jaldapara Natonal Park (On duty), Falakata, - Male Atacked by captve elephant 1,25,000.00 Alipurduar Purba Deogaon, Falakata, Alipurduar 29 Male Atacked by wild elephant 1,25,000.00 Subhasini Nadi Line, Outpost, 52 Male Atacked by wild elephant 1,25,000.00 Alipurduar Ramjhora Tea Garden, Birpara, Alipurduar 66 Male Atacked by wild elephant 1,25,000.00 StaliMandal Para, P.S. : Jaigaon, Alipurduar 54 Male Atacked by wild elephant 1,25,000.00 Lankapara, Madarihat, - - Atacked by wild elephant 2,50,000.00 Near House premises, Madarihat Range, Utar - - Atacked by wild elephant 1,25,000.00 2018–19 Chakamari, Madarihat, Alipurduar Near House premises, Paschim Madarihat Atacked by wild elephant 1,25,000.00 Village, Madarihat, Alipurduar Near house premises, Mujnai Tea Garden, - - Atacked by wild elephant 1,25,000.00 Madarihat, Alipurduar Near house premises, Chilapata Range, Utar - - Atacked by wild elephant 2,00,000.00 Mendabari, , Alipurduar

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Image 1. Benefciaries with toilets & tube-wells at Chhekamari and Khairbari villages, Madarihat, , West Bengal. © Divisional Forest Ofcer, Jaldapara Wildlife Division. adopted this sort of innovatve strategy to mitgate REFERENCES human-elephant competton by promotng coexistence; as an added advantage the issue of open defecaton is West Bengal Forest Department (2015). G.O. No. 195-For/11M- 95/2011(Pt-I) dated 30.i.2015, www.westbengalforest.gov.in also addressed. So this project is a win-win situaton for West Bengal Forest Department (2018). Wildlife Wing G.O. No. both the community people and the forest department 1805-For/o/11M-95/2011 (Pt. I) Kolkata, the 29th October, 2018, towards elephant conservaton. www.wildbengal.com Davidar, P. (2018). The term human-wildlife confict creates more problems than it resolves: beter labels should be considered. Journal of Threatened Taxa 10(8): 12082–12085. htps://doi. org/10.11609/jot.4319.10.8.12082-12085 Conservator of Forest & Divisional Forest Ofcer (eds.) (2012). Fifh Working Plan of Wildlife Division-III, Vol. 1. Government of West Bengal, Directorate of Forests, pp. 3–5.

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Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 August 2020 | 12(11): 16494–16501 16501 PLATINUM The Journal of Threatened Taxa (JoTT) is dedicated to building evidence for conservaton globally by publishing peer-reviewed artcles online every month at a reasonably rapid rate at www.threatenedtaxa.org. OPEN ACCESS All artcles published in JoTT are registered under Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License unless otherwise mentoned. JoTT allows allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of artcles in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton.

ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)

August 2020 | Vol. 12 | No. 11 | Pages: 16407–16646 Date of Publicaton: 26 August 2020 (Online & Print) www.threatenedtaxa.org DOI: 10.11609/jot.2020.12.11.16407-16646

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Use of an embedded fruit by Nicobar Long-tailed Macaque Macaca fascicularis Open garbage dumps near protected areas in Utarakhand: an emerging threat umbrosus: II. Demographic infuences on choices of coconuts Cocos nucifera and to Asian Elephants in the Shivalik Elephant Reserve patern of forays to palm plantatons – Kanchan Puri, Ritesh Joshi & Vaibhav Singh, Pp. 16571–16575 – Sayantan Das, Rebekah C. David, Ashvita Anand, Saurav Harikumar, Rubina Rajan & Mewa Singh, Pp. 16407–16423 A preliminary checklist of spiders (Araneae: Arachnida) in Jambughoda Wildlife Sanctuary, Panchmahal District, Gujarat, India Communicatons – Reshma Solanki, Manju Siliwal & Dolly Kumar, Pp. 16576–16596

Habitat preference and current distributon of Chinese Pangolin (Manis Preliminary checklist of spider fauna (Araneae: Arachnida) of Chandranath Hill, pentadactyla L. 1758) in Dorokha Dungkhag, Samtse, southern Goa, India – Dago Dorji, Jambay, Ju Lian Chong & Tshering Dorji, Pp. 16424–16433 – Rupali Pandit & Mangirish Dharwadkar, Pp. 16597–16606

A checklist of mammals with historical records from Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya Buterfy (Lepidoptera: Rhopalocera) fauna of Jabalpur City, Madhya Pradesh, landscape, India India – Thangsuanlian Naulak & Sunita Pradhan, Pp. 16434–16459 – Jagat S. Flora, Ashish D. Tiple, Ashok Sengupta & Sonali V. Padwad, Pp. 16607– 16613 Golden Jackal Canis aureus Linnaeus, 1758 (Mammalia: Carnivora: Canidae) distributon patern and feeding at Point Calimere Wildlife Sanctuary, India Evaluatng threats and conservaton status of South African Aloe – Nagarajan Baskaran, Ganesan Karthikeyan & Kamaraj Ramkumaran, Pp. 16460– – Samuel O. Bamigboye, Pp. 16614–16619 16468 Notes Suppression of ovarian actvity in a captve African Lion Panthera leo afer deslorelin treatment The frst record of Montagu’s Harrier Circus pygargus (Aves: Accipitridae) in – Daniela Paes de Almeida Ferreira Braga, Cristane Schilbach Pizzuto, Derek West Bengal, India Andrew Rosenfeld, Priscila Viau Furtado, Cláudio A. Oliveira, Sandra Helena Ramiro – Suman Prathar & Niloy Mandal, Pp. 16620–16621 Corrêa, Pedro Nacib Jorge-Neto & Marcelo Alcindo de Barros Vaz Guimarães, Pp. 16469–16477 An account of snake specimens in St. Joseph’s College Museum Kozhikode, India, with data on species diversity Spatal aggregaton and specifcity of incidents with wildlife make tea plantatons – V.J. Zacharias & Boby Jose, Pp. 16622–16627 in southern India potental bufers with protected areas – Tamanna Kalam, Tejesvini A. Putaveeraswamy, Rajeev K. Srivastava, Notes on the occurrence of a rare puferfsh, Chelonodontops leopardus Jean-Philippe Puyravaud & Priya Davidar, Pp. 16478–16493 (Day, 1878) (Tetraodontformes: Tetraodontdae), in the freshwaters of Payaswini River, Karnataka, India Innovatve way of human-elephant competton mitgaton – Priyankar Chakraborty, Subhrendu Sekhar Mishra & Krant Yardi, Pp. 16628– – Sanjit Kumar Saha, Pp. 16494–16501 16631

New locality records and call descripton of the Resplendent Shrub Frog New records of hoverfies of the genus Volucella Geofroy (Diptera: Syrphidae) Raorchestes resplendens (Amphibia: Anura: Rhacophoridae) from the Western from Pakistan along with a checklist of known species Ghats, India – Muhammad Asghar Hassan, Imran Bodlah, Anjum Shehzad & Noor Fatma, – Sandeep Das, K.P. Rajkumar, K.A. Sreejith, M. Royaltata & P.S. Easa, Pp. 16502– Pp. 16632–16635 16509 A new species of Dillenia (Angiosperms: Dilleniaceae) from the Eastern Ghats First record of a morphologically abnormal and highly metal-contaminated of Andhra Pradesh, India Spotback Skate Atlantoraja castelnaui (Rajiformes: Arhynchobatdae) from – J. Swamy, L. Rasingam, S. Nagaraju & Pooja R. Mane, Pp. 16636–16640 southeastern Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Rachel Ann Hauser-Davis, Márcio L.V. Barbosa-Filho, Lucia Helena S. de S. Pereira, Reinstatement of Pimpinella katrajensis R.S.Rao & Hemadri (Apiaceae), an Catarina A. Lopes, Sérgio C. Moreira, Rafael C.C. Rocha, Tatana D. Saint’Pierre, endemic species to Maharashtra with notes on its taxonomy and distributon Paula Baldassin ­& Salvatore Siciliano, Pp. 16510–16520 – S.M. Deshpande, S.D. Kulkarni, R.B. More & K.V.C. Gosavi, Pp. 16641–16643

Buterfy diversity in an organic tea estate of Darjeeling Hills, eastern Himalaya, Puccinia duthiei Ellis & Tracy: a new host record on Chrysopogon velutnus from India India – Aditya Pradhan & Sarala Khaling, Pp. 16521–16530 – Suhas Kundlik Kamble, Pp. 16644–16646

Freshwater decapods (Crustacea: Decapoda) of Palair Reservoir, Telangana, India – Sudipta Mandal, Deepa Jaiswal, A. Narahari & C. Shiva Shankar, Pp. 16531–16547 Publisher & Host Diversity and distributon of fgs in Tripura with four new additonal records – Smita Debbarma, Biplab Banik, Biswajit Baishnab, B.K. Data & Koushik Majumdar, Pp. 16548–16570

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Threatened Taxa