Conservation Planning using Geospatial Technologies

A case study of Kodagu (Coorg) in South India

Prashant Hedao

University of California at Davis Centre for Ecological Sciences IISc, Bangalore

[email protected] Acknowledgements -

My advisors – Prof. Raman Sukumar (CES / IISc), Prof. Jim Quinn & Prof. Tom Tomich (UC Davis) Other Colleagues – Lata Iyer (Auroville & ANCF), Vani Dahiya, Ishani Sinha, Aditi Sridhar (CES / IISc), K. Karthik (Tata Coffee, Kodagu), Mike McCoy, Jonathan London, Robert Hijmans, Karen Beardsley, Carrie Armstrong- Rupport (UC Davis), Prof. KT Ravindran (RICS), Nandkumar Kannuri (NIPH), Prasanna Muralidhar (ANCF), Abhishek Muthanna (Kodagu), Nirmala & Palani (support staff at CES / IISc) ▪ The Forest Department ▪ Administration Financial support – Rufford Foundation (UK), Geography Graduate Group (UC Davis), Asian Nature Conservation Foundation (India), Centre for Ecological Sciences / Indian Institute of Science (India)

People of Kodagu Planning – Ian McHarg, University of Pennsylvania

"The shaping of land for human use ought to be based on an understanding of natural processes.“

– Ian McHarg (1920 – 2001) Planning – issues in Indian context

▪ Regional planning is not integrating of all geographies of the region, such as climate, water resources, geology, soils, topography, vegetation, wildlife / biodiversity, transportation, socio-economic- demography, land records, transportation, land use and land cover, etc. rather it is focused around one or just a couple the disciplines of geography. What is needed is Analysis of Spatial Data from various disciplines, not just within each discipline, but also the impact of them on each other (2004 Asian Tsunami & 2008 North Indian Floods) ▪ Integrating “indigenous knowledge” into spatial analysis – Data from the community to complement / supplement the data from conventional methods into GIS such as satellite imagery, GPS field data, etc. ▪ Local Community as stakeholder / active participant in the Planning Process ▪ Integrate the results to recommend a policy framework for regional conservation planning Global Biodiversity Hotspots

SOURCE: Conservation International, 2011 Global 200 Ecoregions –terrestrial, freshwater & marine

SOURCE: Conservation Science Program, WWF-US, 1998 Kodagu – location; historical context

SOURCE: Gadgil et al, Expert Ecology Panel, 2011 Kodagu – regional context

KODAGU District

Area – 4,102 km2 (1,585 sq miles) 3 Taluks (sub-districts) 301 Villages & 760 settlements Kodagu – regional context – part of Nilgiri biosphere reserve Kodagu – biogeography

Western Eastern Kodagu Kodagu

Altitude 1750 m 350 m

Rainfall 6000-7000 800-1000 mm/year mm/year

Semi and wet- dry and moist Forested evergreen forests deciduous forests Elephant in coffee plantation in Kodagu Areas

Brahmagiri WS Katterpura RF Padinalkad RF Anekadu RF Talacauvery WS Nagarhole NP Pushpagiri WS

Nath and Sukumar 1998, Bal et al. 2011, Kulkarni et al. 2007 Forest Cover Change – 1977 & 1997

SOURCE: The French Institute, Pondicherry Kodagu – change in land status

 Forest loss 1.4% /year  Area under coffee doubled

SOURCE: The French Institute, Pondicherry Coffee estates – similar to forests – shade grown coffee

Majority of coffee grown in Kodagu is shade grown coffee and so is very much like a forest

These estates support large biodiversity including large mammals such as elephants, tigers, leopards, bison & sambhar deer Photo: K. Karthik, Tata Coffee Kodagu – slopes / relationship to land, crops & development

PADDY (Rice) - flat areas & less steep slopes COFFEE – interspersed with other spices and trees; in moderate to steep slopes

ELEPHANTS – don’t prefer very steep slopes, and prefer dry forests along eastern edge

SOURCE: SRTM, JPL / NASA Land Cover – forest types and non-forest areas (2011)

Biodiversity / Protected Areas –

Necklace or a NOOSE..!!

SOURCE: ANCF / ISRO Population – Kodagu is not densely populated but…

Population (2001) was 5,48,561; 13.74% of which resided in the district's urban centres, making it the least populous of the 30 districts in Karnataka state.

Had low growth rate of @1% between 2001-2011, compared to the growth rate between 1991-2001 which was 12.31%. It is also the least densely populated district of Karnataka with only 135 persons/km2

SOURCE: Landscan, ORNL & Census of India Population – surrounding area is very densely populated…

44 million people live in the Western Ghats region.

In India about 5 million people live inside of protected areas

… & 147 million people depend on forests for their livelihood

SOURCE: Landscan, ORNL Elephant Human Conflict (EHC) – large coffee estates

SOURCE: ANCF (2014) EHC – small farmers– ex-gratia payment as a proxy for conflict (crop raid)

Compensation for crop- damage is mostly claimed by small farmers

Every year all over India almost 400 people and 200 elephants die because of elephant-human conflict

SOURCE: ANCF & Karnataka Forest Department Kodagu – EHC – Zones…

Increased conflict along the eastern edge, with pockets of hot-spots along north-east, middle and south side Kodagu – several factors make an area a “conflict hotspot”

▪ Crop types eaten and damaged – is there a pattern that certain type of crops attract elephants? ▪ Land use land cover change around crop raid site in the past several decades ▪ Distance of the crop raid site from the edge of the nearest reserved forest, forest patch or PA ▪ Season when the incident occurred – o Is it the season of ripe jackfruit, bananas or ready paddy/rice? o Is it the dry/hot season? ▪ Spatial distribution of small farmers VS large coffee estates in the conflict areas ▪ What are the mitigation measures put in place at the nearest forest location by the KFD; such as elephant proof trenches (EPT) or solar fences, and what is its condition/status around the crop raid site? ▪ Forest type and fragmentation around the crop raid site? ▪ How is the forest boundary edge (fractal geometry or sinousity) close to the crop raid site? ▪ Availability of water around the crop raid site and in the nearest forest? ▪ Elephant densities in the forest areas nearest to the incident? ▪ Human population densities around the crop raid site and the nearest forest? ▪ Road density around crop raid site and the nearest forest? EHC – hotspot analysis: incidents & compensation

Incidents Compensation Paid EHC – hotspot analysis: /with relation to village sizes

Average Crop Raids Average Compensation paid Gives a more (normalized by village area) (normalized by village area) realistic picture now, matches with what is happening on the ground. EHC – grouping analysis – % Agriculture

Performs a classification procedure that tries to find natural clusters in the data.

Given the number of groups to create, it will look for a solution where all the features within each group are as similar as possible, and all the groups themselves are as different as possible.

It can be used on an exploratory variable that can be changed for remedial action to reduce elephant human conflict.

The Red group indicates villages that have high conflict and very low agriculture, and the Blue group indicates low conflict low agriculture. The Green group indicates villages where conflict is medium to high and agriculture is also high. EHC – similarity analysis for risk mapping

This risk map shows the three sample villages that we selected as worst affected by EHC in orange.

All the villages that are very similar to these worst affected villages are in darker blue colour, less similar ones are in lighter blue.

The villages in dark grey colour are the most dissimilar to the sample set of villages.

This map doesn’t fully match with the hot spot map and so the villages that don’t coincide with the hot spot map are probably the authorities need to keep an eye on for future Kodagu – socio-cultural aspects…

▪ Urban expansion – “de-urbanization” – population now on decline, has peaked at little over half million out of about 14% live in Urban areas ▪ Tourism – very scenic district, marketed as “Scotland of India”. Yearly 3.5 million tourists visit this place which is 7 times the local population ▪ Elephant – human conflict ▪ Infrastructure – Hi-tension line, proposed railway, etc. ▪ Coffee markets ▪ Tribal & labor issues Elephants & Humans – Ganesha, mahouts & captivity... Kodagu – elephant & humans – awareness & barriers

Photo: ANCF Kodagu – barriers; elephant-proof trench / solar fences

All barriers have proven to be ineffective as elephants have managed to overcome them all, especially the solar fences.

Forest department is at a loss and has only been thinking of better / stronger barriers and speedy resolution of compensation claims

Source: Karnataka Forest Dept & ANCF Conservation Planning – in a global biodiversity hotspot

Future of conservation – Today wildlife is not confined exclusively to protected areas and sizable numbers exist outside reserves which, among other things has resulted in increased human-wildlife conflict.

The future of conservation will depend on how best we plan areas where humans and wildlife can co- exist, such as landscapes adjoining protected areas, biodiversity migration corridors, degraded habitat

Conservationists have diverse views on this issue of “co-existence”…

Source: Madhusudan et al (2015) The Process – stakeholders / community

Large coffee estate owners – over 10 acres Small farmers – it is estimated that in Kodagu district about 70% of farming is done by small farmers who own between 1-10 acres size farms Tribal & other small groups that are related to coffee growing Conservation NGOs – e.g. Coorg Wildlife Society, ANCF, NCF) – voice of the elephants / elephants as a stakeholder Research groups – local researchers/scientists, indigenous knowledge about elephants Karnataka Forest Department (KFD) officials Panchayat leaders – local elected members District & Revenue Department officials – responsible for law & order, and land records, taxes, etc. Tourism industry – large and small resort operators, homestays, adventure sports Trust Building – mapping barrier breaches with the community (CBM)

Polibetta Area Consultations – looking forward…

▪ Ex-gratia payments – better compensation & quick settlement / payments for damaged crops ▪ Crop Insurance – lack of information / conflict maps for insurance companies ▪ Alternate cash crops – crops that are not liked by elephants

▪ Better price for their coffee in international markets – because it supports rich biodiversity and large mammals in a global biodiversity hotspot ▪ Homestays – additional income & very popular as against high-end resorts among visiting tourists, but does not necessarily fit the Koduva culture..!! ▪ Barriers – where, what kind of barrier to be placed Elephants using exchanged land… ▪ Land Exchange in areas close to forest edges / migratory …was previously a paddy field corridors Conservation Planning – next steps – planning scale

Polibetta Area

Brahmagiri Area Planning in India – role of GIS as an enabler

• 1950 – Constitution of India recognizes only two tiers of governance – Central & State • 1993 – 73rd & 74th amendment created the “Third Stratum” that gave power to villages and mandated that all villages that are part of a district jointly create a “District Plan” • Two decades later, this has been implemented in very few states • Planning still pretty much rests with the Town & Country Planning agency of the States for areas beyond notified urban areas (ULBs, town panchayats) • An opportunity to include inclusive participatory planning process as a policy initiative and GIS can be an enabler Conservation Planning using Geospatial Technologies

Thank you..!!