PROGRESS REPORT 2011 Assessing the Possibilities of Restoring the Habitat and Population of Great Indian Bustard (Ardeotis nigriceps) in Sokaliya area of Ajmer District FOUNDATION FOR ECOLOGICAL SECURITY, No. 18, New Ahinsapuri, Fatehpura, Udaipur, Rajasthan – 313 001, India Funded By: RUFFORD SMALL GRANTS FOUNDATION 6th Floor 248 Tottenham Court Road London W1T 7QZ ASSESSING THE POSSIBILITIES OF RESTORING THE HABITAT AND POPULATION OF GREAT INDIAN BUSTARD (ARDEOTIS NIGRICEPS) IN SOKALIYA AREA OF AJMER DISTRICT, RAJASTHAN PROGRESS REPORT SUBMITTED BY JUSTUS JOSHUA, HIMANI KALA, YASH SHETHIA, BHANU PRATAP SINGH, RAVINDRANATH RANGOORI AND P. RAGUNATHAN FOUNDATION FOR ECOLOGICAL SECURITY (FES), NO.18, NEW AHINSAPURI, FATEHPURA, UDAIPUR, RAJASTHAN –313 001. INDIA SUBMITTED TO RUFFORD SMALL GRANT FOUNDATION 6TH FLOOR, 248 TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD LONDON WIT 7QZ JANUARY 2011 2 CONTENT 1 Status of Great Indian Bustard in INDIA 4 2 Status of Sokaliya, Ajmer, Rajasthan 4 3 The Project 4 4 Present Status of GIB in Sokaliya: Study Report 5 5 Identification of Habitat - Villages based on GIB Presence and Distribution 7 5.1 Land Use Status of the Intensive GIB Use Area 7 5.2 Habitat Use by GIB in the Intensive Use Area 8 6 Existing Status and Productivity Potential of the Grasslands 9 6.1 Richness of Plants in GIB Use Areas 10 6.2 Status of Tree species 11 6.2.1 Density of Trees 11 6.2.2 Density of Recruitment of Tree Species 11 6.3 Status (Density) of Shrub in GIB area 12 6.4 Status of Ground Cover 12 6.4.1 Status of Ground Cover before rains 12 6.4.2 Status of Ground Cover after rains 12 6.5 Status of Grass Biomass 13 6.5.1 Status of Grass Biomass before rains 13 6.5.2 Status of Grass Biomass after rains 14 7 Threats to Grasslands and Great Indian Bustard 14 7.1 Overgrazing 14 7.2 Encroachment by Other Floral Life forms: 15 7.3 Invasive Species 15 7.4 Other Threats 15 8 Possibility of Restoration and Management of Grasslands 15 9 Pilot Restoration Plan 16 10 Reference 18 3 1 STATUS OF GREAT INDIAN BUSTARD IN INDIA The endangered Great Indian Bustard (Ardeotis nigriceps) is highly endemic to the Indian Subcontinent but now this bird is facing serious threats of extinction from habitat conversion to agriculture, infrastructural development, and hunting (Rahmani 1989, IUCN 2008). Mostly this bird is seen in the grassy plains, sometimes overgrazed by livestock or wild herbivores, and strictly avoided hilly and forest regions (Ali & Ripley 1987, Rahmani 1989). The estimated population was 1260 in 1969 (Dharmakumarsinhji 1971) which has dwindled down to around 600 individuals at the turn of the millennium (Birdlife International 2001). Presently 300-350 (Rahmani 2006) are surviving restricted to isolated pockets in Rajasthan, which holds the largest global population of around 150 -175 (Dutta et al. 2010) followed by Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh (Dutta et al. 2010) which holds populations of less than 35 birds each (Birdlife International 2001). 2 STATUS OF SOKALIYA, AJMER, RAJASTHAN Sokaliya is located in the central part of Ajmer district and has been identified as an Important Bird Area (Zafar-Il Islam and Rahmani 2005) mainly for the conservation of GIB, Lesser Florican and other grassland birds, (Map 1), where once nearly 30 birds were supposed to be present (Rahmani 1989). Presently it is reported that only 25-30 birds survive in Ajmer, Pali and Tonk districts (Dutta et al. 2010). Based on the secondary information and peoples’ knowledge it was found that earlier birds used the village environs of Sokaliya and other 27 adjoining villages (Map 1) and hence the term Shokliya landscape. The small population of birds were said to use the community grasslands or Panchayat grazing lands, revenue lands and the agricultural lands including the fallow lands also. In the recent years the quality of the agro-pastoral landscape has deteriorated significantly, reasons being high degradation of Panchayat grazing lands and revenue lands due to overgrazing, encroachment by shrubs and trees, encroachment for agriculture by locals and mining for Feldspar. In view of its conservation significance the Rajasthan Forest Department had a few years ago sought to have the area notified as a protected area, mainly as a “Community Reserve,” but failed in the endeavour due to resistance from local communities (Personal Communication Rajasthan Forest Department). It is said that mining interests spread a fear of loss of access to the lands by local communities in the event of a protected area being declared and hence the opposition from the local community. 3 THE PROJECT Considering the fact that even small population is very crucial for conservation, and the level of degradation of this argo-pastoral habitat, the Rajasthan State Forest Department discussed with the Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) the possibilities of conserving the GIB habitat and ways 4 in which conservation objectives may be achieved also allaying community fears around loss of use and access to the landscape. With this in mind FES initiated the present study in October 2009 with the funding support of Rufford Small Grants, UK. The main aim was to “Assess the feasibility of restoring the Grasslands/Grazing lands through local people’s participation both in protecting and managing them for Great Indian Bustard and their fodder security.” It is a “Species and Habitat Restoration/ Recovery Perspective,” with the following objectives: • Assess the present status of GIB in the area • Identify the cluster of habitats (villages) for the conservation initiative based on GIB presence and distribution. • Assess the existing status of the habitat including its biomass productivity. • Assess the existing threats in the cluster pertaining to grasslands and GIB. • Assess the possibility of restoration and management of grasslands through peoples’ participation 4 PRESENT STATUS OF GIB IN SOKALIYA: STUDY REPORT Monitoring for GIB was done every month by perambulating through the different village environs covering all grazing lands, other village common lands and the agriculture lands. Whenever a bird was sighted information on the habitat in which seen, total number of birds seen, their age and sex composition along with time of sighting, the threats in the area and GPS locations were recorded. The total number of GIB seen each month was derived through two basic considerations: 1. The maximum number of birds recorded in each age and sex class in a day of the month. 2. If there were two sightings in a day at two different sites, then depending upon the time of sightings (usually if both sightings were within an hour’s time) and the distance between two sightings of GIB was taken care of. The aspect of direction of movement of the birds was also taken care while deriving the number of birds. The breeding season of GIB in the area was from mid June to November (includes monsoon and post monsoon periods), while the rest of the months were considered as non-breeding season. On the whole, the 14 months (November ‘09 to January ‘11) of monitoring resulted in 15 GIBs from 29 sightings. Of which 20 sightings were in the breeding season and only nine sightings were in non-breeding season with no GIBs seen in January and February (2010), thus clearly showing that GIB still uses this area just for breeding and also that it is a very rare visitor during non-breeding season (Table 1). 5 Table 1: No. of Sightings and Status of Great Indian Bustard in Sokaliya Month B/NB No. of Number of Total Sightings AI AJ SAI SAJ Juvenile Chick March NB 3 1 4 0 0 0 0 5 April NB 1 0 2 1 0 0 0 3 May NB 2 1 3 0 1 0 0 4 June B 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 July B 3 2 2 0 0 0 0 4 August B 4 2 7 2 2 0 0 13 September B 3 1 3 2 2 0 0 10 October B 3 0 6 1 1 0 2 10 November B 5 2 7 2 1 0 2 14 December NB 3 1 4 1 2 2 0 10 Total 29 2 7 2 2 2 15 Based on the maximum number of birds seen, the total number of individual recorded in Sokaliya during this study was 15 of which two were adult males, seven adult females, two sub-adult males, two sub adult females and two juveniles (Table 1). The analysis of breeding and non-breeding population data showed that during non-breeding season, total 10 birds were found to use this area of which one was adult male, four adult females, one sub-adult male, two sub-adult females and two Juveniles. Similarly during breeding season 15 individuals were recorded in the area, which included two adult males, seven adult females, two sub adult males, two sub-adult females and two chicks (Table 2). Table 2: No. of Sightings and Status of Great Indian Bustard in Different Seasons Month No. of Number of Total Sightings AI AJ SAI SAJ Juvenile Chick Non-Breeding 9 1 4 1 2 2 0 10 Breeding 20 2 7 2 2 0 2 15 Total 29 2 7 2 2 2 15 The presence of two chicks clearly showed that the bird still breeds in this area and the two juvenile birds seen in December could be the grown up chicks. However, seven adult females were seen during breeding season but only two chicks were seen, so it could be possible that the other females did not breed or probably they had nested but did not hatch successfully, which could be due to disturbance to the nest resulting in desertion of the nest.