Abstract of poster presented at the International Tropical Ecology Congress, 2007 at Dehradun (2-5 December)

Tribals and large mammals: Survey of mammalian fauna and local attitudes towards wildlife in non protected areas in the vicinity of Balpakram National Park, Meghalaya

- Anirban Datta Roy, Nimesh Ved (Samrakshan Trust)

Keywords : mammal survey, Meghalaya, conflict,

Theme - Biodiversity: amount, patterns, uses, conservation, and participatory research.

This poster presents the findings of a nine month questionnaire survey conducted in the Garo hills region of Meghalaya state in north east India. The survey collected information on large mammal presence in the landscape, threats to them and sources of human-animal conflict by tapping the knowledge base of the local Garo tribe.

The north-east Indian state of Meghalaya, situated in the Indo Malayan biodiversity hotspot is home to an  enormous diversity of flora and fauna. Within Meghalaya, the Garo hills region is especially biodiverse, but has been poorly documented over the years. Samrakshan Trust has identified the Baghmara Balpakram Community Conservation Landscape (~300 sq.km.) as an area of high priority and initiated a long term community conservation intervention. The landscape is bounded by Bangladesh to its south, the Balpakram NP to its north and east and the Simsang river to its west. Any community conservation initiative needs to understand local attitudes and their relationship with wildlife to form an effective strategy to deal with the challenges.

We thus conducted a survey of mammalian fauna and local people’s attitudes towards wildlife. This was done with two major objectives:

-          the establishment of a comprehensive information base for future conservation efforts as well as recognition of the current wildlife values in the region

-          to understand the attitudes of local people towards presence of large mammals in terms of hunting and the nature and magnitude of human-animal conflict in the landscape.

Questionnaire surveys were conducted in all 33 akings (clan kingdom) of the landscape with a total of 334 respondents over a period of nine months from May 2005 to January 2006. The respondents comprised of farmers, hunters, government servants and others. The questionnaires attempted to document local knowledge on 56 species of large mammal (> 1 kg) presence, fluctuations in relative densities and degree and nature of conflict between local people and large mammals. The initial list of mammals was prepared through discussions with elders and hunters in the Garo hills.

Of the 56 species, 55 species were reported to be have been sighted, the Malayan Sun Bear being the only animal which was never sighted. Rhesus macaque, Wild pig and Indian porcupine were the most common mammals sighted. They were also mentioned as species whose numbers had increased the most within the last five years. Within the respondents, professional hunters mentioned the names of the Capped langur and Barking deer as the most common large mammals in addition to the above three. Sambar, Water buffalo and the Himalayan black bear numbers were perceived to have decreased in the last five years. The biggest reason for this decline was attributed by respondents to increase in hunting activities.

34% of the respondents named the wild pig as mammal causing most damage to crops, followed by the Asian elephant (31%) and the Indian porcupine (9%). Jungle cat (26%) and Leopard cat (25%) caused the most damage to livestock (including poultry).

Hunting and trapping were mainly for domestic consumption (29 akings) while commercial hunting was reported in a few cases (4 akings). Elephant, Sambar, Water buffalo, Barking deer and Wild pig were the animals that were hunted for meat.

The impact of hunting and trapping activities in tropical ecosystems has largely been overshadowed by the stress on habitat loss and fragmentation. This study provides an indication of the dangers of overlooking the long term effects of large mammal removal. Local knowledge itself recognizes hunting as the primary factor in the decrease of certain species. The increase in commensal species such as rhesus macaques also indicates the gradual habitat degradation and land-use change. Although commercial hunting is still restricted to only a few akings, it is disturbing to note its presence in a landscape where hunting for domestic consumption has already made considerable impact. Additional pressure in the form of commercial hunting, especially of large mammals like Asian elephants is a serious threat.

Abstract of paper presented at the International Tropical Ecology Congress, 2007 at Dehradun (2-5 December)

Participatory elephant monitoring in south Garo hills : efficacy and utility in a human-animal conflict scenario

-          Anirban Datta Roy, Nimesh Ved, A Christy Williams

 Keywords : elephant, Meghalaya, Human-elephant conflict, participatory wildlife monitoring

Theme - Biodiversity: amount, patterns, uses, conservation, and participatory research.

We attempted to evaluate the efficacy of community based elephant monitoring to understand the ranging and habitat utilization patterns of free ranging Asian elephants within a mosaic of forests of variable legal status (ranging from National Parks to community forests) and paddy as well as slash-and-burn shifting cultivation.

The northeast Indian state of Meghalaya is situated in the Indo Malayan biodiversity hotspot and is home to one of the largest extant populations of Asian elephants. The south Garo hills region in Meghalaya supports the majority of that population and forms an important part of the Garo Hills Elephant Reserve. In recent decades, this population has come into frequent conflict with the local inhabitants, raiding crops and resulting in mortalities on both sides. The promotion of monocultures, decreasing jhum cycles and declining forest area has only exacerbated the conflict.

Samrakshan Trust has identified the Baghmara Balpakram landscape (~300 sq. km.) lying between the Balpakram NP and Simsang river as an area of high conservation priority and has been involved in a long term community conservation intervention to maintain habitat integrity, with the Asian elephant as a flagship species. To develop a greater understanding of the role of elephants in a landscape, it is essential to have reliable information on their movement patterns and utilization of the various available habitats, including crop fields. Such information on free ranging elephant herds are difficult to obtain in the absence of radio collared individuals. We modified an existing model of participatory elephant monitoring by trained informants in villages for African elephants (Hoare, 1999) to monitor elephant presence in villages and adjoining crop fields.

Reliable local informants were trained in collecting and recording data on elephant presence in their respective akings (clan villages). This information was periodically collected by our personnel and locations identified with the help of the informant with a Global Positioning System. This information was then fed into the computer and mapped. Information collected by the informants included the following :

• Location
• Date and time of elephant visit
• Approximate group size (herd or solitary)
• Damage caused (if any)

The initial phase of the work included information from six akings. This formed a small portion of the 33 akings in the landscape, but local knowledge indicated that these were the most affected by human-elephant conflict.

A total of 201 visits were recorded in six akings for the duration between June 2005 and July 2006. Solitary elephants accounted for 100 visits. The visits were found to peak during the two main harvesting periods in the Garo hills indicating a definite seasonality pattern in the visits. This coincided with the two major crop availability periods of November-December (wet paddy) and August-September (jhum rice, maize, millets). Information from individual akings also seemed to indicate that some akings were particularly prone to visits by solitary animals indicating the complexity in the dynamics of elephant ranging patterns within the landscape.

We found participatory elephant monitoring to be useful in providing basic information on elephant presence in villages and crop fields. It can also provide crude estimates of changes in group size across time. It however, has many limitations and cannot be utilized for understanding movement patterns of elephants across the landscape as most observations are restricted to villages and crop fields. Identification of individual elephants or their herds is usually not possible as most elephant visits are at night. Variations in interest levels of individual informants may also influence the quality and utility of the data. Nevertheless, it can be a useful tool to collect basic data on elephant presence in tropical ecosystems where traditional line transect methods are restricted by considerations of terrain, manpower and resources.