TY - JOUR
T1 - Habitat suitability of the Asiatic elephant in the trans-boundary Patharia Hills Reserve Forest, northeast India
AU - Talukdar, Nazimur Rahman
AU - Choudhury, Parthankar
AU - Ahmad, Firoz
AU - Ahmed, Raihan
AU - Ahmad, Firoz
AU - Al-Razi, Hassan
N1 - Funding Information:
We are thankful to the Department of Forest, Assam, and all the professionals in the divisional office, Karimganj, for providing secondary data and permitting to access the Patharia Hills Reserve Forest, Assam. We are thankful to the Department of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Assam University, Silchar, and Faculty of Natural Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, for providing adequate facilities to carry out the research. We are thankful to the Centre for Biodiversity and Climate Change Research, Udhayan, for their logistic support. We are also thankful to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and important suggestions in improving the quality of the manuscript. The work is supported by the University Grant Commission (UGC) of India under the UGC-Non-Net fellowship to the first author which is much appreciated.
Funding Information:
We are thankful to the Department of Forest, Assam, and all the professionals in the divisional office, Karimganj, for providing secondary data and permitting to access the Patharia Hills Reserve Forest, Assam. We are thankful to the Department of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Assam University, Silchar, and Faculty of Natural Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, for providing adequate facilities to carry out the research. We are thankful to the Centre for Biodiversity and Climate Change Research, Udhayan, for their logistic support. We are also thankful to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and important suggestions in improving the quality of the manuscript. The work is supported by the University Grant Commission (UGC) of India under the UGC-Non-Net fellowship to the first author which is much appreciated.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
PY - 2020/9/1
Y1 - 2020/9/1
N2 - Throughout the tropical regions, raising demands for the land due to the exponential growth of the human population has resulted in habitat loss and fragmentation for wildlife. Consequently, wild animals come out from the fragmented habitats and compete with the human for resources. In order to reduce this conflict, sustainable habitat management balancing the socioeconomic needs of the people is of the utmost importance. The present study is an effort to assess the elephant’s habitat suitability in the trans-boundary forested areas of India and Bangladesh, Patharia Hills Reserve Forest. This is an important study considering the increased human–elephant conflict in the area, and also the area is home to many IUCN’s red-listed animals including Chinese pangolin, spectacled monkey, capped langur. Field surveys were conducted to collect the elephant distribution data and identify potential anthropogenic disturbances. Remote sensing and geographic information system along with analytical hierarchy process were used in the methods for modeling habitat suitability to identify habitat parameters and preparation of suitability maps. Vegetation status (32.50%), settlements (23.30%), elevation (17.20%) and water sources (12.70%) were found to be the most weightage parameters for the movement of the elephant. The study on elephant habitat suitability mapping in the trans-boundary forest revealed that 6.88% area of the habitat is highly disturbed, 36.07% area is somehow disturbed, 35.38% area is moderately suitable and only 21.67% area is most suitable for the Asiatic elephants. Identification of suitable areas and potential factors disturbing the habitats is important for conserving and management of wildlife for particular species and in particular sociophysical conditions. Sustainable management strategies can be fixed based on the findings for the long-term conservation of elephants and other wildlife of the area.
AB - Throughout the tropical regions, raising demands for the land due to the exponential growth of the human population has resulted in habitat loss and fragmentation for wildlife. Consequently, wild animals come out from the fragmented habitats and compete with the human for resources. In order to reduce this conflict, sustainable habitat management balancing the socioeconomic needs of the people is of the utmost importance. The present study is an effort to assess the elephant’s habitat suitability in the trans-boundary forested areas of India and Bangladesh, Patharia Hills Reserve Forest. This is an important study considering the increased human–elephant conflict in the area, and also the area is home to many IUCN’s red-listed animals including Chinese pangolin, spectacled monkey, capped langur. Field surveys were conducted to collect the elephant distribution data and identify potential anthropogenic disturbances. Remote sensing and geographic information system along with analytical hierarchy process were used in the methods for modeling habitat suitability to identify habitat parameters and preparation of suitability maps. Vegetation status (32.50%), settlements (23.30%), elevation (17.20%) and water sources (12.70%) were found to be the most weightage parameters for the movement of the elephant. The study on elephant habitat suitability mapping in the trans-boundary forest revealed that 6.88% area of the habitat is highly disturbed, 36.07% area is somehow disturbed, 35.38% area is moderately suitable and only 21.67% area is most suitable for the Asiatic elephants. Identification of suitable areas and potential factors disturbing the habitats is important for conserving and management of wildlife for particular species and in particular sociophysical conditions. Sustainable management strategies can be fixed based on the findings for the long-term conservation of elephants and other wildlife of the area.
KW - Asiatic elephant
KW - Habitat suitability model
KW - India–Bangladesh
KW - Juri Range
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85084756794
U2 - 10.1007/s40808-020-00805-x
DO - 10.1007/s40808-020-00805-x
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85084756794
SN - 2363-6203
VL - 6
SP - 1951
EP - 1961
JO - Modeling Earth Systems and Environment
JF - Modeling Earth Systems and Environment
IS - 3
ER -
SDG 15 Life on Land