Elephant Habitat Suitability Analysis of Alipurduar District, West Bengal Using Geospatial Technology

Abstract

In India’s Tarai-Dooars region, elephants are the most common wildlife species. The man-wildlife conflict has arisen as a result of forest scarcity, forest fragmentation, global climate change, land use land cover change in the Dooars region, and encroachment into forest life. Although the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 addressed the conservation of wild animals, the number of wild elephants in West Bengal was constantly changing. The goal of this project is to use geospatial technologies to determine wild elephant habitat suitability zones in West Bengal’s Alipurduar area. The first stage in the conservation and management of wild elephants is to determine their habitat suitability. To assess the result, the various habitat suitability factors/parameters of wild elephants were integrated through weighted overlay analysis in the ArcGIS environment. The result shows that the central part of the district - the Buxa forest area, holds the largest suitable environment for elephant habitat. The rest of the study area can be categorized as a medium habitat suitable area excluding some settlements and built-up areas. The authors hope the result will help the proper management and conservation of wild elephants.