Identifying important connectivity areas for the wide‐ranging Asian elephant across conservation landscapes of Northeast India

Vasudev, Divya; Goswami, Varun R.; Srinivas, Nishanth; Syiem, Biang La Nam; Sarma, Aishanya

doi:10.1111/ddi.13419

Cited by 16 publications

(16 citation statements)

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“…On the other hand, our analyses could not fully elicit the broader deleterious impacts of certain human activities. These include threats that are (i) rapidly evolving in terms of scale, extent, and impacts, like hydropower dams and road networks (see Pandit & Grumbine 2012; Nayak et al 2020), (ii) peculiar to certain regions of the country (e.g., expansion of oil palm plantations; Srinivasan et al 2021), or (iii) difficult to quantify in terms of their long-term consequences (e.g., loss of connectivity; Vasudev et al 2021). While we did incorporate projected temperature increase and future rainfall anomalies to account for climate change impacts, zones that are likely to be the most vulnerable to these threats, i.e., coastal areas and island systems, were not part of our assessment.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prioritizing landscapes to reconcile biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services, and human well-being in India

Srivathsa

Vasudev²,

Nair

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Biodiversity conservation and human well-being are tightly interlinked; yet mismatches in the scale at which both priorities are planned have led to biodiversity loss, erosion of ecosystem services, and declining human quality of life. In India, <5% of the land area is effectively protected for conservation, while the rest is impacted by the second largest human population on the planet. This warrants landscape-level conservation planning through a judicious mix of land-sharing and land-sparing approaches, and co-production of ecosystem services. Through a multi-faceted assessment, we prioritize spatial extents of land parcels that, in the face of anthropogenic threats, can safeguard conservation landscapes across India's biogeographic zones. We find that only a fraction (~15%) of such priority areas identified here are encompassed under India's extant PA network, and several landscapes of high importance were omitted in all previous global-scale assessments. We then examined the spatial congruence of priority areas with administrative units earmarked for economic development by the Indian government, and propose management-zoning through State-driven and participatory approaches. Our spatially explicit insights can help meet the twin goals of biodiversity conservation and sustainable development in a strategically important country for Asia.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prioritizing landscapes to reconcile biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services, and human well-being in India

Srivathsa

Vasudev²,

Nair

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…The effectiveness of conservation efforts through PAs also depends on representativeness, connectivity, and integration of PAs in the larger landscape (Aichi Target 11) [1]. With fewer functional corridors connecting PAs in India, the surrounding human-use matrix plays an important role in the dispersal and movement of animals [17,18]. For the success of these species in the PAs, they must be surrounded by sustainably managed landscapes, mimicking an adaptive mosaic [19][20][21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conservation Prioritization in a Tiger Landscape: Is Umbrella Species Enough?

Vasudeva

Upgupta

Singh

et al. 2022

Land

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Conservation approaches in tiger landscapes have focused on single species and their habitat. Further, the limited extent of the existing protected area network in India lacks representativeness, habitat connectivity, and integration in the larger landscape. Our objective was to identify sites important for connected tiger habitat and biodiversity potential in the Greater Panna Landscape, central India. Further, we aimed to set targets at the landscape level for conservation and prioritize these sites within each district in the landscape as specific management/conservation zones. We used earth observation data to derive an index of biodiversity potential. Marxan was used to identify sites that met tiger and biodiversity conservation targets with minimum costs. We found that to protect 50% of the tiger habitat with connectivity, 20% of the landscape area must be conserved. To conserve 100% of high biodiversity potential, 50% moderate biodiversity potential, and 25% low biodiversity potential, 55% of the landscape area must be conserved. To represent both tiger habitat and biodiversity, 62% of the total landscape area requires conservation or restoration intervention. The prioritized zones can prove significant for hierarchical decision making, involving multiple stakeholders in the landscape, including other tiger range areas.

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“…However, a majority of the studies on connectivity analysis are based on the characteristics of the landscape [59,63,64,[68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76], while only few studies [69,70] have considered human-wildlife conflict occurrence when assessing connectivity. Conflict-prone regions act as a significant movement barrier, which forces the species to adapt accordingly by changing their use of resources [76][77][78]. Therefore, ignoring conflict occurrence can overestimate the effectiveness of connectivity, as it could lead researchers to overlook the probable effects of conflict along the estimated pathways that lead to the funneling of species into ecological traps in the conflict prone regions [69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Conflict-prone regions act as a significant movement barrier, which forces the species to adapt accordingly by changing their use of resources [76][77][78]. Therefore, ignoring conflict occurrence can overestimate the effectiveness of connectivity, as it could lead researchers to overlook the probable effects of conflict along the estimated pathways that lead to the funneling of species into ecological traps in the conflict prone regions [69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many quantitative approaches, such as the least-resistant path [53,57,58,[60][61][62] and the circuit theory [63][64][65][66][67], have been recently developed to assess the connectivity and barriers associated with movement pathways. However, a majority of the studies on connectivity analysis are based on the characteristics of the landscape [59,63,64,[68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76], while only few studies [69,70] have considered human-wildlife conflict occurrence when assessing connectivity. Conflict-prone regions act as a significant movement barrier, which forces the species to adapt accordingly by changing their use of resources [76][77][78].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Analysis of Landscape Connectivity among the Habitats of Asian Elephants in Keonjhar Forest Division, India

et al. 2021

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Land development has impacted natural landforms extensively, causing a decline in resources and negative consequences to elephant populations, habitats, and gene flow. Often, elephants seek to fulfill basic needs by wandering into nearby human communities, which leads to human–elephant conflict (HEC), a serious threat to conserving this endangered species. Understanding elephant space use and connectivity among their habitats can offset barriers to ecological flow among fragmented populations. We focused on the Keonjhar Forest Division in Eastern India, where HEC has resulted in the deaths of ~300 people and several hundred elephants, and damaged ~4100 houses and ~12,700 acres of cropland between 2001 and 2018. Our objectives were to (1) analyze elephant space use based on their occupancy; (2) map connectivity by considering the land structure and HEC occurrences; (3) assess the quality of mapped connectivity and identify potential bottlenecks. We found that (1) the study area has the potential to sustain a significant elephant population by providing safe connectivity; (2) variables like forests, precipitation, rural built-up areas, cropland, and transportation networks were responsible for predicting elephant presence (0.407, SE = 0.098); (3) five habitat cores, interconnected by seven corridors were identified, of which three habitat cores were vital for maintaining connectivity; (4) landscape features, such as cropland, rural built-up, mining, and transportation networks created bottlenecks that could funnel elephant movement. Our findings also indicate that overlooking HEC in connectivity assessments could lead to overestimation of functionality. The study outcomes can be utilized as a preliminary tool for decision making and early planning during development projects.

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Identifying important connectivity areas for the wide‐ranging Asian elephant across conservation landscapes of Northeast India

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creat ive Commo ns Attri bution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cited by 16 publications

References 65 publications

Prioritizing landscapes to reconcile biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services, and human well-being in India

Prioritizing landscapes to reconcile biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services, and human well-being in India

Conservation Prioritization in a Tiger Landscape: Is Umbrella Species Enough?

Analysis of Landscape Connectivity among the Habitats of Asian Elephants in Keonjhar Forest Division, India

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