A Framework for Indigenous Community-Based Climate Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment in the Garo Hills, North-East India

North East India is extremely rich in natural resources and is a biodiversity hotspot. Many plant species, including Citrus are known to have originated from this region. Citus macroptera Mont. is a wild, endangered species which have been found to exist naturally in various parts of this region, including Meghalaya. To access the genetic variability among genotypes and their phylogeny, 30 genotypes of wild C. macroptera Mont. were collected from Garo Hills of Meghalaya. Single primer based DNA markers viz. RAPD, ISSR, DAMD were utilized to ascertain genetic diversity. The percentage polymorphic bands for RAPD, ISSR, DAMD were found to be 97.71%, 94.67% and 100% respectively. ISSR showed the highest values for both RP (7.67) and MI (5.03) highlighting its efficacy in determining genetic variations. A concatenated approach, Single Primer Amplification Reaction (SPAR) was also followed to assess their genetic diversity. Dendogram generated from SPAR data showed that the South-West Garo Hills population is the most recently evolved amongst all others while West Garo Hills collections retain an ancestral position in the evolutionary time-frame. Population genetics parametres such as Gene flow (Nm) and the diversity among populations (GST) were found to be 1.9894 and 0.2009 respectively. Gene flow estimates (Nm>1) suggests appreciable gene flow in the populations. AMOVA data further supported this with high percentage of variations (92%) within populations whereas variations among populations were about 8% only. Shannon’s information index (I) values and Nei’s gene diversity (h) varied between 0.303-0.423and 0.201-0.285 respectively. The use of SPAR method yields a clear and concise picture of the underlying genetic variabilities, and a detailed and comprehensive data analysis will help conceive efficient and sustainable conservation strategies for this important plant.

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Geospatial Modeling To Assess Geomorphological Risk For Relentless Shifting Cultivation In Garo Hills Of Meghalaya, North East India

International Journal of Environment ◽

10.3126/ije.v2i1.9212 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 91-104 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Pramod Kumar Yadav ◽

Kiranmay Sarma ◽

Ashish Kumar Mishra

Keyword(s):

Shifting Cultivation ◽

Anthropogenic Activities ◽

Remote Sensing Data ◽

Northeast India ◽

Ecological Condition ◽

North East India ◽

North East ◽

Dense Forest ◽

Open Forest ◽

Garo Hills

Due to shifting cultivation, the overall structure and composition of ecological condition is affected, hence landscape study becomes important for maintaining ecological diversity and appropriate scientific planning of any area. Garo hills region of northeast India is suffering from Geomorphological risk like sheet erosion, landslide etc. due to the age old tradition of shifting cultivation in the fragile hill slopes aided by other anthropogenic activities. The present study was conducted to examine the role of shifting cultivation for deforestation and degradation with variant of slope and elevation to relate vegetation cover with slope and elevation in the Garo Hills landscape of Meghalaya using temporal remote sensing data of 1991, 2001 and 2010. It revealed that there is decrease in dense forest and open forest during the 1st decade while areas under dense forest and non-forest increased in 2nd decade. This increased forest area is confined in the high slopes, which are inaccessible. The study shows increase in shifting cultivation near-about double fold in high slope and more than a double fold in the high altitudinal area in last decade, which is negative sign in terms of Geomorphological protection. International Journal of Environment, Volume-2, Issue-1, Sep-Nov 2013, Pages 91-104 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ije.v2i1.9212

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A new species of Bent-toed gecko (Squamata: Gekkonidae: Cyrtodactylus Gray, 1827) from the Garo Hills, Meghalaya State, north-east India, and discussion of morphological variation for C. urbanus

Herpetological Journal ◽

10.33256/31.3.177196 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 177-196

Author(s):

Rachunliu G. Kamei

Keyword(s):

New Species ◽

Morphological Variation ◽

Taxonomic Status ◽

Original Description ◽

Systematic Research ◽

Trna Genes ◽

North East India ◽

North East ◽

Garo Hills ◽

A New Species

Recent taxonomic and systematic research on Cyrtodactylus khasiensis has found that this nomen comprises a large number of superficially similar but deeply divergent species-level taxa from throughout north-east India and surrounding countries. In this study we focus on the taxonomic status of recently surveyed populations from the East Garo Hills and West Garo Hills districts and a single specimen collected from Ri Bhoi District in Meghalaya State, north-east India. Based on a combination of morphological and molecular data we found that the Ri Bhoi specimen is conspecific with the recently described C. urbanus, and that the Garo Hills populations represent a new species of Cyrtodactylus described herein. Molecular analyses (using the NADH dehydrogenase 2, nd2 and adjoining tRNA genes) demonstrate that the new species is nested within the khasiensis group of the Indo-Burma radiation of Cyrtodactylus, and is well-supported as sister to a clade that comprises C. septentrionalis and C. guwahatiensis. We morphologically compare the new C. urbanus specimen with the original description of the species, identify a number of errors and ambiguities in the original description, and notably expand the known morphological variation for the species based on 23 characters. The discovery of an endemic new species of lizards from the Garo Hills further highlights the region as an overlooked centre of biodiversity importance. We discuss several misidentifications in the literature of other reptile species from the region emphasising the need for further attention by taxonomists to review the herpetofauna of the Garo Hills.

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