Annotated Checklist and Conservation Status of Mammal Species in Sarpang District, Bhutan

Bhutan has a total geographical area of 38,394 Km² located in between the Indo-Malayan and Palearctic region, out of which 51.44% (19750.75 km²) of its total geographical area has been designated as the protected area. However, none of the districts have a structured baseline checklist of mammal species documented till date. Therefore, Sarpang Forest Division under the Department of Forests and Park Services had carried out five rigorous camera trap surveys including a nationwide tiger survey that covers representable areas of the district from 2014 till 2020. The survey shows that district has 36 mammal species that belong to 18 families under seven orders. Felidae and Cervidae families has the highest species abundance (n = 17%), while, Canidae, Herpestidae, Leporidae, Manidae, Melinae, Muridae, Mustelidae, Tupaiidae, Proboscidae, Pteromyidae, Suidae and Ursidae were the lowest (n = 3%). Above all, Sarpang homed 29.90% of total mammal species of Bhutan, out of which 3% of mammal species were categorized under Critically Endangered, 14% Endangered, 14% Vulnerable, 22% Near Threatened, and 47% Least Concern as per IUCN Red List. However, only 20 mammal species are listed under CITES and nine in Schedule I of Forest and Nature Conservation Act of Bhutan, 1995. Therefore, landscape-based planning such as the Division-based Conservation & Management plan; periodic monitoring of wildlife species using camera traps, and validation of Schedule I species are suggested for long-term conservation and management of globally threatened species inside the landscape of Sarpang district in Bhutan.

CONSEQUENCES OF LOSS OF COMMON PROPERTY RESOURCES IN THE SELECTED BLOCK, DINDIGUL DISTRICT OF TAMILNADU

Common property land resources include grazing ground, community pasture, village forests and woodlots, and village sites, on which the villagers have legal usufructuary rights; these land resources also include all another land formally held by the panchayat or a community of the villages (NSS 54th round). For a collection of data of common land resources de jure and e facto approaches were considered. Forest land resources which are under the jurisdiction of the forest department was also considered as poor dependent rural communities are directly or indirectly dependent on the forest for livelihoods. From the report of NSS 54th round, it is observed that 15% of India’s total geographical area substantially forms a part of common land resources. Consequences of loss of common property resources and depletion of common property resources resulted largely because there was no private cost for using these resources. Privatization of common property resources in the arid zone has invariably meant the conversion of common property resources land into cropland.

India in Twenty First Century: Human Wildlife Conflicts Still Unsolved

ABSTRACT Although India has succeeded in creation of 868 Protected Areas (PA) covering its 5.02 percent of the total geographical area; it comes with a social cost. With high population pressure and livelihood based on nature and natural resources, India is yet to find a pragmatic win-win solution for solving the problem of Human-Wildlife Conflict (HWC) in the twenty-first century. In the present paper, the authors discuss the nature of HWCs occurring in the country and major challenges in mitigation measures by analyzing the research trend, available literature sources, reports and with a special focus on two case studies from India, that is, Manas landscape and Indian Sundarbans based on field observations. The paper identifies there is a severe requirement of proper and authentic databases and standard methodology to evaluate the ‘ecosystem (dis)-services’ in the academic discourse. The authors also highlight their reservations about the effectiveness of ‘compensation’ as a mitigation measure

The Impacts of Climate Change in Lwengo, Uganda

Climate Change has become a threat worldwide. Vulnerable communities are at foremost risk of repercussions of climate change. The present study aimed at highlighting a case study of climate change impacts on Lwengo District of Uganda. Out of the total geographical area of the district, 85% hectares are under cultivation and most of its population depends majorly on the rain- fed agriculture sector to meet the food requirement and as a major income source. With the changing climatic conditions, agriculture is the major sector which is being impacted. The region has experienced disasters from some time, usually the second seasons rains used to result in such disasters but since 2016 both seasons have occurred disasters, which majorly include hailstorm, strong wind, long dry spells, pests and diseases. The situation became more severe due to shortage of availability of skilled human resources, quality equipment for disaster management, limited financial resources and weak institutional capacity, which resulted in increasing vulnerability of small farm holders. Some of the adaptation strategies are being taken up by the government but there is a need to understand prospects of decision-making that are site specific and more sustainable for smallholder communities. Climatic changes possess many obstacles to farming communities which require sustainable adaptation to enhance the adaptive capacities of the communities through continued production systems, which are more resilient to the vagaries of weather. Farmers are practising such options which are location specific, governed by policy framework and dependent on dynamism of farmers. This study investigated how these drivers influence farmers’ decision- making in relation to climate change adaptations.

Critical insight on the recent scenario of degraded lands in India and its bioremediation status

The planet earth is composed of one-fourth of the land with a total geographical area of India as 328.2M ha. Due to various reasons, 14.64% of the land resource falls under wastelands. Rapid industrialization, intensive agricultural practices, and unsustainable urbanization lead to the degradation of land resources. Most of the time, the biophysical composition of the soil determined its utilization and productivity rate. Some are highly productive on the other hand some are less or unproductive, India has roughly 328 million hectares of land area and the land utility pattern been 43.6% agricultural, 4.6% grazing lands, 12.2% marshlands, 10.7% woodlands, 8.4% desolate land, 5.3% municipal land. The continuous increase of the population leads to pressure for uptown land. The area under non-agricultural land is used for the roads, buildings, railways, industrial establishments. In this connection, non-agricultural land is increasing which is a major concern about land degradation. Based on the secondary data this review paper discussed the contaminated land in India, respective case studies, and its remediation technologies. Many physical, chemical, and biological methods were adopted for cleaning the contaminated lands in them some are tough and some are expensive to handle.

India in Twenty First Century: Human Wildlife Conflicts Still Unsolved

ABSTRACT Although India’s succeeded in creation of 868 Protected Areas (PA) covering its 5.02 percent of the total geographical area; it comes with a social cost. With high population pressure and livelihood based on nature and natural resources, India is yet to find a pragmatic win-win solution for solving the problem of Human-Wildlife Conflict (HWC) in the twenty-first century. In the present paper, the authors discuss the nature of HWCs occurring in the country and major challenges in mitigation measures by analyzing the research trend, available literature sources, reports and with a special focus on two case studies from India, that is, Manas landscape and Indian Sundarbans based on field observations. The paper identifies there is a severe requirement of proper and authentic databases and standard methodology to evaluate the ‘ecosystem (dis)-services’ in the academic discourse. The authors also highlight their reservations about the effectiveness of ‘compensation’ as a mitigation measure.

Diversity of freshwater molluscs from the upper Brahmaputra Basin, Assam, India

A field survey was conducted for three consecutive years, 2015–17 to assess the diversity of freshwater molluscs (Gastropoda and Bivalvia) of the upper Brahmaputra Basin in Assam, India. Altogether, 18 gastropods and 27 bivalve species representing nine families were recorded from 17 sampling stations comprising small to large tributaries and wetlands in the flood-plains covering a total geographical area of approximately 3,500km2. A large fraction (15.55%) of the collected mollusc species are new records from the upper Brahmaputra Basin of Assam. Rarity in the occurrence of freshwater mollusc was confirmed with singleton and doubleton species accounting for 6.66% and unique species accounting for 35.55% of the total species recorded. It was observed that most of the mollusc species of the upper Brahmaputra Basin are either in the ‘Least Concern’ or ‘Data Deficient’ category of the IUCN Red List; except for Lymnaea ovalior (Annandale & Prashad, 1921) and Sphaerium austeni Prashad, 1921 assessed as ‘Vulnerable’ and ‘Near Threatened’, respectively. A significant trend in the diversity in terms of species richness and composition was observed across the sampling stations of the northern basin and southern basin of the river Brahmaputra.

பழங்குடிகளும் பொது வெளிச்சமூகமும் - ஓர் பார்வை

India has one of the largest concentrations of tribal population in the world after Africa. The Tribal areas of India are mostly sheltered and remote, as a result of it a very little is known about their conditions and problems. The tribes are more compared not only in relation to the general population, but also compared with scheduled caste, the other acknowledged backward social group with constitutional protection. Tamil Nadu is one of the major states of the southern zone in India, consists of important tribal groups. The tribal areas of Tamil Nadu can be broadly divided into two major geographical dimensions such as the eastern coastal line and the mountainous regions of the north and west. The average elevation of the Eastern Ghats is 2000 feet and the highest peak is 6000 feet. This range is not continuous in Tamil Nadu. The Indian Sub-continent, in the Indian geographical area of Tamil Nadu covers about 1, 30,000 sq kms, representing nearly four percent of the total geographical area. There are more than 40 different tribes in Tamil Nadu. Scholars believe that most languages are closely related to Tamil and belong to the Dravidian language family.

Potentiality and irrigability assessment of Shiwalik hill soils of Himachal Pradesh

The soils and lands developed under sub-humid sub-tropical climate of Shiwalik foot hills of Himachal Pradesh were evaluated for their productivity and potentiality under different land uses viz. agriculture, pastures and forest/tree crops and suitability for sustained irrigation. The actual productivity of these soils for agriculture was rated extremely poor to nil, poor and average comprising 80.4, 11.3 and 4.4% of total geographical area (TGA) of the watershed, respectively. The corresponding productivity for pastures was 12.0, 51.2 and 33% of TGA. The actual productivity of all these lands for forest/tree land use was found to be extremely poor to nil. The potential productivity for agriculture was in poor, average, good and excellent classes comprising 64.4, 10.5, 12.7 and 8.6% of TGA, respectively. Whereas, it was found to be average, good and excellent for pastures in 39.4, 48.2 and 8.6% of TGA, respectively. For forest/tree land use, the potential productivity was found to be extremely poor to nil for majority of the soils comprising 74% of TGA. Other classesviz. poor and average covered only 14.7 and 7.5% of TGA, respectively. Thus, productivity of most of the soils could be increased to a greatextent by applying improvement measures to overcome the identified constraints as indicated by their potential productivity classes.Based on characteristics pertaining to soil, topography, drainage conditions and cost of land development these lands were classified into four irrigability sub-classes (3s, 4ts, 5ts and 6ts) according to the kind and degree of limitations for sustained use under irrigation. The respective classes covered 115.71, 105.2, 380.45 and 797.29 ha comprising 8.0, 7.2, 26.2 and 54.8% of TGA, there being no class 1 or 2 irrigable land. Topography, shallow soil depth, coarse soil texture, high permeability and low available water capacity are the main limiting factors identified those may be manipulated suitably to increase production potential of these lands.

Soil degradation in Kerala state and a case study on socio-economic impact due to flood in its Idukki district

Land degradation is the reduction of the biological or economic productivity of cropland, pasture, forest, and woodlands of which soil degradation is the major contributor. The present study was undertaken to understand the type and degree of major type of soil degradation, viz soil erosion and acidity in Kerala and to study the socio-economic impact of the flood on individual households in Idukki district during 2018. Random sampling was undertaken with a total sample of 180 households from different occupational background for the case study. Various studies conducted in pre-flood period revealed that in Kerala, 94.7 % of the total geographical area were acidic and 71.28 % were eroded, whereas in Idukki 96.3 % of the total geographical area is acidic and 80 % were eroded. United Nations post-disaster need assessment report has estimated a total economic loss of Rs.31,000 crores in Kerala due to flood. Agricultural sector (Rs 3646 crores), fisheries (Rs 93.72 crores), forestry (Rs 9.55 crores), infrastructure, power, housing and tourism sector (Rs 2000 crores) also suffered economic losses post-flood in Kerala. The case study in Idukki district revealed that average damage cost of individuals due to flood with different occupational status was Rs.13.36 lakhs with relative damage cost of 364 %. As farmers are reluctant to undertake soil conservation activities due to high labour costs and capital-intensive plantation crops, public investment has to be strengthened conservation of natural resources of flood-affected areas of Kerala.