Abstract
The Indian crested porcupine (Hystrix indica) is a vertebrate pest of agricultural lands and forest. The study was aimed to report the damage to local crops by the Indian crested porcupine (Hystrix indica) in the Muzaffarabad District. A survey was conducted to identify the porcupine-affected areas and assess the crop damage to the local farmers in district Muzaffarabad Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) from May 2017 to October 2017. Around 19 villages were surveyed, and a sum of 191 semi-structured questionnaires was distributed among farmers. Crop damage was found highest in village Dhanni where a porcupine destroyed 175 Kg/Kanal of the crops. Regarding the total magnitude of crop loss, village Danna and Koomi kot were the most affected areas. More than half (51.8%) of the respondents in the study area suffered the economic loss within the range of 101-200$, and (29.8%) of the people suffered losses in the range of 201-300$ annually. Among all crops, maize (Zea mays) was found to be the most damaged crop ranging between 1-300 Kg annually. In the study area, porcupine also inflicted a lot of damages to some important vegetables, including spinach (Spinacia oleracea), potato (Solanum tuberosum) and onion (Allium cepa). It was estimated that, on average, 511Kg of vegetables are destroyed by porcupine every year in the agricultural land of Muzaffarabad. It was concluded that the Indian crested porcupine has a devastating effect on agriculture which is an important source of income and food for the local community. Developing an effective pest control strategy with the help of the local government and the Wildlife department could help the farmers to overcome this problem.
Highlights
Indian crested porcupine (Hystrix indica) is a very widespread species with no major threats, it is assessed as Least Concern and is considered as a pest (Amori et al, 2016)
The results indicated that economic loss and magnitude of crop damage was considerably high enough to affect the socio-economic condition of the local community
Results showed that 53% of respondents (n=101) of affected people cultivated all types of vegetables, including spinach (Spinacia oleracea), mustard leaves, potato (Solanum tuberosum), and onion (Allium cepa)
Summary
Indian crested porcupine (Hystrix indica) is a very widespread species with no major threats, it is assessed as Least Concern and is considered as a pest (Amori et al, 2016). It belongs to order Rodentia and family Hystricidae. It is a large rodent having average weight of 11 to 18 Kg and an average lifespan of 27.1 years (Voss et al, 2013). In Azad Kashmir, it is found in the upland valleys of Jhelum and Neelum, in deciduous forests of Machiara National Park at 3,200 m elevation (Mushtaq et al, 2013)
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