Geo spatial approach for tiger habitat suitability mapping: A case study of Bandhavgarh national park, Madhya Pradesh, India

Abstract

In the present study, evaluation of Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) and their prey species (Chital & Sambar) habitat was carried out in Bandhavgarh National park by using remote sensing, ground and other ancillary data and these data sources were integrated with GIS using multi-criteria analysis (MCA) model. For the modeling, several variables in the dataset viz., forest cover density, slope, altitude, road, water body, settlement and drainage were used as independent variables in the analysis. All these data sets were considered as input data for developing the model. Expert views and field experience were considered while allotting values to variables for MCA analysis to generate final weight. The result indicated that Sal, mixed Sal, miscellaneous forest, plantation, grassland, agriculture and scrub land are the major land use/land cover types and majority of the study area is covered under forest. The habitat parameters have tremendous impact over the habitat utilization and suitability pattern of Tiger, Chital & Sambar in Bandhavgarh National Park. From this study most suitable habitat for Tiger in BNP is 1264.01 km² which is 56.48% of the total geographical area of the national park while 531.22 km² area comes under moderately suitable for tiger which is 23.74% of the total geographical area of the national park. The results pointed out that 80% of national park has been found to be high to moderately suitable for Tiger habitat. The result have been found to be an important input as baseline information for population modeling and natural resource management in the national park.