Abstract
Dudhwa National Park (DNP), important conservation areas of India supporting the full range of threatened faunal and floral species. The Barasingha, swamp deer (Rucervus duvaucelii) considered as vulnerable, one of the flagship species. The satellite imagery of 1995, 2016 and 2017were used for Habitat Suitability Analysis (HSA) using multi-criteria analysis. The other primary and secondary data were also incorporated to generate habitat suitability model. Raster imageries of Landsat 5 and Landsat 8 were used to create various themes (variables) such as forest density, land use land cover, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) along with topographic details. The result indicates that out of total geographical area approximately 2.000000-2.100000(20-21%) is highly suitable, 1.900000(19%) is appropriate, 1.800000(18%) moderately suitable, 1.700000(17%) less suitable and 1.500000-1.600000(15-16%) area is least suitable. However, the study strongly advocates that the DNP is suitable landscape and grassland were noticed as one of the best habitat class for the conservation of swamp deer.
Highlights
Habitat suitability mapping in wildlife management is an issue of global importance for the better management, conservation and protection of valuable species
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is calculated on a per-pixel basis as the normalized difference between the red and near infrared bands from an image
The study revealed the potentiality of Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) as tools for analyzing the habitat suitability
Summary
Habitat suitability mapping in wildlife management is an issue of global importance for the better management, conservation and protection of valuable species. In Dudhwa National Park (DNP), Swamp deer is known as the Barasingha is a relatively large species of deer, usually seen in herds of 8-20 individual. They are crepuscular and live in the swampy grassland and floodplains of the Indian subcontinent and differ from all other species because antlers carry more than three times. The swamp deer populations are threatened by poaching for antlers and meat. They have lost most of their former range because wetlands were converted and used for agriculture. The remaining habitat in protected areas is threatened by the change in river dynamics, increasing siltation and further degraded by anthropogenic pressures. RS and GIS procedures have been utilised widely in natural surroundings evaluation for different wildlife species
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