Corbett Tiger Reserve Research Articles

Distribution Model Reveals Rapid Decline in Habitat Extent for Endangered Hispid Hare: Implications for Wildlife Management and Conservation Planning in Future Climate Change Scenarios.

The hispid hare, Caprolagus hispidus, belonging to the family Leporidae is a small grassland mammal found in the southern foothills of the Himalayas, in India, Nepal, and Bhutan. Despite having an endangered status according to the IUCN Red List, it lacks studies on its distribution and is threatened by habitat loss and land cover changes. Thus, the present study attempted to assess the habitat suitability using the species distribution model approach for the first time and projected its future in response to climate change, habitat, and urbanization factors. The results revealed that out of the total geographical extent of 188,316 km2, only 11,374 km2 (6.03%) were identified as suitable habitat for this species. The results also revealed that habitat significantly declined across its range (>60%) under certain climate change scenarios. Moreover, in the present climate scenario protected areas such as Shuklaphanta National Park (0.837) in Nepal exhibited the highest mean extent of habitat whereas, in India, Dibru-Saikhowa National Park (0.631) is found to be the most suitable habitat. Notably, two protected areas in Uttarakhand, India, specifically Corbett National Park (0.530) and Sonanandi Wildlife Sanctuary (0.423), have also demonstrated suitable habitats for C. hispidus. Given that protected areas showing a future rise in habitat suitability might also be regarded as potential sites for species translocation, this study underscores the importance of implementing proactive conservation strategies to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change on this species. It is essential to prioritize habitat restoration, focused protection measures, and further species-level ecological exploration to address these challenges effectively. Furthermore, fostering transboundary collaboration and coordinated conservation actions between nations is crucial to safeguarding the long-term survival of the species throughout its distribution range.

Human-wildlife conflicts (sudden increase in tiger attacks on humans) in adjacent areas of Corbett National Park Ramnagar Uttarakhand, India (from November 2023 to January 2024)

Human-wildlife conflicts become a common problem in Ramnagar tehsil of district Nainital in Uttarakhand state in India. The incidence of tiger attacks has suddenly increased in the villages adjoining Corbett Park, Ramnagar Forest Division and Tarai-West Forest Division during three months of winter (from November 2023 to January 2024). Tiger hunger, unavailability of adequate food (Cheetal/Sambar, etc.), man-eaters tigers, increasing population density of tigers, old age tigers with worn and broken claws, disturbance of their alertness and breeding (by noise of safari, bike and public vehicle), large herds of Cheetal in villages near the forest, foreign tiger in this area, need for tiger territory in buffer area (shrinking territory) etc. are main reasons for tiger attacks in these incidences. Both humans and tigers are affected by these conflicts. After these incidents, the Forest department cut small trees and bushes on both sides of the road from the buffer area (about 20-30 feet) and the road has become clear. With this, the tiger will not be able to hide in the bushes on the roadside and sit in ambush, and tiger attacks will be reduced.

Assessing Women Participation in Ecotourism: Unveiling Benefits, and Challenges in Corbett Tiger Reserve

Assessing Women Participation in Ecotourism: Unveiling Benefits, and Challenges in Corbett Tiger Reserve

Monthly variation in group size of cheetal deer (Axis axis Erxleben, 1777) in Jim Corbett National Park Uttarakhand, India

Cheetal deer (Axis axis Erxleben, 1777) is the most abundance species of deer found in Corbett National Park. The Bijrani and Jhirna, two zones of Corbett Park (with abundance of wildlife) are selected for the study of Cheetal. The primary data for this study is mainly based on direct observation by field visits in the study area. The largest group of Cheetal deer was 252 and the highest mean group size was 79.6 found in March 2019 in Jhirna zone. While in Bijrani zone the largest group of Cheetal deer was 172 individual and the highest mean group size was 56.4 found in March 2019. According to this study there is a variation in monthly group size of Cheetal deer and number of groups in both Bijrani and Jhirna zone of Corbett National Park. The group aggregation of Cheetal deer depends upon maximum and minimum temperature, food availability, visibility in park and number of more babies in group (fawning season). In March (spring) there is sufficient food available in the grassland and shrub area (new sprouting grass) so the population of Cheetal deer is found highest and also group size is found largest in Corbett National Park.

Direct and Indirect Evidence of Wildlife Presence in Corbett National Park Ramnagar Uttarakhand, India

Corbett National Park is a dense forest gifted by nature with huge flora and fauna. But it is difficult to see all the animals of its fauna together because most of the animals are nocturnal and live in the core area of Corbett Park. Hence some large mammals like Tigers, Elephants, Jackals, wild boar, herbivores species, some birds and some reptiles etc. are directly visible in Corbett. Sometimes animal is not found directly but its body parts like bones, antlers, teeth, nails, feathers or other evidence like fecal matter, dropping, footprints, eggs, feathers, skin hairs, nest, holes, pits, scent, blood spots/ meat, scrapping marks on trees (claw/nails), peeled bark, bitten grass, bite marks on green leaves and dropped fruits etc. are found which show the presence of particular animal species. These evidence are helpful in field visits to study the animal life, its behaviour, its population, its feeding preference, its territory and its movement etc. All these evidences attract the Tourists, researchers, wildlife lovers, birdwatchers, nature conservators and local communities towards the forest and helpful in research studies and in conservation projects also make the forest journey more adventurous.

Nutrients richness in soil and in some common favourite food species of Cheetal deer (Axis axis) and Sambar deer (Cervus unicolor) in Corbett National Park Uttarakhand India

Nutrients richness in soil and in some common favourite food species of Cheetal deer (Axis axis) and Sambar deer (Cervus unicolor) in Corbett National Park Uttarakhand India

Seasonal Food Preference of Cheetal (Axis axis) and Sambar Deer (Cervus unicolor) In Corbett National Park, Uttarakhand

This study is based on two years field study by direct observation and questionnaire method in Bijrani and Jhirna zones of Corbett National Park. Cheetal (Axis axis) and Sambar deer (Cervus unicolor) are found with their sympatric species Barking deer in Corbett Park. The population of Cheetal and Sambar in different vegetative areas of Corbett varies according to the availability of their favourite food (seasonal). This study reveals that Cheetal preferred new sprouting of Cynadon dactylon, green Desmostachya bipinnata, Eulaliopsis binata, Setaria species, Heteropogon species, Imperata cylindrica, Saccharum bengalensis, and Saccharum narenga in grassland. In dense shrub area, Cheetal preferred green tender leaves of Murraya koenegi, Glycosmis arbores, and fruits of Ziziphus mauritiana, Emblica officinalis, and Solanum nigrum. In Sal-mixed forest Cheetal preferred green fallen leaves of Shorea robusta, Adena cordifolia, Mallotus philippensis and leaves & fruits of Syzigium cumini, Agle marmels, Ficus racemosa, Diospyras tomentosa, flowers of Bombax ceiba (calyx), Cassia fistula etc. In the water-side area Cheetal preferred Dalbergia sissoo, S. munja, Phragmites roxburghii and Acacia catechu etc. Sambar is mostly found in dense shrub area and preferred leaves of M. koenegi, G. arbores, E. officinalis, Justicia adhatoda, Z. mauritiana. In Sal-mixed forest, Sambar preferred leaves of S. robusta, A. cordifolia, A. marmeles, Dendrocalamus strictus, and flowers of B. ceiba etc. In grassland, Sambar preferred S. munja, I. cylindrica, D. bipinnata, E. binata. In water-side Sambar preferred A. arabica, P. roxburghii, and D. sissoo on a priority basis. Sambar generally preferred course food like rough leaves, bark, seeds, flowers, soft twigs, and large grasses.

A vector of point processes for modeling interactions between and within species using capture‐recapture data

AbstractCapture‐recapture (CR) data and corresponding models have been used extensively to estimate the size of wildlife populations when detection probability is less than 1. When the locations of traps or cameras used to capture or detect individuals are known, spatially‐explicit CR models are used to infer the spatial pattern of the individual locations and population density. Individual locations, referred to as activity centers (ACs), are defined as the locations around which the individuals move. These ACs are typically assumed to be independent, and their spatial pattern is modeled using homogeneous Poisson processes. However, this assumption is often unrealistic, since individuals can interact with each other, either within a species or between different species. In this article, we consider a vector of point processes from the general class of interaction point processes and develop a model for CR data that can account for interactions, in particular repulsions, between and within multiple species. Interaction point processes present a challenge from an inferential perspective because of the intractability of the normalizing constant of the likelihood function, and hence standard Markov chain Monte Carlo procedures to perform Bayesian inference cannot be applied. Therefore, we adopt an inference procedure based on the Monte Carlo Metropolis Hastings algorithm, which scales well when modeling more than one species. Finally, we adopt an inference method for jointly sampling the latent ACs and the population size based on birth and death processes. This approach also allows us to adaptively tune the proposal distribution of new points, which leads to better mixing especially in the case of non‐uniformly distributed traps. We apply the model to a CR data‐set on leopards and tigers collected at the Corbett Tiger Reserve in India. Our findings suggest that between species repulsion is stronger than within species, while tiger population density is higher than leopard population density at the park.

Density Estimation of Tiger (Panthera tigris) in the Buffer Zone of Corbett Tiger Reserve

Information about how many animals is in an area is essential for designing management strategies for endangered species such as tiger. Due to the tigers’ elusive behaviour, high mobility and occurrence at low densities, it is difficult to determine an unbiased estimate of tiger abundance. To overcome the problem, biologists proposed camera trapping as an effective method to determine the abundance of the tiger. We used camera trapping to determine the abundance and density of the tiger in the buffer zone of the Corbett Tiger Reserve. An effort of 240 trap nights results in the identification of 20 individual adult tigers. Tiger density was estimated at 13.69±3.3 tigers per 100 km 2 . Our estimation of tiger density highlighted the role of the buffer zone in landscape-level conservation of tigers and indicated that buffer zones can support the high density of tigers if appropriately managed. Anthropogenic activities exert enormous pressure on the buffer zone and it is imperative to have holistic management strategies for the long-term conservation of tigers in the human-dominated landscape of Corbett Tiger Reserve.

Rendering land touristifiable: (eco)tourism and land use change

Critical research concerning ecotourism has revealed the activity’s socio-economic impacts, including low-wage employment-based dependencies for many rural communities. While these dynamics are important, a crucial aspect of the ecotourism industry that falls outside this conventional sort of dependency is land use dynamics, specifically land use change, sales and entrepreneurship. We examine these dynamics in Corbett Tiger Reserve, India, where promotion of (eco)tourism since the 1990s has influenced significant changes in local land use. These changes were initially facilitated by outsiders buying land and setting up hotels and resorts in villages adjoining the Reserve. Empirical research reveals that while this initial boom of outsiders buying land has waned, land owning villagers are now setting up tourism enterprises on their own land, thereby diversifying land use from agriculture to tourism. Critical agrarian research has shown that material and symbolic factors influence farmers’ decision-making regarding land use change. An agrarian studies perspective thus facilitates a nuanced understanding of tourism-related land use diversification and change. By bringing agrarian and ecotourism studies approaches together here, we contribute to both by emphasising the importance of (eco)tourism in agrarian change and of attention to land use change in ecotourism studies to understand how rural people negotiate and navigate (eco)tourism in relation to land use. We also contribute to tourism geographies more broadly by highlighting how land use decision-making shapes local spaces in the course of ecotourism development. We draw attention to the broader processes of and impacts of ecotourism that shift generational rural land use influenced by changing values of land outside a protected area. Rendering land touristifiable deepens villagers’ dependence on the market and alienates them from their land. Ecotourism commodifies nature, and we show that this commodification extends to rural land outside of ecotourism zones per se.

An intersectional approach to neoliberal environmentality: Women's engagement with ecotourism at Corbett Tiger Reserve, India

Research in environmentality has provided an analysis of environmentally friendly subject formation through the influence of conservation governance. Within this research, examination of subject formation from the local community perspective is also gaining attention. However, a gender perspective in environmentality research remains marginal. This study thus contributes to environmentality research by drawing on intersectional feminist political ecology to examine women's engagement with ecotourism in the context of India's Corbett Tiger Reserve. Ecotourism as a form of market-based conservation has been commonly framed as an expression of neoliberal environmentality. Neoliberal environmentality is reflected in market-centred incentives used to promote conservation and support for local people via employment in conservation-based work - a supposedly ‘win-win’ dynamic. Through ethnographic research, I provide insights into different forms of women's engagement with tourism. The analysis reveals that this engagement does not necessarily produce the environmentally friendly subject that environmentality analysis predicts. Rather, women's engagement is shaped by intersecting dynamics of caste and class and motivated by factors including but not limited to monetary benefits. This study thus questions the dominant approach to investigating neoliberal environmentality in particular, that tends to emphasise the influence of monetary incentives in producing environmentally friendly subjects.

Micro-Politics and the Prospects for Convivial Conservation: Insights from the Corbett Tiger Reserve, India

Micro-Politics and the Prospects for Convivial Conservation: Insights from the Corbett Tiger Reserve, India

Economics of carnivore depredation: A case study from the northern periphery of Corbett Tiger Reserve, Uttarakhand, India

Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) supports several important species such as the tiger (Panthera tigris), leopard (Panthera pardus), elephant (Elephas maximus), and sambar (Cervus unicolor). Some of the species are involved in crop damage, livestock depredation, and human injuries or causalities, causing economic and social losses. Tigers and leopards are perceived as the major threat, causing economic losses to the people living around the protected areas (PAs), because of livestock depredation. Alternatively, the local community also draws benefits from the forest, which are seldom considered part of their economy. Here, we assessed the economic losses and benefits to the people at the northern periphery of the CTR based on semi-structured questionnaire survey of 301 respondents in 26 villages, between January and June 2018. We also determined the socio-economic factors associated with forest dependency using Ordinary Least Square regression (OLS). Most respondents (98%) reported reliance on the forest for fuelwood, fodder, and cattle grazing. Income from forest resources (US$ 1102.2 ± 63.6/hh/yr)22hh: Household, yr.: Year contributed significantly to the livelihood of the people (26.5 ± 1.3%). The income from fuelwood (US$ 188.1 ± 2.2/hh/yr), fodder (US$ 335.0 ± 10.0/hh/yr) and livestock grazing (US$ 618.1 ± 59.9/hh/yr) contributed 5.6 ± 0.3%, 9.3 ± 0.6%, and 11.6 ± 1%, respectively, to the household's total income. Reliance on forest resources was positively associated with the number of livestock and female participation in resource extraction, and negatively with the employment, age, education of respondents, and use of modern source of energy -Liquid Petroleum Gas. People incurred a cost of US$ 110.5 ± 4.7/hh/yr due to livestock depredation. It was estimated that benefits drawn from the forest exceed the losses incurred due to livestock depredation. Therefore, we recommend that a cost-benefit analysis is essential before designing conflict mitigation strategies. Since the compensatory schemes in India have largely struggled to achieve their objectives, it is, therefore, emphasised to find other measures, such as payment of ecosystem services (PES), to reduce conflict for maintaining a peaceful co-existence of human and carnivores.

Ecotourism spatio-temporal models to identify visitation patterns across the Indian Himalayan Region

Visitation patterns across protected areas of Uttarakhand, India reflect a unique amalgamation of natural, cultural and religious aspects of vulnerable mountain tourism destinations. These aspects act as predictors in determining visitation rates and identifying destination specific tourism models. Using the mixed methods approach based on field surveys, geotagged photographs and InVEST recreation tool, this study (1) maps the spatio-temporal movement of visitors across ten sampled protected areas of Uttarakhand (2) identifies predictor variables contributing to visitation across Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary (BWLS) of Uttarakhand (3) explores the visitors’ decision to recreate at specific locations across BWLS based on four tourism models and (4) determines the prevalent tourism model across BWLS. The visitation pattern assessment suggest Rajaji National Park as the most visited protected area in Uttarakhand, but the highest density of photographed location existed within the Corbett National Park. That, visitation to National Park outnumbers visitation to wildlife sanctuaries in Uttarakhand and preferably over the months of March–April (Spring) and October–November (Winter). Binomial logistic regression analysis on Flickr generated photographs reveals community-based ecotourism as the prevalent tourism model across Binsar. Human settlements and natural water springs of the sanctuary were key predictors affecting visitation in Binsar. The grounded nature of this research presents the ecotourism interacting variables addressing spatial movement of visitors across protected areas of critical importance, to manage tourism destinations sustainably.

Demographic and ecological correlates of a recovering tiger (Panthera tigris) population: Lessons learnt from 13-years of monitoring

Efforts are on to recover tiger populations range-wide, but we lack suitable metrics to characterise and evaluate such recoveries. Identifying such metrics requires an understanding of tiger population dynamics and its ecological correlates in either recovering populations or those exposed to anthropogenic influences. We monitored a recovering tiger population from 2004 to 2017 in Rajaji National Park, India. Using photographic data and spatial capture-recapture models in an inviolate site vacated by pastoralists (zone 1), we identified demographic parameters of a recovering population. By contrasting it with a site that is presently occupied by pastoralists (zone 3) and one that is isolated (zone 3), we identified conditions facilitating recovery. In zone 1, connected to a large source population in Corbett Tiger Reserve, density increased from 2.08 tigers/100 km2 to 7.07 tigers/100 km2 corresponding to an annual growth rate of 4.5%. Density also increased in zone 2 (2.6 tigers/100 km2 to 6.22 tigers/100 km2), but estimated apparent survival was 0.47 against 0.81 in zone 1. Recovery in zone 1 was accompanied by increased survival of females, while female tenure was shorter in zone 2. Due to the lack of functional connectivity, tigers in zone 3 are facing local extinction. Our results demonstrate that creating inviolate spaces to secure breeding populations and maintaining landscape-wide connectivity to expand breeding cores is critical for recovery. We highlight that relying solely on population increase may lead to unreliable inferences about population performance and instead suggest tracking survival and female land tenure to qualify recovery and success of conservation interventions.

First breeding record of Indian Nuthatch <I>Sitta castanea</I> from Uttarakhand - an addition to the avifauna of Corbett Tiger Reserve

First breeding record of Indian Nuthatch <I>Sitta castanea</I> from Uttarakhand - an addition to the avifauna of Corbett Tiger Reserve

Summary of recent Vulture sightings at the Southern boundary of Corbett Tiger Reserve, Western Terai-Arc Landscape, Uttarakhand, India

Summary of recent Vulture sightings at the Southern boundary of Corbett Tiger Reserve, Western Terai-Arc Landscape, Uttarakhand, India

Patterns in distribution of butterfly assemblages at different habitats of Corbett Tiger Reserve, Northern India

Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) located in state Uttarakhand is the first protected area established for in-situ conservation of biodiversity in India. Despite its national importance, there exists lacunae in knowledge on butterflies, important from the viewpoints of effective planning and implementation of conservation actions in the CTR. Using standardized methods, the present study conducted between 2013 to 2014 was aimed to record butterfly species composition and distribution in different sampling regimes of the CTR in relation to habitat types and disturbances. Study revealed a total of 2621 individual butterflies of 56 species under 5 families. Among them, 24 species belong to the Nymphalidae family, 14 species to the Pieridae, 9 species to the Lycaenidae, 5 species to the Papilionidae and 4 species to the Hesperiidae. 50% of the total species were recorded as ubiquitous and 30 species are new records to the CTR. Species such as Catopsilia pomona (Fabricius), Papilio polytes (Cramer), Eurema hecabe (Linnaeus), Catopsilia pyranthe (Linnaeus) were most abundant and Athyma zeroca (Moore), Sarangesa purendra (Moore), Cyrestis thyodamas (Boisduval), Polyura agraria (Swinhoe) were least abundant species. Variations in the calculated diversity indices across the seasons were observed; wherein, summer season exhibited maximum value for Shannon-Diversity index, followed by late monsoon and early winter. Lowest diversity of butterflies was observed during the periods of late winter. Presence of seven species under the Indian Wildlife Protection Act and five species as rare, substantiate the importance of pristine conditions prevailing in the protected landscape of the reserve. Ongoing tourism activities and habitat alterations threatening butterfly diversity and ecological integrity of the CTR, were also discussed.

Investigating Environmental Transgressions at Corbett Tiger Reserve, India

Through a qualitative lens involving both in-depth interviews and focus groups, this research attempts to probe the issues of environmental transgressions caused by tourists and tourism providers in one of the oldest and largest national parks in India, the Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR), Uttrakhand. It reveals that even though tourism stakeholders are conscious of environmental transgressions, concrete efforts towards environmentally sustainable practices in CTR do not seem to be a priority. Nevertheless, this research suggests that visitor’s noncompliant behavior may be altered by enhancing place attachment through repeat visitations, improving visitor experiences, and effective information dissemination. Also, future tourism operations may require a reduction in environmental transgressions through the creation of an agency that can assist community-based tourism operations.

Demography of a high‐density tiger population and its implications for tiger recovery

Abstract Prioritizing conservation of source populations within landscapes is proposed as a strategy for recovering tigers globally. We studied population dynamics of tigers in Corbett National Park (CNP) in Indian Terai, which harbours the largest and highest density tiger population in any protected area of the world. Through population viability models, we demonstrate the importance of CNP in tiger recovery within western Terai. We camera trapped 521 km2 of CNP using open population capture–mark–recapture framework between 2010 and 2015 to estimate annual abundance, spatially explicit density, survival, recruitment, temporary movements, sex ratio and proportion of females breeding. We model metapopulation persistence with and without Corbett as a source within western Terai landscape at different levels of poaching and habitat connectivity. In 6 years, we recorded 6,202 photo‐captures of 307 individual tigers. Annual tiger abundance and density were stable at 120 (SE 19) and 14 (SE 3) per 100 km2 respectively. Detection probability of tigers was 0.18 (SE 0.03) and detection‐corrected male:female sex ratio was female biased (0.80 SE 0.13). Apparent annual survival probability was 0.79 (SE 0.05) for females and 0.60 (SE 0.04) for males. Survival of tigers in CNP (0.68 SE 0.12) was lower than that reported for other populations. CNP tigers showed high reproduction with 54.8 (SE 5.1)% females breeding and with addition of 35 (SE 8)% as new recruits to the population each year. Small tiger populations in western Terai with moderate poaching could only persist through dispersal from CNP. Synthesis and applications. Corbett tiger population was characterized by a stable high density, high reproductive rate and low survival, resulting in high turnover rates (32%–48%) between successive years. Such source populations could sustain low‐level poaching and with habitat connectivity, recover tiger populations across the landscape. This study establishes potential thresholds that can likely be achieved by tiger populations under optimal natural conditions and highlights the importance of prioritizing conservation of source populations within tiger landscapes. This information can be used to plan and implement realistic tiger recovery programmes globally.