Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve Research Articles

Impact of human activities on wild ungulates in Nagarjunsagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve, Andhra Pradesh, India

Human activities affect wildlife in several ways, ungulates tend to avoid areas of high human use and alter their behavior to avoid human activity. We used remote camera traps to quantify the relative abundance and activity of wild ungulates in high and low human use areas within Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve (NSTR). Major human activity in NSTR included collection of forest produce and fuel wood, and livestock grazing. Poaching for bush-meat and the use of hunting dogs was also prevalent, but could not be quantified. The relative abundance of wild ungulates was high in low human-use areas except for chital and wild pigs, which require flat terrain and water found in prime areas for settlements. Diurnal ungulates like Chital and Nilgai substantially altered their activity in response to human activity, as did nocturnal species like Sambar and Mouse Deer. The demographic response of ungulates in NSTR has been poor compared to other tiger reserves that have been made free of human use. Our research highlights the importance of having human-free protected areas so as to achieve the desired conservation objectives of harbouring viable populations of large carnivores that require high prey abundance.

“Development” definitions of internally displaced people and the government: A study of the Chenchu tribe in the Nallamala forest of southern India

The Government of India’s twin objectives of protecting the tiger population in the Nallamala forest and providing “development” to the indigenous Chenchu people have resulted in an ongoing process of displacement of the Chenchu people from the forest to the town fringes. While the conservation-displacement nexus has bridged new anthropocentric pathways for development, it has also created deeper crevices in the innate relationships of the Chenchu with the forests and tigers. The research uses a bottom-up approach to present on-the-ground realities of conservation and development policies of the Indian Government and the Chenchu people, particularly, the Chenchu’s development expectations, relationship with the forest and tigers, and displacement views as well as the government’s tiger conservation objectives, development promises, and perspectives on Chenchu development and forest conservation. The paper is a comparative study of the definitions of “development” held by the internally displaced Chenchu people and the Indian government representatives of the Integrated Tribal Development Agency and the Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve, and the local non-government organizations that collaborate with the Government.

A new species of Tripogon (Poaceae: Chloridoideae: Tripogoninae) from Nallamala forests, Telangana, India

A new species Tripogon nallamalayanus is described from Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve of Nallamala forests, Telangana, India. This new species most closely resembles Tripogon trifidus, but differs in spikelets and lower glumes lengths and lemma and palea shapes.

<b>Clarke’s Morning Glory <I>Ipomoea clarkei</I> Hook.f. (Convolvulaceae): addition to the flora of Eastern Ghats</b>

Ipomoea clarkei Hook.f. is an endemic species to Maharashtra state is reported here as a new addition to the Flora of Eastern Ghats from Nagarjuna Sagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve, India. The detail description, notes, distributional map and colour plates are provided for easy identification.

Conservation priorities of forest ecosystems: Evaluation of deforestation and degradation hotspots using geospatial techniques

Spatially explicit planning is required to set focused conservation priorities and assessing future ecological implications. Spatial ecological modeling and hotspot analysis prioritizes the forest ecosystems and supports the conservation of species level biodiversity. In the present study, the hotspots of deforestation and forest fires were obtained using historical deforestation trends (1975–1985–1995–2005–2014) and fire history (2009–2014) in Andhra Pradesh, India. The priority areas were identified as deforestation and degradation hotspots using combined measures of threat from deforestation, fire hotspots and current level of forest fragmentation. The state of Andhra Pradesh represents an area of 25985km2 (16.2% of total geographical area) under forest cover in 2014. The net deforested area was estimated as 2390km2 (8.4%) from 1975 to 2014. We have calculated the region of influence in percentages and found deforestation hotspots covering an average of 40.2% forest, followed by 35.9% under high fragmentation and 19.2% under fire hotspots. Ecosystem level analysis has been carried out for all the forest types i.e., semi evergreen, moist deciduous, dry deciduous, dry evergreen, thorn and mangroves, indicating ecosystem vulnerability. According to the results of prioritization, about 10.5% of existing forest had severe ecosystem collapse and categorized as deforestation and degradation hotspot-I. Analysis of protected areas shows Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve, Sri Peninsula Narasimha sanctuary, Papikonda sanctuary and Sri Venkateshwara sanctuary are representing deforestation and degradation hotspot-I. Deforestation and degradation hotspots identified in the study is an excellent surrogate for understanding anthropogenic disturbances and can be effectively useful in forest management to proceed for applicable restoration measures.

Geospatial monitoring and prioritization of forest fire incidences in Andhra Pradesh, India.

Forest fire has been identified as one of the key environmental issue for long-term conservation of biodiversity and has impact on global climate. Spatially multiple observations are necessary for monitoring of forest fires in tropics for understanding conservation efficacy and sustaining biodiversity in protected areas. The present work was carried out to estimate the spatial extent of forest burnt areas and fire frequency using Resourcesat Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) data (2009, 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2014) in Andhra Pradesh, India. The spatio-temporal analysis shows that an area of 7514.10 km(2) (29.22% of total forest cover) has been affected by forest fires. Six major forest types are distributed in Andhra Pradesh, i.e. semi-evergreen, moist deciduous, dry deciduous, dry evergreen, thorn and mangroves. Of the total forest burnt area, dry deciduous forests account for >75%. District-wise analysis shows that Kurnool, Prakasam and Cuddapah have shown >100 km(2) of burnt area every year. The total forest burnt area estimate covering protected areas ranges between 6.9 and 22.3% during the study period. Spatial burnt area analysis for protected areas in 2014 indicates 37.2% of fire incidences in the Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve followed by 20.2 % in the Sri Lankamalleswara Wildlife Sanctuary, 20.1% in the Sri Venkateswara Wildlife Sanctuary and 17.4% in the Gundla Brahmeswaram Wildlife Sanctuary. The analysis of cumulative fire occurrences from 2009 to 2014 has helped in delineation of conservation priority hotspots using a spatial grid cell approach. Conservation priority hotspots I and II are distributed in major parts of study area including protected areas of the Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve and Gundla Brahmeswaram Wildlife Sanctuary. The spatial database generated will be useful in studies related to influence of fires on species adaptability, ecological damage assessment and conservation planning.

Forest Fire Monitoring in Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve, Andhra Pradesh, India Using Geospatial Techniques

Forest fire plays an important role in the landscape structure, composition, function and ecological integrity. The objectives of the present study are to prepare the forest burnt area map and to analyse fire prone areas in Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve (NSTR), Andhra Pradesh, India using multi-temporal satellite data. Unsupervised classification and visual image interpretation techniques were used to achieve the objectives. The forest cover has been assessed as 2653.9 km2. The total area affected under forest fire has been estimated as 6858.4 ha in 1973, 35,739.7 ha in 2001 and 38,680.1 ha in 2005, 79,067.3 ha in 2009 and 38,462.1 ha in 2010. The total forest burnt area was low during 1973 (1.9 %) and high during 2009 (21.9 %). The results of fire recurrent analysis shows that an average of 1336.3 ha area was undergoing regular annual forest fires. Burnt area monitoring from satellite data provides useful information to forest managers in effective planning and conservation of forest resources.

Mapping and Inventory of Forest Fires in Andhra Pradesh, India: Current Status and Conservation Needs

Analyzing the spatial extent and distribution of forest fires is essential for sustainable forest management. The present study appraises the distribution of forest fires in one of the largest states in India, Andhra Pradesh, using satellite remote sensing. Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) onboard on Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS P6) was used for mapping and analyzing the spatial extent of burnt areas. Comparative analysis was carried out with respect to different forest types, protected areas and across elevation zones to demarcate and identify the fire-affected areas. The results show that about 19% (8594 km2) of forest area were burnt in the state during 2009. Burnt area statistics for Protected Areas reveal that 24% of forest cover was affected by fire. Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve, the largest tiger reserve of the country, shows an area of 793 km2 (22%) under forest fire. Higher elevation areas which are predominantly dominated by savannah and woodlands experienced higher fire occurrence in comparison with lower elevation areas. Similarly, fires were prevalent near edges compared to core forest. Results of the study suggested that forests of Andhra Pradesh are prone to high fire occurrences and current fire regime poses a severe conservation threat to biodiversity both within and outside the Protected Areas.

Mammal mortality due to road vehicles in Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve, Andhra Pradesh, India

No abstract available

Reptilian Fauna of Nagarjuna Sagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve, Andhra Pradesh

Reptilian Fauna of Nagarjuna Sagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve, Andhra Pradesh

Surface Temperature Variation with Vegetation Phenology over Deciduous Forests – A Study over Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve (NSTR) Using ENVISAT ‐ AATSR Data

Combined analysis of reflective and thermal data recorded by coarse resolution and high repetitive satellites provide a useful means to study seasonal vegetation characteristics and other related phenological parameters. ENVISAT Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) data for different seasons from January 04 to April 04 has been analyzed to derive the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Surface Temperature (ST) images for the forest regions of Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve (NSTR), India. Temporal variation of NDVI and ST reflected the phenology of the forest area. A negative relationship was observed between the NDVI and ST over all the vegetation types and the proportion of vegetation cover seemed to has bearing on the ST. Scatter plots for NDVI and ST drawn for winter season showed a good separability of land use/land cover types of the study area.

Fauna of Protected Areas - 22: Updated checklist of praying mantid species (Insecta: Mantodea) from Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve, Andhra Pradesh

Fauna of Protected Areas - 22: Updated checklist of praying mantid species (Insecta: Mantodea) from Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve, Andhra Pradesh

Fauna of Protected Areas - 18: A checklist of butterflies of Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve, Andhra Pradesh

Fauna of Protected Areas - 18: A checklist of butterflies of Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve, Andhra Pradesh

Fauna of Protected Areas - 17: Some species of praying mantids (Insecta: Mantodea) from Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve, Andhra Pradesh

Fauna of Protected Areas - 17: Some species of praying mantids (Insecta: Mantodea) from Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve, Andhra Pradesh

Second record of Rhinolophus beddomei in Eastern Ghats, India

1 Assistant Conservator of Forests (Biodiversity), 3 Field Director, Project Tiger, 4 Field Research Assistant, ERM Laboratory, Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve, Sunnipenta, Kurnool District, Andhra Pradesh 518102, India. 2 (Corresponding author) Wildlife Biology Section, Department of Zoology, University College of Science, Osmania University, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh 500007, India. 2 Email: hyd2_masawa@sancharnet.in with web supplement

Prey selection by the Indian tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) in Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve, India

Summary Very little is known about prey selection by the Indian tiger Panthera tigris tigris in tropical dry deciduous forests or in wild herbivore-depleted habitats with high livestock pressures. We undertook a short-term study in a large south Indian tiger reserve and examined two intensive study areas (SA's) from October 1998 – June 1999. In each area, herbivore sightings were recorded, scats were collected, and wild prey and livestock kills documented. Chital, wild boar and sambar were the most abundant among the wild herbivores in the study area. Scat analysis revealed wild boar ( Sus scrofa ) being the most common prey followed by chital ( Axis axis ) and sambar ( Rusa unicolor ). Livestock comprised less than 7% of diet intake. Here, the tigers consumed a lower mean prey mass (56.3 kg) than in other reserves. Our study suggests that in tropical dry deciduous forests with low natural prey density, smaller prey species, and high livestock biomass, tigers preferentially kill smaller prey and generally avoid livestock predation.