| Home | << 1 >> |
|
Maheshwari, A., Sathyakumar, S. (2020). Patterns of Livestock Depredation and Large Carnivore
Conservation Implications in the Indian Trans-Himalaya. Journal of Arid Environments, , 1–5.
Abstract: Livestock is one of the major sources of livelihood for the
agro-pastoral communities in central and south Asia. Livestock depredation by large carnivores is a wide-ranging issue that leads to economic losses and a deviance from co-existence. We investigated the grass root factors causing livestock depredation in Kargil, Ladakh and tested the findings of diet analysis in validating reported livestock depredation. Globally vulnerable snow leopard (Panthera uncia) and more common wolf (Canis lupus) were the two main wild predators. A total of 1113 heads of livestock were reportedly killed by wolf (43.6%) followed by unknown predators (31.4%) and snow leopard (21.5%) in the study site from 2009 to 2012, which comes to 2.8% annual livestock losses. Scat analysis also revealed a significant amount of livestock in the diet of snow leopard (47%) and wolf (51%). Poor livestock husbandry practices and traditional livestock corrals were found to be the major drivers contributing in the livestock depredation. Based on the research findings, we worked with the local communities to sensitize them about wildlife conservation and extended limited support for predator proof livestock corrals at a small scale. Eventually it helped in reducing conflict level and conserving the globally threatened carnivores. We conclude that a participatory approach has been successful to generate an example in reducing large carnivore-human conflict in the west Himalaya. |
|
Murali, R., Ikhagvajav, P., Amankul, V., Jumabay, K., Sharma,
K., Bhatnagar, Y. V., Suryawanshi, K., Mishra, C. (2020). Ecosystem service dependence in livestock and crop-based. Journal of Arid Environments, 180, 1–10.
Abstract: Globally, in semi-arid and arid landscapes, there is an
ongoing transition from livestock-production systems to crop-production systems, and in many parts of Asia's arid mountains, mining for minerals is also increasing. These changes are accompanied by a change in the generation and quality of ecosystem services (ES), which can impact human well-being. In this study, to better understand the impacts of such transitions, we quantified ES in two crop-based and three livestock-based production systems in the arid and semi-arid landscapes of the High Himalaya and Central Asia, specifically in the Indian Himalaya, Kyrgyz Tien Shan, and Mongolian Altai. Our results showed 1) high economic dependence (3.6–38 times the respective annual household income) of local farmers on provisioning ES, with the economic value of ES being greater in livestock-production systems (7.4–38 times the annual household income) compared to crop-production systems (3.6–3.7 times the annual household income); 2) ES input into cashmere production, the main commodity from the livestock-production systems, was 13–18 times greater than the price of cashmere received by the farmer; and 3) in the livestock production systems affected by mining, impacts on ES and quality of life were reported to be negative by majority of the respondents. We conclude that livestock-based systems may be relatively more vulnerable to degrading impacts of mining and other ongoing developments due to their dependence on larger ES resource catchments that tend to have weaker land tenure and are prone to fragmentation. In contrast to the general assumption of low value of ES in arid and semi-arid landscapes due to relatively low primary productivity, our study underscores the remarkably high importance of ES in supporting local livelihoods. |
|
Shrestha, R., & Wegge, P. (2008). Habitat relationships between wild and domestic herbivores in Nepalese trans – Himalaya. Journal of Arid Environments, 72, 914–925.
Abstract: In the semi-arid ecosystems of Asia, where pastoralism is a main subsistence occupation, grazing competition from domestic stock is believed to displace the wild ungulates. We studied the habitat relationships among sympatric naur and domestic yak and smallstock in Phu valley in upper Manang district, Nepal, on the basis of their distribution on vegetation types, elevation and slope. To control for the disturbance effect by humans, we collected the data on naur from those ranges where domestic stock were not being attended by herders. We applied correspondence analysis to explore habitat associations among animal groups (n ¬ 1415) within and across-seasons. Within each association, interspecific habitat overlaps and species habitat preferences were calculated. Naur was strongly associated with free-ranging yak as they used similar altitudinal ranges in all seasons, except in spring. Their distributions on vegetation types and slopes were also quite similar, except for a stronger preference for alpine meadows by naur during summer and winter. Naur and smallstock did not form temporal associations as the latter consistently used lower elevations. In autumn and spring, however, naur spatially overlapped with the summer range of smallstock, and both preferred the alpine meadow habitat during these periods. Alpine meadow was the least abundant vegetation type but was consistently and preferentially used by all animal groups across seasons. At high stocking densities, all three animals groups are therefore likely to compete for this vegetation type. The role of spatio-temporal heterogeneity for interpreting the interspecific relationships among ungulates in the semi-arid rangelands of the trans-Himalaya is discussed.
Keywords: blue sheep; Competition; domestic; habitat partitioning; naur; Nepal; pastoralism; pseudois nayaur; trans-himalaya
|