Location of Assam in India (pink in map) and of Kanchanjuri corridor (yellow arrow) between Kaziranga NP (located at origin of green arrow) and Karbi Anglong Foothills. 

Contexts in source publication

Context 1

... foothills of the Karbi Anglong KA pla- teau are located at the northernmost part of the Karbi Anglong district of Assam, India. The northern foothills of the KA plateau con- sist of steep and rugged slopes interspersed with small streams and rivulets. To the north of these foothills and running along the southern boundary of the Kaziranga Nation- al Park KNP is a national highway (NH 37). The NH 37 thus divides the KNP and the KA along a continuous stretch of almost 50 km. The vegetation types are mainly of tropi- cal evergreen and semi-evergreen forests as per the classification of Champion and Seth (1968). The common species include Dipterocarpus macrocarpus, Artocarpus chaplasha, Mesua ferrea, Dysoxylum spp. Terminalia chebula, Bauhinia spp., etc. This foothill area serves as an important habitat for the wildlife of KNP as the animals move southward for seasonal migrations during flooding and the harvesting season of local paddy crops (WWF-India 2006, unpubl. report) that act as a food attractant for ani- mals such as elephants. Except in the case of elephants, there is not much information about most of the other animals dispersing farther south beyond the foothills. The pres- ence of leopards in these foothill areas was confirmed in 2011 by using camera traps following cases of livestock depredation at the fringe of KNP (WWF-India 2006, unpubl. report). The increasing human population in the area has made wildlife vulnerable to the related developmental activities, and also has led to the linkages between KNP and KA hills getting shrunk over the years. Towards the western end at the conjunc- tion of KA and KNP, Kanchanjuri is the most important corridor (Fig. 1) along and across cats using the Kanchanjuri wildlife corridor, Assam, India NH 37 that is frequently used by wildlife. This corridor stretches roughly 6 km along the highway, but the actual movement of elusive species such as tigers, leopards and ungulates occurs within a small, narrow patch of forest (1.5 km long) which leads to the foothill forest of Karbi Anglong in the south. This small patch of forest is bounded on both the east and west sides by villages, mostly inhabited by tribes, and interspersed with tea plantations. With this background, we set out to docu- ment the use of the corridor by different ani- mals and their movement patterns by using camera traps. We began with a sign survey within the Kanchanjuri corridor to identify the trails used by animals on which to set up camera traps. Three units of passive cam- era traps (Moultrie, D-40, Moultrie feeders, Alabama) were deployed at a bifurcation of the trail -one covering the main trail, and one 10 m down each of the forks. The cam- eras were operational round the clock and were checked every 3 to 4 days to download photos, check batteries, as well as to ensure their performance and safety. In between July 2011 and January 2012 the total effort amounted to 588 trap days, dur- ing which we obtained images of 8 different species of mammals: tiger (Fig. 2), melanis- tic leopard (Fig. 3), Asiatic golden cat (Fig. 4), elephant Elephas maximus, leopard cat Pri- onailurus bengalensis, barking deer Muntia- cus muntjak, wild pig Sus scrofa and small Indian civet Viverricula indica. This record of the golden cat is the first from the area bet- ween KNP and KA. An earlier year-long collaborative study (between February 2010 andMarch 2011) by WWF India and Aaranyak (a regional NGO) on the use of corridors by wildlife between KNP and KA found sign evidence of tigers in the corridors, but failed to obtain photo- graphs (J. Borah pers. comm.). There were unconfirmed reports on the occurrence of tigers and leopards in Kanchanjuri from lo- cal villagers. While the common leopard has been photographed in the foothill area of KA, this is the first time that its melanis- tic form has been photographed anywhere in the KNP-KA corridors. Within the Indian sub-continent, the Asiatic golden cat is re- stricted to the eastern Himalayas, Bangla- desh and north-east India. There are recent confirmed records from Bangladesh (Khan 2008 Jhala et al. 2011). There is migration of tigers between these protected areas through a series of small islands that extend all along the Brah- maputra river ( Borah et al. 2010). While the river islands serve as wildlife movement corridors from KNP to the north of the Brahmaputra River, on the southern side of KNP it is the KNP-KA land corridors that are crucial to the movement and sur- vival of wildlife. During the annual flooding season in KNP for example, it is KA that serves as the high-ground refuge for wild- life. Large mammals like the elephant, rhino and tiger are known to use these corridors during other seasons as well for dispersal and migration. Thus it is important to realize that the full set of biodiversity values of KNP may not survive without the proper conser- vation and protection of its neighbouring KA forest complex (WWF-India 2006, unpubl. report). The photographic evidence of corridor use by wildlife, including the three felid species and other large mammals from this study, highlights the conservation value of corri- dors. We hope that our findings will convince decision makers and stakeholders to accord higher priority for the conservation of func- tional corridors like Kanchanjuri. The protec- tion of these areas should be strengthened immediately, so that these wildlife corridors survive to maintain long-term viable popu- lations in these fragmented but connected forests. We also recommend that all rel- evant stakeholders, including the Forest De- partment of Assam and the Karbi Anglong Autonomous District Council, should work together to remove disturbances from these corridors, increase protection and draw up a strategic management plan for the entire landscape with corridors as critical compo- nents of the habitat for wildlife. thank all the officials of WWF-India Secretariat, New Delhi for their support. We thank Dr. Anupam Sarmah, Head -Assam Landscape, WWF-India for his guidance and support. We also thank our col- leagues in Assam Landscape, WWF-India for their support and best wishes. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the villagers and field as- sistants for their support and dedication in their work and their constant vigilance of the camera traps. We acknowledge WWF Sweden for provid- ing funds to carry out the camera-trap study in the corridor. Thanks go to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments towards improving the manuscript. Roads emerging as a critical threat to leopards in ...

Context 2

... are one of the widely distributed wild cats in the world with nine subspecies found in varied habitats across its entire range. Loss of habitat, poaching and retalia- tory killing are recognized as the key threats to leopards in its entire range. The species is currently categorized as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List with some subspecies identified as Critically Endangered ( Henschel et al. 2008, IUCN 2013). India hosts substantial leopard numbers though there are no nationwide estimates available. In India, leopards survive in pro- tected areas (PAs), multiple use forests (le- gally termed as reserved forests) and even in highly human dominated landscapes. The threats within India are similar as in other parts of the leopards' range. India's phenomenal economic growth (~8%) over the last two decades was based on an expansion of physical infrastructure such as roads, railway, power and communication networks for improved commerce. Roads, some of which pass through ecologically important sites, constitute a threat resulting not only in habitat fragmentation but also in direct mortalities of wildlife due to colli- sions with vehicles. In India, the challenge comes primarily from the conversion of exist- ing small roads with low-volume traffic into high-speed highways, while a few new roads also opening up remote locations ( Gubbi et al. 2012). In addition, there has been a rapid growth of motor vehicles at 10.5% during 2002-2012(MoSRTH 2012). In the recent years leopard mortalities due to vehicular collision seems to be increas- ing. In the southern Indian state of Karnataka (191,976 km 2 ) alone, from secondary sources (newspaper reports and forest department records), we recorded a total of 23 leopards killed in road accidents (two more were killed by trains) during the period July 2009 -June 2014 ( Fig. 1, Supporting Online Material Table T1) amounting to one leopard roadkill every three months. Of these, 19 leopards have died in locations outside PAs (Fig. 2) highlighting the threat of vehicular traffic to leopards outside PAs. In addition to the loss of these big cats, prin- cipal prey species for leopards in India, Axis deer Axis axis, sambar Rusa unicolor, black- naped hare Lepus nigricollis, bonnet macaque Macaca radiata and langur Seminopithecus spp. are some of the commonly killed species in vehicle collisions (Prakash 2012). In India, the National Wildlife Action Plan (2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016) specifically prescribes regulation and mitigation measures for threats posed ...