Dhanusha Kawalkar

Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History · Division of Conservation Ecology

Blyth’s Swift, endemic to the Indian subcontinent, is one of the four taxa of the Pacific Swift Apus pacificus complex. It is known to breed in high altitudes (>2,000 m) and disperse widely in winters, as far as the southern extremity of Nilgiri Region of the Western Ghats of India. However, the true extent of its non-breeding range remains uncerta...

Cave-dwelling spiders stand out as model organisms in subterranean ecosystems, with their ecological role, unique adaptations, and sensitivity to anthropogenic actions. Hence, we aimed to understand the occupancy and habitat selection of cave-dwelling spiders by selecting seven accessible limestone caves at Baratang Island, Andaman and Nicobar Is,...

The present study aims to understand the foraging habitat and assemblages of the aerial insectivores in the coastal Raigad district, Maharashtra. The study was conducted in the five coastal talukas of Raigad District; (1) Alibag, (2) Roha, (3) Murud, (4) Mhasla, and (5) Shrivardhan. The random survey was conducted in the study sites using vehicles...

We estimated occupancy and population abundance of the Andaman Serpent-Eagle (Spilornis elgini) and Crested Serpent-Eagle (Spilornis cheela) in the Andaman Islands, India. We divided the islands that were > 100 km2 into a grid of 84 cells, of which we used 34 cells (5 km × 5 km each) for surveys of two populations in the districts of (1) the North...

Decision rules allow individuals of a species to decide whether or not to return to the same site in the following year or season, based on their immediate breeding success. We checked the decision rule phenomenon and simultaneously tested the prior-experience hypothesis for the cave-dwelling Edible-nest Swiftlet (Aerodramus fuciphagus inexpectatus...

We report the crepuscular hunting behavior by the Besra Accipiter virgatus, on the Glossy Swiftlets Collocalia esculenta affinis and the Edible-nest Swiftlets Aerodramus fuciphagus inexpectatus in urban areas the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Unlike other raptors in the islands, the Besra hunts at twilight often in the absence of moonlight or/and arti...

Modelling occupancy of tiger’s (Panthera tigris) in non-protected area and extending critical tiger habitat holds foremost importance in their conservation and management. Hence, we conducted a study to identify individual tiger home ranges and estimate their occupancy in the Kalmeshwar- Kondhali Block (KKB). We also attempted to understand the fac...

Post-release monitoring of wildlife is an essential part of effective wildlife conservation. Monitoring through various ways such as tagging, radio-collaring, microchipping, scat analysis, camera trapping, and others, allows us to understand how well the animal has adapted to its new environment/habitat. The Katlabodi tigress was successfully rescu...

Every protected area (PA) has a carrying capacity which it can support. However, the spill-over tiger population of every protected area needs a place to settle and survive. A non-protected area (Non-PA), therefore, not only plays a critical role in providing refuge to the species but also supports their long-term survival. One such, let alone non-...

Coastal karst landforms are the erosional and depositional structures of the limestone exposed along coastlines. As part of speleogenesis, the diverse karst landforms depict the speleological potential of a region. Mosaic of these karst landforms is a resource to several unique coastal flora and fauna and has several critical geological application...

By the presence of well-developed terraces on the Interview Island of Middle Andaman, we conducted an exploratory study on the Interview Island of Andaman and Nicobar Islands to understand the development of coastal caves here. During the investigation, we identified seven coastal caves on the island. Morphometric data of these study caves were use...

The karst landscapes represent an important facet of India's geological and biological potential, it is essential to identify the new karst landscapes further and update the existing karstland map. It is also essential to recognize the known karst wetlands from the states of Maharashtra (Kachargad), Chhattisgarh (Kotumsar cave), Meghalaya (Khasi, G...

Cave-dwelling organisms share different ecological and evolutionary relationships with caves. Based on these interactions, they are categorized as troglobites, troglophiles, and trogloxenes. In India, caves are meagerly explored, and thus cave study is in its infancy in India. Through the present study, we attempted to understand and model the dist...

By the presence of well-developed terraces on the Interview Island of Middle Andaman, we conducted an exploratory study on the Interview Island of Andaman and Nicobar Islands to understand the development of coastal caves here. During the investigation, we identified seven coastal caves on the island. Morphometric data of these study caves were use...

Caves are undoubtedly a unique habitat, with their mechanism of energy production and conservation. An island is an isolated land surrounded by water, isolation being the keyword. From an ecological perspective, specific habitat patches which are surrounded by another habitat on all sides can also be considered as an island. Due to their isolation...

We conducted the study to estimate population abundance and distribution of the Vulnerable and endemic Andaman Serpent Eagle during yrs 2015 and 2016. We selected the islands with >100km2 area to conduct the occupancy survey using Grid Sampling Method (5km2 x 5km2 cell size). Occupancy-Abundance Model estimated Naïve Occupancy (ψ)=0.83 ± 0.16 SD fo...

Though India hosts a large number of caves, studies on cave fauna have been limited and accidental; especially in the islands. This study is a dedicated attempt at documenting the biodiversity of a cave complex, possibly for the first time in the tropical islands of India. Among the 175 limestone caves in the karstic region in Baratang Island, we s...

To map the subterranean biodiversity, we performed a preliminary survey to understand and describe the morphology of the selected caves from the tropical islands of India. In the preliminary phase, we assessed 14 caves on Baratang Island, North and Middle Andaman Island. For the morphometric measurements we used Leica Distometer S910 and for creati...

The paper is a study of wildlife conservation and its relationship with livelihoods of the tribals from two villages namely Chorkhamara and Thadezari in Nagzira National Park in Maharashtra State. The present study basically aimed at exploring the conflict between wildlife conservation and suffering livelihood of the tribals in the Nagzira National...