Narayan Sharma

Cotton University · Department of Environmental Biology and Wildlife Sciences

This paper reviews studies of the snakes of northeastern India published between 2001and 2024 identified from searchable databases, covering diversity, range extension, distribution records, new genus, new species, redescription, rediscovery, and taxonomic revision. This analysis of the literature and publicly available information presents an upda...

Functional diversity is a biodiversity component that considers the variation and distribution of organisms’ characteristics in an ecological community. As an organism’s characteristics influence the functioning of an ecosystem, functional diversity closely reflects the ecosystem functioning of a community. It helps us understand various ecological...

Hollongapar Wildlife Sanctuary, situated in the northeastern region of India, is a highly fragmented landscape renowned for its rich biodiversity. This study delves into the intricate ecological dynamics of six coexisting arboreal mammals within the sanctuary namely Malayan Giant Squirrel (Ratufa bicolor), Pallas's squirrel (Callosciurus erythraeus...

The homogenous nature of the urban environment rapidly alters community dynamics of extant flora and fauna due to short-term spatial and temporal factors. However, such impacts of urbanisation are mostly investigated in terms of taxonomic diversity, while its impact on functional diversity remains poorly understood. Studies investigating the role o...

Phenology is the study of recurrent biological events of animals and plants. In this article, we trace the history of phenological studies, understand the factors that drive phenology, discuss various ways one can observe phenological events, and how these observations are important and cost-effective ways to detect signatures of climate change. Fi...

Frugivorous primates in temperate and subtropical regions often experience a shortage or complete absence of fruits for several months of the year. We studied the foraging ecology of a group of stump-tailed macaques Macaca arctoides in a subtropical forest during winter, when fruit abundance was low. We conducted this study in the Hollongapar Gibbo...

The homogenous nature of the urban environment rapidly alters community dynamics of extant flora and fauna due to short-term spatial and temporal factors. However, such impacts of urbanization are mostly investigated in terms of taxonomic diversity, while its impact on functional diversity remains poorly understood. Whereas taxonomic information is...

How closely related species co-exist, especially under conditions of resource limitation remains an intriguing problem in ecology. Having to share space and resources, such species are expected to have evolved a variety of behavioural mechanisms to reduce competition. Understanding such adaptation could also provide clues to designing effective con...

The tropical lowland rainforests of the Upper Brahmaputra Valley in the northeastern Indian state of Assam have, in the past, and are increasingly being converted to other land-use forms, driven by historical and current anthropogenic factors. Development and the heavy dependence of people on these forests for their daily needs has resulted in the...

Greater Adjutant Leptoptilos dubius are large birds measuring approximately 1.5 m in height with long thick beaks. The species is currently distributed in Brahmaputra floodplains (Assam, India), Gangetic plains (Bhagalpur, Bihar, India), and in Cambodia. The global population of the species is estimated to be around 1200–1800 individuals, two-third...

Conservation of charismatic and large animal species has disproportionately attracted the attention and funds compared to lesser-known species despite facing higher risks of extinction. Vatica lanceaefolia, one such Critically Endangered plant species has a limited distribution in northeastern India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar and there is hardly any...

The article documents the local extirpations of several primates species from the fragmented habitats of Upper Brahmaputra Valley, northeastern India.

Very large and stable, socially coherent primate groups, not including fission-fusion societies, are usually rare in nature, owing to constraints imposed by various ecological and social factors. Moreover, unlike species in open habitats, those in forests tend to have smaller groups, and this becomes further accentuated in small and fragmented fore...

This study examines the extent and nature of harvest of non-timber forest products (NTFP) by local human communities residing adjacent to the Hollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary in the Upper Brahmaputra Valley of Assam, northeastern India. The harvest of NTFP was monitored at 15 entry points to the sanctuary over a period of 41 days. Dry timber was the mo...

A group of Indian scientists including botanists, entomologists, ornithologists, mammalogists, herpetologists, aquatic fauna specialists, hydrologists, geographers, and social scientists, many with research experience in northeastern India, including the Dibang Valley in Arunachal Pradesh, have conducted a peer-review of the Technical Report prepar...

A group of Indian scientists including botanists, entomologists, ornithologists, mammalogists, herpetologists, aquatic fauna specialists, hydrologists, geographers, and social scientists, many with research experience in northeastern India, including the Dibang Valley in Arunachal Pradesh, have conducted a peer-review of the Technical Report prepar...

Determine the contents of six heavy metal elements (if any) in excreta samples of the Greater Adjutant Stork from different habitats of Assam Four are essential trace elements (iron, nickel, copper and zinc) Two non-essential ones (lead and cadmium). Comparison of concentrations of the heavy metals among different habitats To provide baseline dat...

ABSTRACT: Species distribution models are a key component for understanding a species’ potential occurrence, specifically in vastly undersampled landscapes. The current species distribution data for the Assamese macaque Macaca assamensis are outdated, but suggest a patchy distribution in moist broadleaved forests in South and Southeast Asia. Theref...

In India, western tragopan is reported from Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. We documented the current status and distri bution of western tragopan in J&K. We also predicted its potential distribution in the state. We used literature, field surveys and semi-structured questionnaire surveys to ascertain the distribution and...

In India, western tragopan is reported from Jammu and Kashmir (J & K), Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. We documented the current status and distribution of western tragopan in J & K. We also predicted its potential distribution in the state. We used literature, field surveys and semi-structured questionnaire surveys to ascertain the distribution...

Sexual segregation, the tendency to seasonally live in groups comprised of separate sexes, is widespread in sexually dimorphic polygynous ungulates. The causes for such segregation are still being studied and debated to arrive at a universal explanation. We assessed sexual segregation in the markhor, Capra falconeri-a dimorphic mountain ungulate in...

Karnataka state in southern India supports a globally significant—and the country’s largest—population of the Asian elephant Elephas maximus. A reliable map of Asian elephant distribution and measures of spatial variation in their abundance, both vital needs for conservation and management action, are unavailable not only in Karnataka, but across i...

Habitat fragmentation affects species distribution and abundance, and drives extinctions. Escalated tropical deforestation and fragmentation have confined many species populations to habitat remnants. How worthwhile is it to invest scarce resources in conserving habitat remnants within densely settled production landscapes? Are these fragments fate...

killing of cattle by wild animals is a major conservation issue all over the country. Farmers and cattle-herders often bear huge losses because of wild animals and, in retaliation, kill them. The troop spent nearly an hour on Naathu's land and left it once their cheek pouches were bulging with paddy grains. When they had eaten what was stuffed into...

This article analyses the historical context of forest cover change in the upper Brahmaputra Valley of Assam during the precolonial, colonial and the postcolonial periods, locating these changes within the political economy and demographic milieu of each regime. In the current context of rising populations linked to immigration from neighbouring re...

In One Hundred Years of Solitude, Márquez pens an interesting story that unfolds in a mythical place known as Macondo, somewhere between the mountains and the Caribbean Sea. It is the saga of a family trapped in solitude, both in time and space, and a wonderful account of their adventures and misadventures. Much before this classic took the world b...

The historical deforestation of the Upper Brahmaputra Valley in the Indian state of Assam has resulted in the transformation of its once-contiguous lowland rainforests into many isolated forest fragments that are still rich in species, including primates. We report the recent history and current status of six diurnal primates in one large (2,098 ha...

A huge crashing sound from the nearby trees stops me in my tracks. I reach for my binoculars to peer through gaps in an otherwise impenetrable canopy, but see nothing. Pushing stealthily, eyes on the canopy, I am rewarded with the sight of two monkeys demolishing the juicy fruits of sam kothal or Artocarpus chama, which belongs to the jackfruit fam...

Rapid extinction of species is one of the most serious ecological problems faced by humanity today. Species are disappearing at a pace unprecedented in the history of the planet putting the very future of life at risk. The irony is that the root of the crisis is another species, Homo sapiens rather than some physical events that is poised to threat...

Everybody is familiar with the ubiquitous term ‘species’. But what is a species? Undeniably, this is one of the most complex dilemmas in the history of biology. There is no other concept in biology as elementary yet controversial as the concept of species. In practice, a species is regarded as the fundamental unit of comparison in all biological di...