Nagpur: While conservation in India tends to focus on large mammals like tigers mostly in protected areas (PAs), it may not be an effective conservation strategy for a widely distributed species like the jungle cat. A genetic study has found that linear projects negatively impact
jungle cats too.
The study by researcher Prachi Thatte & Dr Uma Ramakrishnan, faculty with National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru, on jungle cats shows that though these small mammals can easily move through forested areas, plantations, grasslands and crop fields, linear features like highways, small roads, canals and railway lines impede their movement.
The objective of this study was to understand the effect of above landscape features on genetic structure and connectivity of jungle cat populations at a fine scale in the Central Indian Landscape. Jungle cats are listed under Schedule II of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972.
"Our results demonstrate that landscape features affect gene flow and connectivity in jungle cats. The scale at which landscape variables affected connectivity is different for different landscape variables," says Thatte.
The study suggests that as long as there was forest cover at a coarse scale (25km), land-use class at the fine scale mattered less for jungle cats. However, at a fine scale (5km) the density of linear features and roads did matter. This is unlike what is observed for tigers.
"We carried out sampling in 22,690sqkm area comprising mostly non-PAs in Gondia & Bhandara in Maharashtra, Kawardha & Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh and Balaghat & Seoni in MP. Three PAs — Kanha, Bandhavgarh and Chaprala in Gadchiroli were also studied.
The study period was February 2016 to August 2017. This included scat sample collection followed by DNA extraction in the lab and spatial analysis. Samples from Bandhavgarh and Kanha used in the research were collected in 2013 as part of study for big cats' connectivity.
Like tigers, jungle cats too are elusive. Thatte says during study period only 8 jungle cats were sighted. "We had several volunteers on field who helped in sampling," she adds.
On the data analysis, Thatte informed, "We walked on trails and roads in forests and around villages to collect potential faecal samples, a non-invasive source of DNA. Genetic information obtained from DNA provides insights about population history as well as relatively recent dispersal events."
Hence, researchers were interested in investigating dispersal and movement of jungle cats across the landscape using genetics and understanding the effect different landscape features have on movement.
"In order to investigate this, we first extracted DNA from the samples. Using genetic data, we then estimated the genetic diversity which was found to be high. High genetic diversity can serve as a way for populations to adapt to changing environment and aid future survival of a species. Further, we investigated how different roads, agriculture etc affect jungle cat movement and connectivity," says Thatte.
Ramakrishnan explains, "We estimated genetic differentiation between all pairs of samples and statistically inferred how different landscape affect movement."
Land-use and human population density were found to have very low impact on jungle cats. Agriculture-village matrix offered negligible resistance to movement and locations of several genetically confirmed jungle cat samples were found in or close to agricultural fields.
"Our results stress the importance of a landscape approach to conservation, shifting the current focus from large species inside PAs. While this qualitative message is widely accepted, exercises to prioritize areas based on data on smaller species are rarely carried out," said Thatte.
