Leopards, wolves & hyenas share big area with humans: Study

Nagpur: In India, large carnivore conservation and active management is mostly centred on tiger reserves, national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, but a recent study reveals increasing evidence of leopards, wolves and hyenas showing great potential to share lands with people outside protected areas (/PAs).
The study, carried out by scientists from Wildlife Conservation Society-India (WCSI), Foundation for Ecological Research & Learning, University of Florida (USA), Centre for Wildlife Studies and Maharashtra forest department, found that country’s diverse non-protected habitats support a big diversity of wildlife that has adapted to share space with humans.

The scientists undertook field surveys across 89,000 sq km area of Western Maharashtra, which included a mix of semi-arid lands and agricultural fields. PAs contributed less than 3% of the surveyed area (2,500 sq km).

“We focused on leopards, Indian wolves and striped hyenas. Information from interviews with forest department field staff was integrated with statistical models to map the distribution of these three large carnivore species,” said Iravatee Majgaonkar, lead author of the study.

Among the other authors include Srinivas Vaidyanathan of Foundation for Ecological Research and Learning, Arjun Srivathsa, University of Florida, USA, Shweta Shivakumar of WCSI, APCCF (wildlife) Sunil Limaye and Vidya Athreya of WCSI. The research was primarily supported by Rufford Small Grant Foundation and state forest department. It was published in the recent issue of international journal — Conservation Science and Practice.

The study found that leopards occupied 57%, wolves 64% and hyenas 75% of the landscape. Factors like agricultural land-use, built-up areas, domestic livestock and presence of wild prey species influenced the carnivores’ distribution patterns.

“Our work clearly shows the importance of areas outside designated PAs for conservation of large carnivores. This phenomenon is not new, especially in these landscapes where human communities have been present for a few 1,000 years,” says Majgaonkar.

Majgaonkar, who is now associated with WCSI, further says, “In India, separating wilderness and human areas is often a common administrative model, which makes us ill-equipped to deal with issues of people and wildlife outside the PAs. We do need to focus on these shared landscapes as well.”

Limaye says, “The findings shed light on the ability of large carnivores to exist alongside people in ‘conservation-enabled’ landscapes of India, seldom seen elsewhere in the world.”

The study speculates that current and future changes in land-use practices, such as agricultural intensification and spread of permanent irrigation, could bear consequences for the three carnivores.

“We need to expand the current conservation narratives to recognize the potential of human-dominated landscapes as conservation habitats, where people and predators co-adapt and coexist,” says Limaye.

Co-existence holds key

* The study reveals how large carnivores share space with humans

* 7 districts in western Maharashtra — Nashik, Ahmednagar, Pune, Satara, Sangli, Solapur, and Kolhapur were part of the study

* Together these cover 89,853 sq km of primarily semi-arid human-dominated landscapes

* Human population densities range from 266.48 to 602.63 people per sq km. Data obtained through 1,626 interviews

* Leopard presence was recorded in 150 sites, wolves in 161 and hyena in 179 sites

* There is an increased interface that could endanger welfare of both people and wildlife