The food habits and relative abundance of large carnivores was studied through scat analysis technique in Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary from November 2002 to April 2003. A total of 377 scats (103 of Tiger, 188 of Leopard and 86 of Dhole) were analysed. The niche breadth, niche overlap and diversity indices of the diet were calculated. The relative abundance of large carnivores in different habitats was assessed based on the number of scats encountered per kilometer. The result showed that the major part of the diet of all the three large carnivores were from Spotted Deer and Sambar. The Leopard showed a higher diversity and niche breadth in its diet compared to the Tiger. Niche overlap analysis showed that a strong overlap exists between large carnivores. All the large carnivores showed more preference to undisturbed habitat and less preference to evergreen habitat. The result has shown high implication in understanding the predator-prey dynamics and preference of large carnivores to different habitats.

Thattekad bird sanctuary, located in the Western Ghats of Kerala, India, which hosts an unexplored microbial community, is selected for the present investigation. Microbes play a major role in mineral recycling and nutrient absorption by the flora and fauna in the habitat. Various bacterial extracellular enzymes facilitate all these activities. The increasing demand for microbial enzymes in favor of green technology encouraged us to focus on exoenzyme profiling of bacterial isolates from forest soil samples. The present study is aimed at the screening and identification of exoenzyme producing soil bacterial strains isolated from evergreen forests and moist deciduous forests of Thattekad bird sanctuary. In this study, only multienzyme producing bacteria were selected for detailed analysis because such bacteria are highly relevant in multi-enzyme dependent processes such as biowaste degradation. We screened for nine hydrolytic exoenzymes namely, amylase, cellulase, ligninase, pectinase, xylanase, caseinase, gelatinase, esterase and lipase, and identified 79 multienzyme-producing bacterial strains, mostly belonging to phylum Firmicutes and Proteobacteria. Firmicutes from evergreen forests and moist deciduous forests produced a greater number of enzymes compared to Proteobacteria. Also, bacterial strains isolated from evergreen forest soil produced more enzymes compared to moist deciduous forest. Bacillus amyloliquefaciens strain TBS040 isolated from moist deciduous forest soil was found to produce all the nine enzymes screened. Enzymatic hydrolysis of biowaste using cell free crude enzyme extract from Bacillus velezensis strain TBS064 resulted in enhanced bioethanol production. These findings highlight the importance of screening unexplored habitats for the identification of novel strains, which can contribute to the future of green technology.