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Abstract:Many biodiversity hotspots experience high political volatility and armed conflicts. But their impacts on wildlife conservation are poorly understood. In this study we analyze the influence of fifteen years of armed conflict and subsequent peacetime interventions on wildlife populations in Manas National Park, India. Camera trapping and linetransect surveys were carried out to estimate the densities of carnivores and herbivores respectively. Using relative abundance index, the estimated densities of the three large felids were: tiger, Panthera tigris (1.86 animals/100 km 2 ), leopard, Panthera pardus (1.68 animals/100 km 2 ), clouded leopard, Neofelis nebulosa (0.58 animals/100 km 2 ). Among the ungulates, which are the principal prey species of tigers, wild-buffalo, Bubalus arnee was most abundant (22.88± S.E. 11.63 animals/km 2 ). The combined density of the ungulate species was 42.02 animals/km 2 . Our data and observations from the field indicate that except for the rhino, Rhinoceros unicornis, most wildlife species survived the conflict. Relationships between ungulate and tiger abundances indicate that Manas can support more tigers than are currently present. The ongoing restoration efforts seem to have an uplifting effect on the overall profile of the park, particularly on tourism and in engaging local communities. Our baseline estimates for the large cats and their prey species will enable future evaluation of the recovery process with respect to change in species abundance over time.

Recent studies have linked COVID-19 induced restrictions to an increase in wildlife crime, with severe yet unknown implications for severely threatened taxa like pangolins. We analyze publicly available online seizure reports involving pangolins across India before (2018–2019) and during the pandemic (March–August 2020), using a longitudinal study design to estimate how lockdowns have impacted pangolin trade. Our analysis indicates a significant increase in seizures reported during the lockdown months of March to August 2020, in comparison to the same period in 2018 and 2019. We discuss the drivers behind this spike in pangolin trade and offer potential conservation measures.

Despite decades of concerted global conservation efforts, biodiversity loss continues unabated, making it important to assess the effectiveness of conservation approaches. Using forest cover as a proxy for conservation effectiveness, we analysed land-use and land-cover changes across a community and a state forest of Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya, India. Forest losses in the community lands (77.94 sq. km) were higher compared to the state forest (11.48 sq. km) between 1994 and 2014, and were driven by mining, industry, plantations and agriculture. We examined the role of policies and institutional arrangements as larger drivers of forest change within the context of conservation effectiveness.

The northern Eastern Ghats is an area with significant biodiversity value but remains poorly explored except for a few charismatic taxa such as birds, mammals and reptiles.  Very few studies have looked at the invertebrate diversity of these hill ranges, particularly butterflies.  We present the first peer-reviewed checklist of butterflies from the northern Eastern Ghats based on a rapid and intensive survey carried out at five sites over 16 days across the buffer area of Papikonda National Park and Araku Valley in 2015 and 2016.  We report a total of 102 species of butterflies from six lepidopteran families.  Seventeen significant records include numerous first reports: three new species reports for peninsular India, nine for Eastern Ghats and 14 for the northern Eastern Ghats.  This checklist adds 17 species to the known butterfly fauna for the state of Andhra Pradesh.  It is hoped that findings from the study will help to mobilise conservation research, action and attention for the northern Eastern Ghats forest habitats, which are currently threatened by large scale development, security threats due to the Naxalite insurgency and mesoscale exploitation of forest resources.