Opportunities for prioritizing and expanding conservation enterprise in India using carnivores as flagships

Abstract

33Conservation interventions in developing countries are frequently thwarted by socio-economic 34 agendas, severely limiting the scope and rigor of biodiversity and habitat conservation. Very few 35 ecological assessments incorporate human interests in conservation prioritization, creating 36 asynchrony between planning and implementation. For conservation actions to be logistically 37 feasible, multiple criteria including ecological, social, economic and administrative aspects must 38 be considered. Understanding how these different dimensions interact spatially is also important 39 for gauging the potential for conservation success. Here, we use a guild of select mammalian 40 carnivores in India to (i) generate distribution maps at a spatial scale that is relevant to 41 management, (ii) examine ecological, social and biogeographic factors associated with their 42 distribution, quantify key threats, and identify areas critical for their conservation, (iii) use 43 prioritization tools for balancing habitat conservation, human needs and economic growth, and 44 (iv) evaluate the spatial congruence between areas with high conservation potential, and areas 45 currently in focus for protection efforts, conservation investments, and infrastructure 46 development. We find that the current Protected Area system does not adequately cover or 47 48 investments towards alternative conservation strategies, and, most infrastructure projects may be 49 putting important carnivore habitats at risk. Our framework allowed for identifying locations 50 where conservation investments would lead to the highest dividends for flagship carnivores and 51 associated species across habitats. We make a case for re-evaluating how large-scale 52 prioritization assessments are made, and for broadening the purview of conservation policies in 53 India and other developing countries. 54 55 56

Nurturing orphaned Indian Grey Wolf at Machia Biological Park, Jodhpur, India

“…The wolf population in Asia is data deficient, endangered, and evolutionarily distinct (Hamid et al 2019). Several attempts were made to assess the population and occupancy of Indian Grey Wolves (Jhala & Giles 1991;Kumar & Rahmani 1997;Singh & Kumara 2006;Karanth & Chellam 2009;Srivathsa et al 2020). Estimates of earlier wolf populations, wolf ecology, and their habitat assessment were primarily based on surveys and local-level information from pastoralists (Jhala & Giles 1991;Kumar & Rahmani 1997).…”