Mammals of the Bhagirathi basin,Western Himalaya: understanding distribution along spatial gradients of habitats and disturbances RANJANA P AL ,SHAGUN THAK U R ,SHASHANK ARYA


TAP A J IT BHATT A CHAR Y A and SAMBANDAM S A THYAKUMAR


Abstract Understanding the distribution of wildlife species and their response to diverse anthropogenic pressures is important for conservation planning and management of wildlife space in human-dominated landscapes. Assessments of anthropogenic impacts on mammals of the Indian Himalayan Region have mostly been limited to locations inside protected areas. We studied the occurrence of mam- mals in an unexplored landscape, the 7,586 km2 Bhagirathi basin, at an altitude of 500–5,200 m. The basin encompasses wilderness areas of various habitat types and protection status that are exposed to a range of anthropogenic pres- sures. Camera trapping at 209 locations during October 2015–September 2017 confirmed the occurrence of 39 spe- cies of mammals, nine of which are categorized as threat- ened (four Vulnerable, five Endangered) and four as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List. We recorded five mammal species that were hitherto undocumented in Uttarakhand State: the argali Ovis ammon, Tibetan sand fox Vulpes ferrilata, woolly hare Lepus oiostolus, Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx and woolly flying squirrel Eupetaurus ciner- eus. In addition, we recorded two Endangered species, the dhole Cuon alpinus and tiger Panthera tigris. Threatened species such as the sambar Rusa unicolor, common leopard Panthera pardus and Asiatic black bear Ursus thibetanus occur in a wide variety of habitats despite anthropogenic disturbance. We recorded the snow leopard Panthera uncia in areas with high livestock density but temporally segregated from human activities. The musk deer Moschus spp. and Himalayan brown bear Ursus arctos isabellinus were recorded in subalpine habitats and appeared to be less affected by human and livestock presence. Our findings highlight the potential of the Bhagirathi basin as a stronghold for conservation of several threatened and rare mammal species.


Keywords Anthropogenic pressures, Bhagirathi basin, camera trapping, India, new records, temporal segregation, threatened mammals


Supplementary material for this article is available at doi.org/10.1017/S0030605319001352


Introduction


gion (Schaller, 1977), but they are threatened by persecution (Mishra, 1997; Naha et al., 2018), habitat loss and degrada- tion (Namgail et al., 2007; Kittur et al., 2010), and compe- tition with livestock (Bhatnagar, 1997; Mishra et al., 2004; Bhattacharya et al., 2012). The type and intensity of these threats often vary across the seasons (Bhattacharya & Sathyakumar, 2011). Anthropogenic disturbance is dynamic, and responses of


T


wildlife are likely to be influenced by human density and location at a given time, and the duration of human activ- ity (Rogala et al., 2011;Carter etal., 2012). Understanding these dynamics facilitates conservation planning and illuminates the processes governing wildlife behaviour in human- dominated landscapes (Hojnowski, 2017). The 7,586 km2 Bhagirathi basin in Uttarakhand, India, is recognized for its ecological, socio-cultural and conservation significance (Rajvanshi et al., 2012). This landscape encompasses wilder- ness areas of various habitat types and protection status that are exposed to a range of anthropogenic pressures. The only protected area in the Bhagirathi basin is the 2,500 km2 Gangotri National Park, which provides protection to spe- cies of the Trans-Himalaya and Greater Himalaya. Anthropogenic activities in the Bhagirathi basin include


RANJANA PAL,SHAGUN THAKUR,SHASHANK ARYA,TAPAJIT BHATTACHARYA* and SAMBANDAM SATHYAKUMAR (Corresponding author,


2027-4706) Wildlife Institute of India, Chandrabani, Dehradun 248001, Uttarakhand, India. E-mail ssk@wii.gov.in


*Also at: Department of Conservation Biology, Durgapur Government College, Durgapur, India


Received 12 March 2019. Revision requested 9 May 2019. Accepted 11 November 2019. First published online 20 July 2020.


orcid.org/0000-0003-


seasonal grazing (May–October) above 2,000 m altitude. There are local livestock herders and pastoral migrant communities such as Gujjar (outside the protected area) and Gaddis (in the Trans-Himalayan part of Gangotri National Park), with large herds of livestock (c. 30,000 sheep, goats and mules) grazing the alpine pastures of the National Park (Chandola et al., 2008) for 4 months annual- ly (June–September). Anthropogenic activities in the lower and mid-altitude forests (500–2,500 m) of the Bhagirathi basin include livestock grazing, extraction of non-timber


This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Oryx, 2021, 55(5), 657–667 © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605319001352


he mammals of the Indian Himalayan Region are ex- ceptionally diverse, and many are endemic to the re-


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