Local Knowledge Suggests Significant Wildlife Decline and Forest Loss in Insurgent Affected Similipal Tiger Reserve, India. (June 2013)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Local Knowledge Suggests Significant Wildlife Decline and Forest Loss in Insurgent Affected Similipal Tiger Reserve, India. (June 2013)
- Main Title:
- Local Knowledge Suggests Significant Wildlife Decline and Forest Loss in Insurgent Affected Similipal Tiger Reserve, India
- Authors:
- Sahoo, Sasmita
Puyravaud, Jean-Philippe
Davidar, Priya - Abstract:
- Similipal Tiger Reserve is a large insurgent-affected protected area (PA) located in the northern Eastern Ghats, India, with a resident tribal population of about 12, 500. In 2007-08, we carried out a survey of conservation attitudes among 217 men and women (<20 years old) and documented their perceptions of wildlife and forest decline over a 20-year period from 1997-2007. Using data from the Forest Survey of India, we ascertained the decrease in forest cover (<40%), and using available census information we assessed tiger status over this period. Most of the respondents were primarily agriculturists (79%), and all households collected fuel-wood from the forest; 13% hunted and 49% fished. The majority of the respondents (80%) agreed that trees had disappeared, and 90% agreed that the tiger and elephant had disappeared. Respondents' recollections of Bengal tiger and Asian elephant sightings over a 20-year period indicated a drastic decline in their numbers, and perceptions of forest loss were supported by assessments of changes in dense forest cover indicating an annual deforestation rate of 1.577% yr −1 over a 20-year period, or loss of 274 km 2 of dense forest. This suggests that forest dwelling communities have an acute awareness of disappearing forests and wildlife, and informant-based surveys can be indicative of the status of wildlife and forests in situations such as Similipal, where ecological studies are problematic due to civil conflict.
- Is Part Of:
- Tropical conservation science. Volume 6:Number 2(2013)
- Journal:
- Tropical conservation science
- Issue:
- Volume 6:Number 2(2013)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 6, Issue 2 (2013)
- Year:
- 2013
- Volume:
- 6
- Issue:
- 2
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2013-0006-0002-0000
- Page Start:
- 230
- Page End:
- 240
- Publication Date:
- 2013-06
- Subjects:
- annual deforestation rate -- Eastern Ghats -- India -- insurgency -- local attitudes -- Similipal Tiger Reserve -- wildlife decline
Rain forest conservation -- Periodicals
Rain forest ecology -- Periodicals
Rain forest conservation
Rain forest ecology
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577.34 - Journal URLs:
- http://bibpurl.oclc.org/web/71368 ↗
http://journals.sagepub.com/loi/trca ↗
http://tropicalconservationscience.mongabay.com/about.html ↗
http://www.tropicalconservationscience.org/ ↗
http://www.sagepublications.com/ ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1177/194008291300600205 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 1940-0829
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
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