Tiger occupancy in Ratapani landscape: What is the reason behind tiger presence in proximity of capital Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India?
Bhopal city (AIPC 2011- 1,798,218) capital of Madhya Pradesh state, India situated in fertile plain of Malwa Plateau in vicinity of the Vindhyan ranges. The total studied forest area was around 4620.84 sq. km of Vindhyan landscape. Working plan of Bhopal circle 1983-98 clearly stated about 19 tiger's presence (1980 WL census). SFRI, Jabalpur estimated 9 tigers after the 35 years based on camera trap in 2016 acknowledge the presence of historical tiger population in proximity of Bhopal. Tiger occupancy survey was performed from Dec 2018 to Apr 2019 to estimate the overall occupancy rate Ψ on presence software version 13.6. The occupancy survey across the study area of a total 5312 (sq.km), segment distribution was 83 grid cells (size 64 sq.km). The detected tiger sign in 49 out of 83 grid cells was confirmed, which yielded naïve occupancy of 0.5904. The tiger occupied estimated potential tiger habitat is 70.83% of the total study area, or an area of 3762.48 (SE=482.34) out of 5312(sq.km) Ratapani-Kheoni Landscape. In contrast, a naïve estimate derived from the traditional 'presence-versus-absence' approach is only 3136.20 sq.km and underestimated true occupancy by 59.04%. The best-fitted model is Hines model under which ψ (Cattle+Ruggedness),θ(.),θ'(.), pt (Nilgai+Water) model has shown the lowest AIC (value-1144.59) among 44 models. The model-specific β(beta) Coefficient estimate for covariates determining the Tiger occupancy in Ratapani-Kheoni landscape is tiger β0(SE*β0+)- 0.52(0.61). The rugged terrain, abundant perennial water availability and Nilgai/Cattle presence were influencing historical tiger population in proximity of Bhopal by occupancy modelling. Keywords: Ratapani-Kheoni Landscape (RKL), Tiger Conservation, Critical Tiger Habitat, naïve Occupancy, Akaike Information Criteria (AIC). ID: 3486773
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| Format: | Article biblioteca |
| Language: | English |
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FAO ;
2022
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| Online Access: | https://openknowledge.fao.org/handle/20.500.14283/CC1810EN http://www.fao.org/3/cc1810en/cc1810en.pdf |
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