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INTERNATIONAL CONSERVATION CONFERENCE -2019
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stto 23
rdOctober 2019
Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh
Dept of Wildlife Sciences, AMU Aligarh
Wildlife Institute of India- Dehradun
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CONTENTS:
Acknowledgement
INTRODUCTION 4
Background and rationale 4
Conference Objectives 4
Participation 4
DAY I 21st October 2019
INAUGURAL SESSION 6
PLENARY SESSION 6
1. Wildlife management in Uttar Pradesh by Mr. Sunil Pandey, IFS 6 2. Emerging threats to Indian Birds by Dr. Asad .R. Rahmani 6 3. The Study and Conservation of Asian deer species 6
by Dr. William .J. Mcshea
4. Restoration and Sustainable management of natural habitats
by Dr. G. S. Rawat 7
5. The varying risk of preferential predation in a changing world of predators 7 by Dr. Matthew Hayward.
TECHNICAL SESSIONS
TECHNICAL SESSION I 7
TECHNICAL SESSION II 11
POSTER PRESENTATIONS 12
DAY II 22nd October 2019 PLENARY TALK
Conserving Large Carnivores in India by Dr, Y, V, Jhala 13
TECHNICAL SESSION III 13
TECHNICAL SESSION IV 15
TECHNICAL SESSION V 19
TECHNICAL SESSION VI 20
POSTER PRESENTATIONS 22
3 DAY III 23nd October 2019
SPECIAL TALK 24
1. Safeguarding the survival future of Whaleshark along West coast of India by Dr. B. C. Chaudhary.
2. Drought monitoring system using geospatial technology by Prof T.P.Singh 3. DNA Technologies for Conservation Management of Endangered Species in India by Ms. Anuradha Reddy.
WRAP UP ROUND 26
UNIVERSITY VISIT 26
ALUMINI MEET 26
RESULTS AND OUTCOMES/ RECOMMENDATIONS 26
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Department of Wildlife Sciences, and entire organizing committee deem it a great honor to thanks to all the participants, speakers and all people who have helped in making this International Conservation Conference successful event.
We are extremely grateful to the delegates to attend this Conference. We are very beholden to our hon’ble Vice Chancellor Prof Tariq Mansoor for allowing us hold this conference. Our profound gratitude to Pro Vice chancellor Prof Akhter Haseeb, for gracing in this conference.
We are obliged to Registrar, Finance Officer Prof S M Jawed , OSD to VC Secretariat Prof Asfar Khan all JFOs JRs and particularly the Finance Department for providing all the moral and financial support.
We are obliged to various functionaries of the university in helping us specially the Land and Garden, Guest House and Conservancy
We are also grateful to all the sponsoring organisations Birla Sanskriti Trust, Treo Trend and Karm Chand Thaper for providing us funds under Their CSR Responsibility (Corporate Social Responsibility). We hope to continue our relation and trust in future.
Orus Ilyas
Conference Coordinator ICC-2019
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
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The report summarizes the entirety of International Conservation Conference 2019 organized by Department of Wildlife Sciences, AMU and Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun at Aligarh Muslim University from 21st October 2019 to 23rd October 2019.
An international panel of experts, under the aegis of Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IBPES), has recently underscored the urgent need of transformational change to safeguard life on Earth. The panel provided indispensable scientific evidence on declining the health of natural habitats across globe. This calls for several actions including stronger international cooperation, formulation of comprehensive conservation strategies and good governance.
The need of organizing a conservation conference was conceptualized for addressing the conservational challenges at global level. It intended to connect global community of conservationists, academicians, researchers, students, policy makers to share research material, develop ideas and resolutions in addressing various conservation goals.
The Conference aimed at
1. Addressing the conservational challenges, formulation of comprehensive conservation strategies and discussing various constraints in implementation.
2. Serving as a forum for sharing of thoughts, experiences, collation and dissemination of information about various aspects of wildlife conservation and management
3. Enlighten and broaden the knowledge of new research advancements in the field of wildlife conservation,
4. Establishing and strengthen scientific collaborations between different national INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE
OBJECTIVES
6 and international institutes.
The conference brought together over 180 participants from 5 different countries of world and 15 different states of India, representing government agencies, policy makers, academicians, scientists, researchers, conservationists, students from different academic Institution, Government sector and NGO, participated in the conference.and fields and the private sector.
PARTICIPATION
7 Core committee
Designation Name and Designation
Patron Prof . Tariq Mansoor, Vice Chancellor AMU Aligarh Conference Director Prof Afifullah Khan
Chairman, Dept of Wildlife Sciences Conference Coordinator Dr. Orus Ilyas
Associate Professor, Dept of Wildlife Sciences Conference Planner Prof Jamal Ahmed Khan
Dept of Wildlife Sciences Session Coordinator Dr. Satish Kumar
Associate Professor, Dept of Wildlife Sciences Advisory Board
Name Affiliations
Dr. Vinod B Mathur Chairman National Biodiversity Board
Prof. László István Sugár Professor Emeritus, University of Kaposvár, Hungary Prof. Brij Gopal Coordinator, Centre for Inland Waters in South Asia Dr. Asad R. Rahmani Former Director, Bombay Natural History Society,
Mumbai
Prof. S.P.S. Kushwaha FNASc, FNIE, Alexander von Humboldt Fellow Former Group Director & Dean (Academic), Indian Institute of Remote Sensing
Prof. B.C. Choudhury Former Faculty, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun Mr. S.S. Srivastava Former PCCF & HoFF, Odisha.
Dr. William J. McShea Research Ecologist, Conservation Ecology Center Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute
Dr. Pradeep K. Malik Head, Department of Wildlife Health Management, WII Dr. Matt Hayward Associate professor, School of Environmental & Life
Sciences, University of Newcastle, Australia
Dr. Jo-Anne M Smith-Flueck Co-Director Deer Lab Coordinadora Cientifica de Plan de Manejo de Area Protegida Shoonem –Argentine
Dr. Parikshit Gautam Principal Director, Centre for Inland Waters in South Asia Committees of ICC-2019
8 Scientific Steering Committee
Name Affiliation
Dr. Gopal S Rawat Director & Dean FWS & Scientist – G, Head, Department of Habitat Ecology, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun Dr. K. Sankar Director, Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural
History (SACON)
Dr. Syed Ainul Hussain Head, Department of Landscape Level Planning and Management Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun Prof. Sant Prakash Head, Department of Zoology, Dayalbagh Educational
Institute, Agra
Dr. T.P Singh Director, Symbiosis Institute of Geoinformatics, Pune Dr. V. P. Uniyal Scientist, Department of Landscape Level Planning and
Management Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun Mr. Qamer Quereshi Head, Department Population Management, Capture and
Rehabilitation, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun Dr. Ajay Gaur Principal Scientist, Centre for Cellular and Molecular
Biology Hyderabad
Dr. Ruchi Badola Head, Department of Ecodevelopment Planning & Participatory Management, Wildlife Dr. Monowar Alam Khalid Head, Department of Environmental Science, Integral
University, Lucknow
Dr. Athar Ali Khan Associate Professor, Department of Botany, AMU.
Ms. Anuradha Reddy Scientist, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology Hyderabad
Dr. Bilal Habib Head, Department of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun
Dr. Shah Hussain Scientist, Centre for Environment Management of Degraded ecosystem, University of Delhi
Dr. Khursheed Ahmad Dr. Khursheed Ahmad
Assistant Professor -cum-Scientist(Wildlife Management) SKUAST-Kashmir
9 Abstract Review committee
Name Affiliation
Prof. Brij Gopal Coordinator, Centre for Inland Waters in South Asia
Dr. Asad R. Rahmani Former Director, Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai Prof. B.C. Choudhury Former Faculty, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun Dr. Syed Ainul Hussain Head, Department of Landscape Level Planning and
Management Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun Mr. Qamer Quereshi Head, Department Population Management, Capture and
Rehabilitation, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun Dr. Matt Hayward Associate professor, School of Environmental & Life
Sciences, University of Newcastle, Australia Dr. Y.V Jhala Professor, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun
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21 st OCTOBER 2019
11 Inaugural Session for the conference was held at JNMC auditorium, AMU. The conference was opened by Conference Director Dr.
Afifullah Khan who welcomed the participants and other dignitaries. This was followed by felicitation of various dignitaries on dice.
Various dignitaries including Pro Vice Chancellor, AMU Dr. Akhter Haseeb, Dean Faculty of Life Sciences Dr Qayyum Hussain , Director Wildlife Institute of India Dr.
G. S. Rawat, Guest of honour Dr. William Mcshea and Chief Guest Mr. Sunil Pandey, IFS, also gave their opening remarks on the occasion.
In the inaugural session Prof. Wazahat Hussain was been felicitated with “LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD” for his invaluable contribution to the research and teaching.
Vote of thanks was given by Conference Coordinator Dr. Orus Ilyas. She thanked all the scientific steering committee, Advisory committee, sponsoring agencies, organizing committee and all the participants for convening at the event
INAUGURAL SESSION
12 1. Title: Wildlife Conservation and Management in Uttar Pradesh
Speaker: Mr. Sunil Pandey IFS
Plenary talk I Mr Sunil Pandey PCCF-CWLW Uttar Pradesh. deliver a talk on “Conservation and management in Uttar Pradesh” There are 26 Sanctuary, 1 national Park, 3 tiger reserve and one Conservation reserve. The forest cover of UP is 16,582 Sq Kms and Total area of Protected area are 6,502 Sq Kms (39% of total forest cover). He also discussed about that the UP is the first State to list human wildlife conflict as one of the natural disasters akin to floods, fire, drought etc. they provide Financial support up to 5 Lakh to the affected families, and also provide Innovation and technological intervention for professional wildlife management. The PCCF-UP also showed the interest to work with the close cooperation to Dept of Wildlife Sciecnes, AMU Aligarh.
2. Title: Emerging threats of Indian birds.
Speaker: Dr. Asad. R. Rahmani
Plenary talk II Dr Rahmani (Former Director, BNHS) delivered a talk on “Emerging threats of Indian birds” where he discussed about several other emerging threats apart from habitat loss, hunting, trapping that caused decline in bird numbers. He enlisted the threats as windmills, high tension wires, Free ranging stray dogs, climate change, solar panels, pesticides, drugs etc.
3. Title: The Study and Conservation of Asian Deer Species Speaker: Dr. William. J. Mcshea
Plenary talk III was given by Dr. William Mcshea, Research ecologist at Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, U.S.A on “The Study and Conservation of Asian Deer Species” .He focusssed on
PLENARY SESSION
13 foraging behaviour of Asian ungulate communities in dry forest and concluded that Asian deer species can co exist with humans in dry forests, if grasses and forbes in dry forests are retained and activities of domestic dogs and poachers are constrained.
3. Title: Restoration and Sustainable management of Natural Habitats Speaker: Dr. G. S. Rawat
Plenary talk IV was given by Dr. G. S. Rawat Director Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun on
“Restoration and Sustainable management of Natural Habitats” wherein he discussed the importance of addressing Target 5 and 9 of The 20 Global Aichi Biodiversity. Target 5 i,e., reduction of loss of all natural habitats to half or zero by 2020 and Target 9 Identification of pathways of invasive species and there control or eradication, managing pathways to prevent their introduction and establishment.He also discussed key strategies for restoration of degraded natural landscapes and comprehensive conservation planning.
4. Title: The Varying risk of Preferential Predation in a Changing world of Predators Speaker: Dr. Mathew Hayward
Plenary talk V was given by Dr. Mathew Hayward on “The Varying risk of Preferential Predation in a Changing world of Predators”
wherein he reviewed prey preference literature on various predators and illustrated how prey preferences varied with changing climate. He also illustrated how important an understanding is of preferential predation as it enables one to predict diet, home range and carrying capacity of predators.
14 Technical sessions were held at New Guest House, AMU. Two parallel sessions took place in two halls Hall A and Hall B.
TECHNICAL SESSIONS
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“Wildlands and Mammalian Ecology”
HALL A
Chair: Dr. D.S. Srivastava Co-Chair: Dr. Satish Kumar
The Chair and Co-chair of the session have summarized the session as follows with their comments;
There were 7 presentations in the session, four of the presenters could not come.
Presentation 1: Ms. Kalloli Dutta presented her research paper, “Threats to Wildlife and habitats in Eastern Arunachal Pradesh: A Case Study from D’Ering WLS”.
Despite difficult remote area to work on, she collected important data on various threats to wildlife and habitat. It was a good work. The study should also have collected data on impacts of threats to habitat, which could be an extension of her present study.
Presentation 2: Mr. Sougata Sadhukhan presented a paper on Wolf Howling. The study was a good attempt to interpret frequency notes of howling to different individuals but it seems to be of not much use as such. However, it may be used as a tool for awareness among people living amongst wolves to minimalise negative and maligned image of wolves in the society.
Presentation 3: The third presentation was, “Sustaining large carnivores amidst human landscapes”. It was an excellent study for future management of all Wildlife and specially for large carnivores because we are moving towards studies at landscape level where the concept of ‘core’ and ‘buffer area’ does not carry much significance except for Tiger Reserves. Such studies can be reproduced in other areas as well, which could serve as baseline for management of landscapes.
Presentation 4: Fourth presentation was “Preferred Asian Elephant foods and their nutritional analysis in light of future conservation” by Mr. Aman Kumar. It is a good attempt to document preference of foods by elephants. The study should have incorporated other food types also because elephants are very choosey in selecting food.
Nutritional analysis on contents of few food types would be good for Elephant Rescue TECHNICAL SESSION I
16 Centres.
Presentation 5: Mr. Mohsin Javid presented the paper “Abundance and biomass estimation of ungulates in Panna Tiger Reserve, MP, India”. It was a short term study and the conclusions arrived at may be different if the study period would have been longer. However, it was a good attempt.
Presentation 6: Mr. Shahid Ahmad Dar presented a paper on Genetic Charaterisation of Himalayan Brown Bear in Jammu and Kashmir: Conservation implications.
It was an excellent work on the species for which data in India is lacking. It was the best presentation of the session.
Presentation 7: Mr. Athar Noor presented a paper on Distribution of Kashmir Langur in North Kashmir. Work has been done in difficult area and difficult field conditions. It needs to be taken up further to investigate ecology of the species.
TECHNICAL SESSION I
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BIRDS AND BEES: Avian and Insect Diversity.
HALL B
CHAIR: Dr, Asad. R. Rahmani.
CO CHAIR: Dr. Ayesha Qamar.
Twelve papers were listed but three speakers could not come so nine papers were read.
All papers were related to the topic of the technical session but only three papers were on insects.
The Chair and Co-chair of the session have summarized the session as follows with their comments;
Presentation 1: The first paper was on the niche separation of two species of sparrows – House Sparrow and Tree Sparrow – in Guwahati. It was interesting to know that these two similar sized sympatric birds, eating almost the same food show spatial segregation by selecting different parts of Guwahati city where this study was conducted. The speaker, Anukal Nath of Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Assam University, Silchar, was able to show through graphs and statistics the niche differentiation at fine scale habitat utilization pattern.
Presentation 2: The second paper was on the breeding ecology of Black Kite Milvus migrans govinda in Aligarh and Delhi. The Black Kite lives in human-dominated landscape and cities where it depends on food made available by human being either in the form of kitchen refuse in garbage dumps, or directly given to them by certain communities (ritual subsidy). The paper also dealt the issue of citizen’s role in the protection of backyard biodiversity. It was interesting to know that almost 90 percent of the Black-eared Kite Milvus migrans lineatus, a sub species though breeds in a vast area in the temperate region (Northern China, Mongolia, Far East Russia, Japan) migrates to India.
Both papers were well received by students and many questions were asked. These two papers also show the importance of studying urban biodiversity – a neglected field in India till now.
TECHNICAL SESSION II
18 Presentation 3: The third paper by Shuvendu Das and others on the Odonates diversity and distribution in the Indian Himalayas, particularly in the Bhagirathi and Teestariver basins in Uttarakhand and Sikkim respectively showed how little we know of our insect diversity. The presentation was very detailed with lots of statistics that resulted in to many questions by audience which the speaker was able to reply ably. This paper also shows the importance of giving attention to the biodiversity that is all around us but not studied properly. We hope the message will be taken by students.
Presentation 4: The fourth paper was also interesting and was well received. It was on Determining the scales at which avifaunal and mammalian dietary guild richness respond to landscape heterogeneity in tropical deciduous forests. The Ramnagar Forest Division where the study was conducted has 11 heterogenous area. Species traits such as body size, mobility, wing shape, reproductive rate influence home rangescale. Large- bodied animals with higher mobility occupy higher trophic guilds in comparison of small-bodied species with less mobility. For birds, the authors found that the scale of various trophic guilds followed the order carnivore >granivore >frugivore + nectivore >
omnivore. Similar results were shown for mammals where herbivore was at a higher level than omnivore. Interestingly, herbivore did not show any relationship with landscape heterogeneity at any scale. The paper concluded with good statistical data that richness of birds and mammals at different trophic guilds respond to landscape heterogeneity differently. This theory needs to be tested in more habitats and forest types.
Presentation 5: was given by Anam Shakeel who described the insect diversity in and around AMU campus. It is shocking that despite the Zoology Department has an old Entomology Section with some eminent taxonomists – both past and present – only 90 species of insects were recorded. This decline could be due to various reasons (not discussed in the paper) such as pollution, urbanization, lack of bushes, trees and herbs.
This is a topic that needs to be studied in more detail.
Presentation 6: Vaishali Vasudeva discussed the avian diversity in the Ganga river, upstream and downstream of the Narora Barrage. If I compare my own studies in the 1970s, it appears that there is a huge decline of bird numbers in the last 35-40 years. She did not find much difference in the species richness in the upstream and downstream ecosystems, but it was not clear what types of species were present in the two habitats, and which species were common in both. A more detailed study is required.
19 Presentation 7: The study of birds in the Suru Valley of Ladakh by Iqbal Ali Khan identified only 68 species, compared to 128 species listed by Holmes in 1986. This is a cause of concern as the Valley has some globally threatened species such as Saker Falcon, Bearded Vulture, Himalyan Griffon, and Long-billed Bush-warbler. There is an urgent need to make a detailed study on the last-named species as this supposedly resident bird has not been studied till now. Perhaps, some student of AMU can take up the study. The Chair highlighted the importance of working on neglected species and neglected ecosystems.
Presentation 8: Poornima Nailwal discussed the acoustical features and functional significance of songs of Indian Robin where she recorded vocalization of 10 individuals in Chandgrapur district, Maharashtra. It was a short MSc dissertation study of two months. She identified two types of songs: territorial and mate acquisition. She described the various strophes and their structural variations in elements. Very interesting results of two months study. The Chair and Co-chair recommended that a more detailed study with a larger sample size is required.
Presentation 9: Dr.Hilloljyoti Sangha who described the largest freshwater waterbody, Son Beel, of Assam and the biotic pressure faced by this excellent waterbody. It is surrounded by 21 villages who are wholly or partially depended on the beel. Despite such a strong pressure, 89 species of birds, both resident (61) and migratory (28) were identified. He recommends that a portion of the beel could be fully protected from fishing so some areas are left for birds. Son Beel is listed as Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) of India, so it is important to protect it with the involvement of local people and some administrative control.
In conclusion all the papers were good, read by young generation of committed conservationists, and showed the wide diversity of topics. The Chair and Co-Chair encouraged the young participants to ask questions which resulted in useful discussions and exchange of ideas.
Day I witnessed 8 poster presentations related to population ecology, behavior, Conservation biology, Human wildlife conflict, and Climate change
POSTER PRESENTATIONS
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22 nd OCTOBER 2019
21 Title: Role of Science in Conserving Large Carnivores in India
Speaker: Dr, Yadvendradev, V, Jhala
Dr. Y.VJhala gave a talk on Role of Science in Conserving Large Carnivores in India . He reviewed Contribution of research from long term studies on lions, tigers, wolves, and striped hyenas towards the assessment of their status, demography, population viability, habitat connectivity, conservation genetics, reintroduction and human carnivore conflict in formulating policy and management strategies.He stressed upon securing source population, low density occupancy within sink habitats, corridor connectivity between population as the only strategy that could ensure long term persistence of carnivores in India. He also focused on the strategies to reduce and monitor human carnivore conflict in and around various PA’s.
Living with People : Wildlife Conflict and Impact of Urbanization
HALL A
CHAIR: Dr. Y. V. Jhala CO CHAIR: Dr. Matthew Hayward
The Chair and Co-chair of the session have summarized the session as follows with their comments;
Presentation 1: was given by by Ashok Kumar on the ungulates of Nagajuna-Sager- Srisailam tiger sanctuary that found a relationship between the number of camera trap photos and the time taken to detect a species, and the perceived abundance of that
PLENARY SESSIONS
TECHNICAL SESSION III
22 species. There is increasing development of communities surrounding the reserve, and hence methods to minimise interactions between people and wildlife are important. This type of landscape level monitoring is important, and should occur in all protected areas worldwide.
Presentation 2: Prashant Mahajan then presented his research on the factors affecting livestock depredation in Corbett Tiger Sanctuary. This study estimated the costs of livestock depredation on local communities and concluded that more compensation is needed to avoid retributive persecution. Interestingly, leopards killed more livestock than tigers, and leopards targeted cows over calves and oxen – suggesting these are more within their preferred prey. The kill locations were also assessed, and revealed that kills are more likely in areas of high shrub cover – reflecting the importance of cover for solitary felids.
Presentation 3: Sharad Kumar continued the focus on conflict in Corbett, and revealed there had been four people killed by predators between 2002 and 2006 – three by tigers and one by a leopard. This leads to justifiable animosity from the local community.
Sharad also revealed that livestock loss equated to INR35 million or INR42,000 per village. This level of loss might be acceptable to entire villages, but this is not the case for individual families who are substantially affected by the loss of even one animal.
Sharad recommended improved training of community members to avoid attacks;
improved livestock management practices; a continuation of livestock compensation schemes, and a timely revision of compensation rates. Bill McShea raised the important point that perhaps we should be rewarding pastoralists who employ good practices to avoid livestock depredation rather than focusing on rewarding pastoralists who have had livestock killed.
Presentation 4: Harindra Baraiya gave his presentation on Flight behavior of wintering cranes with respect to Power lines in Kutch Gujrat.
Presentation 5: Naveen Kumar Pandey gave an excellent presentation on the work he is doing in Manipur on the socioeconomics of conservation. He found that hunting is no longer primarily conducted to obtain food, but has rather become a recreational activity for men. Women sell crops along roadsides, however poor market linkages by way of infrequent road traffic means the food is often wasted. Naveen recommended improving
23 roads although this could be risky given the impact of opening up roads for poaching and illegal forestry. Naveen was also investigating alternative livelihoods for local people, and weaving looks promising
.
Presentation 6: Bhawna Dhawal presented on the impacts of dams on freshwater ecosystems with a focus on the golden mahseer – a fish that can grow to 2 m in length.
Golden mahseers migrate upstream, hence Bhawna recommended stopping destructive fishing practices (poison, dynamite), protecting habitats including the banks of rivers;
restricting the size of fishing gear to larger mesh sized nets; licencing fisherfolk; and ensuring fish ladders are associated with any river impediments (dams, weirs, etc).
Presentation 7: Praveen Kumar investigated the impacts of wind farms on cranes.
Although recognising the weaknesses of the experimental design compared to Before- After-Control-Impact methods 2, Praveen’s work looked at sites with and without wind turbines. Praveen was only able to find five crane carcasses, but it is likely that carcasses had low detectability due to their attractive nature to scavengers, and their size. Praveen found more cranes in areas without wind turbines than areas with. Hence, he concluded that wind farms potentially displace cranes, and we need to balance development with conservation.
Presentation 8: Ahmad Masood Khan completed Technical Session 3 with a talk on urban wildlife in Uttar Pradesh. Ahmad found 205 species, and his results could be useful in conservation planning and management around Delhi.
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People and Conservarion
HALL B
CHAIR Dr. S. S Srivastava CO CHAIR Dr. M. Shah Hussain
There were 7 out of 11 presentations to be made. The Chair and Co-chair of the session have summarized the session as follows with their comments;
Presentation 1: Dr. Faiyza Abbasi on Eco-theological potential of future faith leaders receiving conservation education at undergraduate level.
The paper describes how in AMU, based the impact of global movement relating to faith and ecology as well as direction of Hon'ble Supreme court for compulsory Environmental Education and UGC in all the streams, AMU inculcated the programme at under graduate level in all programmes. The course curriculum was prepared based on a questionnaire of 19 issues relating to environment interacting, and 56 undergraduate students of Islamic theology were selected to opine on these issues. It was found that students preferred the issues relating to ‘Denouncing wastefulness’, Saving water and plantations. Accordingly syllabus was prepared and implemented in the University with more emphasis on these three issues.
The author recommends multidisciplinary approach for conservation.
The panel is of the opinion that such education is of great importance for global conservation. Specially to curb the incidence of ‘Akhand Shikar’ being practised by tribals in Orissa, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Jharkhand etc, where these Shikars are organised by their religious heads and priests.
It is recommended that students should be taken to field excursions not only to protected areas but also to rural areas to evaluate the dependency of communities on the natural resources and to understand the knowledge on environment.
It is suggested to have a research study on the topic “Documentation of traditional knowledge with special reference to Conservation”
TECHNICAL SESSION IV
25 Presentation 2: Rohit Singh presented on Life on the Frontline
Summary: A very good paper. Efforts have been made to study the working conditions of the frontline staff. The study is based on the largest ever survey done with more than 5000 comprehensive surveys on Rangers across 17 of the world’s most bio-diverse countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. The result finds that Rangers are working under great stress, deprived of basic infrastructure and facilities. Their level of stress was tested found to be as high as soldiers in the battle field. To protect forest, wildlife and environment, the morale of rangers should be high.
The paper is very important and stake holders like government and Project Authorities and others have to take care of frontline staff for better management of natural resources and environment.
Presentation 3: Arun Kumar presented on Conservation Assured | Tiger Standards (CA|TS): Creating Safe Havens for Wild Tigers & Beyond
Summary: The author talked about standardisation of management practices of tiger forest areas out of Tiger Reserves in India. CA|TS: Conservation Assured| Tiger Standards are being implemented at two Indian sites and in six other nations. The objective of this paper was to show that wild tigers have also other spaces to live and breed safely because of increased populations besides having threats. It is a recovery of Range habitat. There is a protocol of seven standards and 17 criteria to be followed for the conservation of Tigers.
The panel recommends that more sites to be included for conservation of Tigers in India and in other countries.
Presentation 4: by Ms. Harshini Yaduvendradev Jhala on Assessing the potential and feasibility of reintroducing two Grassland Megaherbivores, the Greater One-horned Rhinoceros and the Swamp Buffalo in their historic Global range.
Summary: This paper relates to reintroduction of One-horned Rhinoceros and Swamp Buffalo in their former distribution range from where they have become locally extinct due to multiple threats from anthropogenic causes. Now those vacant areas/spaces are available. The author assessed the potential of reintroduction of Rhino and swamp Buffalo from Brahmaputra flood plains in India, Nepal and Bhutan. Her findings were;
i) Population smaller than 10 individuals of Rhinos and 250 individuals of buffalos are susceptible to extinction due to poaching threat.
26 ii) Corbett Tiger Reserve, Dudhwa Tiger Reserve and Katerniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary (Pilibhit) are potential sites for Rhino and Buffalo reintroduction in India.
iii) Chitwan Nation Park and Sukhlaphanta are ideal sites for Buffalo reintroduction in Nepal.
Dr. A. R. Rahmani suggested that there is no swampy area/marshland in Corbett TR and it is Bhabhar plains so it is not suitable site for reintroduction of both the species. Dr Rahmani suggested Kishanpur Sanctuary better potential site than Katerniaghat.
Prof. B. C. Chaudhary suggested Valmiki TR better for Buffalo reintroduction and Katerniaghat for Rhino reintroduction. He further suggested to explore the potential sites in central India especially Chhattisgarh for Buffalos.
The panel suggests that further research to look into suggestions and reassess the potential of reintroduction of Indian Rhino and Swamp Buffalo.
Presentation 5: by Ms. Natasha Sethi on Conservation Breeding of Select Felids in Indian Zoos: A tool for Achieving the Goal of Sustainable Population Management.
Summary: The paper deals with compilation of data collected from stud book of the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) of India and from Indian zoos relating to population management of Royal Bengal Tiger (RBT), Asiatic Lion, Clouded Leopard and Snow Leopard. The findings of the paper were;
i) In respect of RBT, Clouded Leopard and Snow Leopard deaths were more than the births in captivity.
ii) In respect of Lion birth was more than the death in captivity due to more numbers of Lion were rescued.
Observation: The study lacked any findings about the causes of more deaths of felids in the zoos and suggestion to check the mortality of big cats in Indian zoos
Presentation 6: was presented by Pankaj Chandan on Black-necked Crane a Vehicle for Regional Cooperation Among Central Asian Flyways (CAF) Countries.
Summary: The author has put in lots of effort to study the behaviour and threats on Black necked crane (BNC) for more than 10 years. This species is found only in three CAF countries i.e. India, China and Bhutan. The BNC breeds in Tibetan Plateau in south central China and adjacent part of India i.e. Chanthang region in Ladakh.
The paper advocates for;
i) Regional level policy initiative to bring India, China and Bhutan at one forum to have a co-ordinated action for the conservation of the species.
27 ii) The BNC site network also needs to be developed and various critically important wetlands for the species need to be identified and brought under this site network.
He found greatest threat to chicks of BNC from predation by feral dogs besides the upcoming tourism and related infrastructure development.
Presentation 7: by Mohammad Nooruddin Ansari on Conservation Practices of Paper Documents in India: Problems and Solutions
Summary: A very important and unique paper providing various techniques to protect and preserve the paper documents. It was observed that in this field many organisations within India and abroad have developed such techniques and needs to be consulted for better results.
Observation: The study lacks information about preservation of documents like herbarium and other museum documents including text on other than paper.
Wildlands and Mammalian Ecology
HALL A
Chair: Dr. M. A.Khalid
Co Chair: Ms. Anuradha Reddy Session Summary
The Session began with brief introduction about the importance of Session Topic by the Chair Prof. M. A. Khalid, who also informed the audience about the diversity of papers being presented by various speakers from different parts of the country.
There were total 8 papers selected for presentation, out of which only 6 papers were presented in the session as 2 speakers were absent.
Presentation 1: The first paper was presented by Mr. Zehidul Hussain, which dealt with space use and movement of Tigers in Eastern Vidharba Landscape, Maharashtra for his studies conducted as Wildlife Institute of India researcher.
TECHNICAL SESSION V
28 Presentation 2: The second paper was of Mr. Arun Pratap Mishra, who discussed initial results of his ongoing forest characterization at community level using Temporal Sentinel-2 Data in Western Himalaya.
Presentation 3: Ms. Ranjana Pal presented her paper on multispecies response to anthropogenic disturbances as a case study of rare and endangered mammals from high altitude Himalayan landscape.
Presentation 4: Ms. Aimon Bushra presented her study on land use land cover mapping of arid landscape of Dubai.
Presentation 5: Ms. Talat Parveen presented results from her study for habitat mapping in Panna Tiger Reserve using Remote Sensing & GIS.
Presentation 6: The last paper of Mr. Ayan Sadhu dealt with the demography of small, isolated Tiger population in semi-arid region of Western Ghats.
Conclusion:
The papers presented invoked great interest amongst the audience and lots of queries and clarifications were raised. The presenters defended most of the queries and few suggestions like caution in use of technical tools in wildlife studies and more field based data collection and results which should lead to ecological solutions to the problems were well accepted by the researchers. Overall, it was an informative and highly interesting session, which ended with thanks to Chair.
29
Wetland ecology
Hall B
Chair: Dr. B.C Chaudary
Co Chair: Dr. Khursheed Ahmad
Session Summary by Chair and Co Chair:
The session constituted four presentations on Wetland Ecology related topics and one on Entomology out of the eight presentations slotted.There were three absents in the session.
Presentation 1: was By Mr Fergus Mark Anthony on "Use of Wetland Habitat by Migratory and Resident Avian Species and Conservation Strategy for Kopra Reservoir, Bilaspur.The author and presenter of this paper talked about the avian diversity and abundance in the Kopra Reservoir in Bilaspur, a manmade wetland of significant size which also meets the requirement of irrigation needs of the surrounding landscape. The study was focused on monthly and seasonal documentation of both resident and migratory waterfowls using the wetland. In the date presented for four years(2016 ,2017 and 2018 and 2019) the researchers have documented 135 to 141 species of birds belonging to both the categories of which 81 were resident and 54 were migrants. The reasons of recording a higher number of species in 2019 could not be explained by the researcher but it is surmised that over the years the researcher has developed greater efficiency in bird identification and this could be the result as the relationship of hydrology with species diversity and abundance have not been studied. The presenter also explained about the surrounding landscapes of the wetland which supports mammalian fauna such as spotted deer, foxes and jackals. Construction of a fourlane highway adjoining the wetland was considered to be a major disturbing factor for the wetland. Awareness creation targeted at the local villagers and bringing the wetland under some kind of a protected regime was the recommendation of the paper. Since the researcher is pursuing this study as a possible Ph.D outcome he was suggested to refine his research methodological approach with proper research questions.
TECHNICAL SESSION VI
30 Presentation 2: was by Ms Farah Akram entitled "Wetland Mapping and their Status in Aligarh District, UP, India."The study is a topic of her PhD and is based on previous published record analysis of wetlands by other studies during the year 1998,2010 and 2016 based on sattelite imagery interpretation as well as her own recent satellite imagery interpretations from the year 2002 to 2017.The study reveals significant changes in the size and number of wetlands in the district which is in the Gangetic flood plains. She has divided the size classes in to less than 3ha and more than 3 ha category of wetlands. At present she has come out with the presence of 1486 wetlands covering 1717 ha which constitutes only 0.45%of the total geographic area of the district. Of this she claims only 5% of the wetlands are greater than 3 ha and the rest are less than 3 ha in size. She also comes out with the figure that in the last 15 years the district has lost 60.36% of its wetlands from an area of 4332.78 ha to the present 1717 ha. She is looking at the wetlands from the point of use by avifauna but was suggested to look at the wetlands during her ground truthing work from the point of view of their socio economic and other ecological values so that district planners and administrators can take her study findings useful for developmental planning in which some focus can be given to the wetlands.
Presentation 3: was by Ms Shalini Jain and was an a coastal wetland of Mumbai metropolis.The title of her presentation was "Spatio-temporal pattern of abundance and impacts of anthropogenic disturbances on flamingos of the Thane Creek and Sewri mudflats".The study is being conducted by the researcher as a project of the BNHS and they are monitoring the Thane creek and the Sewri mudflats for the population of two species of flamingos ie the greater and lesser flamingo that use the habitat.The 26km long creek has been divided in to 40 blocks with marker boards on either bank of the creek and total count of the flamingos in each of the sectors are taken up on a monthly basis during 0ctober 18 to May 19.The relative closeness of developmental and anthropogenic disturbances and their impact on the flamingos using the mudflats are being recorded. The bridges and human settlement impacts have been found to be negative. However, the short duration study is not very sure whether the changes in population number of flamingos are due to migration or due to both. A long term study will come out with a proper impact study.
The researcher was suggested to look in to the EIA report based on which the clearance
31 for bridge construction was given and what has been the mitigation measures that have been suggested in the EIA report and whether the metropolis authorities are following those recommendations. If no recommendations are there in the EIA than the present study can give proper recommendations that benefits not just the flamingos but also the other shore birds.
Presentation 4: was by Shri Rajandra Prasad Panigrahy on "Protection, Conservation and Procreation of River Turtles.".This was the work of a NGO and their members in protecting six species of turtles occurring in a stretch of Brahmini river in Dhenkanal district of Odisha. They have monitored 629 nests in 2013-14,and up to 817 in recent years. However, they are not very sure to which species the nests belong to. They have some support from the state forest department and are advised by a scientist from the state biodiversity authority.The presenter was advised to first properly identify the species and the nests and than plan out the protection strategy.Initiation of a captive hatchery and a head start program under the supervision of the wildlife wing of the state forest Department will help the program but it is not advisable to create a conservation center as there will be several such locations in many rivers of the state.
Presentation 5: was not related to wetland and was on the anatomy of the compound eye of four order of insects entitled "Ommatidial variation across some Endopterygote Insect orders" The researcher has studied in detail the difference in number of Ommatidia in 36 different species of insects of the order Ldepidoptera, Diptera, Coleoptera and Hymenoptera and the reasons there of such as nocturnal or diurnal behaviour and their habits which also influences the size of the compound eye.
Around 10 posters related to animal behavior, impact of urbanization on wildlife, diversity of various insect orders and bird community structure were displayed.
POSTER PRESENTATION
32
23 rd OCTOBER 2019
33 Title: Safeguarding the Survival Future of WhaleShark: A Marine Megafauna
along West Coast of India?
Speaker: Dr. B. C. Chaudhary.
Dr. Chaudhary illustrated a successful story of how fishing community who used to be a relentless hunters of Whaleshark turned to its guardians.He stressed upon harnessing Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) of the indigenous communities to meet the conservational goals. One of the important conservation strategy adopted was the participation of spiritual leader in sermonizing targeted fisherfolks about lifehistory intricacies of Whalesharks. The talk pointed out the importance of local people participation and coporate agencies in meeting conservational goals.
Title: Drought monitoring system using geospatial technology Speaker: Dr. T.P. Singh
Prof. Tarun Pratap Singh briefed about how the urgent need of developing innovative approaches for drought monitoring across country to reduce loss of yield. He stressed upon integration of meteorological data, vegetation canopy indicators from satellite imagery and targeted collection of ground truth moisture and crop-yield data for monitoring and assessment of drought risks. He was of the thought that integration of traditional meteorological data, remotely sensed drought indices, together with information on elevation, vegetation type, and man-made irrigation, provides a promising approach to better characterize the spatial extent and intensity of drought.
Through this it will be possible to perform drought risk analysis in different regions as well as analyse and design specific adaptation measures for the prevention of damage in the future.
SPECIAL TALKS
34 Title: DNA Technologies for Conservation in Management of Endangered Species in India
Speaker: Ms. Anuradha Reddy
Ms. Reddy briefed about the population and landscape genetics of Tiger (in Central India and Western Ghats) and Nilgiri Thar across its range in the Western Ghats.
Advances in DNA technologies have revolutionized research in various aspects of wildlife biology and conservation management of several endangered species worldwide. Milestone discoveries and inventions in the last few decades in DNA structure and functions, polymerase chain reaction, Sanger and next-generation sequencing technologies have given us startling and lucid insights into one of the biological realm’s most powerful molecules. We now routinely use these techniques to understand and assess certain evolutionary and ecological parameters of living systems. Molecular genetic analyses contribute to conservation by resolving taxonomic uncertainties, by providing essential information on little know aspects of species biology, by detecting loss of genetic diversity in small and fragmented populations of threatened species, and by aiding the detection of illegal hunting and trade. Research at the Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species (CSIR-CCMB) which was established in 2006, addresses various aspects of genetic and reproduction management of several threatened species in India. My team specifically focuses on population and landscape genetics of tiger and we developed several molecular genetic protocols to effectively answer questions pertaining to these areas of research. Integrated landscape management of key population areas and the corridors linking them is important for tiger conservation in the Indian subcontinent.
Relationships between gene flow and landscape patterns, however, cannot be generalized given that different limiting factors influence movement in different spatial contexts. We studied landscape features affecting tiger gene flow in Central India and the Western Ghats, and examined how and why limiting landscape features which affect gene flow differ between these two tiger landscapes. We also conducted a similar study on the endemic Nilgiri tahr across its range in the Western Ghats to
35 identify pinch-points to movement and gene flow. Studies of this kind are important to understand the ecology of each species, and to tailor conservation actions to most effectively incorporate the biology of the respective species. A very important off- shoot of the population genetic studies on tiger has been development of a standardized protocol to analyse tiger forensic and poaching cases. This work has important implications for tiger 13 conservation and can be strengthened by developing additional standard protocols to address issues like geographic assignment of illegally traded samples.
CHAIR : Dr. Sant Prakash CO CHAIR: Dr. T. P. Singh
The chairs of all the six session summarized the talks, and gave the recommendation, The papers have been discussed in different technical session and recommendation has been given seperatly in recommendation coloumn.
WRAP UP ROUND BY ALL CHAIRS
36 The University visits were organized for the delegates and participants The delegates and participants from outside of Aligarh Visited Maulana Azad library, Dept of Zoology, Dept of Wildlife Sciences and Musa Dakri Museum.
UNIVERSITY VISIT
37 The second half of the third day the Alumni meet were organized and decided to create a data bank to rope in the all the alumni of Dept. of Wildlife Science since its inception in 1987.
The conference received appreciation and positive feedback from participants as well as attendees. Organizers were encouraged for organizing more such events in near future.
1. It was recommended that the conference should be organized at every two years and it should be organized in Aligarh only.
2. Further research on mammalian ecology should be taken up on species such as Gaur, Sloth Bear, Giant Squirrels, and Pangolins in their distributional ranges.
3. Research should attempt to answer questions – i.e., be hypothesis driven – rather than purely descriptive.
4. Ensure that the knowledge they learn in their projects is transferred to the broader public by way of newspaper articles or articles in magazines, blogs, etc
5. An outreach programme may be started by the University by writing to the State Forest/Wildlife Departments offering to conduct field studies in their areas. They may also be requested for taking up short-term studies by the PG students in PAs.
ALUMINI MEET
FEEDBACK
RECOMMENDATIONS
38 6. Similar conferences, meetings, symposiums should be organized by the
department in near future
7. Workshops on new research advancements, statistical software programming should be conducted.
8. Future events should witness wide participation of stakeholders/ NGO’s and investors.
9. One special session (speed talk) only for students should be organized by students themselves to get a learning experience.
10. Generate E bird data of PhD data.
The conference was concluded by the Conference dinner and the Vice chancellor Prof Tariq Mansoor was the guest of honour of the dinner..
39 The conference was concluded by the Conference dinner and the Vice chancellor
Prof Tariq Mansoor was the guest of honour of the dinner.
