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Aditya, V.M.
Assessing the impacts of landscape change and habitat degradation on mammal diversity and distribution in the Northern Eastern Ghats, Andhra Pradesh, using ecological, geographic and social information
2019  Full Book

Anthropogenic activities are causing landscape modification and biodiversity loss. Mammals in particular are among the worst affected by landscape change. Mammal extinction risks are highest in tropical forest landscapes beyond hotspots and other high-priority landscapes with low protection. The Northern Eastern Ghats (NEG) is one of India's least explored landscapes with only 3.53% area protected. The landscape is rapidly changing from dams, mining, plantations and cultivation. My thesis attempts to: 1) understand how land cover has changed over time between the Papikonda National Park (PNP), the only large protected area in NEG, and its surrounding unprotected buffer (BUP) forests; 2) identify drivers of these changes; 3) measure responses of mammals to change and differential levels of protection; and 4) study local communities' perception of these changes. I address these objectives through a combination of ecological, geographic and social information, using quantitative and qualitative research methods. My landscape analysis revealed that PNP lost 12% of forest (102.14 km2) between 1991 and 2014 whereas its unprotected 5 km buffer (BUP - Buffer of Park) lost 32.68% (490 km2). Communities mainly attributed forest change to shifting cultivation, plantations and over-extraction of forest resources. Although forest degradation was significantly lower in PNP than its BUP, the impact of villages on forests was greater inside PNP. I enumerated 55 species of mammals from primary field data using camera traps and sign surveys, and secondary data from community interviews and literature reviews. Moist deciduous forests at higher elevations supported higher mammal diversity and abundance. Similarly, PNP contained significantly higher diversity and abundance of mammals than its BUP. Landscape conservation efforts in the NEG should maintain the contiguity of higher elevation moist deciduous forests, particularly in the exposed BUP. In conclusion, this thesis provides the first baseline information of mammals in the NEG, how they are responding to changes in the landscape. It reveals the role of less known protected areas like PNP for supporting diverse mammal assemblages and conserving biodiversity in neglected landscapes like the NEG.

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