Climate change is one of the major drivers of biodiversity loss. Among vertebrates, amphibians are one of the more sensitive groups to climate change due to their unique ecology, habitat requirements, narrow thermal tolerance and relatively limited dispersal abilities. We projected the influence of climate change on an endemic toad, Malabar Tree Toad (Pedostibes tuberculosus; hereafter MTT) from the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot, India, for two different shared socio-economic pathways (SSP) using multiple modeling approaches for current and future (2061-2080) scenarios. The data used predominantly comes from a citizen science program, 'Mapping Malabar Tree Toad' which is a part of the Frog Watch citizen science program, India Biodiversity Portal. We also evaluated the availability of suitable habitats for the MTT in Protected Areas (PAs) under the current and future scenarios. Our results show that annual precipitation was the most important bioclimatic variable influencing the distribution of MTT. We used MaxEnt (MEM) and Ensemble (ESM) modeling algorithms. The predicted distribution of MTT with selected environmental layers using MEM was 4556.95 km(2) while using ESM was 18,563.76 km(2). Overlaying PA boundaries on predicted distribution showed 37 PAs with 32.7% (1491.37 km(2)) and 44 PAs with 21.9% (4066.25 km(2)) coverage for MEM and ESM respectively. Among eight future climate scenarios, scenarios with high emissions showed a decreased distribution range from 33.5 to 68.7% of predicted distribution in PAs, while scenarios with low emissions showed an increased distribution range from 1.9 to 111.3% in PAs. PAs from the Central Western Ghats lose most suitable areas with a shift of suitable habitats towards the Southern Western Ghats. This suggests that MTT distribution may be restricted in the future and existing PAs may not be sufficient to conserve their habitats. Restricted and discontinuous distribution along with climate change can limit the dispersal and persistence of MTT populations, thus enhanced surveys of MTT habitats within and outside the PAs of the Western Ghats are an important step in safeguarding the persistence of MTT populations. Overall, our results demonstrate the use of citizen science data and its potential in modeling and understanding the geographic distribution and the calling phenology of an elusive, arboreal, and endemic amphibian species.

Highly populated tropical countries face tremendous pressures in reconciling the needs for improved economic security and the protection of declining biodiversity. India is no exception and its biodiversity is under severe pressure due to complex interactions among land use change, other human economic activities, and climate change. Preservation and restoration of biodiversity is perhaps the cheapest and least risky way to mitigate the impacts of threats such as climate change, diminishing food and nutritional security, declining economy, absence of affordable healthcare, rising zoonotic diseases and lack of capacity to address these issues. Here we describe a framework for biodiversity conservation – the National Mission on Biodiversity and Human Well-Being (NMBHWB) for India – which integrates biodiversity, ecosystem services, climate change, agriculture, health, bio-economy and capacity building in the realm of biodiversity science. We provide an overview of the seven Programs of the Mission which make it interdisciplinary, integrative, and comprehensive in its approach. The Mission explicitly links research with policy-making and implementation for effective management of biodiversity with sustainable development. With its emphasis on convergence and synergies among various goals, themes and project sites, the Mission will further develop new models for stakeholder consultations and co-production of knowledge. We posit that the NMBHWB will enable India to realize the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Targets while advancing India's commitments to the Paris Agreement on climate change and other international environmental conventions and treaties.

Contemporary losses of biodiversity, sometimes referred to as the sixth mass extinction, continue to mount (1, 2). A recent assessment by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) estimates that one million of approximately 10 million species that exist now are threatened with extinction along with the ecosystems they inhabit (3). Yet, in the post-coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) world, investments in conservation are likely to decline further. To arrest biodiversity losses, much of the recent debate advocates two traditional approaches: Put more land under wilderness (4, 5), and mitigate drivers of change through improved governance and policies (2). India and other nations need new frameworks that integrate science with policies to enhance human well-being, restore and conserve nature, and build capacity. Image credit: Sandesh Kadur (photographer). However, in the populous tropics, where most biodiversity resides, conservation of our ecosystems will remain elusive until there is a clear demonstration of the relevance of biodiversity to people’s well-being, most of whom live below the poverty line. Although nature-based solutions for addressing our most pressing challenges such as climate change, water scarcity, agricultural intensification, and health are well known (3), the link between biodiversity and human well-being has remained elusive. A major constraint, at least in the tropics, has been the lack of investment in biodiversity science that can build human resources and demonstrate the potential of biodiversity in 1) tackling climate change, natural disasters, stagnating agricultural productivity, water shortages, polluted air, and newly emerging infectious diseases such as COVID-19, 2) increasing human well-being, and 3) fostering future socioeconomic development. Here, we outline a National Mission on Biodiversity and Human Well-being for India that calls for a considerable increase in investment for this new framework for integrating biodiversity science with human well-being. This will demonstrate the linkages … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: kamal.bawa{at}gmail.com. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1

Health Heatmap of India is an open data platform built for bringing together data from diverse sources and facilitating visualization, analysis, and insight building from such data. In this paper, we describe the context and need for such an open data platform and describe the technical aspects of building it. The beta site of the portal is available at https://healthheatmapindia.org.

Global conservation policy is increasingly debating the feasibility of reconciling wildlife conservation and human resource requirements in land uses outside protected areas (PAs). However, there are few quantitative assessments of whether or to what extent these 'wildlife-friendly' land uses fulfill a fundamental function of PAs-to separate biodiversity from anthropogenic threats. We distinguish the role of wildlife-friendly land uses as being (a) subsidiary, whereby they augment PAs with secondary habitat, or (b) substitutive, wherein they provide comparable habitat to PAs. We tested our hypotheses by investigating the influence of land use and human presence on space-use intensity of the endangered Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) in a fragmented landscape comprising PAs and wildlife-friendly land uses. We applied multistate occupancy models to spatial data on elephant occurrence to estimate and model the overall probability of elephants using a site, and the conditional probability of high-intensity use given that elephants use a site. The probability of elephants using a site regardless of intensity did not vary between PAs and wildlife-friendly land uses. However, high-intensity use declined with distance to PM, and this effect was accentuated by an increase in village density. Therefore, while wildlife-friendly land uses did play a subsidiary conservation role, their potential to substitute for PAs was offset by a strong human presence. Our findings demonstrate the need to evaluate the role of wildlife-friendly land uses in landscape-scale conservation; for species that have conflicting resource requirements with people, PAs are likely to provide crucial refuge from growing anthropogenic threats. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Fragmentation of native habitats is now a ubiquitous phenomenon affecting wildlife at various scales. We examined selection of den-sites (n = 26) by Indian foxes (Vulpes bengalensis) in a highly modified short-grassland landscape in central India (Jan-May, 2010). At the scale of the home-range, defined by an 800 m circular buffer around den sites, we examined the effect of land-cover edges and roads on selection of sites for denning using a distance-based approach. At the smaller den-area scale, defined by a 25 m x 25 m plot around den and paired available sites, the effect of microhabitat characteristics was examined using discrete-choice models. Indian foxes selected den-sites closer to native grasslands (t = -9.57, P < 0.001) and roads (t = -2.04, P = 0.05) than random at the home-range scale. At the smaller scale, abundance of rodents and higher visibility increased the odds of selection of a site by eight and four times respectively, indicating resource availability and predator avoidance to be important considerations for foxes. Indian foxes largely chose to den in human-made structures, indicated by the proportion of dens found in earthen bunds (0.69) and boulder piles (0.27) in the study area. With agricultural expansion and human modification threatening native short-grassland habitats, their conservation and effective management in human-dominated landscapes will benefit the Indian fox. The presence of some human-made structures within native grasslands would also be beneficial for this den-dependent species. We suggest future studies examine the impact of fragmentation and connectivity of grasslands on survival and reproductive success of the Indian fox.

The rapid disruption of tropical forests probably imperils global biodiversity more than any other contemporary phenomenon. With deforestation advancing quickly, protected areas are increasingly becoming final refuges for threatened species and natural ecosystem processes. However, many protected areas in the tropics are themselves vulnerable to human encroachment and other environmental stresses. As pressures mount, it is vital to know whether existing reserves can sustain their biodiversity. A critical constraint in addressing this question has been that data describing a broad array of biodiversity groups have been unavailable for a sufficiently large and representative sample of reserves. Here we present a uniquely comprehensive data set on changes over the past 20 to 30 years in 31 functional groups of species and 21 potential drivers of environmental change, for 60 protected areas stratified across the world’s major tropical regions. Our analysis reveals great variation in reserve ‘health’: about half of all reserves have been effective or performed passably, but the rest are experiencing an erosion of biodiversity that is often alarmingly widespread taxonomically and functionally. Habitat disruption, hunting and forest-product exploitation were the strongest predictors of declining reserve health. Crucially, environmental changes immediately outside reserves seemed nearly as important as those inside in determining their ecological fate, with changes inside reserves strongly mirroring those occurring around them. These findings suggest that tropical protected areas are often intimately linked ecologically to their surrounding habitats, and that a failure to stem broad-scale loss and degradation of such habitats could sharply increase the likelihood of serious biodiversity declines.

Livestock predation by Asiatic lions Panthera leo persica in and around Gir Protected Area (Gir PA) in western India results in conflict with people and has important implications for the conservation of this species. A 5-year study was undertaken to document diet and predation patterns based on direct observations of radio-collared lions, opportunistically located carcasses and scat analysis. Magnitude of livestock predation was assessed based on interviews of resident pastoralists in 20 settlements. Lions made one kill in every 4 days and the diet primarily consisted of large prey. Wild prey, mainly chital Axis axis, represented 80% of the lion's diet within Gir PA based on scat analysis. Within the protected area, though lions predominantly consumed wild prey in proportion to their availability, they were yet responsible for majority of livestock loss to the resident communities. The proportion of wild and domestic animals killed by lions varied between seasons: significantly more wild ungulates were killed during summer when prey were concentrated around waterholes. Domestic animals were the major prey outside the protected area. Thus, despite high proportion of wild prey in the diet, lions still considerably depended on livestock. Our study defines focal areas of lion-human conflict and suggests better husbandry practices.

A survey was carried out at 14 sites to investigate how forest fragmentation affects populations of the Endangered western hoolock gibbon. Encounter rates were used as an index of gibbon population densities, and gibbon group size and age class ratios as an index of the status of the population. The 28-day survey was carried out in May and June 2002 in the Doom- dooma, Dibrugarh, Digboi and Tinsukia Forest Divisions of Upper Assam. Sites comprised 11 forest fragments in two size classes (small < 5 km² and medium 20-30 km²) and three large forest-tracts (>100 km²) that served as controls. Two survey teams, each of three to five people, sampled each site over two days, walking between 6-21 km/site. Encounter rates for gibbon groups were lowest (0.09/km) in the small forest fragments, increasing as the forest size increased (0.23/km in 20-30 km² forest fragments and 0.58/km in the controls). Similar trends were recorded with group sizes. The smallest groups (mean 2.5, n = 2) were in the small fragments. Larger groups were found in the mid-size fragments (mean 3.29, n = 24) and the three large forest-tracts (mean 3.9, n = 28). Although infant-to-female ratios were similar among size classes, the total young (infant and juvenile)-to-female ratio was as low as 0.5 in the <5 km² size class forests. The ratios were higher in the 20-30 km² and 100 km² size classes; 1.28 and 1.46, respectively. Ways that forest fragmentation affects hoolock gibbons are discussed.

Brown palm civet diet was assessed by examining 1,013 scats between May 1996 and December 1999 in Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve, Western Ghats, India. The brown palm civet is predominantly frugivorous, with fruits of 53 native species and four species of introduced plants comprising 97% of its diet. There was high intra- and inter-annual variation in the diet of brown palm civets. Civets adapted to fluctuations in fruit resources by feeding on a diverse range of species and supplementing their year-round, primarily frugivorous, diet with invertebrates and vertebrates. Civets mainly ate fruits of trees and lianas, rarely those of herbs or shrubs. Fruits eaten by civets were mostly small (<1 cm diameter), multi-seeded, pulpy berries, and drupes with moderate to high water content, along with several large (>2 cm) fruits like Palaquium ellipticum, Elaeocarpus serratus, Holigarna nigra, and Knema attenuata. The brown palm civet is a key mammalian seed disperser in the Western Ghats rainforest by being predominantly frugivorous and dispersing a diverse array of plant species. As brown palm civets can persist in fragmented rainforest, they can play a major role in restoration of degraded fragments in these landscapes. The results emphasize the need to recognize the importance of small carnivores as seed dispersers in tropical forests.

A survey was carried out at 14 sites to investigate how forest fragmentation affects populations of the Endangered western hoolock gibbon. Encounter rates were used as an index of gibbon population densities, and gibbon group size and age class ratios as an index of the status of the population. The 28-day survey was carried out in May and June 2002 in the Doomdooma, Dibrugarh, Digboi and Tinsukia Forest Divisions of Upper Assam. Sites comprised 11 forest fragments in two size classes (small <5 km2 and medium 20–30 km2) and three large forest-tracts (>100 km2) that served as controls. Two survey teams, each of three to five people, sampled each site over two days, walking between 6–21 km/site. Encounter rates for gibbon groups were lowest (0.09/km) in the small forest fragments, increasing as the forest size increased (0.23/km in 20–30 km2 forest fragments and 0.58/km in the controls). Similar trends were recorded with group sizes. The smallest groups (mean 2.5, n = 2) were in the small fragments. Larger groups were found in the mid-size fragments (mean 3.29, n = 24) and the three large forest-tracts (mean 3.9, n = 28). Although infant-to-female ratios were similar among size classes, the total young (infant and juvenile)-to-female ratio was as low as 0.5 in the <5 km2 size class forests. The ratios were higher in the 20–30 km2 and 100 km2 size classes; 1.28 and 1.46, respectively. Ways that forest fragmentation affects hoolock gibbons are discussed.

We investigated how much forest structure and floristics independently contributed to the composition of avian assemblages at multiple scales and for individual foraging guilds in tropical deciduous forests of Central Highlands, India. We derived dissimilarity matrices between all pairs of the 36 sampling sites with respect to forest structure, floristics, and bird species composition and ran Mantel's randomization tests to detect significant associations among the matrices after partialling out the effect of geographic distance between sites. Bird species composition was found to be significantly related to forest structure across habitats, and floristics within the moist-deciduous forests. This finding is consistent with earlier observations that birds respond, in their species composition, to vegetation structure across habitats and to vegetation composition within a habitat. As predicted, the composition of insectivorous birds was influenced by forest structure, but the phytophagous guild did not show any relation to vegetation composition in contrast to patterns observed elsewhere. We explain this anomaly as a result of availability of a wide choice of food plants for phytophagous birds in central Indian tropical forests and weak species–environment relationships on account of their nomadism. Extraction of non-timber forest products remains a key economic activity in central India and our results imply that it can potentially influence the composition of forest bird communities through alteration of forest structure and floristics.

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The structure and composition of forest-floor anuran diversity in the biologically rich rain forests of southern Western Ghats were studied. The study was carried out in the relatively undisturbed rain-forest tract of Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve. A quadrat search method was used to estimate species richness and density of the forest floor anuran community. Sample locations were distributed across three distinct watersheds in the reserve. In total, we captured 509 individuals belonging to 20 species. The density of anurans was 149 individuals ha−1 on the rain-forest floor, and along streams their densities exceeded 300 individuals ha−1. Total diversity across all watershed locations was partitioned into within and among watershed components, corresponding to alpha and beta diversity. We found high levels of species turnover (high β diversity) among watersheds, a process that may partly explain the high species richness and large number of endemic anuran species known to occur in the rain forests of the Western Ghats. Anurans density was low and comparable to other studies conducted in South-East Asian forests. A re-examination of the reports on anuran densities revealed that Central American anuran densities were an order of magnitude higher than South Asian and South American anuran densities. Existing hypotheses do not adequately explain the differences in anuran densities in different parts of the world.

Ecology and allied scientific disciplines aim to understand patterns and processes pertaining to wild species, their ecosystems and their relationships with humans. India's wildlife reserves are important 'living laboratories' for these disciplines. Today, there is a disturbing trend across India where scientists are increasingly denied access to wildlife reserves for scientific research or are seriously impeded, without scope for redress. Although official wildlife management rhetoric emphasizes the need for scientific research, in reality, it is viewed as undesirable and permitted, if at all, as a concession, subject to the discretion of individual forest officials. With no enabling legislative or policy framework to promote and apply science in our wildlife reserves, we are concerned that the future of many scientific disciplines in India is being jeopardized. Here, we provide an analysis of this issue and outline steps needed to promote scientific research in our natural areas.

ABSTRACT Ruminant‐mediated seed dispersal, an understudied process in tropical forests, was examined via Phyllanthus emblica–Axis axis interaction. A captive Axis deer regurgitated intact P. emblica seeds after retaining them in the rumen for 7–27 h. At Rajaji National Park, a considerable fraction (22%) of deer‐regurgitated P. emblica seeds germinated, although lower than unconsumed seeds (72%). The size and strength of seeds like P. emblica might ensure that ruminants regurgitate them intact instead of defecating them.