Patterns of distribution of macrolichens in western parts of Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve

A total of 76 species of macrolichens were recorded from 16 transects of 50 m x 10 m between altitudes of 2100 m and 4500 m in western parts of Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve of Garhwal Himalayas. Forty-one of these are lignicolous species occurring on woody, 14 are terricolous growing on soil and 10 are saxicolous inhabiting rocks only, The other 11 species occur on more than one major types of substrate, Lichen species diversity is at its highest in middle altitudes between 2700 m and 3700 m where all three major substrates are simultaneously available, Lichen species diversity of Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve appears to be under threat from deforestation and fires, as well as from loss of soil microhabitats due to overgrowth of weeds seemingly caused by cessation of summer grazing in alpine pastures.

Status Survey of the Malabar Pied Hornbill in the Dandeli Region, Northern Western Ghats, India

The Malabar Pied Hornbill, Anthracoceros coronatus, is a near threatened species, endemic to the tropical deciduous forests of central and southern India and Sri Lanka. The Dandeli region in Karnataka (India) is believed to be the last stronghold of this species in the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot. Being a rapidly developing area with a growing human population, the threats to this species and their habitat are mounting, especially due to a large number of hydroelectric projects and habitat fragmentation caused by paper and plywood industries. This study evaluated the change in population status of the Malabar Pied Hornbill over a 23 year period and defined priorities for the long term conservation and monitoring of hornbills in Dandeli. Encounter rates of hornbills were also analysed in relation to the density and species richness of trees and fruiting trees, basal area, canopy cover and distance from river. Hornbill encounters were not significantly different compared to the earlier study carried out by Reddy in 1988, but were significantly different across the five sites in the current study. Higher numbers of hornbills were encountered closer to the river, but these results were only marginally significant. The mean numbers of hornbills recorded at the two roost sites identified in Dandeli were 26 +/- 4.47 (n=16 counts) and 31.78 +/- 3.53 (n=14 counts) respectively. The study also helped build local awareness about the species, train local Forest Department staff in monitoring hornbills and develop a management plan for its conservation.

Potential herblayer production and grazing effects in anthropogenic savanna-grasslands in the moist tropical forests of the Western Ghats of India

The moist tropical forests of the Western Ghats of India are pockmarked with savanna-grasslands created and managed by local agricultural communities. A sample of such savanna-grasslands with differing growing conditions was studied in terms of peak above-ground biomass, monthly growth, and cumulative production under different clipping treatments. The herblayer was found to be dominated by perennial C4 grasses, with Eulalia trispicata, Arundinella metzii and Themeda triandra being common to all sites. Peak biomass ranged between 3.3-5.9 t/ha at sites most favourable for grass production. Across these sites, peak biomass was found to be inversely related to the number of rainy days during the growing season, suggesting that growth may be light-limited. This hypothesis is supported by the observation that growth is most rapid immediately after the easing of the monsoon. Single clips early in the growing season had no negative or a slightly positive effect on production, but mid-season single clips or continuous frequent clipping reduced production by as much as 40%. The results suggest that, while indiscriminate grazing may certainly be deleterious, it is possible to obtain sustained high yields from forest lands managed for grass production without totally excluding grazing.

A comparative analysis of regeneration in natural forests and joint forest management plantations in Uttara Kannada district, Western Ghats

Five villages undertaking joint forest management (JFM) were chosen in Uttara Kannada district, Karnataka for assessing regeneration in plantations and nearby natural forests of the village. Species number, stem density, diversity index, similarity in species composition in less disturbed and disturbed forests and plantations in the village were compared. Stem density was low in all the disturbed forests; however, the species number was low in disturbed forests of three villages and high in two villages. Plantations showed lower diversity values compared to the adjacent natural forests. Regeneration in all less disturbed forests was better compared to the disturbed counterparts. Villages were ranked based on number of landless families, per, capita forest available and number of cut stems. Assessment of village forests using ranks indicates that parameters such as per capita availability, cut stems in the forests may determine the success of JFM.

Numerical Modelling of the Observed Diurnal Cycle of Indian Monsoon Rainfall

We have analysed the diurnal cycle of rainfall over the Indian region (10S-35N, 60E-100E) using both satellite and in-situ data, and found many interesting features associated with this fundamental, yet under-explored, mode of variability. Since there is a distinct and strong diurnal mode of variability associated with the Indian summer monsoon rainfall, we evaluate the ability of the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) to simulate the observed diurnal rainfall characteristics. The model (at 54km grid-spacing) is integrated for the month of July, 2006, since this period was particularly favourable for the study of diurnal cycle. We first evaluate the sensitivity of the model to the prescribed sea surface temperature (SST), by using two different SST datasets, namely, Final Analyses (FNL) and Real-time Global (RTG). It was found that with RTG SST the rainfall simulation over central India (CI) was significantly better than that with FNL. On the other hand, over the Bay of Bengal (BoB), rainfall simulated with FNL was marginally better than with RTG. However, the overall performance of RTG SST was found to be better than FNL, and hence it was used for further model simulations. Next, we investigated the role of the convective parameterization scheme on the simulation of diurnal cycle of rainfall. We found that the Kain-Fritsch (KF) scheme performs significantly better than Betts-Miller-Janjić (BMJ) and Grell-Devenyi schemes. We also studied the impact of other physical parameterizations, namely, microphysics, boundary layer, land surface, and the radiation parameterization, on the simulation of diurnal cycle of rainfall, and identified the “best” model configuration. We used this configuration of the “best” model to perform a sensitivity study on the role of various convective components used in the KF scheme. In particular, we studied the role of convective downdrafts, convective timescale, and feedback fraction, on the simulated diurnal cycle of rainfall. The “best” model simulations, in general, show a good agreement with observations. Specifically, (i) Over CI, the simulated diurnal rainfall peak is at 1430 IST, in comparison to the observed 1430-1730 IST peak; (ii) Over Western Ghats and Burmese mountains, the model simulates a diurnal rainfall peak at 1430 IST, as opposed to the observed peak of 1430-1730 IST; (iii) Over Sumatra, both model and observations show a diurnal peak at 1730 IST; (iv) The observed southward propagating diurnal rainfall bands over BoB are weakly simulated by WRF. Besides the diurnal cycle of rainfall, the mean spatial pattern of total rainfall and its partitioning between the convective and stratiform components, are also well simulated. The “best” model configuration was used to conduct two nested simulations with one-way, three-level nesting (54-18-6km) over CI and BoB. While, the 54km and 18km simulations were conducted for the whole of July, 2006, the 6km simulation was carried out for the period 18 - 24 July, 2006. The results of our coarse- and fine-scale numerical simulations of the diurnal cycle of monsoon rainfall will be discussed.

Influence of land use changes in river basins on diversity and distribution of amphibians

Land-use changes influence local biodiversity directly, and also cumulatively, contribute to regional and global changes in natural systems and quality of life. Consequent to these, direct impacts on the natural resources that support the health and integrity of living beings are evident in recent times. The Western Ghats being one of the global biodiversity hotspots, is reeling under a tremendous pressure from human induced changes in terms of developmental projects like hydel or thermal power plants, big dams, mining activities, unplanned agricultural practices,monoculture plantations, illegal timber logging, etc. This has led to the once contiguous forest habitats to be fragmented in patches, which in turn has led to the shrinkage of original habitat for the wildlife, change in the hydrological regime of the catchment, decreased inflow in streams,human-animal conflicts, etc. Under such circumstances, a proper management practice is called for requiring suitable biological indicators to show the impact of these changes, set priority regions and in developing models for conservation planning. Amphibians are regarded as one of the best biological indicators due to their sensitivity to even the slightest changes in the environment and hence they could be used as surrogates in conservation and management practices. They are the predominating vertebrates with a high degree of endemism (78%) in Western Ghats. The present study is an attempt to bring in the impacts of various land-uses on anuran distribution in three river basins. Sampling was carried out for amphibians during all seasons of 2003-2006 in basins of Sharavathi, Aghanashini and Bedthi. There are as many as 46 species in the region, one of which is new to science and nearly 59% of them are endemic to the Western Ghats. They belong to nine families, Dicroglossidae being represented by 14 species,followed by Rhacophoridae (9 species) and Ranidae (5 species). Species richness is high in Sharavathi river basin, with 36 species, followed by Bedthi 33 and Aghanashini 27. The impact of land-use changes, was investigated in the upper catchment of Sharavathi river basin. Species diversity indices, relative abundance values, percentage endemics gave clear indication of differences in each sub-catchment. Karl Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r) was calculated between species richness, endemics, environmental descriptors, land-use classes and fragmentation metrics. Principal component analysis was performed to depict the influence of these variables. Results show that sub-catchments with lesser percentage of forest, low canopy cover, higher amount of agricultural area, low rainfall have low species richness, less endemic species and abundant non-endemic species, whereas endemism, species richness and abundance of endemic species are more in the sub-catchments with high tree density, endemic trees, canopy cover, rainfall and lower amount of agriculture fields. This analysis aided in prioritising regions in the Sharavathi river basin for further conservation measures.

Landslide susceptibility mapping in the downstream region of Sharavathi river basin, Central Western Ghats

Landslides are hazards encountered during monsoon in undulating terrains of Western Ghats causing geomorphic make over of earth surface resulting in significant damages to life and property. An attempt is made in this paper to identify landslides susceptibility regions in the Sharavathi river basin downstream using frequency ratio method based on the field investigations during July- November 2007. In this regard, base layers of spatial data such as topography, land cover, geology and soil were considered. This is supplemented with the field investigations of landslides. Factors that influence landslide were extracted from the spatial database. The probabilistic model -frequency ratio is computed based on these factors. Landslide susceptibility indices were computed and grouped into five classes. Validation of LHS, showed an accuracy of 89% as 25 of the 28 regions tallied with the field condition of highly vulnerable landslide regions. The landslide susceptible map generated for the downstream would be useful for the district officials to implement appropriate mitigation measures to reduce hazards.

Bioenergy Status of Sharavathi River Basin, Western Ghats, India

Most of the developing countries including India depend heavily on bioenergy and it accounts for about 15% of the global energy usage. Its role in meeting a region’s requirement has increased the interest of assessing the status of biomass availability in a region. The present work deals with the bioenergy status in the Linganamakki reservoir catchment of the Sharavathi river basin, Western Ghats,India, by assessing the energy supply and sector wise energy consumption. The study reveals that majority of the households (92.17%) depend on fuelwood for their domestic energy needs with the per capita fuelwood consumption of 1.2 tonnes/year, which is higher than the national average (0.7 tonnes/year). This higher dependence on fuelwood has contributed to the degradation of forests,resulting in scarcity of bioresources necessitating exploration of viable energy alternatives to meet the growing energy demand.

Landslide Susceptible Locations in Western Ghats: Prediction through openModeller

Many shallow landslides are triggered by heavy rainfall on hill slopes resulting in enormous casualties and huge economic losses in mountainous regions. Hill slope failure usually occurs as soil resistance deteriorates in the presence of the acting stress developed due to a number of reasons such as increased soil moisture content, change in land use causing slope instability, etc. Landslides triggered by rainfall can possibly be foreseen in real time by jointly using rainfall intensity-duration and information related to land surface susceptibility. Terrain analysis applications using spatial data such as aspect, slope, flow direction, compound topographic index, etc. along with information derived from remotely sensed data such as land cover / land use maps permit us to quantify and characterise the physical processes governing the landslide occurrence phenomenon. In this work, the probable landslide prone areas are predicted using two different algorithms – GARP (Genetic Algorithm for Rule-set Prediction) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) in a free and open source software package - openModeller. Several environmental layers such as aspect, digital elevation data, flow accumulation, flow direction, slope, land cover, compound topographic index, and precipitation data were used in modelling. A comparison of the simulated outputs, validated by overlaying the actual landslide occurrence points showed 92% accuracy with GARP and 96% accuracy with SVM in predicting landslide prone areas considering precipitation in the wettest month whereas 91% and 94% accuracy were obtained from GARP and SVM considering precipitation in the wettest quarter of the year.

Odonataas Indicators of Riparian Ecosystem Health A Case Study From South Western Karnakata, India

The influence of riparian land use on the diversity an~ distribution were investigated by sampling 113 localities covering 4 districts in south-western Karnataka. A total of 55 species in 12 families were recorded. Streams, rivers and lakes had higher diversity than marshes and sea coast. However, lakes had low endemism than streams and rivers. Streams flowing through evergreen forests had higher diversity and endemism. Human impacted riparian zones such as paddy fields had relatively lower species richness. However, streams flowing through forestry plantations had higher diversity than other natural riparian zones such as dry deciduous, moist deciduous and semi evergreen forests. Myristica swamps-a relict evergreen forest marsh had low diversity and high endemism. Odonate communities of lentic ecosystems, and human impacted streams and rivers were characterized by widespread generalist species. Endemics and habitat specialists were. restricted to streams and rivers with undisturbed riparian zone. The study documents possible odonate community change due to human impact: The influence of riparian 'Ianduse change on odonate community is also discussed.

Changes in seasonal snow cover in Hindu Kush-Himalayan region

The changes in seasonal snow covered area in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) region have been examined using Moderate – resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) 8-day standard snow products. The average snow covered area of the HKH region based on satellite data from 2000 to 2010 is 0.76 million km2 which is 18.23% of the total geographical area of the region. The linear trend in annual snow cover from 2000 to 2010 is −1.25±1.13%. This is in consistent with earlier reported decline of the decade from 1990 to 2001. A similar trend for western, central and eastern HKH region is 8.55±1.70%, +1.66% ± 2.26% and 0.82±2.50%, respectively. The snow covered area in spring for HKH region indicates a declining trend (−1.04±0.97%). The amount of annual snowfall is correlated with annual seasonal snow cover for the western Himalaya, indicating that changes in snow cover are primarily due to interannual variations in circulation patterns. Snow cover trends over a decade were also found to vary across seasonally and the region. Snow cover trends for western HKH are positive for all seasons. In central HKH the trend is positive (+15.53±5.69%) in autumn and negative (−03.68±3.01) in winter. In eastern HKH the trend is positive in summer (+3.35±1.62%) and autumn (+7.74±5.84%). The eastern and western region of HKH has an increasing trend of 10% to 12%, while the central region has a declining trend of 12% to 14% in the decade between 2000 and 2010. Snow cover depletion curve plotted for the hydrological year 2000–2001 reveal peaks in the month of February with subsidiary peaks observed in November and December in all three regions of the HKH.