A landscape-level assessment of Asian elephant habitat, its population and elephant-human conflict in the Anamalai hill ranges of southern Western Ghats, India

Spatial information at the landscape scale is extremely important for conservation planning, especially in the case of long-ranging vertebrates. The biodiversity-rich Anamalai hill ranges in the Western Ghats of southern India hold a viable population for the long-term conservation of the Asian elephant. Through rapid but extensive field surveys we mapped elephant habitat, corridors, vegetation and land-use patterns, estimated the elephant population density and structure, and assessed elephant-human conflict across this landscape. GIS and remote sensing analyses indicate that elephants are distributed among three blocks over a total area of about 4600 km(2). Approximately 92% remains contiguous because of four corridors; however, under 4000 km2 of this area may be effectively used by elephants. Nine landscape elements were identified, including five natural vegetation types, of which tropical moist deciduous forest is dominant. Population density assessed through the dung count method using line transects covering 275 km of walk across the effective elephant habitat of the landscape yielded a mean density of 1.1 (95% Cl = 0.99-1.2) elephant/km(2). Population structure from direct sighting of elephants showed that adult male elephants constitute just 2.9% and adult females 42.3% of the population with the rest being subadults (27.4%), juveniles (16%) and calves (11.4%). Sex ratios show an increasing skew toward females from juvenile (1:1.8) to sub-adult (1:2.4) and adult (1:14.7) indicating higher mortality of sub-adult and adult males that is most likely due to historical poaching for ivory. A rapid questionnaire survey and secondary data on elephant-human conflict from forest department records reveals that villages in and around the forest divisions on the eastern side of landscape experience higher levels of elephant-human conflict than those on the western side; this seems to relate to a greater degree of habitat fragmentation and percentage farmers cultivating annual crops in the east. We provide several recommendations that could help maintain population viability and reduce elephant-human conflict of the Anamalai elephant landscape. (C) 2013 Deutsche Gesellschaft far Saugetierkunde. Published by Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Getting a kick out of it: multimodal signalling during male–male encounters in the foot-flagging frog Micrixalus aff. saxicola from the Western Ghats of India

Several anuran species use multimodal signals to communicate in diverse social contexts. Our study describes acoustic and visual behaviours of the Small Torrent Frog (Micrixalus aff. saxicola), a diurnal frog endemic to the Western Ghats of India. During agonistic interactions males display advertisement calls, foot-flagging and tapping (foot lifting) behaviours to signal the readiness to defend perching sites in perennial streams. Results from a quantitative video analysis of male–male interactions indicate that footflagging displays were used as directional signals toward the opponent male, but were less abundant than calls. The acoustic and visual signals were not functionally linked. The call of Micrixalus aff. saxicola thereby did not act as an alert signal. Analysis of behavioural transitions revealed that kicking behaviours (physical attacks) significantly elicited kicks from interacting males. We suggest that foot-flagging displays ritualized from this frequently observed fighting technique to reduce physical attacks.

Design and construction of geocell foundation to support the embankment on settled red mud

This paper presents the case history of the construction of a 3 m high embankment on the geocell foundation over the soft settled red mud. Red mud is a waste product from the Bayer process of Aluminum industry. Geotechnical problems of the site, the design of the geocell foundation based on experimental investigation and the construction sequences of the geocell foundations in the field are discussed in the paper. Based on the experimental studies, an analytical model was also developed to estimate the load carrying capacity of the soft clay bed reinforced with geocell and combination of geocell and geogrid. The results of the experimental and analytical studies revealed that the use of combination of geocell and the geogrid is always beneficial than using the geocell alone. Hence, the combination of geocell and geogrid was recommended to stabilize the embankment base. The reported embankment is located in Lanjigharh (Orissa) in India. Construction of the embankment on the geocell foundation has already been completed. The constructed embankmenthas already sustained two monsoon rains without any cracks and seepage. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Rodinian suture in western India: New insights on India-Madagascar correlations

We report detailed evidence for a new paleo-suture zone (the Kumta suture) on the western margin of southern India. The c. 15-km-wide, westward dipping suture zone contains garnet-biotite, fuchsite-haematite, chlorite-quartz, quartz-phengite schists, biotite augen gneiss, marble and amphibolite. The isochemical phase diagram estimations and the high-Si phengite composition of quartz-phengite schist suggest a near-peak condition of c. 18 kbar at c. 550 degrees C, followed by near-isothermal decompression. The detrital SHRIMP U-Pb zircon ages from quartz-phengite schist give four age populations ranging from 3280 to 2993 Ma. Phengite from quartz-phengite schist and biotite from garnet-biotite schist have K-Ar metamorphic ages of ca. 1326 and ca. 1385 Ma respectively. Electron microprobe-CHIME ages of in situ zircons in quartz-phengite schist (ca. 3750 Ma and ca. 1697 Ma) are consistent with the above results. The Bondla ultramafic-gabbro complex in the west of the Kumta suture compositionally represents an arc with K-Ar biotite ages from gabbro in the range 1644-1536 Ma. On the eastern side of the suture are weakly deformed and unmetamorphosed shallow westward-dipping sedimentary rocks of the Sirsi shelf, which has the following upward stratigraphy: pebbly quartzite/sandstone, turbidite, magnetite iron formation, and limestone; farther east the lower lying quartzite has an unconformable contact with ca. 2571 Ma quartzo-feldspathic gneisses of the Dharwar block with a ca. 1733 Ma biotite cooling age. To the west of the suture is a c. 60-km-wide Karwar block mainly consisting of tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite (TTG) and amphibolite. The TTGs have U-Pb zircon magmatic ages of ca. 3200 Ma with a rare inherited core age of ca. 3601 Ma. The K-Ar biotite cooling age from the TTGs (1746 Ma and 1796 Ma) and amphibolite (ca. 1697 Ma) represents late-stage uplift. Integration of geological, structural and geochronological data from western India and eastern Madagascar suggest diachronous ocean closure during the amalgamation of Rodinia; in the north at around ca. 1380 Ma, and a progression toward the south until ca. 750 Ma. Satellite imagery based regional structural lineaments suggests that the Betsimisaraka suture continues into western India as the Kumta suture and possibly farther south toward a suture in the Coorg area, representing in total a c. 1000 km long Rodinian suture. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The influence of debris cover and glacial lakes on the recession of glaciers in Sikkim Himalaya, India

We investigated area changes in glaciers covering an area of similar to 200 km(2) in the Tista basin, Sikkim, Eastern Indian Himalaya, between similar to 1990 and 2010 using Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Indian Remote-sensing Satellite (IRS) images and related the changes to debris cover, supraglacial lakes and moraine-dam lakes. The glaciers lost an area of 3.3 +/- 0.8% between 1989/90 and 2010. More detailed analysis revealed an area loss of 2.00 +/- 0.82, 2.56 +/- 0.61 and 2.28 +/- 2.01 km(2) for the periods 1989-97, 1997-2004/05 and 2004-2009/10, respectively. This indicates an accelerated retreat of glaciers after 1997. On further analysis, we observed (1) the formation and expansion of supraglacial lakes on many debris-covered glaciers and (2) the merging of these lakes over time, leading to the development of large moraine-dam lakes. We also observed that debris-covered glaciers with lakes lose a greater area than debris-covered glaciers without lakes and debris-free glaciers. The climatic data for 24 years (1987-2011), measured at the Gangtok meteorological station (1812 m a.s.l.), showed that the region experienced a 1.0 degrees C rise in the summer minimum temperature and a 2.0 degrees C rise in the winter minimum temperature, indicating hotter summers and warmer winters. There was no significant trend in the total annual precipitation. We find that glacier retreat is caused mainly by a temperature increase and that debris-covered glaciers can retreat at a faster rate than debris-free glaciers, if associated with lakes.

Delineating Ecological Boundaries of Hanuman Langur Species Complex in Peninsular India Using MaxEnt Modeling Approach

Hanuman langur is one of the widely distributed and extensively studied non-human diurnal primates in India. Until recently it was believed to be a single species - Semnopithecus entellus. Recent molecular and morphological studies suggest that the Hanuman langurs consists of at least three species S. entellus, S. hypoleucos and S. priam. Furthermore, morphological studies suggested that both S. hypoleucos and S. priam have at least three subspecies in each. We explored the use of ecological niche modeling (ENM) to confirm the validity of these seven taxa and an additional taxon S. johnii belonging to the same genus. MaxEnt modeling tool was used with 19 bioclimatic, 12 vegetation and 6 hydrological environmental layers. We reduced total environmental variables to 14 layers after testing for collinearity and an independent test for model prediction was done using ENMTools. A total of 196 non-overlapping data points from primary and secondary sources were used as inputs for ENM. Results showed eight distinct ecological boundaries, corroborating the eight taxa mentioned above thereby confirming validity of these eight taxa. The study, for the first time provided ecological variables that determined the ecological requirements and distribution of members of the Hanuman langur species complex in the Indian peninsula.

Non-Syndromic Hearing Impairment in India: High Allelic Heterogeneity among Mutations in TMPRSS3, TMC1, USHIC, CDH23 and TMIE

Mutations in the autosomal genes TMPRSS3, TMC1, USHIC, CDH23 and TMIE are known to cause hereditary hearing loss. To study the contribution of these genes to autosomal recessive, non-syndromic hearing loss (ARNSHL) in India, we examined 374 families with the disorder to identify potential mutations. We found four mutations in TMPRSS3, eight in TMC1, ten in USHIC, eight in CDH23 and three in TMIE. Of the 33 potentially pathogenic variants identified in these genes, 23 were new and the remaining have been previously reported. Collectively, mutations in these five genes contribute to about one-tenth of ARNSHL among the families examined. New mutations detected in this study extend the allelic heterogeneity of the genes and provide several additional variants for structure-function correlation studies. These findings have implications for early DNA-based detection of deafness and genetic counseling of affected families in the Indian subcontinent.

Getting a kick out of it: multimodal signalling during male-male encounters in the foot-flagging frog Micrixalus aff. saxicola from the Western Ghats of India

Several anuran species use multimodal signals to communicate in diverse social contexts. Our study describes acoustic and visual behaviours of the Small Torrent Frog (Micrixalus aff. saxicola), a diurnal frog endemic to the Western Ghats of India. During agonistic interactions males display advertisement calls, foot-flagging and tapping (foot lifting) behaviours to signal the readiness to defend perching sites in perennial streams. Results from a quantitative video analysis of male-male interactions indicate that foot-flagging displays were used as directional signals toward the opponent male, but were less abundant than calls. The acoustic and visual signals were not functionally linked. The call of Micrixalus aff. saxicola thereby did not act as an alert signal. Analysis of behavioural transitions revealed that kicking behaviours (physical attacks) significantly elicited kicks from interacting males. We suggest that foot-flagging displays ritualized from this frequently observed fighting technique to reduce physical attacks.

Hydro-mechanical characterization of Barmer 1 bentonite from Rajasthan, India

The conceptual model for deep geological disposal of high level nuclear waste (HLW) is based on multiple barrier system consisting of natural and engineered barriers. Buffer/backfill material is regarded as the most important engineered barrier in HLW repositories. Due to large swelling ability, cation adsorption capacity, and low permeability bentonite is considered as suitable buffer material in HLW repositories. Japan has identified Kunigel VI bentonite, South Korea - Kyungju bentonite, China - GMZ bentonite, Belgium - FoCa clay, Sweden - MX-80 bentonite, Spain - FEBEX bentonite and Canada - Avonseal bentonite as candidate bentonite buffer for deep geological repository program. An earlier study on Indian bentonites by one of the authors suggested that bentonite from Barmer district of Rajasthan (termed Barmer 1 bentonite), India is suited for use as buffer material in deep geological repositories. However, the hydro-mechanical properties of the Barmer 1 bentonite are unavailable. This paper characterizes Barmer 1 bentonite for hydro-mechanical properties, such as, swell pressure, saturated permeability, soil water characteristic curve (SWCC) and unconfined compression strength at different dry densities. The properties of Barmer 1 bentonite were compared with bentonite buffers reported in literature and equations for designing swell pressure and saturated permeability coefficient of bentonite buffers were arrived at. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Macromolecular Crystallography in India in the Global Context

The most spectacular applications of crystallography are currently concerned with biological macromolecules like proteins and their assemblies. Macromolecular crystallography originated in England in the thirties of the last century, but definitive results began to appear only around 1960. Since then macromolecular crystallography has grown to become central to modern biology. India has a long tradition in crystallography starting with the work of K. Banerjee in the thirties. In addition to their contributions to crystallography, G.N. Ramachandran and his colleagues gave a head start to India in computational biology, molecular modeling and what we now call bioinformatics. However, attempts to initiate macromolecular crystallography in India started only in the seventies. The work took off the ground after the Department of Science and Technology handsomely supported the group at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in 1983. The Bangalore group was also recognized as a national nucleus for the development of the area in the country. Since then macromolecular crystallography, practiced in more than 30 institutions in the country, has grown to become an important component of scientific research in India. The articles in this issue provide a flavor of activities in the area in the country. The area is still in an expanding phase and is poised to scale greater heights.

Delineating Ecological Boundaries of Hanuman Langur Species Complex in Peninsular India Using MaxEnt Modeling Approach

Hanuman langur is one of the widely distributed and extensively studied non-human diurnal primates in India. Until recently it was believed to be a single species - Semnopithecus entellus. Recent molecular and morphological studies suggest that the Hanuman langurs consists of at least three species S. entellus, S. hypoleucos and S. priam. Furthermore, morphological studies suggested that both S. hypoleucos and S. priam have at least three subspecies in each. We explored the use of ecological niche modeling (ENM) to confirm the validity of these seven taxa and an additional taxon S. johnii belonging to the same genus. MaxEnt modeling tool was used with 19 bioclimatic, 12 vegetation and 6 hydrological environmental layers. We reduced total environmental variables to 14 layers after testing for collinearity and an independent test for model prediction was done using ENMTools. A total of 196 non-overlapping data points from primary and secondary sources were used as inputs for ENM. Results showed eight distinct ecological boundaries, corroborating the eight taxa mentioned above thereby confirming validity of these eight taxa. The study, for the first time provided ecological variables that determined the ecological requirements and distribution of members of the Hanuman langur species complex in the Indian peninsula.

A simple model for spatial disaggregation of evaporative fraction: Comparative study with thermal sharpened land surface temperature data over India

[1] Evaporative fraction (EF) is a measure of the amount of available energy at the earth surface that is partitioned into latent heat flux. The currently operational thermal sensors like the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on satellite platforms provide data only at 1000 m, which constraints the spatial resolution of EF estimates. A simple model (disaggregation of evaporative fraction (DEFrac)) based on the observed relationship between EF and the normalized difference vegetation index is proposed to spatially disaggregate EF. The DEFrac model was tested with EF estimated from the triangle method using 113 clear sky data sets from the MODIS sensor aboard Terra and Aqua satellites. Validation was done using the data at four micrometeorological tower sites across varied agro-climatic zones possessing different land cover conditions in India using Bowen ratio energy balance method. The root-mean-square error (RMSE) of EF estimated at 1000 m resolution using the triangle method was 0.09 for all the four sites put together. The RMSE of DEFrac disaggregated EF was 0.09 for 250 m resolution. Two models of input disaggregation were also tried with thermal data sharpened using two thermal sharpening models DisTrad and TsHARP. The RMSE of disaggregated EF was 0.14 for both the input disaggregation models for 250 m resolution. Moreover, spatial analysis of disaggregation was performed using Landsat-7 (Enhanced Thematic Mapper) ETM+ data over four grids in India for contrasted seasons. It was observed that the DEFrac model performed better than the input disaggregation models under cropped conditions while they were marginally similar under non-cropped conditions.