Forging habitat connectivity in a human dominated Tiger landscape : case - Satpura-Pench Corridor.

Abstract

Habitat fragmentation is a common phenomenon as an outcome human settlement, from the past and have become significant problems throughout the world now. Big cats such as tigers, which play a vital role in maintaining the ecosystem balance through prey-predator interaction, are now on the verge of extinction since they require large habitats, but much of their habitats have been fragmented and degraded. Conserving biodiversity in human-dominated landscapes requires protecting networks of ecological reserves and managing the intervening matrix to maintain the potential for species to move among them. This thesis provides insights into landscape based habitat networking of Panthera tigris by assessing the potential for species’ movements among habitat patches in a reserve network of SatpuraMaikal Tiger Landscape of central India. The study attempts to understand the character of the landscape through analysis of the landscape layer cake, with an aim to identify the important landscape elements and changes brought upon it by natural and anthropogenic means. Ecological dependency of the Tiger and other target species, upon each other and the landscape, was minutely studied to understand and correlate the existing and possible landscape flows over the matrix of 455sqkm. The study resulted in identification of target transects in the site, upon which landscape level strategies and a landscape development plan was proposed to improve the landscape function in terms of tiger dispersal between Satpura and Pench Tiger Reserve. As well, functional coordination between all stakeholders is recommended to conserve tigers.