DH Insight | In plain sight: Smaller species decline due to neglect

Hubballi: In January this year, a camera trap installed in Koppal’s Bankapur Wolf Sanctuary captured eight wolf pups emerging from a den. 

This left the sanctuary officials in two minds, wondering whether to celebrate or not. Celebrate because their conservation efforts had borne fruits or worry because the growing population of wolves would mean increased human-animal conflict in the area, owing to limited food and water inside the sanctuary and a dearth of funds and human resources to manage it.

The first wolf sanctuary of Karnataka, Bankapur, is home to critically endangered wolves. The grasslands and the rocky terrain here shelter other ‘lesser-known’ or rather lesser-conserved species such as foxes, hyenas, jungle cats, sloth bears, jackals, porcupines, star turtles and snakes, among numerous other species.

When the 822.03 acres of forest land here was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 2021, the area had just eight wolves left. Thanks to conservation efforts, the protected area has more than 20 adult wolves presently.

Like other keystone species — tigers, elephants, lions, and rhinoceros — lesser-known species play a vital role in ecology. Species like wolves, foxes, jungle cats, jackals and rusty-spotted cats are apex predators that keep herbivore populations in grasslands in check.

Hyenas and vultures are scavengers, who consume carcasses after apex predators feed, thereby controlling the spread of diseases. In rivers, otters keep fish populations in check. Other species like lion-tailed macaques, bats and hornbills aid pollination and dispersal of seeds.

Although grasslands form two-thirds of Karnataka’s land mass and experts have cautioned the decline of the faunal diversity in such areas, the government and forest department have failed to recognise their role in maintaining ecological balance.

As a result, studies or grants on grassland species are also sparse. The lack of data also impacts policies and methods of conserving species and demarcating protected areas. 

Experts point out that India was successful in the conservation of tigers because Project Tiger was backed by scientific studies and the allocation of funds by international agencies and the Indian government.

Currently, the state has five national parks, 36 wildlife sanctuaries (including five tiger reserves), 18 conservation reserves and a community reserve.

Even conservation projects pertaining to lions in Gujarat and elephants in Karnataka did fairly well. However, lesser-known species like wolves, the great Indian bustard (GIB) in Ranebennur and Siruguppa, vultures in Ramanagara and lion-tailed macaques in the Sharavathi valley remain ‘unprotected’ even in protected areas due to lack of scientific studies.

Karnataka is home to at least eight keystone species sanctuaries, including the Daroji Sloth Bear Sanctuary, the hornbill sanctuary in Dandeli, the Ranebennur Blackbuck Sanctuary, the Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary and the Tungabhadra Otter Sanctuary, where conservation efforts have not yielded the desired results.

“Conserving megavertebrates like tigers, rhinos and elephants is important. However, concentrating only on one animal does not help in conserving species living outside forested areas,” says Abi Vanak of Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment.

“Focus must be on conserving ecosystems that shelter a vast variety of species,” says Vanak.  

He suggests that ecosystems be considered as the umbrella and not a specific species. Ecology experts are now stressing that governments shift focus from an umbrella species approach to the umbrella habitat approach.

As per several individual censuses in 2022, there are approximately 563 tigers, 1,879 leopards and 6,395 elephants in the forested areas of Karnataka. The forest department has no official estimate on lesser species, including vultures, otters, bats, tortoises and other grassland
species.

“For the forest department, Bankapur is not a Nagarhole or Bandipur and wolves, hyenas and bears are not tigers or elephants. Despite the fact that hundreds of smaller carnivores and animals thrive in the grasslands, the department hardly allocates funds and human resources to protect them,” says Indrajit Ghorpade, the founder of the Deccan Conservation Foundation. 

“Unfortunately, conservation efforts depend on the tourism value a particular species carries,” says Santosh Martin, a wildlife activist. 

Martin explains that, unlike tourism driven by tigers and elephants, which helps in the promotion of conservation efforts and inflow of funds, lesser-known species remain neglected in terms of public interest and consequently in the allocation of funds.

Sanjay Gubbi, a conservation biologist, acknowledges Karnataka’s efforts in gazetting protected areas for lesser-known wildlife species like the Bukkapatna Sanctuary for chinkaras and the Dandeli Conservation Reserve for hornbills. However, he says, how we manage these areas is critical as a one-size-fits-all approach will not yield the desired results. 

“We have seen such mistakes in Ranebennur sanctuary, where the great Indian bustard went extinct. In Maidenahalli Conservation Reserve, leopards replaced wolves after trees were planted, and most blackbucks are now found outside the reserve,” he observes.

Limited resources 

At least three deputy conservators of forests in the forest divisions of north Karnataka, that do not have tiger populations, say they receive funds only for salaries and for compensation for crop/cattle loss due to wild animal attacks. As a result, scientific studies and habitat regeneration activities naturally take a backseat.

Batrachologist Gururaja K V says that the forest department is still colonial in its approach to wildlife and forests — then, the mandate was to grow plant species to produce timber and prevent poaching.

“Even today, the mandate of the forest department is more on maintaining ‘law and order’ inside forested areas. In-house experts who study varied species are lacking and so is financial backing for wildlife research,” he adds. 

Gururaja also blames red-tapeism and opaqueness in the department in sanctioning permission to conduct research.

Several qualified researchers, whom DH interviewed, say that obtaining permission has been a task. Several have been waiting for months and years to get permission from the department. Many have even lost out on their scholarships and other research grants due to
the delay.

“We do not even have the appellate authority to complain against the department for denying or delaying permission on flimsy grounds,” says a researcher, who does not wish to be named. His application seeking permission for research has been “missing” for more than a year.

Many researchers also point out that, unlike academicians associated with popular institutes, individual researchers struggle with obtaining permissions.

“The ultimate aim of any research is to benefit wildlife conservation. However, we are often stonewalled by the department, as they question the benefit that the department would derive from the research,” Gururaja adds.

Data is vital for the scientific conservation of any area. Take, for example, Bidar, the home district of Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre. The grasslands and arid region are home to several threatened species including the lesser florican.

“There are several habitats in the district which were unknown until our frontline staff sighted rare animals and birds. Nilgai, lesser florican and GIB are some species that were recently spotted. However, there are still many unexplored habitats,” says Vaanathi Murugesan, Deputy Conservator of Forests, Bidar.

While researchers from Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun and Bombay National History Society are conducting studies on endangered species in Bidar, Vaanathi says they can conserve fragile habitats better if additional funds and human resources are allotted.

There is also fear among wildlife activists that several habitat patches, including non-forested habitats, are vanishing due to unscientific activities undertaken by the forest department. Small mammals are adversely affected due to tree plantation activities.

The threat is higher in habitats such as grasslands, woodland savannahs and shrub jungles, as they are generally considered wastelands, waiting to be turned green.

Unscientific interventions

Officials concede that until recently, the department considered that planting trees and increasing green cover, using its  Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA), came under the purview of the management of forests.

The grasslands of Ranebennur Blackbuck Sanctuary, which was once an important habitat for GIB, is one of the worst victims. As the grassland was turned into a eucalyptus grove, the GIBs disappeared and have not been sighted for the last 30 years. 

The blackbucks that needed plain lands to escape from predators and for food, began raiding crops outside the sanctuary. Leopards replaced wolves
and other canines as the top predators of the area, causing an imbalance in the habitat.

Researcher Samad Kottur points out the impact of ‘development activities’ and human interference on various animals and birds. He says granite quarrying is impacting the habitat of sloth bears and leopards across Karnataka.

Windmills affect the habitats of GIBs in Koppal and Gadag belt. Excessive fishing disturbs the habitat of otters in the Tungabhadra River. Endangered fish such as Deccan Mahsheer, Krishna Mystus, Tunga garra and many more are being hunted without any restrictions.

“Due to such habitat loss in grasslands, the imbalance in the predator-prey ratio is leading to human-animal conflict,” says Kottur, adding that solutions to these issues need species-specific research.

Citing another classic case of human interference, researcher Daniel Sukumar says that the vulture population is only 1 per cent of what it was five decades ago in Karnataka. This dwindling population of vultures might result in the rise and spread of zoonotic viruses in this area.

“Across Karnataka, earlier, vultures would feed on carcasses of animals around human habitations. The carcasses of cattle, which had residual
diclofenac, a painkiller administered to cattle to reduce pain in the knee joints, caused the large-scale death of vultures. With the loss of the vulture population in village and town fringes, the surviving population restricted themselves to forest areas. Vultures have adapted to the situation and have reduced their dependency on cattle carcasses,” says Sukumar. 

The case of Ramadevarabetta in Ramanagara, known for its rocky hills, is a bit peculiar. The hills are one of the safe havens for vultures. However, Sukumar says vultures are not breeding on expected lines as a major food source, cattle carcasses, has vanished.

Way forward

Conservation Biologist Sanjay Gubbi says Karnataka has comparatively fared better in conserving its lesser-known species by declaring certain habitats as sanctuaries and protected areas. However, he says, there is a lot more to be done as management of these notified areas is a matter of concern.

He suggests the following steps: 

• Identifying species that need conservation and management focus.

• Drawing up criteria to notify protected areas (size, uniqueness, endemicity, conservation urgency and others). For example, Yadgir and Raichur districts have excellent habitats for striped hyena conservation which can be notified as a wildlife sanctuary.

• Developing species-specific management plans.

• Combating the illegal trade of lesser-known species (mongoose, star tortoise, marine species).

• Invasive species have become a serious problem for little-known species and need to be understood and measures to control them must be undertaken. Red-eared slider turtles may be impacting several turtle species, and many introduced fish species such as the tilapia have brought our local species to endangerment.

• An outreach programme for educating wildlife enthusiasts and conservationists is very much necessary as many in their zeal, though well-intended, are promoting areas to be notified as protected areas which may not be ecologically or socially feasible in the longer term.

Striped hyenas 

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