Abstract: Kanha-Pench corridor is historically widely distributed in 2552 sq. km of Satpura Maikal Range. We indentified critical tiger habitat holds 439 sq. km area out of 2552 sq. km forest area of K-P corridor. Where 11 female tigers hold their ground on TCPUs and one male tiger presence noticed in pinch point barrier of connecting linkage under threat environ-anthropogenic conditions. There are 19 tigers were identified on individual basis DNA genotype polymorphism at different 13 microsatellite locus. The mean observed heterozygosity was found to be 0.6102. The relatedness analyses showed that tigers from Kanha –Pench corridor population share more relationships with tigers from Kanha and Tadoba-Nagzira-Brahmapuri complex rather than from Pench Tiger Reserve. We found evidences that a reproducing stable population exists within corridor. Therefore, restoration of Tigers was identified in historically existing critical habitat patches of corridor. Corridor functionality has been proven by findings of adjoining protected areas tiger’s genetic signatures in corridor population as Ist and IInd degree of relationship derived from ML-Relate analysis. Therefore potential habitat was identified for effective management and needs of tigers was prescribed to include in regional strategic development plans. We relied on MaxEnt of species distribution modeling to predict tiger distribution based on a suite of environmental variables to determine TCPUs. Potential corridors linkage identified on the basis of least cost path, circuitscape, linkage mapper and their ground truthing was done to assess inference accuracy. Conservation of tigers does not necessarily have to obstruct economic development, when “tiger friendly” management guidelines included in development plans.
Keywords: K-P Corridor- Kanha-Pench Corridor, TCPUs- Tiger Conservation Prioritization Units, BMLR- Binomial Multiple Logistic Regression, LCP analysis- Least Cost Path Analysis, SFRI-State Forest Research Institute Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh.
Title: Functionality Assessment of Kanha-Pench Corridor
Author: Mayank Makrand Verma, Dr. Karuna S.Verma, Dr. G. Krishnamurthy
International Journal of Life Sciences Research
ISSN 2348-313X (Print), ISSN 2348-3148 (online)
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