Village size and forest disturbance in Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary, Western Ghats, India

• Published in: Biological conservation Vol. 128; no. 2; pp. 147 - 157
• Main Authors: Karanth, Krithi K., Curran, Lisa M., Reuning-Scherer, Jonathan D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.03.2006; Elsevier
• Subjects: Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; Biological and medical sciences; Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife; Forest use; Forestry; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General forest ecology; Generalities. Production, biomass. Quality of wood and forest products. General forest ecology; Households; India; Land cover; Park management; Parks, reserves, wildlife conservation. Endangered species: population survey and restocking; Protected area; Asia; India; Forest use; Park management; Land cover; Protected area; Households; India; Forests; Forest use Households Land cover Park management Protected area India; Wild life; Perturbation; Land use; Environmental protection
• ISSN: 0006-3207; 1873-2917
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2005.09.024

Habitat fragmentation, land cover change and biodiversity loss are often associated with village communities in protected areas, but the extent and intensity of such impacts are often inadequately assessed. We record resource use and depletion by human inhabitants by conducting ecological surveys in six villages and social surveys in all 13 villages of varying sizes in India’s Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary (492 km 2). We examined the occurrence of 10 regionally-specific ecological indicators that encompassed several aspects of human activities. Thirty transects with 180 total sampling locations recorded the occurrence of these specific habitat disturbance variables. High correlations between the variables led to the use of principal component analysis to derive an effective summary index that reflected disturbance intensity and determined village ecological impacts spatially. A generalized linear model was fit to determine the rate at which disturbance decreases as we move away from village centers. Our model indicates that village size class, distance from the village and proximity to other villages were significant predictors of the disturbance index. The index distinguished each village’s spatially explicit ecological impact. We estimated that an average area of 23.7 km 2 of the forest surrounding the six focal villages was altered by human activities. These six villages have directly impacted 8–10% of this protected area.