Hotspots of Habitat Integrity for Conservation Corridor
Configuration in Upland Areas of Jalgaon District JalaSRI
Joint Watershed Stewardship Initiative
Gauri Rane
Dr. G. P. Patil
Wayne Myers
Lecturer
Department of Botany
M.J.College, Jalgaon-425002
Maharashtra State, India
e-mail : gmr.jalasri@gmail.com
Professor of Mathematical and
Environmental Statistics
Pennsylvania State University
Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
e-mail- gpp@stat.psu.edu
Director, Office for Remote Sensing
and Spatial Information Resources
The Pennsylvania State University
Pennsylvania,
U.S.A.
e-mail : wlm@psu.edu
A. Rama Murthy
U.L. Sahu
Project Manager (GIS)
Andhra Pradesh Forest Department
Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh
State,India
e-mail : murthyar@rediffmail.com
Lecturer, JalaSRI, Watershed
Surveillance Research Institue
Jalgaon-425002, Maharashtra State
India
e-mail : uls.jalasri@gmail.com
Biological Diversity is the variety and variability among living
organisms and the ecological complexes in which they occur.
There are several types at ecosystems which have their own
biodiversity. One of them is forest as the basic life support system
which plays a important role for maintenance and enhancement of
environmental quality, livelihood security and socio economic
development. The animals in the forest are moving from one place
to other place in ecosystem for food, reproduction etc., while
plants are also moving through pollination and seed dispersal. But
due to fragmentation of the forests, the animal and plant life
remains isolated to particular forest patch. This restricted
movement of animals and plants can be initiated by building
corridors in such regions. Biodiversity corridors are the areas of
the vegetation that allow animals and plants to travel from one
patch of native vegetation to another. They provide shelter and
food from predators by imitating the structure and diversity of
native vegetation so that birds, reptiles, amphibians, mammals and
insects that would otherwise be isolated in one native vegetation
patch can utilize corridors to move between patches with relative
ease and safety. Plants also move through pollination and seed
dispersal which is possible through corridors. India has forest area
of 3287263 sq. km. Which is 22% of the total geographical area.
Maharashtra is one of the progressive and industrialized states of
India. It is second largest in terms of area and population. It lies in
central part of India. It has forest area of 47483 sq.km. which is
15.43% of the total geographical area. Jalgaon is a district which
lies in Northern part of Maharashtra. Its area under forest is 1707
sq.km. which is 14% of the total geographical area.
Jalgaon District is located in 20o -27o North and 74o -76o North
East. It is situated in the North-West region of the state. It is a part
of Deccan uplands of Maharashtra State. It is divided into 15
tehsils. It is bounded by mountain ranges in North named Satpuda.
Ajanta hills in South (Famous world historical monument). In the
southeast corner of Jalgaon district are Hattie hills. The district
receives an average rainfall of about 690 mm in the months of
June to September with 40-60 rainy days. In normal conditions,
the temperature varies from 10oc to 35 oc. Extreme ends are in
between 10oc - 48oc during winter (November-December) and
summer (April and May). Population of Jalgaon District is about
3.6 million. Main river of the district is Tapi with its 3 tributaries
Girna, Waghur & Bori. The soils are rain fertile black alluvial clay
and loam soils. These soils support various crops like cotton,
sorghum and pearl millet. In last few Decades, due to irrigation
projects by government cropping pattern shifted from
conventional to cash corps such as banana, sugarcane and wheat.
Such cash crops require more water.
In India, climate and topography varies at various places which is
responsible for variability in flora and fauna. In order to gain
insight about the distribution and environmental interaction with
flora and fauna of India, it has been classified into 10 bio
geographical zones. Each zone has its own characteristic about
climate, soil petrography and bio diversity. Jalgaon district has
two types of forests 1) scrub forest 2) Dry deciduous forests. In
scrub forests principal plant species is Acacia catechu (L.F.) willd.
The growing stock of dry deciduous forests consists of Tectona
grandis Linn. There are certain inaccessible forests which are
situated in the heart of Satpuda and Satmala hills of the district.
Wild life of the district is unique. The chief wild animal is tiger. It
is now restricted to part of Satpuda and Hatti hills. Besides tiger,
the other animals are panther, Hyena, Jackal etc., wild birds like
pea fowl, grey Jungle fowl etc. River Tapi harbors many fishes.
Besides many poisonous and non-poisonous snakes are observed
in these forests.
A Watershed Surveillance and Research Institute - Jala-SRI is a
unique and the only District level digital governance initiative of
K.C.E.Society's Moolji Jaitha College, Jalgaon, India. The Bio
diversity and GIS working group of JalaSRI recognized the
importance of the Bio diversity of the district forests as a thrust
area and hence has decided to undertake synergistic and
collaborative studies on Bio diversity using modern tools and
techniques. It will help the Government Departments, public
agencies and departments in policy formulation and planning for
sustainable use of forest resources and thereby prevent adverse
effects on environment balance, economic stability and health of
the people.
CATEGORIES
DESCRIPTION :
AND
SUBJECT
H. Information system. H3. Information storage and retrieval.
H3-3. Information research and Retrieval.
GENERAL TERMS :
Management,
factors.
Documentation,
Design.
Economics,
Human
KEYWORDS :
Forest Biodiversity, landscape, bioreserve
informatic tools, socio economic impact.
corridors,
geo
1) INTRODUCTION
6. It is very difficult to prepare conservation strategy, till we do
not know what we had and what we have with us. Similarly,
what is to be conserved? And to whom the priority is to be
given? Thus this kind of study is very significant as the first
step towards bio diversity conservation through corridor
building which will be unique district level initiative.
7. The data generated will be digitized, analyzed and supplied to
policy framers and decision makers to design the plan of
action.
2) RESEARCH
This research activitiy involves participation of Post-Graduate
students through assignments of small research project to them.
The research proposals will be submitted to various funding
agencies at National & International level. The research activities
are focused on studies on flora & fauna of the forests of Jalgaon
district. The data is correlated with different physicochemical
parameters & understanding the linearity of multiple indicators to
plan sustainable use of forest resources & there by minimizing the
adverse effects. The system has methodology components like
surveillance, data collection, correlation, biodiversity hotspot
detection, identification of potential corridor building sites &
prioritization of corridor building.
The proposed case study incorporates :-
3) ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
1. The exploration of plant and animal wealth of forests of
Jalgaon District provides excellent opportunity to familiarize
with the natural resources of the area. It is very significant not
only from the academic point of view but also from the social
and developmental aspects. This shall help in planning of
industries and agriculture in future. It will provide income and
job opportunities for local people.
Junior authors acknowledge the valuable guidance of Dr. G. P.
Patil Pennsylvania State University , University Park PA 168022112, Khandesh College Education Society ,Jalgaon & District
Collector Jalgaon for their support. Authors also acknowledge the
support of team members of JalaSRI.
2. A detailed floristic analysis of the area will help in practically
feasible action oriented programmes, in shaping the growth
and development of the future generation of forest crops.
Similarly it is useful to identify and map the forest bearing
economically important species for any conservation or
utilization purposes.
3. Throughout the world some medicinally important plant
species are being extracted heavily from it's natural habitat.
Considering their importance and demand in future, this
investigation will be useful for conservation and sustained
utilization purposes.
4. By using RS & GIS techniques and statistical softwares
studies on landscape ecology, bio diversity assessment, bio
diversity inclines, bio diversity prioritization, bio diversity
hotspot detection in the area, forest and wild life management
though building bio reserve corridors shall be undertaken.
5. It will be a meaningful and valuable data for bio diversity of
Jalgaon district which will be useful to different government,
non-government agencies and research institutions.
4) REFERENCE :
1)
2.)
3)
4.
5.
6.
Biodiversity & conservation Jeffries ; Michael. Edition, 1 st
Routledge Taylor and Fracis group, London. 1997
Biodiversity and conservation, Datta Ashish. Edition First
Kalpaz publication Delhi 2001ISBN 81-7835-058-0
Biodiversity to Indian subcontinent. Girish Revathy. Edition
1st. Dominaut publishers and Distributors Delhi. 2007.
Endemic and threatened flowering plants of Maharashtra.
Deepak Kumar Mishra and N. P. Singh. Botanical survey of
India Ministry and Environment of forests publication.
Gazetteer of Jalgaon district, Maharashtra State, India.
Websites of
a) Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the
environment , http://atree.org
b) Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra
http://fdcm.nic.in
c) Botanical survey of India
http://envfor.nic.in/bsi
d) Government of India, Ministry of Environment and
forests
http://envfor.nic.in
e) Jalgaon district
http://jalgaon.nic.in