Mitochondrial cytochrome b indicates the presence of two paraphyletic diverged lineages of the blue sheep Pseudois nayaur across the Indian Himalaya: conservation implications.

BACKGROUND: Populations exhibit signatures of local adaptive traits due to spatial and environmental heterogeneity resulting in microevolution. The blue sheep is widely distributed across the high Asian mountains and are the snow leopard's principal prey species. These mountains differ in their evolutionary history due to differential glaciation and deglaciation periods, orography, and rainfall patterns, and such factors causes diversification in species. METHODS AND RESULTS: Therefore, we assess the phylogeographic status of blue sheep using the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene (220 bp) across the Indian Himalayan region (IHR) and its relationship with other populations. Of the observed five haplotypes, two and three were from the western Himalayas (WH) and eastern Himalayas (EH) respectively. One of the haplotypes from WH was shared with the population of Pamir plateau, suggesting historical maternal connectivity between these areas. The phylogenetic analyses split the blue sheep into two paraphyletic clades, and western and eastern populations of IHR were within the Pamir and Tibetan plateau clades, respectively. We observed a relatively higher mean sequence divergence in the EH population than in the WH. CONCLUSION: We propose five 'Evolutionary Significant Units' across the blue sheep distribution range based on observed variation in the species' ecological requirements, orography, climatic conditions, and maternal lineages, viz.; Western Himalaya-Pamir plateau (WHPP); Eastern Himalaya-Tibetan plateau (EHTP); Qilian mountains; Helan mountains and Hengduan mountains population. Despite the small sample size, population divergence was observed across the IHR, therefore, we suggest a transboundary, collaborative study on comparative morphology, anatomy, ecology, behaviour, and population genetics using harmonized different genetic markers for identifying the overall taxonomic status of the blue sheep across its range for planning effective conservation strategies.

Living with a large predator: Assessing the root causes of Human-brown bear conflict and their spatial patterns in Lahaul valley, Himachal Pradesh.

Brown bear-mediated conflicts have caused immense economic loss to the local people living across the distribution range. In India, limited knowledge is available on the Himalayan brown bear (HBB), making human-brown bear conflict (HBC) mitigation more challenging. In this study, we studied HBC in the Lahaul valley using a semi-structured questionnaire survey by interviewing 398 respondents from 37 villages. About 64.8% of respondents reported conflict in two major groups-crop damage (30.6%) and livestock depredations (6.2%), while 28% reported both. Conflict incidences were relatively high in summer and frequently occurred in areas closer to the forest (<500 m) and between the elevations range of 2700 m to 3000 m above sea level (asl). The dependency of locals on forest resources (70%) for their livelihood makes them vulnerable to HBC. The "upper lower" class respondents were most impacted among the various socioeconomic classes. Two of the four clusters were identified as HBC hot spots in Lahaul valley using SaTscan analysis. We also obtained high HBC in cluster II with a 14.35 km radius. We found that anthropogenic food provisioning for HBB, livestock grazing in bear habitats, and poor knowledge of animal behavior among the communities were the major causes of HBC. We suggest horticulture crop waste management, controlled and supervised grazing, ecotourism, the constitution of community watch groups, and others to mitigate HBC. We also recommend notifying a few HBB abundant sites in the valley as protected areas for the long-term viability of the HBB in the landscape.

Ageratina adenophora and Lantana camara in Kailash Sacred Landscape, India: Current distribution and future climatic scenarios through modeling.

The Himalayan region is one of the global biodiversity hotspots. However, its biodiversity and ecosystems are threatened due to abiotic and biotic drivers. One of the major biotic threats to biodiversity in this region is the rapid spread of Invasive Alien Species (IAS). Natural forests and grasslands are increasingly getting infested by IAS affecting regeneration of native species and decline in availability of bio-resources. Assessing the current status of IAS and prediction of their future spread would be vital for evolving specific species management interventions. Keeping this in view, we conducted an in-depth study on two IASs, viz., Ageratina adenophora and Lantana camara in the Indian part of Kailash Sacred Landscape (KSL), Western Himalaya. Intensive field surveys were conducted to collect the presence of A. adenophora (n = 567) and L. camara (n = 120) along an altitudinal gradient between 300 and 3000 m a.s.l. We performed Principal Component Analysis to nullify the multi-colinearity effects of the environmental predictors following MaxEnt species distribution model in the current and future climatic scenarios for both the species. All current and future model precision (i.e., Area Under the Curve; AUC) for both species was higher than 0.81. It is predicted that under the current rate of climate change and higher emission (i.e., RCP 8.5 pathway), A. adenophora will spread 45.3% more than its current distribution and is likely to reach up to 3029 m a.s.l., whereas, L. camara will spread 29.8% more than its current distribution range and likely to reach up to 3018 m a.s.l. Our results will help in future conservation planning and participatory management of forests and grasslands in the Kailash Sacred Landscape-India.

Bird diversity along riverine areas in the Bhagirathi Valley, Uttarakhand, India.

Natural riverine areas mark ecotonal habitats harbouring a characteristically diverse faunal assemblage, especially birds that also use these habitats as pathways crucial for their movement. Increasingly, riverine systems are subjected to large-scale habitat alterations due to climatic fluctuations and anthropogenic changes. Therefore, it is important to understand broad-scale community patterns for conservation planning and prioritisation for these ecotone habitats. The Bhagirathi river is one of the major headwaters of the river Ganges; despite its rich and diverse fauna, little is known about the bird species that inhabit this montane region. This study presents an extensive list of 281 bird species from 59 families, their seasonal distribution and habitat associations as recorded from field surveys along the riverine areas between April 2013 and May 2018. The present communication simultaneously discusses a few noteworthy sightings for the region and provides a baseline for future research on the distribution of birds in the Western Himalaya.