Current Science

H. S. Singh ¹

Affiliations
1 National Board for Wild Life, Plot-44, Sector-8, Gandhinagar 382 010, IN

Abstract

Expansion and consolidation of Gir Protected Area, Gujarat, India - habitat of the Asiatic lion, and response of prey and predator to the management and dispersion trend of lions outside the Gir forests are interesting and noteworthy. During the last five decades (1965-2015), an approach for the Asiatic lion conservation is one of the best efforts in the world. Unlike other super predators, the number of lions has increased by 4-folds and wild ungulates by over 13-folds in the Gir forest during this period. The distribution range of lions has also expanded to a large landscape in four districts in the state. The consistent shift in feeding patterns of lions is mainly due to the improved availability of wild prey. Lions were restricted in the Gir forest till 1990, and the dispersion started when their population increased. In two decades, more than 40% of the total number of lions was spotted outside the Gir landscape. It is interesting to know that lions and leopards live in human-dominated landscape outside the Gir forest. Blue bull, wild boar and feral cattle, and carcasses of livestock in the villages are major food for the lions. The prey population, predation behaviour of the lion and acceptance of the lion as honourable animal by the villagers indicate that the present trend may continue in the near future as well.

Keywords

Dispersion, Pathera leo persica, Predation, Ungulates.

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Kundan Kishore ¹, Deepa Samant ¹, H. S. Singh ¹, Debi Sharma ²

Affiliations
1 Central Horticultural Experiment Station (ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research), Aiginia, Bhubaneswar 751 019, IN
2 ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Hessarghatta Lake Post, Bengaluru 560 089, IN

Abstract

Mango is the most important fruit crop of India in terms of acreage, genetic diversity, consumers’ preference and market potential. In spite of the adoption of scientific production technology, productivity of mango is still less than 7.5 t/ha, which may be due to low-density plantation, irregularity in bearing and poor orchard management. Hence, there is ample scope to increase mango productivity by adopting a high-density planting system (HDPS), optimizing plant canopy architecture and ensuring regularity in bearing. Under HDPS, plant density may be increased by 4–16 times compared to the conventional planting system (100 plants/ha), which provides an opportunity for increasing productivity provided canopy regulation and regularity in flowering are ensured.

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