Habitat Suitability Mapping of Sloth Bear (Melursus ursinus) in the Sariska Tiger Reserve (India) Using a GIS-Based Fuzz

This chapter presents a habitat suitability mapping of sloth bear using fuzzy analytical hierarchy process that relies on geographical information system (GIS)–automated techniques. We selected nine parameters for assessing sloth bear habitat suitability:

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Abstract This chapter presents a habitat suitability mapping of sloth bear using fuzzy analytical hierarchy process that relies on geographical information system (GIS)–automated techniques. We selected nine parameters for assessing sloth bear habitat suitability: food availability, distance to waterholes, canopy density, slope, elevation, grazing, human disturbance, and distance to villages and roads. All the weighted parameter layers were integrated to obtain suitability classes. Of the total area of the Reserve, 44% area was found under moderate suitability class and 34% area under high suitability class. Within three core areas of the Reserve, the concentration of high suitability was observed in Core-I area. The habitat suitability classes were validated by analyzing their relationship with the zonal statistics of beat-wise habitat-use intensity data of sloth bear in the Reserve. This analysis revealed that the beat-wise habitat-use intensity coincides with suitability zones. Our study may prove to be beneficial for managing and formulating guidelines for the self-sustenance of the reintroduced bears in the Reserve. The model adopted in this study can also be applied for assessing habitat suitability of other bear species in different geographical regions at various scales.

P. Jain Sehgal Foundation, Gurugram, Haryana, India R. Ahmed · H. Sajjad (*) · M. Sahana Department of Geography, Faculty of Natural Science, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, Delhi, India A. Jaafari Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran J. Dou Public Works Research Institute (PWRI), Tsukuba, Japan H. Hong Cartography and Geographical Information System, School of Geographic Science, Nanjing, China © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Kumar et al. (eds.), Remote Sensing and GIScience, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55092-9_12

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Keywords Sloth bear · Habitat suitability factors · Reintroduction · Geospatial techniques · Habitat use intensity · Sariska Tiger Reserve

1 Introduction The sloth bear (Melursus ursinus) is endemic and patchily distributed in the Indian subcontinent (Erdbrink 1953; Sathyakumar et al. 2012). Over the past years, sloth bear has experienced unparalleled threat primarily due to poaching and habitat loss (Akhtar et al. 2004; Yoganand et al. 2006). The root cause of the problem is primarily related to deteriorating and shrinking habitat that lead to the increase in human and bear conflicts (Akhtar et al. 2004; Bargali et al. 2005; Garshelis et al. 1999; Johnsingh 2003). The species is vulnerable to extinction (IUCN 2013) and has led to its inclusion in Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act as amended in 2003 (GOI 1972; GOR 2014). Moreover, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed sloth bears as “vulnerable,” considering the rapid loss in their natural habitat (Garshelis et al. 2008). The conservation of sloth bear is challenging, since it requires large areas to meet their