Evaluation of habitat fragmentation and its suitability for blackbuck in Kaimur Disrtict: A case study of Bihar

Abstract

Increasing illegal hunting and poaching, biodiversity loss, and conflicts between people and wildlife, management of ungulates has become important in the study area. Although remote sensing and GIS although have made habitat evaluation easier, the results obtained through these techniques need to be verified manually for robustness and accuracy. The purpose was to identify the suitable area for blackbucks (Antilope cervicapra) using the MaxEnt model. The Area Under Curve (AUC) value of 0.923 showed robust results. Furthermore, based on the results obtained using MaxEnt, a total 10.75% of the area is highly suitable for the blackbucks and 12.45% falls under moderate/less suitable area. About 31.6% of total area falls under wildlife sanctuary located in the south of Kaimur district. Poachers are gaining enormous profit from killing this species because of less effective management and lack of stringent legal anchors. Therefore, integration of community led initiatives in the study area will accelerate conservation efforts of schedule I species and demarcation of Blackbuck Conservation Region (BCR) will serve the foundation stone to achieve conservation milestone of such fragmented habitat population.