Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

INTERPRETATION OF SPECIES HABITAT RELATIONSHIP AND ANIMAL INTERACTION THROUGH REMOTE SENSING WITH REFERENCE TO SPOTTED DEER AND LANGUR POPULATIONS IN KANHA NATIONAL PARK, INDIA

Debashis Roy and Kamonasish Mistry

Abstract

The Spotted deer (Axis axis) and the Langur (Semnopithecus entellus) are the two sympatric herbivorous species that live in Kanha National Park of central India. They belong to two different weight categories under family Cervidae and Cercopithecidae. They share habitat, resources and suffer from the same generalist predators. Determining interactions between sympatric local populations of spotted deer and Langur, in different spatially apart forest sections categorized, grouped and ranked based NDVI values are our prime target. We considered remote sensing technology, field study, NDVI values and location-based photographs to characterize and categorized the forest vegetation. Then the locations of the animals were specified with in NDVI map differentiated into multiple 1x1 sq.km grids and 250 m circular grids. The grid specific data of forest vegetation and respective NDVI values were taken in to consideration for evaluating the species habitat relationships and possible underlying interaction between two sympatric species, spotted deer and langur, under changing environment. Both the species are found to follow dynamic pattern in habitat usages and in interspecific interactions, either by mutual co-existence (Mutualism: +/+) or by competition (Parasitism +/-) as reported by previous researches.