The Indian Himalayan region is vulnerable to climate change because of its geospatial fragility. The present study gives a framework for the analysis of household and village-level resilience and vulnerability in the Bhagirathi Basin of Indian Western Himalayan region under different climate change scenarios. Villages were selected depending on different biophysical criteria to have a good representation of the study area. Household-level survey using the household economy approach was done in 646 households of 30 villages to collect information on indicators of natural, physical, financial and human capital assets and scores were generated for each category. A cumulative resilience score was obtained for each household and village. Future climate projections on mean annual temperature were also accessed under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 to estimate the change in mean temperature of the studied villages and probable change in agricultural production. The result shows that most of the villages of Tehri Garhwal are clustered in vulnerable classes in comparison to Uttarkashi villages and vulnerability scores of 11 and 8 villages changed under climate shock and future agricultural production change scenarios, respectively. The study has manifold implications on further research and policy implementation under socioeconomic vulnerability in the Himalayan region.

Tropical forests are complex systems with heterogeneous community assemblages often threatened under anthropogenic disturbances and grazing. We studied the change in plant community composition and structure under a disturbance gradient in the tropical dry deciduous forest of the corridor area between Nagzira Wildlife Sanctuary and Navegaon National Park of central India. We tested the hypothesis that the plant community will change along the gradient of proximity to human settlements depending on the anthropogenic stress. We sampled 183 nested quadrat plots to collect data on species abundance and various disturbance parameters. Density, diversity, and importance value index were calculated, and multivariate analysis was performed to assess the changes in species assemblage along the disturbance gradients. We found 76% overall dissimilarity between the plant communities in the three distance classes perpetrated by the difference in mean abundance of species like Tectona grandis, Terminalia sp., and Largerstroemia parviflora. The anthropogenic factors influence the density and diversity of tree species and regeneration classes. We found the abundance of regeneration class increased along the distance from the villages. The study intensifies the need for proper management and conservative approach to preserve the diversity of the forest patches for their structural and functional contiguity as a corridor in central India’s highly susceptible and intricate corridor framework.

The relationship between various vegetation characteristics and the relative abundance of three hornbill species [Great Pied Hornbill ( Buceros bicornis ), Wreathed Hornbill ( Rhyticeros undulatus ) and Oriental Pied Hornbill ( Anthracoceros albirostris )] was studied in and around Pakke Tiger Reserve, Arunachal Pradesh. We walked transects (n=11; 22 walks) in three study sites to detect hornbills. Vegetation sampling was done using circular plots (n=33; 10 m radius) at every 400m interval along each transect. Encounter rate (1.5± 0.188/km) of Great Pied Hornbill ( Buceros bicornis ) was highest in the protected and undisturbed forest area where food and roosting tree density were also high (114/ha). Oriental Pied Hornbill was common in both the sites within Pakke Tiger reserve near riverine forests (0.75±0.25/km) and also in the dense undisturbed forest (0.875±0.226/km). Multivariate analysis revealed that tree density, presence of fruiting trees (utilized by hornbills), canopy cover, and tree diversity in a particular area are the major factors responsible for the assemblage of more than one species of hornbills. The study shows that protection of the forest patches to keep the diversity and density of the tree species intact is crucial for the survival and distribution of the hornbills in the landscape.