Survey on abundance of carnivores and their prey in Kalesar NP and WLS in Haryana, India

A survey was conducted to find out the status of carnivores and their prey in Kaleswar National Park (30°18′ to 30°27′ North latitude and 77° 25′ to 77° 35′ East longitude) and Wildlife Sanctuary (30° 16′ to 30°28′ North latitude and between 77°20′ to 77° 37′ East longitude) in Haryana, India. A total of nine trails were surveyed covering 32.2 km in February-April, 2012. Among this, about 23.8 km trail of national park area and another

8.5 km of wildlife sanctuary was surveyed. Survey covered Guga and Kalesar beats in national park area and Faizpur, Tibriyan and Ambala beats in wildlife sanctuary area. The ‘presence – absence’ survey was conducted to find out carnivores and their prey population. Presence of carnivores and prey was also determined from signs (pugmarks, scrape, scat, kill remains etc.). Among carnivores, leopard (Panthera pardus), jackal (Canis aureus), hyena (Hyanea hyanea) and fox (Vulpes bengalensis) were found during survey. However no sign was found about the presence of tiger in Kalesar NP & WLS. Among prey, sambar (Cervus unicolor), spotted deer (Axis axis), barking deer (Muntiacus muntjak), chowsingha (Tetracerus quadricornis), wild boar (Sus scrofa) and elephants (Elephus maximus) were found during survey. Number of indirect evidence of leopard was 1.02 per km followed by Jackal (0.09/km), and both hyena and fox (0.02/km). Number of indirect evidence of sambar was 0.71 per km followed by spotted deer and wild boar (0.37/km), barking deer and elephant (0.12/km), nilgai (0.9/km and chowsingha (0.03/km) (Fig.-7). Study confirms that tiger was not present in both Kalesar NP and WLS. However, leopard was very common in both the parks. Abundance of prey though widely distributed their population size might be not that enough to support major predator like tiger. However, it is good habitat for small carnivore.