DEPARTMENT.FACULTY
- DEPARTMENT_STAFF.QUALIFICATION
Ph.D, M.Sc
- DEPARTMENT_STAFF.DESIGNATION
Professor
- DEPARTMENT_STAFF.THRUST_AREA
Wildlife conservation, Biodiversity conservation and management; Animal Ecology; Population Dynamics, Conservation biology; Human -Animal Conflict; Animal Behaviour and Socio economic aspects. , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvhy75f-ft8
- DEPARTMENT_STAFF.ADDRESS
AB-91, Medical Colony, AMU Aligarh, Dept of Wildlife Sciences, AMU Aligarh
- DEPARTMENT_STAFF.MOBILE
9412501043 , 9412501043
- DEPARTMENT_STAFF.EMAIL
orus16@gmail.com , o.ilyas.wl@amu.ac.in
Dr. Orus Ilyas is a Professor in Biodiversity & Environmental study, at the Dept of Wildlife Sciences. She has been involved in field research on mammals, especially the ungulates community in India since 1995. She worked in the high-altitude Himalayas for more than 20 years. She did her Ph.D. on Ungulates of the Himalayas and after that, she has also worked as a Young Scientists under the Fast Track Program of DST, for the conservation of Musk deer in Uttarakhand Himalayas. She has served four terms as "Asia Coordinator" of the Deer Specialist group of SSC/IUCN. Prior to joining as faculty in the Department of Wildlife Sciences 2009, she worked in various projects ranging from community participation to species conservation and ecology, funded by many organizations such as. WSI, WWF-India, CAPART, DANIDA, UGC, UPFD-TERI projects as Conservation Corp Volunteer/ principal investigator, or project leader. She has published four books, out of that one has been published from most prestigious publisher Rutledge-Tailor and Francis, and more than 50 scientific papers in National and International Peer review high-impact factor journals, She has contributed more than 20 chapters in reputed edited books. She has received many Extra Mural grants from UGC, SERB, and CSIR to work on ungulates of high-altitude Himalayas and the Pench and Panna Tiger reserves in central India. In 2019 she had successfully secured Rs. 20 Lakhs from the corporate sector under their Corporate Social Responsibility for the Dept of Wildlife Sciences to organize the 1st International Conservation Conference-2019 from 21st -23rd October. She has visited more than 15 courtiers for different academic programs and chaired many technical sessions abroad such as New Zealand. She has delivered many popular Public Talks in different organizations, such as ISER Mohali also Invited by Wellcome Trust DBT-India Alliance to deliver talks at St. Stephens College, DU. She is the reviewer of many reputed journals, such as Mammalia, Journal of Zoology, Mammalian Biology, Threatened Taxa, Scientific report, Oryx, etc. Recently on 29th March 2023, she has been awarded "recognition for her excellent academic achievements in STEM disciplines by the APJ Abdul Kalam Center for STEM Education & Research and the International Society of Muslim Women in science (ISMWS)". Recently on 9th January 2024 her Major Research Project has been approved from SERB-Ministry of Sciences and Technology, Govt of India under its Core Research Grant to work on “Assessing the population ecology of Himalayan Tahr (Hemitragus jemlahicus) for conservation planning in Western Himalayas” She with her team will be surveying the Himalayas from Kashmir to Uttaranchal for next three years. Her Research interest includes Mammalian Ecology, biodiversity conservation; conservation genetics, population ecology, herbivore ecology, Wildlife policy and legislation quantitative ecology, and human-animal conflict.
- The inter-linking of rivers and biodiversity conservation: a study of Panna Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh, India. CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 121, NO. 12, 25 DECEMBER 2021 The Panna tiger reserve is one of the best examples of the most successful tiger re-introduction programme from zero tiger in 2009 to 54 in 2019. The Government of India has approved the proposal of interlinking of the two rivers, viz. Ken in Madhya Pradesh and Betwa in Uttar Pradesh, to provide surplus water to the local population of drought prone areas of Bundelkhand, UP. This river interlinking will be submerging around 58.03 sq. km of the Critical Tiger Habitat. Our study on vegetation and major prey species of tiger shows higher densities in submerged areas. The NITI Ayog report of 2019 provided one of the best example of the locals of Jakhni village of Banda district of Bundelkhand which managed the severe water crisis. The sensitivity of tiger reserve that project involves need a close attention, which this essay attempts at arguing.
- Status, abundance, and food habit of Sambar deer (Rusa unicolor) in tropical deciduous forest of Central India. Mammalia. https://doi.org/10.1515/mammalia-2021-0109 Download PDFVariation in the foraging strategies of Sambar deer (Rusa unicolor) with changing plant availability has received little attention. The pellet group density and seasonal vegetation availability in tropical climatic conditions of dry deciduous forest of Pench Tiger Reserve, were assessed through indirect evidences (pellet group density). Stratified random sampling was used in different habitats from 2012 to 2015 on a seasonal basis. The Sambar deer (R. unicolor) is one of the largest deer species distributed throughout the Indian subcontinent. Pellet group data were collected on 10 m radius permanent plots at every 200 m intervals on line transects. Teak forest, teak mixed and bamboo forest was the preferred habitat during summer (89.87 ± 88.36), and winter (98.19 ± 94.59) seasons respectively. Microhistological study was conducted to understand the feeding preferences of Sambar through pellet groups. A total of 57 plant species were identified in summer diet. While 51 species of plants were identified in winter diet. Sambar is predominantly a browser and for the conservation of the declining population of Sambar, long undisturbed tract should be protected with preferred browse and grass species
- Projected distribution and climate refugia of endangered Kashmir musk deer Moschus cupreus in greater Himalaya, South Asia. (2020). Scientific Report Kashmir musk deer Moschus cupreus (KMD) are the least studied species of musk deer. Genetically validated occurrence records of KMD to construct species distribution models using Maximum Entropy was completed. it shows that the distribution of KMD is limited between central Nepal on the east and north-east Afghanistan on the west and is primarily determined by precipitation of driest quarter, annual mean temperature, water vapor, and precipitation during the coldest quarter. Precipitation being the most influential determinant of distribution suggests the importance of pre-monsoon moisture for growth of the dominant vegetation, Himalayan birch Betula utilis and Himalayan fir Abies spectabilis, in KMD's preferred forests. All four Representative Concentration Pathway Scenarios result an expansion of suitable habitat in Uttarakhand, India, west Nepal and their associated areas in China in 2050s and 2070s but a dramatic loss of suitable habitat elsewhere (Kashmir region and Pakistan-Afghanistan border). About 1/4th of the current habitat will remain as climate refugia in future. Since the existing network of protected areas will only include a tiny fraction (4%) of the climatic refugia of KMD, the fate of the species will be determined by the interplay of more urgent short-term forces of poaching and habitat degradation and long-term forces of climate change.
- Where are they? Where will they be? In pursuit of current and future whereabouts of endangered Himalayan musk deer.Mammalian Biology Conservation and management of environmentally suitable areas, that support survival and persistence of species, are keys to protect wildlife in their natural habitat. Populations of Himalayan musk deer Moschus leucogaster, an endemic species in Asia, are listed as endangered in the IUCN red list, requiring immediate conservation actions before their extinction in the wild. In order to model and map the current and future (under projected climate change settings) climatically-suitable area for the species, Maxent modeling technique, that requires presence-only records, was employed. As predictors, we extracted 19 bioclimatic variables from ‘WorldClim’ database with a ?1 km spatial resolution and used 10 uncorrelated bioclimatic variables as inputs. As indicated by a high area under ROC curve (AUC) value (>0.9), Maxent well performed and predicted climatically-suitable habitat for the species along the Hindukush Himalaya, where the species is known to occur. Annual mean temperature appeared to most influence the distribution of potential habitat for the species. An expansion of species’ habitat was noticed in the Indian and Tibetan part of species range, suggesting a potential future effect of climate change on the species distribution. The findings of this study could assist wildlife managers in devising conservation plans for the current and future conservation of the species in the context of climate change. This is the first study to model and map the current and future distribution of the species in its rang
- Food and Feeding Habits of Gaur ( Bos gaurus ) in Highlands of Central India: A Case Study at Pench Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh (India). Zoological Science, ISSN- 02890003 Indian gaur (Bos gaurus) is one of nine species of wild oxen found in the world. They are largely confined to evergreen, semi-evergreen, and moist deciduous forests, but also occur in dry deciduous forest areas at the periphery of their range. According to the IUCN Red List ( 2017 ), the estimated population of gaur in India is between 15,000 and 35,000 individuals, and probably due to this, despite the gaur's vast range of distribution, they are listed as a vulnerable species by IUCN and listed as schedule-I of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act ( 1972 ) as well as in appendix-I in CITES ( 2003 ). Gaur is not a well studied species, and baseline data are thus needed to support conservation efforts. We studied the feeding habits of gaur in Pench Tiger Reserve. Pench Tiger Reserve is the 19th tiger reserve in India, situated in the Seoni and Chhindwara districts of MP, India (21°41'35?N 79°14'54?E). Diet composition of gaur was studied by micro-histological examination of 32 dung piles collected from different sampling plots in different seasons. For this purpose, 169 sampling plots were established at an interval of 200 m. To locate gaur faecal matter, a circular plot of 10 m radius was laid within each sampling plot. Eighty-eight permanent reference slides of available plants were prepared and used for plant fragment identification from the dung piles. A total of 29 plant species were identified from dung piles of gaur. On average, 44.51% of grass-fragments were detected in the diet of gaur, suggesting that gaurs are primarily grazers in the Pench Tiger Reserve.
- Food habits of Barking Deer (Muntiacus muntjak muntjak) and Goral (Nemorhaedus goral bedfordi) in Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary, India, Mammalia, 2004 Food habits of barking deer and goral were investigated during pre and post-monsoon seasons in 1998 in Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary in Kumaon, Himalaya. Three line transects were established to sample pellet groups of both species. Pellet groups were collected in permanent plots of 10 m radius established at an interval of 50 m along each line transect. Pellet groups of both species were analysed microscopically to determine the ingested plant. The diet showed the barking deer to be predominantly a browser while the goral was a grazer. In the barking deer diet the browse to grass ratio was 87 % / 13 % in pre-monsoon season, and 78 % / 22 % during post-monsoon season. In goral diet the browse to grass ratio was 12 % / 88 % and 3 % / 97 % in pre- and post-monsoon seasons respectively. The barking deer fed on 8, 6, 18 and 8, 8, 19 species of tree, shrub and forbs during pre and post-monsoon season respectively. The occurrence of tree, shrub and forb species in barking deer diet was in proportion to their availability in habitat during both seasons. The goral diet was dominated by plant fragments belonging to 1, 5, 11 and 2,1, 6 species of tree, shrub and forb during pre and post-monsoon season respectively. None of the plant species was used up more than its availability.
- Habitat and feeding ecology of alpine musk deer (Moschus chrysogaster) in Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary, Uttarakhand, India Download PDFThe alpine musk deer, Moschus chrysogaster, a small member of family Moschidae, is a primitive deer threatened due to poaching and habitat loss, and therefore classified as Endangered by IUCN and also listed in Appendix I of CITES. Although the species is legally protected in India under Wildlife Protection Act 1972, conservation of the species requires better understanding of its distribution and resource-use pattern; therefore, a study on its feeding and habitat ecology was conducted from February 2011 to February 2014, at Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary. The Sanctuary is one of the known remaining habitats for musk deer in India. Four locations, namely, Shokhark I, Shokhark II, Tungnath and Chandrashila, were intensively monitored and further categorised on the basis of habitats and altitudinal gradient. The habitat overlap between musk deer and all other ungulate species of the area was calculated through Pianka's overlap index. The results indicated a large overlap between musk deer and Himalayan tahr. Species dietary spectra were studied using microhistological techniques for faecal pellet-group analysis coupled with Bonferroni approach. The dicotyledon to monocotyledon ratios were found to be 73.62-26.38% and 52.016- 47.984% in the pre- and post-monsoon seasons, respectively. The study showed that the musk deer is predominantly a browser. The most preferred plant species of the animals were found to be Gaultheria trichophylla, Ophiopogon intermedius., Cyperus sp. and Sibbaldia cuneata. During the field survey, opportunistic sightings of the species were also recorded. The species was found to be restricted to areas where the density of preferred vegetation was high. Therefore, it is recommended to provide strict protection to the areas such as Shokhark.