Size and canopy characteristics of community reserves determine primate occupancy in the state of Meghalaya, India, and implications for its conservation

What is it about?

India has been strengthening the protected area network, however, land holding in most northeastern states remains with native people, thus, a new category of protected area ‘Community Reserve’ (CR) was mooted. Meghalaya state remains the second having 74 CRs in India. We conducted day and night trail surveys in 32 CRs of Meghalaya and a questionnaire survey for their perception of primates and hunting practices in villages around the CRs. We recorded the six species of primates. The primate richness and abundance were higher in the CRs of Garo Hills than in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills may be because of the presence of primary forests in Garo Hills and a greater number of assessed community reserves. The gibbon had the highest patch occupancy estimate of 0.49, Capped langur was 0.36, Assamese macaque was 0.26 and the pig-tailed macaque was 0.21. Large-sized CRs determined the occupancy of gibbons and Assamese macaques. Canopy cover positively influenced the occupancy of three primates except the Assamese macaque which had a negative influence, whereas the canopy height had a positive association with three species of primates proving that canopy plays a major role in the occupancy of primates, while canopy cover is more important than its height for the capped langur.

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