Mapping and Assessing the Transboundary Elephant Corridor in the Patharia Hills Reserve Forest of Assam, India

Asiatic elephants are facing numerous direct and indirect anthropogenic threats throughout their geographical distributional range. Consequent to the land use and land cover change, habitat loss, fragmentation, and deterioration of the corridor status are the prime threats for the species. The current study aimed to delineate the routes and migratory corridors of elephants in the Indo-Bangla forest along the Patharia Hills Reserve Forest and characterizing existing threats on the corridor for long-term conservation of the elephants using field survey and geospatial techniques. The study identified and mapped the elephant corridor for the first time in the area and named it the “Juri-Patharia-Tilbhum elephant corridor.” Land use and land cover changes in the corridor were markedly observed for over 4 decades…