Non-Woody Crop Loss to Bonnet Macaque and Langur Relative to Fragmentation Amidst Territorial Moist Deciduous Forests, Central Western Ghats, India

A study was conducted on farmers' perception regarding per cent loss of non-woody crops to two species of monkeys - Bonnet Macaque (BM) (Macaca radiata) and Langur (Semnopithecus hypoleucos) - in the territorial moist deciduous forests of central Western Ghats, India. The losses were compared between farms located deep inside dense moist deciduous forests (DMDF) v/s farms in fragmented moist deciduous forests (FMDF). The hypothesis was that the farms in DMDF should have less crop loss than FMDF as monkeys, especially BM, from elsewhere cannot be brought and released there, more alternate food available to monkeys in such forest, and almost near natural ecosystem around should buffer perturbations, if any. The farms visit were derived from a system of 16 square grids of 5 km2 each, systematically distributed, with a random start. Using pre-tested semi-structured schedules with open ended questions, 26 farmers were personally interviewed in DMDF, and 28, in FMDF. From the farms in the two forest systems cumulatively, 11 non-woody crop species were listed, of which paddy and banana were the two most frequent. Comparing DMDF: FMDF situations, the per cent loss of paddy, banana, sugarcane, maize, and cotton to BM were 7.1:6.76, 32:24.51, 24.89:6.1, 13.11:8.75, and 12.27:11 respectively. The loss of paddy, banana, sugarcane and cotton to langur were 0.05:0.2, 42.12:40.22, 0.58:0 and 26.29:11.5, respectively. Paddy and sugarcane were lost significantly more to BM; banana and cotton were lost more to Langur. In FMDF, 80.59% of cardamom was lost to BM. Maize and lentils were raided by both the species comparably. Contrary to our hypothesis, there was no significant difference in the crop loss between DMDF and FMDF.