Kailash Chandra¹, Dinesh K.Sharma², Vijay Shridhar¹, Kusum Arunachalum^1,

The population of Himalayan musk deer (Moschus leucogaster) synonym Moschus chrysogaster has declined in recent decades and reached an endangered status in its distribution range. The distribution of Himalayan musk deer is very restrictive to Himalayas of Northern India, Nepal, Bhutan and China hence has low population. Musk deer family is being hunted for their musk pod due to high demand in international markets specially in China and North East Asia for their cosmetic and pharmaceutical use. Due to its habitat loss and large scale poaching the species has become endangered. The species is nocturnal, crepuscular and elusive which makes it difficult to study its distribution and habitat use pattern. The present study was carried out in Dharchula range (about 100 sq. km) in Askot wildlife sanctuary (WLS), Uttarakhand, India from August 2017 to May 2019. We used trail sampling and silent drive count method to estimate the distribution, abundance, and habitat use pattern. A total 63 trail transects and 8 Silent Count Drive (SDC) walks were laid in fir mixed, temperate mixed, birch mixed and pure birch forest at different aspect, slope and elevation. We recorded 10 individuals and 39 pellet groups on 63 trail and 8 SDC walks totaling 169 km effort registering an overall encounter rate of 1.18±0.20 individuals/km. We used mixed-effect models to characterize relationships between deer presence-absence data and habitat variables. The study confirmed that musk deer uses fixed defecation sites at higher elevations (3,000-4,300 m) throughout seasons and years. This species was found to use slope ranging between 20° and 55° and were found most abundant between 30° and 45° slope. The largest fraction of musk deer presence was observed in South west aspect and lowest in Northern aspect. The birch mixed forest recorded highest proportion of total musk deer followed by fir mixed forest. The distribution of musk deer was concentrated between 3,500 to 4,000 m a.s.l. A significant difference in density estimates of Himalayan musk deer was observed across the seasons. The encounter rate was higher 1.39±0.13 during autumn and low 0.66±0.22 during winter. It was observed that the species have suffered heavy decline in population in Askot WLS due to large scale collection of a medicinal fungus (Ophiocordyceps sinensis) locally called Keeda Jadi. Recently Ophiocordyceps sinensis also declared as vulnerable species by IUCN due to over exploitation of this fungus in this region. There is an urgent need for conservation plan for musk deer by strengthening the existing local institutional mechanism such as Van Panchayat and Gram Panchayat and integrating the interest of local community in sharing of benefits of the resources generated from the forest.

habitat, transects, distribution, encounter rate, Communitye