In a region once covered by the sea, the wild grasslands and eroded stream valleys of southwest Gujarat, an arid expanse bordering the great Rann of Kutch in western India near the Arabian Sea, ancient coral reefs, now uplifted and eroded over the millennia, provide homes for a variety of wildlife including a surprising array of predators such as raptors, wolves, hyaenas, foxes and jackals. Trading burrows and hiding places, the mammalian predators use the rugged stream channels that criss-cross the region for movement to and from their hunting grounds. Wolves curl up in the dark behind brush and shrubs that shelter a stream bank from prying human eyes. Yet little by little, the stream valleys and the grasslands that provide these hiding places are disappearing, and their biodiversity is suffering the consequences of human population expansion. Locals seek out dens to kill marauding animals, and human activities encroach on the habitats.

It is extremely difficult to conserve an endangered species like the wolf, when the majority of the human population is opposed to its survival. The lack of appropriate consideration for the local people's needs in conservation programs and the absence of their positive involvement in such programs has caused severe problems world-wide.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is addressing this issue and others through its Special Foreign Currency Program, which funded a pioneering study on wolf/blackbuck dynamics at Velavadar National Park in Gujarat. Now the Service, in cooperation with the Wildlife Institute of India, is helping to fund a five-year study of the wolf in major areas across India.

The study of wolves in Kutch has led to the study of hyaenas, jackals and foxes, which share the same habitats. Together, research assistants, local residents, and EarthWatch volunteers have provided a unique look into the interrelationships of a group of little studied and oft-maligned predators tied together by the important stream valley habitat links. The key to their joint survival hinges on mobilizing opinion to try to understand the importance and role these predators play. It also hinges on protecting existing stream valley habitats, not as blocks of reserve land, but as connected corridors allowing wolves, hyaenas and other species to travel back and forth, finding safe havens, and providing a repopulating stock of animals to replace individuals killed.

FWS photos