Generating ecological baselines on short-grass formations or grazing lawns in Central Terai landscape

Abstract

Short-grass formations or the "grazing lawns" as they are popularly called support large congregations of mammalian herbivores globally. These systems are known to be maintained by cyclic process of grazing and nutrient deposition in the soil by foraging animals. The basic ecological characteristics of these short-grass systems have extensively been studied in the African context with little understanding particularly from the Himalayan foothills in Terai. In this study, we focused on understanding the ecological baselines such as grass species associations and associated nutrient content in these grazing lawns and tall grass formations across two protected areas of the Uttar Pradesh Terai in India. Our results show that, the protected areas had relatively similar grass species composition and associated nutrient content in the short-grass formations. However, when compared with tall grass formations, the grazing lawns differed markedly in both their grass associations and thus forage quality. Therefore, the results from this study indicate the need to maintain such grazing lawn habitats within the characteristic tall-wet grasslands of the Terai. This also indicates the importance of short-grass formations in providing palatable forage to the mammalian herbivores particularly in peak dry seasons of autumn and winters.