Alert distance as a measure of tolerance and effect of human intervention on the behaviour of Rhinoceros unicornis in Kaziranga National Park.

The prospective for conflict between wildlife conservation and human interference are apparent from many restricted areas. The animals changed behavioral response to human presence can be considered as a tool/index to measure the disturbance. This study is an attempt to find out the strength of animal's behavioural responses to human intruders through disturbance distance of Indian rhinoceros in Kaziranga National Park and help in fulfilling the dynamic function. The study was carried out in Kaziranga National Park from 2016 to 2018. Road transect method was used and the data was collected by scan animal sampling. The collected data was then analyzed with the help of SPSS. Different types of bahavioural response were recorded at various distance. The alert distance, flushing distance and chasing distance were found to be significantly different. Various other factors like habitat and wind direction influence the disturbance distance. Woodland shows less disturbance distance, while short grassland shows the highest. The disturbance distance was found to be higher when there was no wind and when the wind direction was from animal to observer. This is probably due to the strong hearing power and sense of smell respectively. The general linear model shows the contribution of all the variables on disturbance distance. Implementations of buffer zones based on the alert distance can increase the tolerance of the animals and reduce the disturbance.