st for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Bengaluru, told Mongabay-India, adding that prohibitions such as blanket bans that undercut access to forests are likely to be harmful to these communities.
In Kerala, for example, the Cholanaikka tribe, with which Rahman works, live very close to the evergreen climax forest (between teak plantations and the forest). Their earning comes from forest products like honey harvest, medicinal plants, teak flowers, lichens, fishing, and amla or Indian gooseberry. In Karnataka, the smallholder families who reside in the forest periphery are vulnerable to the KFD. They are not heavily dependent on the forest itself for their livelihoods but are closely linked with the forest for other purposes including grazing livestock. “Livestock is allowed to graze in the forest and they return on their own in the evening likely carrying more hard ticks into living spaces and properties,” points out Rahman.
Rahman notes that as primary stakeholders, communities and their representatives should be allowed to play an inclusive role in decision-making concerning the KFD. They also have the potential to play a very significant role in various aspects of the KFD surveillance as well as mitigation.
“In Karnataka, for example, in places such as Sagar, Shivamogga, the hamlets are widely spread across remote areas and some are also located at the periphery of the forest. Due to their remoteness, these hamlets may not be in a position to receive information provided by ASHA workers/ or primary healthcare centres about monkey deaths or to report the occurrence of monkey deaths to the authorities,” he said.
Looking beyond monkeys for surveillance
While large monkey die-offs (Macaca radiata, Semnopithecus hypoleucus, and Semnopithecus priam species) are powerful indicators that KFDV is circulating in the landscape, Kiran, the KFD Nodal Officer in Karnataka, says that enhanced surveillance would need to go beyond monkeys.
“Monkeys die within 10 to 15 days of the infection and the distance covered by the monkeys is very short (five to 10 kilometres). So we need to consider other potential species that may carry the ticks, including leopards and chital as the study (by Walsh et. al) indicates.”
Leopard (P. pardus) abundance and relative abundance and chital (A. axis) abundance were also associated with outbreak risk. While neither of these species has been shown to be susceptible to the KFDV, both are known to host the KFDV-relevant ticks and distribute these vectors in the landscape, the paper said.
Kiran’s point also has context in terms of the affected communities’ close association with the forests and exposure to virus-carrying ticks circulating in wildlife.
For instance, wild animals like spotted deer, primates, Indian giant squirrel or Malabar giant squirrel, shrews, rodents and peacocks which carry the same ticks are common visitors to properties in forest fringe areas in Kerala where the Cholanaikka tribe lives. ”And some of the families live inside the forest and all their livelihood activities result in exposure to infected hard ticks that are reservoirs of KFDV,” Mujeeb Rahman of ATREE observed.
In Karnataka, smallholder families also collect dry leaves from the semi-deciduous forest to line the floor of their cowsheds and to get more quantity of cow dung manure through mulching. “Women also visit the forest for collecting firewood. This is also an activity that increases their exposure to ticks which usually live under the dry leaves. The mixed cropping pattern of the smallholders (e.g. banana and areca nut cultivation) also attracts primates. The paddy harvest season that also coincides with the increased presence of rodents matches with the KFD outbreak season,” shared Rahman.
Michael Walsh echoes Kiran and others in saying that the understanding of the KFD is stunted because little is known about which species comprise its wildlife reservoirs and how the virus circulates in nature. “We need to increase this knowledge base (and quickly) because the KFD outbreaks are rapidly expanding acro