A monitoring program is designed to observe, regulate and control or verify the changes that happen in nature over time. It serves as a valuable tool in effective management of wildlife reserves. In order to monitor the changes in biological diversity after relocation of gujars in Rajaji Corbett Conservation Area (RCCA), ten 1 ha permanent plots were marked and sampled in Rajaji National Park (RNP) from January to May 2004. All plots had similar micro-topographic conditions, among them four plots were assigned as ‘Dera’ treatment, with centers of these plots less than 100 m from existing gujar deras. Three plots each were assigned as ‘Translocation’ and ‘Control’. The ‘Translocation’ plots included the area where gujar deras were present before translocation. ‘Control’ plots were in areas without any influence of gujars over a long period of time. Each 1 ha plot was subdivided into 100, 10×10m quadrats and sampled for tree species diversity and use by wild ungulate species and domestic livestock, through count of pellets and dungs. Since the RCCA is ranked high as a Tiger Conservation Unit (TCU), raus (river beds) of Chilla range were walked to ascertain the evidences through tracks of large carnivores and their wild ungulate prey species. Nine raus were covered and a distance of 43.75km was walked during January and February 2004. 

The Dera and Control plots had almost similar number of trees while the Translocation plots had fewer. This was expected since the earlier habitations were created after removing some trees. There were 58 tree species in all the plots and 45, 31 and 29 species in Dera, Control and Translocation plots respectively. The Dera plots had more diversity of tree species than the Control or Translocation plots. The basal area of trees in three categories of plots was not significantly different. The Translocation plots had a fair representation of tree species, which would help in the regeneration of tree species and restoration of tree diversity akin to Control sites. Sambar used Translocation plots as much as Control and both were more than in Dera plots. Chital used Translocation poorly compared to Dera or Control plots. Both wild pig and elephant showed greater use of Control than Dera or Translocation plots. As expected the domestic livestock only used Dera plots intensively. Relocation of gujar deras has been advantageous to some prey species of tiger such as sambar and wild pig. Monitoring of large carnivores along raus revealed that while leopards used all the raus, tigers were restricted only to the undisturbed sites. There was no evidence of use by tiger in disturbed raus such as Khara. Maximum encounter of pugmarks were in undisturbed raus such as Amgadi, Mithawali, Mundal and Gara in Chilla range. The preliminary results suggest (i) the recovery of the habitat in terms of tree species diversity, is imminent in translocated areas (ii) important prey of tigers are responding to the translocation (iii) tigers used translocated areas more than areas where there were gujar deras in RNP.