In south and central India, densities are likely to be widely below ecological carrying capacity, through hunting and competition with domestic livestock, although this conclusion is based on rather few empirical studies and there are some outstanding populations in well-secured protected areas. Substantial declines and local extinctions of Gaur were driven by hunting (for meat), competition with livestock, and habitat conversion, particularly during the first half of the twentieth century, resulting in a drastically reduced and fragmented distributional range, especially outside the protected area network (N.S. Kumar pers. comm. 2008). Hunting is much less prevalent than in Southeast Asia, reflecting the general enforcement of wildlife protection laws (Farshid Ahrestani pers. comm. 2008). Nonetheless, even in high-profile reserves, it is still suppressing densities significantly. For example, densities in Bhadra Tiger Reserve are very low, because of poaching, by comparison with what the habitat should support (Jathanna et al. 2003), and the measured density in a heavily hunted area of Nagarahole National Park was only a third of that in a well secured area (Madhusudan and Karanth 2002). Even though all hunting is illegal in this protected area, preventive measures are uneven across it, and Gaur is still poached, at least sporadically, wherever protection effectiveness is low (N.S. Kumar pers. comm. 2008). In recent years Gaur, has reportedly been exterminated from three Indian protected areas, Thattekad Wildlife Sanctuary (Kerala), Bhandhavgarh (Madhya Pradesh) and Kanger Valley National Park (Madhya Pradesh) (Pasha et al. 2004). Interaction with domestic stock is greatly under-appreciated as a threat to Gaur, but is probably the main factor which currently limits populations in south and central India: livestock are widely grazed even in otherwise well-managed protected areas. Mean densities of Gaur were fully 132 times higher in livestock-free areas than in adjacent livestock-grazed areas of Bandipur, and in shared grazing areas Gaur densities declined sharply with increasing livestock densities; in the grazed area studied, halving the livestock density allowed increases of Gaur by a factor of 57 (Madhusudan 2004). Threats to southern India’s forest ungulates by competition with domestic stock grazing within protected areas are exacerbated where dung is collected for export to adjacent coffee areas. Fuel wood removal may also be at levels sufficient to disrupt nutrient cycles of the habitat (Madhusudan 2005). Many Indian forest areas are severely encroached by exotics such as Lantana camara, Parthenium spp. and Chromolaena odorata, and these are suspected to effect major changes to forest structure (Hiremath and Sundaram 2005): but the effects of these on Gaur populations warrant further study. Killing of Gaur in retaliation to crop damage (through consumption and trampling) occurs, but is of limited significance to conservation (Choudhury 2002; Farshid Ahrestani pers. comm. 2008). Some animals also die from ingestion of agrochemicals, and human response when wandering into farmland and villages; these could be significant for already isolated and reduced populations (Choudhury 2002).