Planet Article

The Constrain of Saving Wildlife: A Two years journey Through the Jungles of Barak valley, Assam

December 23, 2008 – 10:50 pm
by Kripaljyoti Mazumdar

The southern Assam (Assam) is although known to all, but regarding the documentation of wild-fauna and fauna very less work has been done. Geographically Barak valley is surrounded by North Cachar hills and Jatinga in the north. In the east by the state of Manipur in the south the Mizoram and the west by Tripura and Sylhet district of Bangladesh. The area has an altitude of 26-27 m above MSL. The temperature regime of the area ranges with a mean maximum temperature of 30.2 0C and a mean minimum temperature of 19.6 0C.

Scope is tremendous, but the hinder for the young conservationists like us is that the most of the forest in this part of north east India is degraded forest and they severely dwindling day by day. Apart from the other developmental projects, the clearing of the forest patches around the Tea Gardens are one of the reasons for the declining. And we feared that the may be some of the endemic species will be lost from the world before its documentation in Barak valley. Most of the forests near the human habitation in the valley are of secondary growth.

Some of the new distributions recorded during our postgraduate level research under the Department of Ecology and Environmental science in Cachar district were as follows:

Phayre’s Leaf Monkey Trachypithecus phayrei: One of the most threatened and endemic species of north eastern India. New distribution has been recorded by us in the nearby forests of the Assam University, Silchar.

Kaloula pulchra: Very rarely observed species in the damp areas near the paddy fields around the Cachar district.

White-lipped pit viper Trimeresurus albolabris: This is the recently recorded venomous arboreal species complex recorded in the university campus till now.

Diard’s Worm snake Typhlops diardii: One of the rearest burrowing species seen in the highlands of the university campus.

Kaloula assamensis Very rarely observed species, in-fact a new species to science & recorded first from the Nameri National park, Assam.

King cobra  Ophiophagus Hannah:
King cobras can reach 18 feet (5.5 meters) in length, making them the longest of all venomous snakes. Although, the distribution record was there in the Barak valley in different literatures, but during our two years study we had sited only once and is believe to be extinct locally.

Diversity and Endemism of the Indo-Burma hotspot

The primary vegetation in extensive areas of the Northeast India has been disturbed and modified and in some places destroyed by seismic activities, frequent landslides and resultant soil erosion. Speaking in terms of the deforestation and loss of vegetation in Barak valley is mainly due to anthropogenic pressure & human activities. In fact the poaching of the animal in the name of medicinal use and constant losing of the forest areas for the extension of new tea gardens are the main hold back that are being faced by the wildlife of Barak valley. While these natural causes have contributed only marginally to the change in vegetation type, human induced activities have guide to irreversible transformation in the landscapes and resulted in colossal loss of biodiversity in the entire region. The region has witnessed excessive logging since the colonial days for revenue generation (Handique 2004). The practice continued until the Supreme Court ban on logging in 1995, however clandestinely it is done in some areas in the reserve forests (Tripura SBSAP). The logging and extractions have also damaged some of the forest patches like the Borduaria preservation plot of Hollong, Mekai.  Many forest bird species, especially those with ranges restricted to Northeast India declined in abundance or disappeared in successional fallows followed for the shifting cultivation practices in the region, unless regeneration exceeded 10 years (Raman 2001).

The Barak valley is having both the primary and secondary vegetation. Studies conducted on the Phayrer’s leaf Langur (T. phayrei) revealed that it needs at least 9-10 years fallow period to survive in secondary forest (Gupta and Kumar 1994). However, a progressively shortening cycle of shifting cultivation and degradation of forests poses a threat even for such adaptive animals. Again the Barak valley – well known as “the valley of extinction” has already lost some of the key stone species like the Asian elephant and probably the Pigmy hog. The valley is used to be then the elephant corridor, through which the elephants from the Borile rage of Assam and Meghalaya used to migrate to the Mizoram and Manipur. Now, because of the loss of the vegetation and fragmentation of this corridor the link between the elephant population in Borile and parts of Mizoram and Manipur no more exists. Again during our survey in the buffer areas of the recently decleared Borile wildlife sanctuary, we come across many secondary information regarding the presence of Pigmy hog the most endemic species found in the North east. The village people belief that there are Nol-gahari, Pigmy hog still exists in the some pockets of the Borile range.

Barak river and its tributaries also anchorage the Gangetic dolphin (Platanista gangetica) and Dept. of Ecology and Environmental Science, assam university is carrying out conservation and awareness programme to sve the remaining population of Gangetic dolphin. The bird fauna is richer with more than 200 species and some of them are nearly endemic to North east India.

The state of Assam has as many as 3513 freshwater wetlands. Assam is dominated by two river plains – the Brahmaputra plains (56,480sq. kms) drained by the river Brahmaputra and its 43 tributaries and the Barak plains (6962sqkms) drained by the river Barak and its tributeries. In the floodplains of these rivers there are a large number beels, swamps and marshes.

Barak valleys of Assam where substantial areas are under agriculture, relatively little land is available for settled cultivation. Hence, shifting agriculture or slash-and-burn agriculture is the major land use in Northeast India and extends over 1.73 million ha (F S I, 1999). Different agencies have come up with different figures concerning the total area under shifting cultivation (jhum) in the region. This traditional practice has largely been blamed for deforestation in the region.

As far as the youth perspective for the conservation these species, we could say the valley is a kind of hidden treasure, where the potential is yet to discover. Especially it’s high time for the youths of the North east region to become aware about the conservation of the wild species and the environment. Because the ecosystem is sustaining due to which the human civilization is also sustaining.

(Part of the article is the outcome of Postgraduate level research work done by Mr. Kripaljyoti Mazumdar and Mr. Rakesh Soud under Dr. Abhik Gupta, Dean, School of Environmental science, Assam University, Silchar)

[Courtesy: Young North East, January-February 2007]

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Tags: assam, Barak Valley, Conservation, ecology, Environment, Forest, Hailakandi, Jatinga, Karimganj, Manipur, North Cachar, Silchar, Sylhet, Tripura, Wildlife