Guwahati forests fast shrinking

GUWAHATI, JULY 5: Guwahati, city of the famous Kamakhya temple - the ancient seat of tantric studies, is also home to a wide variety of bi...

GUWAHATI, JULY 5: Guwahati, city of the famous Kamakhya temple 8211; the ancient seat of tantric studies, is also home to a wide variety of bird species and as many as 50 leopards. The forests here are fast shrinking, bringing the cats face to face with the humans more frequently than before.

Last week, residents of Joynagar, a small colony close to the Kamakhya temple, woke up to the growl of a leopard which had fallen into a dry well in the backyard of a house. The people, police, and the state zoo authorities got together to rescue the animal and shifted it to the zoo within four hours.

Guwahati is surrounded by 12 reserved forests, with a total area of about 261 sq km. These forests, mostly on hills and hillocks, are home to 45 varieties of mammals, 25 kinds of reptiles and 200 bird varieties.

However, due to increased human activity, these reserved forests are fast shrinking, making way for encroachers who are rapidly constructing houses.

quot;The worst-affected are the bigger animals and birds, especially leopards, which get easily spotted and are attacked by men at the slightest provocation,quot; says Bibhav Kumar Talukdar, secretary of Aranyak 8211; a leading conservationists8217; group in the city.

He recalled that in 1995, a leopard had strayed out of its habitat to a busy locality of the city, only to be shot dead by a group of CRPF personnel who were passing by.

State zoo DFO Ritesh Bhattacharjee blames the people who have encroached upon the hills and reserved forests in and around Guwahati. quot;There is tremendous pressure on land, and the leopards are the worst sufferers,quot; he says.

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In 1999, forest officials rescued four adult leopards from various residential areas of the city, and sent them in the state zoo. Several leopard cubs were also rescued by the wildlife authorities, according to Bhattacharjee.

Leopards are most commonly sighted in the Neelachal Hills, on which the Kamakhya temple is located, and there have been instances of people being seriously injured by the animal. They also occasionally appear in the Narakasur Hills area where the Guwahati Medical College and the state film studio are located, or the Saraniya Hill, on which a Gandhi Memorial is located.

Dr P C Bhattacharya of Guwahati University claims that Guwahati is the Number One urban wildlife hub of the country. He has been urging that new small pockets be created to preserve urban wildlife.