A CENTURY ago the British declared both Kaziranga and Manas protected areas. In the years that followed the two national parks went different ways. Kaziranga’s report showed heartening progress: the number of rhinoceros in the park have risen from just a dozen at the turn of the century to over 1,800 at present. Manas, meanwhile, has lost its entire rhino population—it had an estimated 90 in 1996. Twenty years of insurgency have ravaged the park, leading it to its second label—in 1992 it was declared ‘‘World Heritage Site in Danger’’. The fate of the tigers in Manas doesn’t look much better. Their number has come down from 93 in 1987 to 65 in 2000. In one month alone in 1993, as many as 19 tigers were killed. Though officials claim there are currently over 60 tigers in Manas, wildlife activist Bibhab Kumar Talukdar says their number can’t be more than 40. In 1984 with 123 tigers, Manas had the second largest tiger population in India. The national park is unique in other ways too. ‘‘Manas is India’s only national park that is truly international. Manas, in fact, extends over two countries; Manas National Park on the Indian side is spread over an area of 519.77 sq km, the Royal Manas National Park extends over 1,023 sq km,’’ says Talukdar. Declared a National Park in 1990, insurgency prompted the entire forest protection staff to run away. But Manas had, and still has, as Park director Abhijit Rabha asserts, great conservation value. ‘‘Manas is noted for its spectacular scenery, with a variety of habitat types that support a diverse fauna, making it the richest of all Indian wildlife areas,’’ says the UNESCO report that declared it a Heritage Site. HOME to the last stock of Indian water buffaloes, Manas is also the single most important site in India for the future survival of pygmy hog and hispid hare. ‘‘But what Manas represents today is even more important. It is a story of what man can do and undo. It was a political problem that had almost destroyed Manas. Today however, Manas is also a story of rebuilding an almost lost case,’’ says Park Director Rabha. Under Protection • Manas was proposed as a reserved forest in 1905 • Upgraded to a wildlife sanctuary in 1928 • Brought under Project Tiger in 1977 • Declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985 • Made a biosphere reserve in 1989 • Becomes a National Park in 1990 He takes pride in narrating how a group of young men from neighbouring areas, who were once engaged by poachers and criminals to kill animals, have been converted into a green brigade. ‘‘These young men today realise how greedily they behaved for a few hundred rupees that the smugglers doled out to them, and have joined the efforts to bring back the lost glory of this wonderful park,” adds Ritesh Bhattacharyya, deputy director of the Park. Restoring glory might take some time but getting back rhinos is definitely going to be quicker. The Assam government has taken up an ambitious plan to translocate some rhinos to Manas from the state’s other sanctuaries. It has another advantage. It will reduce the pressure on Kaziranga. While a training-cum-pilot project is scheduled to start at the Pabitora wildlife sanctuary in November 2006, the first batch of 20 rhinoceros would be shifted to the Manas National Park in the first half of 2007, he says. With improving law and order, Manas is also emerging as a tourist destination. “Kaziranga always witnesses a big rush during the winter months. With a publicity campaign slowly building up, Manas will definitely be a wonderful alternative to Kaziranga in the next couple of years,” says a leading Guwahati-based tour operator. This winter, for instance, Manas has already got over 500 foreign visitors while domestic tourists are also slowly queuing up.
