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Journalism of Courage
Since 2000, the villagers of Salbari, a hamlet in Assam’s Chirang district in Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) have been protecting the sal bagaan, or the forest of sal trees in their village. The community initiative by the villagers, under the Joint Forest Management scheme (a Ministry of Environment & Forests initiative in which local forest dwellers and the Forest Department officials join hands in conservation efforts), stipulates a fine of Rs 5,000 to anyone found felling the trees, poaching or upsetting the ecological balance of the area in any way. Now, 18 years later, the villagers have joined hands with the Forest Department again to save the elusive Golden Langur — among the 25 most endangered primates in the world, found only in Assam and Bhutan.
On Monday, the first boundary pillar was erected to demarcate a 23-sq km area identified for the “Golden Langur Habitat Conservation” project — a joint effort by New Horizon, a conservation NGO; the Chirang forest division, BTC; the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) and International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). “The green cover has been maintained here because of the conservation of the villagers over the years. As a result, many Golden Langurs have made this area their home since they are arboreal creatures,” says Samlai Narzary of New Horizons that has been working in wildlife conservation in BTC since 2000.
While the identified site is bordered by the 850-sq km Manas National Park (MNP) on the west and Royal Manas National Park of Bhutan (to its the north), it does not fall under core area of the MNP. “These are buffer areas that fall under the Chirang Reserve Forest,” says WTI coordinator Bhaskar Choudhury, “While there are six notified forest villages in these areas, many illegal settlements have come up and the forests are fast depleting due to encroachment.”
While simultaneously providing the Golden Langur a safe habitat, the officials also hope that this move will ultimately bring the site within the core area of MNP. To that effect, a letter has been sent from the Chirang forest division, BTC to the State Wildlife Board, Assam requesting the same under the Wildlife Protection Act.
The meeting on Monday was attended by 400 villagers from the surrounding villages including Salbari, Gajenpuri etc. “The border pillar was erected as well as a sign that read “Welcome to The Pride of Bodoland — Conservation of the Golden Langur and its Habitat.” “The main aim was to get public consent for this project,” says Choudhury, adding, “The villages have agreed to take an active role in protection the forest and keep a check on any illegal encroachment.”
Says Narazary, “It will also help unemployed youth of this troubled area to earn a livelihood though eco development schemes. Next season, we are also planning to have a Golden Langur and Sal Bagaan utsav.”
The Golden Langur (Trachypithecus geei) was discovered in 1953 by the naturalist E.P. Gee. They are arboreal leaf-eating creatures and thus dependent on forests in Assam and Bhutan — the only two places in the world it currently resides in. Over the last three decades, the population has declined by 30% and the species is on the IUCN list categorised as “endangered” as well as been labelled as a Schedule-I species in the Indian Wildlife Protection Act (1972). The population decline has its roots in Bodoland movement in the early 1990s, when a number of extremists took to timber extraction to finance their movement, thus resulting in rampant deforestation in the areas where the langurs lived. “One can find them only in BTC in Assam and in Bhutan. If this trend continues and no proper conservation efforts are made, they will be over for good,” says Choudhury.
