Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary. Picture by Eastern Projections

The Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary has much more avifauna than its primate inmates, but this is often overlooked and needs immediate attention

One of the primate diversity hotspots of India, the Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary, is situated at Mariani, 25 km from the district headquarters town of Jorhat, Assam. Known before 1997 as the Holongapar Reserve Forest, this tropical moist evergreen forest covers an area of 2,098 square km. The sanctuary is dotted with small ponds and swampy areas, with Bhogdoi, a tributary of the great river Brahmaputra, running along its north-western borders, enriching and enhancing the habitat’s diversity.

Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary is now one of the 350 Important Bird Area (IBA) sites of the country. The IBA, a worldwide programme of birds and their habitat conservation, is undertaken by the Birdlife International, a partnership of more than a hundred NGOs from all over the world. The co-ordinator of the Indian IBA programme is the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), partner of the Birdlife International in India. Started in 1999, the Indian IBA programme is funded by the Royal Society for Protection of Birds (RSPB), the largest wildlife conservation charity in Europe.

On March 13, 2003, a team from the Royal Society, consisting of Asad R. Rahmani, director of the society and M. Zafar-Ul Ishlam, project manager for Important Bird Area/Indian Bird Conservation Network (IBA/IBCN) visited the sanctuary. This visit was a part of the bird census training workshop, organised by the IBCN in collaboration with Prakriti, the IBCN’s member organisation in Jorhat. In consideration of its rich bio-diversity and vivid avifauna, the sanctuary was later included as an IBA. The IBA objectives and the identified prioritised sites have now been included in the National Bio-diversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) of the ministry of environment and forests, being prepared since 2000 by Kalpavriksh, a premier NGO of the country.

The sanctuary serves as a home and resting-place for many resident as well as migratory bird species. As a part of the checklist preparation of the sanctuary, undertaken by the Holongapar Nature’s Society, a Jorhat-based NGO, more than 100 species of birds have been recorded till now and the process is still on. Diversity at different levels or birds occupying the same niche, is an important feature of the avifauna found in the Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary. Birds, characteristic of this evergreen forest biome are parakeets, green pigeons, doves, barbet, oriole, drongo, minivet, coucal, myna, starling, bulbul, babbler, warbler, shrike, cuckoo, woodpecker, tits, thrushes, flycatcher, owls, kite eagle, pheasant, junglefowl, robin, shama, egrets, heron, bittern and so on, many of these common names represent more than one species. Moreover, majestic birds like the Indian pied hornbill, critically endangered scavenger species like whitebacked (Gyps Bengalensis) and slenderbilled (Gyps Tenuirostris) vultures have also been seen in the sanctuary.

The extent of bird migration to this sanctuary covers both summer and winter visitors and also the passage of local migrants. Besides the winter migratory waterfowls, which flock the swampy and low-lying areas of the river Bhogdoi, other important winter visitors include, the long-legged buzzard, booted eagle, pied harrier, peregrine falcon, Eurasian hobby, common kestrel, brown flycatcher, redthroated flycatcher, verditer flycatcher, thickbilled warbler, species of bush warblers, species of leaf warblers, forest wagtail, white wagtail, brown shrike and greybacked shrike. The summer migratory birds include pied cuckoo, large hawk cuckoo, ultramarine flycatcher, Asian paradise flycatcher, blue-tailed bee-eater and so on.

Till date, Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary has been getting conservation concern centred mainly around its primate fauna, as it is the only place in India where seven species, including the hoolock gibbon, stumptailed macaque, pigtailed macaque, capped langur, Assamese macaque, rhesus macaque and slow loris can be seen together. Other important mammalian fauna include, elephant, leopard, jungle cat, barking deer, sambar, wild boar, albino boar, porcupine, Indian civet, pangoline, fox, Himalayan orange belling squirrel, hoary bellied squirrel, Malayan giant squirrel, mangoose to name a few. The sanctuary is also the abode for different reptilian and amphibian species, which are yet to be studied properly. Seasonal appearance of beautiful butterflies in the sanctuary is an another aspect untouched yet.

The burning conservation issues related to gibbon wildlife sanctuary are mainly the disturbances from human activities. The railway line dissecting the sanctuary and the road through it to the nearby villages are creating a tumult — harming the shy animals. Even if some animals get used to these human activities, the problem persists. For example, there are many instances when monkeys and even elephants are pitched off by fast moving trains. Moreover, the sanctuary is surrounded by tea gardens, which are harming its wildlife, both directly and indirectly. Excessive use of pesticide in these tea gardens directly cause harm to many animals, chiefly the avifauna characteristics of forest edges. Other species, not directly in touch with these, are also affected, as these chemicals get accumulated into the systems of the species at higher trophic levels by the process of biological magnification. Organochlorine pesticides can also cause eggshell thinning in case of the birds. The amphibian fauna is the most effected.

Nearby villages like Madhupur and Bheluguri are sites of constant man-animal conflicts, whether it is a herd of elephants coming out of the sanctuary or a hungry python crawling into someone’s boundary. Similarly, many people enter the sanctuary through unprotected borders in search of firewood and food for their cattle. Making the situation worse, many have encroached on the forest land.

The problems are not impossible to solve. But, for that, some bold conservation steps need to be taken by the authorities concerned. No doubt it will take time, however, it will only be possible if the non- governmental organisations already working in this field are actively encouraged and supported.

Above all, awareness should be inculcated among the people directly or indirectly in touch with the sanctuary, showing them how human beings and wildlife can be mutually beneficial for each other.