0697-B3

Status, trends and challenges of Forest Conservation in Assam, India.

Bibhab Kumar Talukdar, Ph.D. ¹

Abstract:

Forest conservation in Assam has been practiced since time immemorial. The traditional means as well as government policy towards conservation of forest to support and improve the quality of life was smooth till 1980s. But due to rapid growth in population, both indigenous and influx from neighbouring Bangladesh, the traditional as well as government policy for forest conservation in past two decades proved futile as more than 25 percent of forest is under illegal encroachment, allowing currently to get their livelihood, but putting themselves occupying the encroached forests and their future generation into deep trouble and uncertainty from the point of view of improving the quality of life. A balance seems essential and that is what tried to be elucidated in this paper. However whatever forest still untouched in the name of development activities or non-forestry purposes could still be potential areas for comprehensive network of forest conservation. Recent change in attitude of the political system may play crucial role in forest conservation vis-à-vis destruction to the present and future resource base for many poor people who are genuinely dependent on forest resources for their livelihood rather than some vested interest groups of people who are always on run to destroy forest in the name of the poor people to collect profit and narrow sectarian gains. The good sign is that a sizeable number of people, including social leaders, NGOs are become more aware of the ground realities and their combined force could deter further exploitation of forest resources in Assam in times to come.

Introduction:

Assam is one of the most important areas in the Indian Subcontinent for developing a comprehensive network of forest conservation. It covers an area of 78,438 sq km and lies in between Latitude 24⁰8' to 27⁰55' and Longitude 89⁰45' E to 96⁰02'E. Assam comprises of four distinct physiographic units viz, the Brahmaputra valley - the Assam proper, the Barak valley, the Karbi plateau and the North Cachar hills. The Brahmaputra valley is the eastern continuation of the Indo -Gangetic plains. It covers an area of 56,480 sq km with a length of about 800 km and the average width of 80 km enclosed by hills in all sides.

The forests of Assam contain a great diversity of flora and fauna and other natural ecosystems. There are about fifty one (51) different forest types and subtypes occurring in the region, forming an amalgam of Indian, Malayan and Tibetan elements. Five major groups of forests in Assam have been identified. These are- 1] Tropical Wet Evergreen Forest, 2] Tropical Semi-evergreen Forest, 3] Tropical Moist Deciduous Forest, 4] Littoral and Swamp Forest and 5] Tropical Dry Deciduous Forest.

History of Forest Conservation in Assam:

Forestry has been playing a very intimate role in social lives of the people living in the region from ages and the importance for judicious Management of these natural resources was lost sight of even by the earliest rulers of the state. Historical data revealed that during the Ahom dynasty, a specific administrative branch was there to look after the management of timbers, exploitation and timber depots. This fact is evident from the fact the surnames carried till today after the titles conferred by the Ahom kings to the professionals engaged in their respective area of activities e.g. Hatibaruah (the person engaged to look after Elephants), Kath Bharali (the persons engaged to look after the timber depots). After that the British ruler also took keen steps to enhance conservation of forests and the Assam Forest Department came into being with the appointment of a Deputy Conservator of Forests in charge in 1860s. A total area of around 697 sq km was constituted as Reserve under the Act of 1865. In 1879 Mr Gustav Mann was appointed as Conservator of Forests. Since then there were increased activities towards promotion of Forests conservation in Assam and by the year 1918 total area of Reserved Forest at 13,934 sq km. The compilation of flora of Assam was completed in the year 1913. By the end the year 1939, the area of Reserve Forests increased up to 17,084 sq km of forests dedicated to wildlife conservation by constituting sanctuaries. As on 1992, the Reserved Forests in Assam stands at 17, 580. 54 sq km and around 2334 sq km has been dedicated to wildlife Sanctuaries and National Parks. However by the year 2002, the area under wildlife sanctuary and national parks have been increased up to around 3000 sq km.

The state of Assam is one of the most legendary sites for the unique wildlife in the world. The conservation of various species of endangered wildlife is always a challenging task. Assam harbouring the big five mammals - Rhino, Tiger, Wild Buffalo, Gangetic Dolphin and Elephant have been in limelight for its role in the conservation of the big fives. Due to immense human population explosion, the areas for the wildlife get reduced and encroached resulting in increased stress on these animals. Assam has century long conservation history related to Wildlife conservation. Endemic mammals like the Golden Langur and Pigmy Hog are found only in Assam and adjoining Bhutan areas in the world. Most of the Indian wildlife species are either originated from Assam or ends their distribution in Assam. The spotted deer, which is found in India, has its last distribution range in western Assam up to Kachugaon forest, while the Hoolock Gibbon starts its distribution range from Assam to other South-East Asian Countries. The Malayan Sun Bear is found in the southern part of Brahmaputra valley as the Hoolock Gibbon. River Brahmaputra acted as a natural barrier for the Hoolock Gibbon and hence it is only found in southern Brahmaputra valley. Similarly, River Sankhose has restricted the distribution of Golden Langur and hence it is found only in few pockets in northern Assam between the river Sankhose and River Manas.

Methodology:

The current work was done through extensive field visits and literature search, most of them unpublished records from various government departments, specially the forest department. Consultation process was used to discuss on the current status and trend of forest conservation with the representatives of NGOs, government departments and civil societies.

Results & Discussion:

The outcome of the work done during 1998-2002 on the issues that governs the success and failures of the forest conservation initiatives in Assam that led to the evaluation of status, trend and challenges of forest conservation are categorized below.

A] Over-exploitation:

Over-exploitation of forest resources in the name of upliftment of the poor by some vested interest businessmen in nexus with politicians and administrators has swallowed much of Assam's rich forests during 1980s and 1990s. These two decades has witnessed innumerable loss to Bamboo forest in Assam along with much of rain forests in eastern Assam and semi-evergreen and moist deciduous forests in the Assam Arunachal Pradesh and Assam Bhutan border. Few paper mills set up in Assam has consumed much of the Bamboo forests and these industries has only consumed the bamboo, not took much concerted effort to develop its own Bamboo base from which they could extract their Bamboos to make the industry a sustainable and profitable one. But due to some understanding with the government and since the region comprising of Assam has been regarded as least developed state in India, the government has given enough subsidy without considering the ecosystems' ability to support the supply of bamboo to the paper mills. Most of the Bamboo forests are in the hill slopes and due to unscientific and unsustainable ways of bamboo extraction, these hill forests have become barren and landslide has caused major cause of worry to the villagers the are dependent on agricultural activities. Within Assam, the Karbi Anglong district was very rich in bamboo forests and accounts for more than 50 percent of the bamboo forest in Assam. Although there are records of nine species of Bamboo in the Karbi Anglong district, the survey carried out with the help of local people has revealed that there are at least 13 varieties of bamboo. Some of the salient bamboo species found are - Bambusa arundinacea, Bambusa balcooa, Bambusa pallida, Bambusa khasiana, Bambusa tulda, Dendrocalamus hamiltonii, Dendrocalamus paattelaries, Melconna baccifera etc.

B] Encroachment of Forestlands:

Assam Remote Sensing Application Center (ARSAC), based on the satellite data of late 1980s, revealed that the state of Assam as a whole has an exiting forest cover of 21.98 percent equaling around 17,263,87 ha as against 25.2 percent during 1980-82. The percentage of forest cover in the flood plains stand at around 17.2 percent, while in the hills it is 42 percent. The Reserved Forests occupy around 1503018 hectares accounting for 19.14 percent of the State's total geographical area. The forested area outside the notified Reserved Forests boundaries cover an area of 567747 hectares accounting for 7.2 percent of the state. Most of these forest areas are under extreme stress due to massive deforestation, large-scale encroachment and continued intense degradation. The encroachment position in various forest divisions of Assam has been summarized in Table-1 and the forest areas under encroachment in the inter-state border of Assam have been shown in Table-2.

Table-1: Encroachment Position in Forest Areas in Assam as on 1^st January 1996.

Table-2: Forest areas encroached in the Inter-state Border of Assam

A glimpse of the worse scenario is provided by the fact that the Gohpur RF has no trace of forest left; the Nambor (South) RF has merely 3.6 percent forest cover, Doyang RF only 2.5 percent and Diphu RF hardly 8.2 percent. The reserved forests have highly depleted forest cover in the districts of Golaghat (12.13 percent), Goalpara (16 percent), Barpeta (41.2 percent), Darrang (40.4 percent), Karimganj (37.3 percent), Lakhimpur (44.5 percent), Sibsagar (56.3 percent) and Sonitpur (58.9 percent). The status of reserve forests is most deplorable in the Golaghat district with only 12.13 percent good forest left. Increased population pressure culminated with influx from neighbouring Bangladesh has sharply increased the human population from around 14625000 in the year 1971 up to 22414000 in the year 1991. Density of human per sq km has sharply increased from 186 in the year 197up to 286 in the year 1991. These population increases has resulted into increased encroachment in the forestlands.

The state of Assam occupies special place in the context of the conservation of elephants in India (Stracy, 1963; Gee, 1964; LahiriChoudhury, 1980; Santiapillai & Jackson, 1990; Choudhury, 1991, 1997 and 1999; Talukdar, 1996; Bist, 2002). Compared to the year 1995, by the end of 2002, massive encroachment has been observed under Sonitpur East and Sonitpur west forest division, which also happened to be the key elephant habitats. As a result of such encroachment man-elephant conflict is on rise in Assam. The gloomy aspect of elephant conservation in Assam is that the population of wild elephant in Assam has decreased from about 5524 in the year 1993 to about 5312 in the year 1997. The current studies carried out by various remote sensing agencies has also reported that the reduction in total forests is more in Sonitpur district of Assam from the year 1999 to 2000 than recorded from the year 1994 to 1999. More than 86.75 sq km (about 1.70%) of the forest area has changed from 1994 to 1999, while 145.44 sq km (about 2.86%) has changed from 1999 to 2001 (Srivastava et. al., 2002). A total moist deciduous forest area of 229.64 sq km has been lost during 1994 till 2001 and the decline is more acute during 1999 till 2001 where in 143.40 sq km moist deciduous forest has been lost. During the period of 1994 till 2001 encroachers have also damaged an area of 2.55sq km semi-evergreen forest in the district. Most of the loss of forest cover in these parts is attributed to large-scale encroachment supported by the politicians and currently converted into agricultural land. Well-organized encroachers with the support from political leaders are destroying the forest cover in Sonitpur district and these encroachers are armed and prepared to foil eviction at the risk of life. In one occasion on 28^th April 2002, when the forest officials accompanied by the police personals started eviction drive against encroachers in Nameri National Park of Sonitpur district, the local member of legislative Assembly (MLA) of Assam, Mr. Praneswar Basumatary along with his supporters set ablaze the Rangajan Chapori anti-poaching camp inside the national park to halt the eviction drive. A case was registered against him in Rangapara Police Station (case no. 74/2002) for violating section 147/148/149/353/436/447 and 506 of the Indian penal code. The MLA has been interfering in the eviction drive against encroachers for a long time, ever since he was elected as MLA. Such interferences have led to further degradation of existing the elephant elephants further and as a result the common people will suffer along with elephant out of the intense man-elephant conflict in the district.

Definitely if one look at the reasons for conservation of elephants and their habitats, it is possible that many interconnected issues are not taken into consideration. For example, elephant habitats are mainly in the foothills and destruction of forests in these foothills not only degrades the elephant habitat, but also increases the chances of siltation flowing down from upstream to the down stream and there by causing damage to agricultural fields. Conservation of elephant habitats is going to support the sources of life in many ways, including binding top soils, reducing flash flood, supplying adequate water free of charge from forest to cultivate various crops and stop siltation on the agricultural areas in the foothills and downstream.

C] Efficacy of Administration:

The conservation and protection of forest areas are legally entrusted to the forest department. But in order to protect the forest resources, which are an open treasury, the forest department needs further administrative and political support from the district administration in each district and political will, which is lacking very much. The inter-departmental coordination look likes a loose bond and there is a tendency to blame each other by the government departments. This is not going to solve the problem. Whenever the genuine forest dwellers are dealt with, very few administrative and political support come into the way, but when the forest department deals with the moderate and rich people who encroaches the forest lands, there is always hue and cry. Definitely forest resources are the sources of life, but for whom? The poor people who genuinely want the resources for their livelihood or the rich who are making profits through over-exploitation to make their wants bigger and bigger?

D] Poaching of wildlife:

Poaching of wildlife is another cause of worry towards forest conservation. Some animals like tiger, are threatened due to loss forest habitat and poachers find it easy to kill tigers in absence of good forest cover where in tiger could hide earlier. Shrinkage of forest habitat has put many wildlife to come to sub-optimal habitat where there are more danger of being killed and than finding means to survive. The poaching of rhino has been extensively studied by Talukdar (2000, 2002).

Conclusion:

The forest is being regarded as sources of life. But its interpretation varies from people to people, specially those want to exploit the resource base without considering the future of its own people with whom they need to live in days to come. A strong mass awareness is essential and it is good to see that in Assam, the NGOs are coming forward to assist the forest department to protect the forest resources and give support for livelihood to genuine people who are directly dependent on the forest resources for their very survival. It is time to identify who should get the benefit of forest resources as the source of life and who should not and from where these forest resources could be extracted and from where it should not. If we could find a balance then in real sense forest will be the source of life for many people, specially those directly dependent on the forest resources. But ecological role played by the forest should also be considered in a larger sclae, rather than just looking at the forest as easy cash flow.

Literature Cited:

Bist, S.S. 2002. Conservation of Elephants in NE India: Past, Present and Future. Newsletter of the Rhino Foundation for Nature in NE India, 4: 7-10.

Choudhury, A.U. 1991. Status of Wildlife elephants in Cachar and N.C. Hills, Assam - a preliminary investigation. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 88(2): 512-221.

Choudhury, A.U. 1997. Checklist of the mammals of Assam. revised 2^nd edn. Gibbon Books & ASTEC, Guwahati.

Choudhury, A.U. 1999. Status and conservation of the Asian elephant Elephas maximus in north-eastern India. Mammal Review, 29(3): 141-173.

Gee, E.P. 1964. The wild life of India. St. James Place, Collins, London.

LahiriChoudhury, D.K. 1980. An interim report on the status and distribution if elephants in north-east India. In: The status of the Asian elephant in the Indian sub-continent (ed. By J.C. Daniel), pp. 43-58. IUCN/SSC report, BNHS, Bombay.

Santiapillai, C. & Jackson, P. 1990. The Asian elephant: an action plan for its conservation. IUCN/SSC Action Plans, Gland.

Srivastava, S., Singh, T.P., Singh, H., Kushwaha, S.P.S., and Roy. P.S. 2002. Assessment of large-scale deforestation in Sonitpur district of Assam. Current Science, 82(12): 1479-1484.

Stracey, P.D. 1963. Elephant gold. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London.

Talukdar, B.K. 1996. Conflict between Man and Elephants in Assam. Zoos' Print, XI (4) : 29.

Talukdar, B.K. 2000. The Current State of rhino in Assam and threats in the 21^st Century. Pachyderm, 29: 39-47

Talukdar, B.K. 2002. Dedication lead to reduction of rhino poaching in Assam in recent years. PACHYDERM. [IN PRESS]

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