India Conservation Projects
Northeast India
Golden Langur Conservation Project (Assam)
Conservation of the Hoolock Gibbon and Phayre's Leaf Monkey (Mizoram)
Golden Langur Conservation Project
The forests of the Manas Biosphere Reserve in western Assam, India have been threatened by illegal logging since the early 1990s. In the last 10 years approximately one third to one half of the three Reserve Forests, Ripu, Chirrang, and Manas, encompassing 350,000 acres, have been deforested. These Reserve Forests and the Royal Manas Sanctuary of Bhutan that borders to the north are the main range of the golden langur ( Trachypithecus geei ) , a leaf-eating primate species occurring only in Assam and Bhutan. In Assam, the species also inhabits a number of "island" fragments south of the main range such as the Kakoijana Reserve Forest (RF), Chakrashila Wildlife Sanctuary (WS) and Nadangiri Reserve Forest.
A complex political situation led to this major deforestation. Political agitation in western Assam began in the late 1980s by Bodo tribal groups frustrated by the changing emigration of non-Bodo peoples into Assam, creating a minority of the indigenous Bodo tribal people. Two militant groups sprung up as an answer to the situation and began an armed struggle for Bodo autonomy from the Indian government. These groups had somewhat similar but competing aims basing their armed struggle from within the forests of western Assam and Bhutan. These were two of over 15 militant groups that emerged in Assam, creating a chaotic atmosphere with resulting deforestation and ethnic violence.
Targeted for killing and kidnapping, the Assam Forest Department staff were unable to enter and protect the forests allowing illegal log smugglers to cut the forest. The ethnic violence additionally resulted in 250,000 refugees living in camps adjacent to the Reserve Forests by 1998 which have been slowly repatriated back to their forest homes.
In 1997, Community Conservation initiated a project to protect the golden langur and the Manas Biosphere Reserve working in conjunction with the Indo-U.S. Primate Project that ended in 2001. Community Conservation now works with a recently formed Forum of five Assamese NGOs. The Manas Biosphere Conservation Forum is composed of Aaranyak of Guwahati (www.aaranyak.org), Green Forest Conservation of Kachugaon, Green Heart Nature Club of Kokrajhar, Natures Foster of Bongaigaon and New Horizons of Koila Moila. Together these NGOs cover most of the Assam range of the golden langur. Aaranyak served as the in-country coordinating NGO through 2006 and that role has recently been taken over by Natures Foster as Aaranyak concentrates on its other projects. Each of the organizations focuses on sections of the golden langur range and on specific aspects of work, while all working with the villages within their focal areas.
Conservation Strategy
Each NGO works with communities adjacent to the Reserve Forests or protected areas to initiate community forest protection and reforestation programs. The strategy can be easiest seen when looking at the southern "island" forests of Chakrashila Wildlife Sanctuary, and Nadangiri and Kakoijana Reserve Forests where the participating villages surround the protected areas.
The Forum NGOs work with village groups under the Joint Forest Management system that began in 1998 in Assam or in forming informal forest protection groups. Each village has been replanting, maintaining and protecting forest adjacent to their village both for the wildlife and for their own future use and benefit. Tree seedlings are grown in village nurseries and then replanted. Villagers are actively protecting their forests by keeping encroaching woodcutters out and even placing signs declaring village ownership. They also contact the Assam Forest Department to stop the encroachers. In the larger Reserve Forest in the Manas Biosphere Reserve a similar approach is being taken but because of the larger forested areas, protection is more difficult. Thus within the Manas Biosphere Reserve a recent dynamic program was begun.
The NGOs also work with villages to form Self Help Groups (SHG) to relieve economic dependence on logging. These are village groups made up of 10-20 members of the same sex that come together to benefit economically. Each member deposits a small monthly fee into a common account of the SHG. The NGO coordinator trains SHG members in record-keeping, financial concepts and running meetings. Once the groups are running smoothly after about six months, they are linked to rural banks where their money is deposited. The collective deposits can then be loaned to SHG members to begin micro-enterprises. This method empowers villagers and works especially well with women. Thus far the Forum has developed over 30 SHGs that have created micro-industries in fish, goat and chicken production, growing bananas, ginger, tumeric and arum crops, and in weaving related activities.
As the village groups have become more empowered through both SHGs and forest management committees they have become more sophisticated in forest protection. We are encouraging the village groups to work together and eventually hope to bring groups together into federations that can think and act in terms of regional forest protection.
The Golden Langur Conservation Program also creates educational materials for local people to promote primate and forest protection principles. The NGOs with the help other scientists have censused golden langur populations within their areas. We hope to maintain such monitoring programs on a yearly basis. The Forum NGOs work closely with the Assam Forest Department within Dhubri, Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon Districts and with the District Civil Authorities.
Specific NGO projects
Aaranyak (www.Aaranyak.org) initially coordinated the Golden Langur Conservation Project but has passed those duties to Natures Foster as they have expanded their conservation program. They continue to work in golden langur conservation in the Bhairab Reserve Forest with communities surrounding it.
Green Forest Conservation began a major community awareness program within the Reserve Forests (RFs) in the western Manas Biosphere Reserve. However, because of the continued pressure of illegal loggers, this was not enough. In April 2006, with the support of the newly elected Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) 100 young men from 70-80 forest villages across the Manas Biosphere Reserve were appointed to a volunteer force, the Bodoland Forest Protection Force. These men have been able to do what was not possible earlier. By patrolling the forest night and day, they have radically reduced the illegal logging and have confiscated over $100,000US of illegal logs and tools and vehicles used in the illegal activities in the first 7 months of their activities.
Bodoland Forest Protection Force and Confiscated Logs
Natures Foster (www.naturesfoster.org) has taken over project coordination. They have succeeded in working with most of the communities surrounding the Kakoijana Reserve Forest (RF) and are forming an informal community federation of villages to protect the reserve forest. Information gathered is showing an increase of the golden langur population to over 250 animals, an increase in the regenerated forest and an increase in the economic situation of the participating villages. With success in Kakoijana, Natures Foster is initiating similar programs within the Manas Biosphere Reserve and has initiated a community-based research program on population, home range and ecology of the golden langurs in Kakoijana RF (see below).
Kakoijana Reserve Forest with villages
Green Heart Nature Club (www.greenheartnc.org) has focused on the complex of Chakrashila WS and Nadangiri RF. They have similarly focused on working with villages surrounding Nadangiri and are forming a formal community protected area with a federation of communities to protect the area. Their reforestation program includes creating a corridor between Nadangiri RF and Chakrashila WS, the largest of the “island” forest. The langur population within Nadangiri and surround areas which is grossly estimated at over 200 monkeys will thus be connected with the larger Chakrashila population which is thought to be over 500 animals. With the presence of lawyers in Green Heart, they have also focused on woman’s rights and are currently seeking to create village awareness about what legal opportunities are available to help villagers improve their economic status.
New Horizons’ focus is on the nearby forests of Kanamakra River and the Kalamati area of the Manas RF within the Manas Biosphere Reserve. They have worked to develop a small weaving factory for Bodo women who do traditional weaving and have recently begun to work with Self Help Groups in villages adjacent to the forests. With the cessation of the militant activities in the Biosphere forests, New Horizons has begun an ecotourism program. In 2006 they hosted a 6 day ecotourism event at Kalamati along the Bhutan border that attracted 9,000 visitors mostly from Assam. A second event was held in Koila Moila in early 2007
Community Awareness Programs and Community Activism
By creating the Manas Biosphere Conservation Forum and involving so many NGOs and individuals working together under one umbrella, the Golden Langur Conservation Project (GLCP) has had a major regional effect on communities across the Manas Biosphere. A major awareness campaign was planned to allow villagers, NGO members and government staff alike to understand that the Manas Biosphere included all of the protected areas from the Sankosh to the Dhansiri Rivers and not just the Manas Tiger Reserve. At the same time in 2004-5 the political situation was settling down. One militant group signed an accord with the Central Government of India and the Bodoland Territorial Council, a democratically elected group was created to administer the Bodoland Territorial Administrative District, a section of Assam, under the Assam government. The second Bodo group shortly afterward proclaimed a ceasefire and works as an above ground political organization.Thus when the GLCP initiated its major awareness campaign it had major support from the BTC.
Bodo Village Women Dancers
at Jumduar Celebration
Villagers at Jumduar Awareness Celebration
But even before this, extensive conservation awareness of the GLCP had progressed through lectures and seminars through the communities and towns of western Assam. Thus starting with two NGOs, the project gathered others including New Horizons, and the Biodiversity Conservation Society, two community-based organizations that formed directly in response to the work the GLCP was doing. It seemed as though a “critical mass” was reached where conservation consciousness spread throughout the villages of the Manas Biosphere Reserve. The Manas Maogendri Ecotourism Society (MMES), a community group, formed east of the Manas Tiger Reserve in 2003. They began patrolling and protecting their forests against illegal hunters and developed an ecotourism program. When the BTC supported the Bodoland Forest Protection Force they supported MMES as well. Other communities responded in a contagious fashion. In December 2006, villagers of Kukloom confiscated 22 bullock carts of illegal logs on their own cognizance. In early 2007, 60 members of Ultapani village under the leadership of the newly formed Biodiversity Conservation Society began a voluntary forest protection force to complement actions of the Bodoland Forest Protection Force in their Chirrang RF. Community actions have continue to grow and we hope this will develop into a lasting protection for the Assam forests.
The Golden Langur Conservation Program and related projects in Assam, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh, Northeast India, have been funded in large part by multiple grants from the Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation and Primate Conservation, Inc. as well as individual donors to Community Conservation. Recent support has also include a grant from the US Fish & Wildlife Service and a funded award from the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center: The Lawrence Jacobsen Conservation Research Award.
Read more about golden langurs:
PBS Website - "Living Edens" Program
ARKive Website, information and images of golden langurs
ARKive Website - link to several video clips of golden langurs
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