Canopies and Corridors - International Fund for Animal Welfare

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Fig 1. WTI and GHADC officials discussing conservation strategies in Tura without any mention. The state is effecting wildlife protection within the National Parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries and Reserve Forests under their custody but who protects forests within the jurisdiction of the district council ? Further, do the present laws and also the resources at their disposal allow the district councils to take the steps necessary for initiating and achieving wildlife conservation and if they do, do the district councils have the capacity and the infrastructure to undertake all this ? These are some of the questions we wanted answers to when we initiated this project. It was imperative therefore that these doubts are cleared so that a roadmap for initiation of conservation activities in the district councils could be charted. A full review of the prevailing laws and their origins was conducted. This also involved meeting with members of the executive council to understand their views on the subject and also the constraints they faced in initiating wildlife conservation in their Canopies and Corridors respective areas. There were also certain issues with the central laws on forests and wildlife and their applicability in the district councils. In the case of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), the nomenclature used was different from that of an ‘Autonomous District Council as in Garo Hills or the ‘Autonomous Council’ as in Karbi-Anglong. Was this a difference in nomenclature only or did this imply differences in the way each functioned and how these then translated to initiating and achieving conservation ? We initiated work in the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) area with three predetermined activities. i) It was important to know the state of forests in the Garo hills and thus maps were generated using satellite images which were then ground truthed. This provided us a distribution of the forest resources within the GHADC and the extent of different types of forests available. ii) We also wanted to know how dependent the local people were on the forest resources and a questionnaire survey was 9
conducted covering the whole of the Garo area to address issues of energy, wildmeat, incomes etc. iii) We studied peoples, perception on the issues of wildlife conservation and governance so that these could be communicated to the community leaders and policymakers. For this a questionnaire survey was undertaken. To understand the efforts of GHADC to conserve the forest and wildlife, existing policies and constraints faced by the Council, a formal meeting was organised on June 30, 2006 attended by over 25 members of the District Council (MDC) and five officials of WTI. The meeting was a forum to discuss the conservation of wildlife in ADC control led areas. A wide range of issues viz., awareness, potential threats to forests and wildlife in Garo Hills, identification of ecologically sensitive area and financial issues were discussed. One of the major outcomes of this and that of a subsequent meeting has been the formation of a Wildlife Monitoring Committee for the forest areas under their management and control (vide notification No. CF.430/CW/ADC/06/3252-58, dated 21.12.2006). At the request of WTI and working with the local people, GHADC has also declared a part of the A’king forest at Selbalgre as Village Reserve forest. Wildlife Trust of India has been working in the Garo Hills since 2001 when it first provided antipoaching and enforcement training for the forest staff of Garo Hills and equipped them with basic kits for effective management of Protected Areas and Reserve forest. In 2002, to address the issues of elephant habitat fragmentation and shrinkage and its negative effect on elephant conservation and as part of the National Project to identify and groundtruth the elephant corridors, all the elephant habitats of the state were intensively surveyed and the status of the corridors identified. This was documented in the report published in 2005 entitled “Right of Passage: elephant corridors of India”. One of the crucial bottlenecks in the Garo Hills Elephant Reserve for the movement of elephants is the narrow passage across the river Simsang that connects Siju Wildlife Sanctuary on the east bank of the river to the Rewak Reserve forest on the west. This facilitates the movement of elephant from Balpakram NP and Siju WLS to Rewak, Angratoli and Imangiri Reserve Forest and Nokrek National Park (Williams & Johnsingh,1996, Gurung and Lahiri-Choudhury, 2000, Tiwari et al, 2005). Realizing the importance of this corridor and potential threats, Wildlife Trust of India initiated a project in 2003 to secure the corridor by working with the local community. The positive efforts of the local people, forest department, GHADC and WTI have resulted in securing the major part of this corridor. Thus, in collaboration with the Garo Hills ADC, forest department, local people, Nokmas and other NGOs working in Garo Hills, Wildlife Trust of India is making an effort to restore the landscape between Nokrek (including fringe areas) and Balpakram to afford a better habitat for wildlife and help reduce human-wildlife conflict. This compilation comprises of chapters dealing with all the above matters. The first section deals with trying to understand the powers of the GHADC in the administration of its wildlife thereby bringing into discussion, provisions of all the central acts like the Wildlife (Protection) Act, the Forest Conservation Act and the Bio-diversity Act. This section also makes references to certain landmark decisions affecting forest conservation and their possible impacts on conservation in the region. The next section deals with the surveys on forest availability through forest type and land use maps generated from satellite images. This section provides an insight into the extent of forests left and their distribution. The resource extraction chapter deals with how forest resources are utilized by local people and how dependent they are on the forests followed by perception of the local people and policy makers on wildlife and forest conservation. The last section deals with protecting the Nokrek- Balpakram landscape by securing the elephant corridors to facilitate movement of elephant and other wild animals between the major habitats and joining the small patches of forest fragmented by jhumming and other activities. The joint partnership between Wildlife Trust of India, the Garo Hills Autonomous Council, the Meghalaya forest department, British High Commission and World Land Trust, who provided financial assistance for these projects, has made an effort to complement the rich conservation traditions of the Garos. This is a small step in achieving sustainable conservation practices in the region but many more steps need to be taken to make this happen. 10 Canopies and Corridors
Page 1 and 2: Eds: Rahul Kaul, Sandeep Kumar Tiwa
Page 3 and 4: The International Fund for Animal W
Page 5 and 6: FOREWORD February 12, 2008 Forests
Page 7 and 8: The report is an outcome of relentl
Page 9: The sixth schedule of the constitut
Page 13 and 14: Geographical location The state of
Page 15 and 16: Fig. 2 Map of the three Garo Hills
Page 17 and 18: Table 3 Population, child populatio
Page 19 and 20: Fig. 3 Map showing blocks of the Ga
Page 21 and 22: Table 7 Classification of area unde
Page 23 and 24: Table 8 Number of jhumias in Garo H
Page 25 and 26: To make recommendation for changes
Page 27 and 28: (c) In any matter relating to any s
Page 29 and 30: Management and administration of co
Page 31 and 32: Notes and comments The statement of
Page 33 and 34: Purpose Conservation and protection
Page 35 and 36: FCA was not applied to forest land
Page 37 and 38: should be a partnership of all the
Page 39 and 40: PART A 1. The United Khasi-Jaintia
Page 41 and 42: Sacred groves The sacred groves are
Page 43 and 44: another clan wants land, then the N
Page 45 and 46: Meghalaya, with its diverse habitat
Page 47 and 48: Fig. 2 Tiger in Balpakram National
Page 49 and 50: Ainsliaea latifolia, Panax pseudo-g
Page 51 and 52: B. West Garo Hills C. South Garo Hi
Page 53 and 54: Introduction There is an increasing
Page 55 and 56: Fig.1 Landuse map of Garo Hils dist
Page 57 and 58: Fig. 4 Land use map of South Garo H
Page 59 and 60: Fig 6 Map showing areas under diffe
Page 61 and 62:
Table 6 List of woody species and i
Page 63 and 64:
Fig 8 Dominance-distribution curves
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64 Canopies and Corridors
Page 67 and 68:
and invasion of weedy and other spe
Page 69 and 70:
Balakrishnan, N.P. 1981-83. Flora o
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the first stage sampling units and
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Survey Survey was conducted on the
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engaged in forest resource collecti
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87.2% birds and 79.5% fishes. Only
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industry. A large part of bamboo is
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Introduction Forest resources play
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82 Canopies and Corridors
Page 85 and 86:
Profile of the Sample Age-sex compo
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Initiatives for the conservation of
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Laws for legal protection of forest
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have done good work for forest cons
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92 Canopies and Corridors Fig. 2 Fo
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The conflict has also resulted in i
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Fig. 8 Map of Ranggira- Nokrek elep
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Fig. 9 Map of Nokrek - Imangiri ele
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Fig. 10 Map of Imangiri -Rewak elep
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Fig. 11 Map of Siju -Rewak elephant
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Fig. 12 Map of Siju -Balpakram elep
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106 Canopies and Corridors Fig. 13
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area. The Nokma and local community
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Fig. 18 Piglets distributed among A
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Selbalgre village (about 20 kms fro
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Fig. 4 Notification of Selbalgre Vi
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Fig. 9 Fishery tank being prepared
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(i) Careful steps should be taken t
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communities. The major tribes of th
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ANNEXURE II T.N. GODAVARMAN THIRUMU
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foolproof institutional arrangement
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16. Units who do not want to shift
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tools and implements for prosecutio
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e delegated to it by the Regional C
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constituted by such Council in appe
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(c) taxes on the entry of goods int
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specify in the notification; (c) th
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(3) Every order made under sub-para
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(2) Every member whether elected or
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(f) fisheries; (g) water, that is t
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(d) prescribe that no person reside
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Act, 2003 (44 of 2003), s. 2 , so a
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consider the desirability of introd
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Order: Insectivora Family: Soricida
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Tiger Panthera tigris tigris (Linna
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ANNEXURE V List of Birds reported f
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Order: Coraciiformes Family: Alcedi
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Family: Paridae Melanochlora sultan
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Order: Testudines 1. Hardella thurj
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Order: Primates Family: Cercopithec
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ANNEXURE IX
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A. OCCASIONAL REPORTS OTHER WTI PUB
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Emergency Relief Network Digest 200
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Canopies and Corridors - International Fund for Animal Welfare

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