Canopies and Corridors - International Fund for Animal Welfare

The sixth schedule of the constitution of India
provides the tribal people of northeast India a
role in planning and development of the area,
free of external influences or pressures and also in
accordance with local traditions and needs. Forest is a
“transferred” subject to the tribal council and lends
considerable responsibilities upon these councils to
effect conservation of forests and wildlife within their
jurisdictional areas.
Although the district councils have laws to manage
the forests, there appears to be no mechanism for the
protection of wildlife. Moreover, the status vis-à-vis
wildlife conservation as a subject matter within the
district councils appears vague and without any
mention. The state is effecting wildlife protection
within the National Parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries and
Reserve Forests under their custody but who protects
wildlife within the jurisdiction of the district council?
Further, do the present laws and also the resources
permit the district councils to take the necessary steps
for initiating and achieving wildlife conservation and
if they do, do the district councils have the capacity
and the infrastructure to undertake all of this?
With these questions in mind, the Wildlife Trust of
India initiated a project in 2005 in four district councils
of Northeast India, two each in Assam (Karbi-Anglong
and Bodoland) and Meghalaya (Garo hills and Khasi
hills). This was important to chart a roadmap for
conservation activities in tribal council areas.
The Garo Hills in Meghalaya has a typical system of
forest management wherein local communities and
private persons own majority of the land. Less than
10% area comprising of Reserve Forests, National
Parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries and Protected Areas is
controlled by the state and remaining land is under
the jurisdiction of the district council. In addition, the
local communities also have their traditional
customary laws, which work in conjunction with the
laws made by the district councils.
This project on the Autonomous District Councils has
revealed many interesting aspects on their working
vis– a– vis forests and wildlife. For one, only the Garo
Autonomous District Council continues to function in
a manner originally prescribed in the Constitution of
India. The Bodo Territorial Council is a recent creation
with greater control and authority over Forests and
Wildlife. The project has made certain suggestions
with respect to Central Statutes and policies so that
they are more in tune with the Constitutional
responsibilities vested in the District/
Territorial/Autonomous Councils. These suggestions
assume importance in view of the fact that legal
developments in the field of conservation and
protection of forests, wildlife and biodiversity has
Canopies and Corridors
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
failed to take into account the crucial role of these
Councils in managing, conserving and use of these
resources. The project therefore charts out a course for
legal and policy changes and development.
Wildlife Trust of India has also mapped the forest
cover of the area using satellite images which was
then ground truthed to know the distribution of the
forest resources and extent of different type of forest.
The dependency of the people on forest resources and
perception of the households, gaonburah and members
of district council towards forest and wildlife
conservation in all the three districts of Garo Hills has
also been assessed through a questionnaire survey.
This was important to assess the understanding of the
people so that it can be communicated to community
leaders and policy makers for appropriate
conservation planning and awareness.
Meghalaya supports the second largest elephant
population in Northeast, the majority of which are
concentrated in the Garo Hills. However, jhum
cultivation, unplanned mining and other
developmental activities have led to fragmentation
and degradation of elephant habitats threatening their
existence. This has also increased the conflict with
humans in recent time. To minimize human-elephant
conflict and ensure long term conservation of the
elephants in Garo Hills, it was thought prudent to link
the fragmented patches of habitats. Thus in 2001,
Wildlife Trust of India groundtruthed the elephant
habitat and identified six elephant corridors in the
state, of which five are in Garo Hills. One of the most
vital of these is the Siju-Rewak corridor connecting the
elephants of the Balpakram NP and Siju WLS with
Rewak, Angratoli and Imangiri Reserve Forest and
Nokrek National Park. WTI is working with the local
community, forest department and GHADC to secure
this corridor and a remarkable outcome of this has
been the declaration of about 200 hectares of the
corridor forest as Siju-Aretika Village Reserve forest.
Thus a major part of the corridor has been secured
and other impediments are being worked upon to
totally secure the corridor.
Wildlife Trust of India is also working with the local
community of Selbalgre village and GHADC in West
Garo Hills and has been able to notify about 200
hectares of Aking land as Village Reserve forest. This is
an important Hoolock gibbon habitat and also harbours
other wildlife. Efforts are being made to add more areas
with a view to join the small patches of forest separated
by fallow jhum land between Rongram and Nokrek.
Thus, by protecting the gibbon habitat in Rongram-
Nokrek landscape and elephant habitat between
Nokrek-Balpakram landscape, efforts are being made to
improve the wildlife habitat that can facilitate
unhindered movement of animals and minimize
encounter with human and reduce conflicts.
7