Bringing Back Manas

The forests and wildlife of the Bodoland
Territorial Council was taken up for
conservation. A multi-pronged strategy was
put into place which ranged from baseline surveys of
wildlife and forests, resource utilization and people’s
perception of wildlife conservation, to rehabilitation
of rhinos and elephants and training frontline staff.
All this effort was focussed to bring back Manas to its
past glory. Some of the findings and activities were:
1. The Bodoland Territorial Council is an
autonomous body created under the sixth
schedule of the Indian constitution. It is
different from other autonomous tribal
councils under the sixth schedule in that the
subjects transferred to it are more (40) with a
higher degree of autonomy than other
territorial councils. It is thus more powerful
and thus has a greater responsibility. This
needs to be conveyed to the masses through
their leadership.
2. The matter of jurisdiction of wildlife is not
specified anywhere in the accord but it is
assumed that wildlife forms a part of the forest
which is a transferred subject and for which the
BTC executive has administrative, executive
and financial control.
3. The total area of forest under BTC area is 2591
2
km of which about 670 km 2 is under the
Protected Areas and the rest under reserve
forests and Unclassed State Forest. Within
these, 13 forest types (Champion and Seth,
1968) are found, including the Eastern Sal
Forests and Evergreen Forests.
4. About 35% of the total area of Bodoland
Territorial Council (BTC) is under agriculture
which is followed by grassland (24%). The total
area under forest of BTC is 35% of which 14%
is dense forest while 11% is open forest.
5. People extract several resources from the forest
of which firewood is the major resource
(98.84%) followed by timber (85.36%), bamboo
(63.78%), grasses (52.22%), cane (1.93%) and
medicinal plants (0.77%). Clearly, people’s
reliance on forest is very high and forest plays
a major role to sustain the livelihood of the
people of BTC area. This also imposes severe
pressures on the forest as over 720,000 metric
Bringing Back Manas
Executive Summary
tonnes per year of firewood is required for the
entire population of BTC.
6. Though the majority of people have access to
alternate sources of energy (70% of the people
have an access to kerosene followed by 38% to
electricity, 32% to L.P.G), yet 98.84% of the total
people fully depend on firewood. This is because
of low price of fire wood, if purchased from the
market, or as was observed during the survey
extracted free of cost from the protected forest.
7. People were also dependent on the forests for
meat. Although most people (84%) consumed
fish, some also depended on reptiles (48%),
mammals (34%) and birds (4.6%). A
proportion of the sample also used the forests
to extract honey (13.87%).
8. A survey of mammals and birds in the Ripu,
Chirang and parts of Manas Reserve Forests
indicated a rich faunal wealth. Over 24 species
of mammals and 270 species of birds were
recorded during the survey in the area.
9. Significant mammals found include Asian
elephant, tiger, golden langur, gaur and the
easternmost population of the spotted deer in
addition to others. Amongst the birds,
significant species were the greater adjutant,
four species of hornbill and 12 species of
woodpeckers.
10. Main threats to the wildlife of the area is from
hunting. Hunters use firearms, arrows and a
variety of traps to secure the quarry. Both
individual hunters and hunting parties are
seen killing wild animals frequently. Similarly,
problem of timber extraction at local levels is
also acute.
11. On the basis of the key animal and bird
distributions in the reserve forests surveyed,
two areas, one of 590 km 2 and within the Ripu
and Chirang Reserve Forests and the other
over 360 km 2 and extending to the easternmost
part of the Manas RF are proposed for being
candidate areas for increased level of
protection of wildlife. This will provide a boost
to wildlife conservation in the area by adding
to the conservation efforts in Manas NP and
also contribute to the concept of ‘Greater
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