Bringing Back Manas

Table 2 District wise population distribution in Bodoland Territorial Council
Districts
Kokrajhar
Chirang
Baksa
Udalguri
Total
S.T.
5,28,774
1,69,811
3,38,630
3,17,412
13,54,627
S.C.
32,609
30,035
45,967
28,923
1,37,544
In BTC area, the tribal communities present are
mainly Bodos followed by Rabhas, Garos, Misings
etc. The other communities are Assamese Adibasi,
Bengalis, Marwaris, Beharis, Nepalese and scheduled
cast populations are also found. Table 2 (above)
shows the distribution of population in BTC.
Fig.14 Bodo woman offers prayer at a forest temple in
Ultapani, Greater Manas, Assam
Forest resources of Bodoland Territorial
Council
The total recorded forest area in BTC is 3,53,995
ha of which most of the areas are located along the
international boundary with Bhutan. The entire
northern belt of forest is situated in Sub-Himalayan
alluvial tract of a typical formation known as
"Bhabar tract" characterized by low water table and
deep bouldery deposits with an undulating layer of
gravelly sand with varying degree of thickness of
overlying sandy loams and humus varying from
almost nil to 30 cm. The forest types available in
BTC range from Semi-Deciduous Forests in the west
with Sal as the dominant tree species to broad
leaved Wet Evergreen Forests in the east including
Khair-Sisso and Riparian Fringing Forests
(riverine). The forest areas are under Reserved
Forest (RF), Proposed Reserved Forest (PRF),
Unclassed State Forests and Protected Areas. The
area under each land category of the forests are
General
3,37,608
1,43,780
3,33,045
3,24,685
11,39,118
given in Table 3. The protected forest areas in terms
of Reserved Forest or Protected Forests of BTC are
shown in Fig. 15.
Table 3 Areas under different forest lands
Type Area Number
Reserved Forests 2,59,128 43
Proposed Reserved Forests 27,408 19
Unclassed State Forests 422 5
Protected Areas 67,037 8
Forest Administration in BTC
Total Population
8,98,991
3,43,626
7,17,642
6,71,030
26,31,289
For effective management and protection of forest
in BTC, the Forest Department has been organized in
following way:
1. Conservator of Forests, Western Assam Circle:
All the Territorial Forest Divisions are under the
control of the Conservator of Forests, Western
Assam Circle (CF,WAC), Kokrajhar. The CF,
WAC, has also been declared as the Council
Head of the Department of Forest, BTC. The
following are the Territorial Forest Divisions:
i. Kachugaon Forest Division
ii. Haltugaon Forest Division
iii. Parbatjhora Forest Division (part of Dhubri
Division)
iv. Chirang Forest Division (part of Aie Valley
Dision)
v. Dhansiri Forest Division (part of Darrang
and North Kamrup Division)
In addition to the above, two Social Forestry Divisions
are also under the control of CF, WAC, Kokrajhar
(Table 4). The Social Forestry are:
vi. Kokrajhar Social Forestry Division: To
cover the overlapping areas of whole
present Kokrajhar and Chirang districts.
vii. Baska Social Forestry Division: To cover
the overlapping areas of whole Baska and
Udalguri districts.
36 Bringing Back Manas