Travelling in the North-East in the summer of 2006
Guwahati >> Eaglenest >> Tawang >> Nameri >> Kaziranga >> Shillong >> Cherrapunjee
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Our primary activity in Eaglenest was to go looking for birds. We were to spend the first few days in a campsite called Bompu. This was one of the camping grounds in Eaglenest, along with Sessni, Sundarview and lama camp. We were to proceed to lama camp after spending a few days in Bompu, and would briefly visit Sessni and Sundarview while bird watching.
Bompu camp had a couple of tents and indoor accommodation. Tents were comfortable enough and were sufficient to protect from the elements. We all had carried sleeping bags to keep us warm but it used to get pretty cold in the night. Food at the camp was staple diet – chapathi, rice and sabji. Chai and biscuits were always in supply.
Our guide for the trip – Shashank was a man with truck loads of enthusiasm. He was always the first one to wake up in the morning and last one to go to bed. He would come with us for all the birding activity while finding time to walk a bit and look for birds even when we were all resting. He also took care of overseeing day-to-day operation of the camp and despite all this, never seemed to get tired.
Lichens drooping from the branches were common in the wet weather
The very first birding walk gave us a glimpse of Arunachal weather. It was an overcast day and often used to get foggy. Shashank said it is a good weather birding compared to a warm and sunny day. We took the road heading up the hill and started walking early in the morning. The forest on the way, we noticed, is untouched except for the road that breaks through it. It is a thick, moist evergreen world. Occasionally white flowers of Michalia erupted out of the greens. Moist branches from the trees hosted lichens drooping from them and gave an eerie look. We some times saw a few warblers and minivets hopping from branch to branch. Nearly all the birds we encountered were new and were not found in rest of India. As we walked, occasionally clouds would become overweight and sprinkle short spells of rain over us, some thing we were prepared for it. After an hour or so of walk, it finally started pouring hard, forcing us to retreat. Shashank smiled and said – “this is Arunachal weather!”
Eye-catcher in the forest…
By the time we were back at the camp, it was dry again and sun shown brightly. Our first few days in Eaglenest remained like this, but the clouds finally moved away in the latter days. The sunny afternoon rewarded me with a picture of Dark Throated Thrush.
Dark Throated Thrush
We walked in the opposite direction after we had lunch at the camp and stayed on the road till dark. The day’s sightings included, along with many other birds, Longtailed Minivets, Veriditer Flycatcher, Greyheaded Canary Flycatcher, White-throated Fantail, Yellow-bellied Fantail, Ashy-throated Warbler, etc,..
Travelling in the North-East in the summer of 2006
Guwahati >> Eaglenest >> Tawang >> Nameri >> Kaziranga >> Shillong >> Cherrapunjee
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On our way to Eaglenest, we journeyed through the plains of Assam, leaving Guwahati for Tezpur and then through Sonitpur district to enter Arunachal via Missimari. We returned on a different route, on the Bomdila-Tezpur highway passing through Balipara and Bhalukpong. During both the journeys we were all shocked to see miles and miles of Assam’s plains, which were once thick jungles, cut down into an ocean of no more than a feet high tree trunks! Although I could not figure out the reason for deforestation in such large scale, someone told me that it was intended to resettle the people in this area. I do not know the reasons behind this, but was surely awed by the destruction of a degree I have seen never before.
Assam has it’s share of problems when it comes to protecting it’s environment. The state has a good forest density and has many National Parks to boast of. But the man and nature conflict that we see everywhere else applies to Assam too. Increase in population due to large scale immigration and natural population growth are probably forcing people to make claims on forest land. Conflict with elephants has become a serious problem in Sonitpur district and also in the regions around Kaziranga. Overgrazing and degrading forests had resulted in near extinction of an endemic mammal – pygmy hog. Manas National Park was virtually in the control of militancy group until a few years ago.
But even in Assam, there are people working for conservation and there are some good stories to share. Kaziranga is one of the best protected parks in India and Rhino population has grown considerably in the last few decades, after it was freed from rampant poaching a decade ago. Manas is now returning to normalcy and hopefully the Golden Langurs endemic to the park will flourish in the days to come. In the days when I was in Guwahati, I read several reports in newspapers protesting against inconsiderate destruction of Assam’s wilderness.
There are also many people working in replenishing the environment. I met a conservationist and vet doctor when I was Nameri National Park. He worked for an NGO – Pygmy Hog Conservation Program – and spent his time in Nameri trying to rear nearly extinct pygmy hogs in captivity and release them into the wilderness. He was also working on a project to amicably resolve the conflict of elephants with people in Sonitpur district. Assam has many such NGOs who are the hope for the future of its wilderness.
Arunachal Pradesh has a completely different story to tell. My host in Eaglenest told us a story about its past –
“When we first came here more than a decade ago, we saw trucks loaded with timber rolling down the Tezpur highway one after other. There was no end to their continuous flow. They used to carry huge logs that were sometimes as thick as the truck itself. I once saw a huge tree that was cut down.. They were not able to load it to the truck because it was too big and would not fit into the truck..!”
Fortunately, all that is past. After a supreme court ban on felling timber in the state, Arunachal’s forests have been left alone and have stayed undisturbed. The state has an enviable record of more than three quarters of its area as forest cover.
But all is not well about its future. Tribes in Arunachal Pradesh practice a cultivation technique called Jhum, where they burn a stretch of forest for cultivation. They use it for a few years and abandon it after the land looses fertility, only to burn down another stretch of forest for fresh cultivation. Growing population is putting pressure on the natural resources. A typical family in the state has more than 10 members, and its population growth rate is one of the highest in the country, which may make things go worse in the coming days.
To be continued..
Travelling in the North-East in the summer of 2006
Guwahati >> Eaglenest >> Tawang >> Nameri >> Kaziranga >> Shillong >> Cherrapunjee
+Previous: Travelling to Eaglenest National Park in Arunachal Pradesh
+Next: About travelling in the North East India
+Go to the beginning of the series
My primary intent of travelling to Arunachal Pradesh was to participate in Vacation For Conservation project.
Vacation For Conservation was an idea conceived by Ramana Atreya of Kaati Trust, Pune towards conserving the wilderness and biodiversity of Eaglenest National Park. It is part of a larger project called ‘Eaglenest Biodiversity Project’, intended to save Eaglenest National Park from degradation and destruction.
BACKGROUND
Eaglenest National Park is located in the border of Arunachal Pradesh in West Kameng, adjoining Pakke Tiger Reserve in Assam. It is a region with widely varying altitudes – from 500m to as high as 3200m. The region has thickly wooded ever-green forest and has remained pristine except for a small mud-road that runs in the middle of the forest. But recently, the National Park’s survival was threatened by Indian Army’s decision to make a 2-lane all season road through the park. The website of Eaglenest Biodiversity Project lists the dangers that come with the road.
Until now Eaglenest has been protected by the inability of timber trucks to navigate the jeep track. While people indulged in some hunting the forest remained intact and has more-or-less recovered from the trauma of the construction of the first road 40 years ago. This protection is no longer valid. Some years ago the Indian army began widening the Eaglenest track to handle two lanes of their heavy truck traffic. They have also blasted new alignments in several sections devastating the fragile mountain terrain. Without going into the merits of the often twisted development v/s conservation debate it is clear that a regular highway will directly ruin more than 10% of the sanctuary area and furthermore will be a permanent canker through which the usual suspects — from indigent encroachers to timber merchants; from subsistence poachers to high society carnivores with a taste for wild meat — will ravage the area. At the moment the area has some breathing space with the Supreme Court staying all work on the road until final orders are passed.
The other threat to the National Park is common across all National Parks in India – man’s conflict with nature. There is pressure from the increasing population which assumes a right to its forests in the form of chopping wood, hunting animals, etc. Eaglenest Biodiversity Project hopes to address these issues to protect the park area.
VACATION FOR CONSERVATION(VFC)
VFC is an idea that is meant to make the forest work for generating income to the locals without destroying it. It focuses on eco-tourism with complete involvement of the locals and generate income for them. Eco-tourism worldwide was an idea conceived with the same intent, but soon lost its original goal and turned out to be a money making option for large hotel and resort chains. But in Eaglenest, it serving the right purpose via VFC. Birders and wildlife enthusiasts are invited to travel to Arunachal and visit Eaglenest and spend time learning about and studying the birds and other wildlife in the region. The local Bugund community will charge royalties for each day of stay in the park, which will be used for the benefit of the community. In effect, people around the park benefit by conserving the park area and are also restrained from damaging the forest.
For more about Eaglenest Biodiversity Project and VFC, visit the project webpage.
I was in Arunachal as part of the first ever group of VFC participants. We spent a week in Eaglenest and had a good time there identifying many rare species of birds that we do not get to see elsewhere in India. More on it will follow in the coming days.
To be continued…