ALI WOOD IS A FREELANCE JOURNALIST: WWW.ALI-WOOD.COM. SHE
TRAVELLED TO ASSAM WITH INDIA TOURISM AND ASSAM TOURISM.NATURE
India this field is still very new,” says
Ghosh. “We are trying to motivate
our scholars to study gibbons,
because traditionally they are more
interested in studying and working
with glamorous species such as tigers and rhinos.”
There are several other gibbon-conservation projects outside
the Hollongapar sanctuary, and it’s one of these – in the district of
Tinsukia – that we visit next. We head north-east along the banks
of the Brahmaputra River into the floodplains of Dibrugarh. The
forest, cotton trees and palm-fringed paddy fields give way to tea
plantations stretching as far as the eye can see.
Some plantations date back to colonial days when Scottish
explorer Robert Bruce discovered tea. These are large,
commercial operations with purpose-built villages, schools
and hospitals for workers. The 19th century tea bungalows
now accommodate tourists. Other plantations belong to the
villagers – they are their own back gardens.THE HIGH PRICE OF TEA
The international tea industry is the main cause of Assam’s
deforestation, which has had a major impact on the western
hoolock gibbons of Barekuri. Across this cluster of villages,
spread over 15km^2 , there were only 21 western hoolock
gibbons in six families at the end of 2015 – all of them
living in village woodlots and bamboo patches.
I meet villager Dambaru Chutia, who runs a charity called
the Wildlife and Environment Conservation Organisation
(WECO). “There used to be big trees before tea gardens
came, but now the surviving gibbons have to steal the fruit
from the villagers’ gardens,” he says. “Sometimes they even
come down to the ground and walk.” Gibbons are the onlynon-human primates that walk primarily on two legs, but
walking is still exceptional behaviour. “Gibbons rarely leave
the canopy, so long as they can occupy good-quality forest,”
explains Samuel Turvey, senior researcher at the Zoological
Institute of London. “They are superbly well adapted for
movement in the trees. By contrast, they’re clumsy and
highly vulnerable on the ground.”
That’s confirmed by conservationist Anwaruddin
Choudhury, who has studied hoolock gibbons for years and
says that domestic dogs are a real danger: “They can attack
and even kill gibbons. So when gibbons are forced to come
down to the ground, they cross as fast as possible.”
Chutia takes me to the river’s edge. Next to us is a hut, from
which WECO hopes to start birdwatching tours. He points to a
small patch of forest across the water. “They’re the only big trees
left round here now. Jhum [slash-and-burn] cultivation made
way for tea gardens.”
Chutia says that villagers enjoy the company of the
gibbons, and believe the apes to be their ancestors. But in
hard times people are forced to cut down the few remaining
large trees for timber, and sell the fruit that gibbons love
to eat. It’s a double whammy. Gibbons play a crucial role
in seed dispersal and forest regeneration, so the knock-
on effect is that there will be even fewer trees in future.
At Barekuri, WECO is persuading the villagers to plant
more fruit trees and monitor individual gibbons. The charity
also successfully campaigned to stop an oil company cutting
down a vital corridor of silk-cotton trees that the gibbons
used. “The villagers love their wild neighbours heartily,”
Chutia says. “If the gibbons go, it will be a big heartache.”
I think back to the moment I first witnessed a pair of
hoolock gibbons sing their territorial duet, known to
primatologists as the ‘great call sequence’. When they
finished, they swung off vigorously through the trees. Surely
this is one of India’s great wildlife spectacles – one that
future generations deserve to see. ß- Getting around Assam can be tricky and English is
not spoken in many rural areas, so it’s a good idea to
travel with a local guide or organised tour. Find a list of
tour operators at http://www.assamtourism.gov.in and more
information at http://www.incredibleindia.org - Flamingo Travels & Adventures (www.flamingotravels.
com/itin_wildlife1.html) offers a 15-day tour of Assam
with four national parks and four sanctuaries. - Naturetrek (01962 733051, http://www.naturetrek.co.uk))
offers a tour of Assam that includes an 11-day wildlife
cruise down the Brahmaputra River, visiting Kaziranga,
Nameri and Orang National Parks. - Rhino Club Adventure and Tours is run by Tarali
Goswami, a former WWF volunteer who worked on
tiger and rhino censuses. Tarali arranges bespoke tours;
email her at [email protected].
HOW TO SEE HOOLOCK GIBBONS
OUR GIBBONS
“The gibbons are
often in our village
and our gardens- they’re not afraid of us. They come
for bamboo leaves, oranges, bananas
and tender blackjack fruit. There was
one family I used to love watching.”
MANAB CHUTIA PURANI MOTAPUNG VILLAGE
Their long arms
make hoolock
gibbons brilliant
acrobats, and
they have an
excellent sense of
DHRITIMAN MUKHERJEE balance