Wildlife of the Brahmaputra

WILDLIFE OF THE BRAHMAPUTRA Kashmira Kakati “The native town of Gowahatty is built entirely of bamboos, reeds, and grass. To the south an extensive marsh almost surround the whole station, and the contiguity of many old tanks, choked with jungle, coupled with the vicinity of the hills on every quarter except the north, renders this town, in spite of the improvements already alluded to, one of the most insalubrious in Assam’. “I arrived at the mouth of the little stream Dikhoo, and mounting an elephant, rode through a dense tree and grass jungle to Seebsaugur, distant twelve miles from the Burrampooter”. “In the Chawlkhowa river, opposite Burpetah, I have seen basking in the sun on the sand banks, as many as ten crocodiles at a time; and upon one occasion, a heap of a hundred crocodiles’s eggs, each about the size of a turkey’s egg, were discovered on a sand bank, and brought to me”. - From ‘A Sketch of Assam’, John Butler, 1847 Photo on previous age: A makhna at Poba Reserve Forest, the last rainforest remnant flush on the Brahmaputra. 2 CONTENTS Acknowledgment ...4 Summary...7 Introduction...8 Objectives & Methods...10 Site/Species Accounts...17 1. D’ering Wildlife Sanctuary, Arunachal Pradesh...17 2. Kobo Chapori & Poba Reserve Forest...20 3. Dibru-Saikhowa National park and Motapung-Maguri Beels...25 4. The River Elephants...29 5. Panidehing WLS & Dikhowmukh...41 6. Molai Chapori...44 7. Bordoibam-Bilmukh Proposed Bird Sanctuary...48 8. Satjan Wetland & Ranganadi and Subansiri Dams...50 9. River Dolphins – by Abdul Wakid...53 10. Kaziranga National Parks and the Greater One-horned Rhino...61 11. The Brahmaputra Chaporis...76 12. The Bengal Florican...84 13. Laokhowa and Burachapori Wildlife Sanctuaries...86 14. Island tigers...94 15. Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary...99 16. Rivers and forests – A forest officer’s perspective...101 17. The golden langur...104 18. Wetlands of the Western Brahmaputra...105 Conclusion...112 3 Acknowledgment I thank Dr K.K.Dwivedi for this opportunity to compile these vignettes on the wildlife of the Brahmaputra. On my visits to wildlife areas starting from D’ering WLS in East Siang district, Arunachal Pradesh all the way downstream to Dhubri, several people freely shared with me their wealth of knowledge and experience from living and working on or close to the river. Among them were those making a living on the river – boatmen, fishermen and herders; officials, foresters, scientists, conservationists and guides; and villagers whose daily lives involve interactions with Brahmaputra wildlife. At Assam Forest Department – Dr C.Ramesh, DFO, Parbatjhora Division for his insights into what the Brahmaputra represents in terms of its forest value; Mr P.Sivakumar, Conservator of Forests, Northern Assam Circle, Tezpur for his time and suggestions on key persons to meet at Burhachapori and Laokhowa WLS; Dr Sonali Ghosh, for information on wetlands in Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon and providing important contacts; Mr Bhaskarjyoti Buragohain, Assistant Conservator of Forests, Northern Range, Biswanath Ghat, Kaziranga National Park and Mr Ashok Das, Range Forest Officer, Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary and for their time and a glimpse into what it takes to protect Assam’s rhinos; Mr M.C. Talukdar, DFO Dhemaji and his wife for their kind help and hospitality at Dhemaji; Mr R.N.Boro, DFO Wildlife Kokrajhar for kindly providing information on Dheer and Diplai Beels; Mr. H.Medak, Deputy Ranger, Jonai, Forest guards Mr Farid Ali at Orang National Park, Mr Boloram Doley at Gogamukh, Dhemaji, Mr Tularam Modi, Mr Prabhat Gogoi, Mr Keri Kramsa and Mr Jibon Pau at Poba Reserve Forest and Kobo Chapori; Mr Manoj Kumar Das and all staff of the Borgang Boat Camp; Mr Tankeshwar Phukan, Panidehing Bird Sanctuary; B. Rajbongshi and G. Sajem on NH 37; Md. Idris Ali, Boatman, Burhachapori WLS; Mr Girish Ray, Mr Dhiraj Ch.Ray and Mr Mukul Kalita at Kokrajhar Division for all help rendered and field stories and knowledge shared. At Arunachal Pradesh Forest Department – Mr Tashi Mize, DFO, D’ering Wildlife Sanctuary, East Siang district for being completely unfazed by my 5:30 am appearance at his Pasighat residence and personally taking me into the sanctuary to see the abundant evidence of wildlife in the lush grasslands of the sanctuary, sharing documents and checklists, and arranging a tasty lunch at the Pilomukh Beat; Mr G.Borang, Deputy Ranger and forest guards who accompanied us to the field; Mr Tanyo Siram, Eco-development Committee, D’ering WLS on hope for wildlife. At Tinsukia – Dr Ranjan Das, professor, birder and photographer, for his time at Maguri Beel and a wide-angle view of wetland conservation; Mr Puru Gupta, Deputy 4 Commissioner, for his overview on the conservation issues concerning Dibru-Saikhowa National Park; Probin Hatibarua and Polash Phukan at Kohuwa Resort for logistics. At Aaranyak – Abdul Wakid for writing the chapter on river dolphins and taking me to meet conservation volunteers in Jorhat, Sibsagar and Dibrugarh down many a feeder road to the river from NH-37; Namita Brahma for sharing her research findings on Bengal Floricans; Bibhuti Lahkar for his explanation of floodplain grassland dynamics; Firoz Ahmed for information on the herpetofauna of the Brahmaputra and tigers of Kaziranga. At WWF, India – Hiten Baishya and David Smith, of the North Bank Landscape Elephant Program at Tezpur for their detailed data and analysis of the causes of the elephant-human conflict in the landscape; Tridip Sharma and Jimmy Borah of the Tiger program for sharing information on their monitoring of the Brahmaputra river islands for tigers and prey; Anupam Sharma, Head of WWF’s Assam Landscape for facilitating my visit and interviews; and Amit Sharma, Senior Coordinator – Rhino Conservation for the information on the Indian Rhino Vision 2020 program. At Lakhimpur and Dhemaji – Mr Bikul Goswami, Green Heritage, for his poignant story of loss of the north bank forests and living rivers rendered dead by dams, but also hope in the form of the tiny Satjan wetland where waterfowl are protected by the community; Mr Baliram Gogoi, pioneer of the community guardian movement for the waterfowl; Mr Mriganabh Gogoi, painter and sculptor, who sketches and paints the fish and birds of his native Dhakuakhana; Mr Debojit Phukan of Megamix Nature Club and Mr Bhaskar Bora, Green Heritage who I was unable to meet, but who provided me contacts and information over phone; Mr Royal Pegu, journalist and environmentalist, Dhemaji for sharing information on Poba Reserve Forest; Bijoy Shankar Singh, village headman, Kobo Chapori, recounted the disappearance of some species of wildlife like wild buffalo, tiger and sambar from the island in the last two decades; Dhruba Das, volunteer, for his perspective of the river elephants from trying to follow them for over a year along the chaporis. At Dibrugarh, Sibsagar and Jorhat – Sintu Deori, Gunabhiram Deori, Pradip Deori, and Pranab Bharali of Deorigaon Village, Dehingmukh Reserve Forest for recounting their years of conflict with elephants on the Brahmaputra; Lekhon Gogoi, guide spoke about the birds and elephants at Panidehing Bird Sanctuary; Eyang Gam, Volunteer of the Dolphin Conservation Network for a Mising folk tale about the river dolphin and Durgiram Yein about their trials with the river elephants, at Disangmukh; Hiren Dutta and Dijen Bora of NGO Dolphin spoke about stork conservation at Dikhowmukh and walked us to the Azan Peer dargah and thanks also to Mrs Dutta for making us delicious jolpan at their home; Mr Ananta Dutta of NGO Keteki gave an added perspective on the river elephants, and sadly gives a term for them - ‘the homeless herd’; Madhab Das and Sushil Kalita at Neamatighat for 5 showing us which routes the river elephants move to Majuli; and Jadav Payenge, the outspoken Forest Man of India for his story of the reforestation of a barren river island, now named for him as ‘Molai Chapori’. At Laokhowa-Burhachapori WLS - Smarajit Ojah, Asst. Professor, Geography & NRM, Nowgong Girls College and Prasanta Bordoloi, Wildlife Filmmaker and Painter, both also of the Laokhowa-Burhachapori Conservation Society, for driving from Nowgong to Burhachapori late evening to share their exciting documentation of wildlife in the two sanctuaries and the river islands and about conservation goals that can be achieved when NGOs and government join hands; Prem Prasad Adhikari, village headman, Dhaniya, for speaking about how the sanctuary came to be established and their present difficulties; Shabana Hussain, M.A. scholar shared her research findings on the socio-economic status of the fringe villagers of the WLS. At Sonitpur and Darrang – Imtiaz Ahmed for kindly arranging my visit, accompanying me to Orang National Park and Lohori Char and setting up my interviews with the villagers; Safiuddin Ahmed, teacher, for his observant accounts about snakes and frogs, unusual among most interviewees who spoke mainly of elephants and rhinos; Nurul Islam and Usman Ghani, senior villagers at Badlisar; Tayab Ali and Nobi Hussain, settlers on Lohori Chapori who share their space with wild pigs, rhinos and tigers; Mahendra Upadhyay, cattle owner and Sunnilal Yadav, herder, on Sande Chapori recount their travels up the Brahmaputra with their livestock and the wildlife that they encountered then and now. At Guwahati - Dr Anwaruddin Choudhury for sharing his extensive information on wildlife of the northeast and his suggestions of people to meet in the field; Mr Dwipen Kalita, elephant expert, for his insights into the river

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