REGIONAL OFFICE FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC (RAP), BANGKOK FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS October-December 2008 Regional Quarterly Bulletin on Wildlife and National Parks Management Vol. XXXV : No. 4 Featuring Vol. XXII : No. 4 Contents Distribution of King Cobra in Northeastern India.............… 1 Status and Various Uses of Invasive Alien Plant Species..... 6 Man-Wildlife Interaction: Understanding the Concept of Conservation Ethics in Papua...................................... 10 Crop Raiding Pattern by Migratory Elephants in South West Bengal.................................................................. 13 Pong Lake - An International Ramsar Site in Need of Management Intervention............................................... 15 Study of Some Medicinal Plants Found in Dudhwa NP......... 23 Nest and Nidification Activities of the Spoonbill in Western Ghat Region of Shimoga, Karnataka................................. 28 REGIONAL OFFICE FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC TIGERPAPER is a quarterly news bulletin dedicated to the exchange of information Meeting the challenge of timber legality verification............ 1 relating to wildlife and national parks Harmonizing reporting on forests and forestry.................... 5 management for the New project to support enterprise development in Philippine Asia-Pacific Region. ISSN 1014 - 2789 forest communities.....................................................… 6 Findings and recommendations from the “Enhancing sustainable forest harvesting in Asia” project................... 7 Address Forest recovery in abandoned grassland with ANR (Assisted Natural Regeneration) in the Philippines........................... 10 TIGERPAPER RAP forestry staff movement............................................ 14 FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific Asia-Pacific Forestry Chips and Clips................................. 15 Maliwan Mansion, Phra Atit Road FAO Asia-Pacific Forestry Calendar………………............... 16 Bangkok, 10200, Thailand Tel: (662) 697-4000 E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://www.fao.org/world/ regional/rap/tigerpaper/tigerpaper.htm Editor: Janice Naewboonnien Advisors: M. Kashio and P. Durst TIGERPAPER is dependent upon your free and voluntary The opinions expressed by the contributions in the form of articles, news items, and announcements in contributing authors are not the field of wildlife and nature conservation in the region. In order to necessarily those of FAO. The better serve the needs of our readers please write to us and send in the designations employed and the information you have or let us know if there is any information that you presentation of the material in the need. We appreciate receiving your letters and make all efforts to TIGERPAPER do not imply the respond. expression of any opinion on the part of FAO concerning the legal or Front cover: King cobra (Ophiophagus hannah) (Photo: Manoj V. constitutional status of any country, Nair) territority or sea area, or the delimitation of frontiers. Vol. 35: No. 4 Oct-Dec 2008 | Distribution of King Cobra in Northeastern India | Distribution of King Cobra in Northeastern DISTRIBUTION OF KING COBRA (Ophiophagus hannah) IN NORTHEASTERN INDIA WITH NEW ALTITUDINAL RECORD AND NOTES ON ITS HABITAT by Abhijit Das, Manoj V. Nair, M. Firoz Ahmed and Pranjit K. Sharma Introduction China, Macao, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Brunei Darussalam, ing cobra (Ophiophagus hannah) is the larg- Cambodia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam, Kest venomous snake in the world, reaching to (David and Vogel, 1996; Selich and Kestle, 2002). a length of up to 5.85 m (Aagaard, 1924). This In India, the distribution range of the species is monotypic genus of the family Elapidae is recorded as Western Ghats, Uttar Pradesh (Terai), considered as a species complex (Das, 2002). Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal, northeast India and Being a large and conspicuous reptile, King cobra also the Andaman Islands (Whittaker and Captain, has received scientific attention from various 2004). perspectives since its first description (see Das and Whitaker, 1996). However, in comparison to the It is regarded as widespread, but uncommon availability of literature concerning its systematics, (David and Vogel, 1996). In its distributional range, diet, general biology, husbandry, venom and the species is recorded from various habitat types envenomation, there is a dearth of information such as lowland wet tropical forest, coastal regarding its regional distributional locality records, rainforest, tropical and subtropical wet montane which is a serious concern when planning out forest, dry forest, swamps and marshes, mesic conservation strategies for the species. open scrubland, plantation and cultivated areas, alluvial and terai grassland, mangrove swamps, Methods open country and disturbed areas, and near human habitations (David and Vogel, 1996; Selich and The primary data used in the present study was Këstle, 2002; Leviton et al., 2003; Narayan and collected between 2002 and 2007 during the course Rosalind, 1989). of our herpetological investigations at various places in northeast India. An extensive literature survey Due to the paucity of herpetological surveys carried was done to extract the published distribution out in northeast India, exact distributional records available. Field records include direct information on even conspicuous herpetofaunal sightings of live individuals, freshly killed species is lacking. However, King cobra has specimens, skins, examination of museum sporadically been listed from different states of specimens and distinct color photographs of the northeast India. species taken from the region. A Garmin 12-channel GPS was used to get the geo-coordinates of the In Assam, the species has been reported from localities. Based on these data, a distribution map Dibrugarh, Tezpur, Margherita and North Cachar was prepared and an attempt was made to compile Hill district (Wall, 1909), Garbhanga Reserved and analyze the King cobra distribution in northeast Forest (RF) and the Kulsi River side of Kamrup India, based on the literature records as well as District (Sengupta et al., 2000; Mathew, 1983), field records. Bansbari, Kasimdaha and the kuribeel grassland of Manas National Park (Narayan and Rosalind, Results of the literature survey 1989). Globally, the species is distributed in India, The literature record of the species from Arunachal Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, South Pradesh includes one example from Chessa and 11 Vol. 35: No. 4 Oct-Dec 2008 two examples from around Itanagar (Borang et same district we examined the skin of one al., 2005). Athreya (2005) listed the species from specimen from Koronu village, which had Eagle Nest Wildlife Sanctuary and Pakke Tiger reportedly been killed inside a bamboo forest Reserve. Pawar and Birand (2001) confirmed the beside Mehao Nullah (stream) at the periphery of species in the primary forests of Nengpui National Mehao Wildlife Sanctuary. Park of Mizoram. One individual was encountered while basking on In Meghalaya, Wall (1908) reported the species from a rocky outcrop near a stream in Rottung, West Ghat road below Shillong at 909 m (3, 000 ft) and Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh. one killed in Shillong bazaar. From the same state, Mathew (1983) reported the occurrence of the Before the present study there were no locality species from Umthan and Shillong woodland records for King cobra from Nagaland state (see compound – both in the East Khasi hills. Ao et al., 2005). In November 2006, local villagers showed us the skin of a freshly killed specimen Results of the present study from the outskirts of Khonoma village. This Distribution of King Cobra in Northeastern India | in Northeastern of King Cobra Distribution constitutes the first scientific report of the species | During the course of our herpetological field work from Nagaland; however, the species is well (2002-2006) in different parts of northeast India, known among local villagers who call it Nüga we came across new distributional localities of King (Snake eater). cobra. In Manipur, we came across a preserved specimen In Assam, the species was sighted in the Holalpath at Manipur Museum located at Imphal Zoological camp area of Kaziranga National Park (KNP); one Park. The individual was collected from Moreh, was killed and one rescued from Panbari village situated at the India-Myanmar border. adjacent to Panbari RF; another was rescued from a fishery tank at Lakhojan Tea Estate. One freshly Discussion killed male individual was recorded from Diring Chariali. All reports were from the fringe areas of Habitat preferences KNP in Golaghat district of Assam. In Northeast India, King cobra was found to Other locality records in Assam include one road- occupy a wide variety of habitats. Out of a total kill specimen on National Highway 37 passing of 17 direct sightings, 6 were from primary wet through the semi-evergreen forest of Nambor evergreen and semi-evergreen forests, 3 from Wildlife Sanctuary, one rescued from Guijan village secondary evergreen forests, 2 from tall alluvial at the periphery of Dibru Saikhowa National Park, grasslands, 6 from in and around human one sighting record from the evergreen forest edge habitations, and 1 from mid-elevation broad- of Kakojan RF (Duarmara side) adjoining a tea leaved forests. Thus, although it seems that the garden, and one photographic record from Potasali species is a generalist with a wide ecological camp of Nameri Tiger Reserve. Similarly,