Eds: Rahul Kaul, Sandeep Kumar Tiwari, Sunil Kyarong, Ritwick Dutta and Vivek Menon Government of Meghalaya CANOPIES AND CORRIDORS Conserving the forests of Garo Hills with elephants and gibbons as flagships Eds: Rahul Kaul, Sandeep Kumar Tiwari, Sunil Kyarong, Ritwick Dutta and Vivek Menon Garo Hills Autonomous District Council The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) works to improve the welfare of wild and domestic animals through out the world by reducing commercial exploitation of animals, protecting wildlife habitats, and assisting animals in distress. IFAW seeks to motivate the public to prevent cruelty to animals and to promote animal welfare and conservation policies that advance the well-being of both animals and people. Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), is a non-profit conservation organisation, committed to help conserve nature, especially endangered species and threatened habitats, in partnership with communities and governments. Its vision is the natural heritages of India is secure. Suggested Citation: Rahul Kaul, Sandeep Kumar Tiwari, Sunil Kyarong, Ritwick Dutta and Vivek Menon (Eds). Canopies and Corridors- Conserving the forests of Garo Hills with elephants and gibbons as flagships, Wildlife Trust of India. Keywords: Garo Hills, elephant, gibbon, Balapakram National Park, Nokrek National Park, Meghalaya, Siju, Selbalgre, GHADC, Garo Hills Autonomous District Council, sacred groves, forest management. The designations of geographical entities in this publication and the presentation of the material do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the authors or WTI concerning the legal status of any country, territory or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Copyright © WTI 2010 All rights reserved. Reproduction and dissemination of material in this publication for educational or any non- commercial purposes are authorized without any prior written permission from the copyright holders provided the source is fully acknowledged and appropriate credit given. Reproduction of material in this information product for or other commercial purposes is prohibited without written permission of the copyright holders. Applications for such permission should be addressed to the Executive Director, Wildlife Trust of India or by e-mail to [email protected] Photo credits: Sunil Kyarong: Front Cover, Pg. 68, 108, 110, 114 (top), 115 (top right) and 116 (top & bottom) Ritwick Dutta: Back cover, Pg.112 (bottom left) Sandeep Kumar Tiwari: 9, 11, 45, 51, 74, 75, 78, 91, 93, 107, 109 top,112 (bottom right),113,114(bottom), 115 (top left & bottom), 121, 128 Jayanta Das: Title page J Dutta: Pg.46 and 47 O.P Tripathy: Pg.62, 66 and 67 Bulbully Marak: Pg. 109 left bottom Cover design: Jan Mohammad Layout: Moeen Aijaz/John Kunjkunju Printed at : Summit Advertising, New Delhi CONTENTS FOREWORD 4 PREFACE 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 6 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 7 CHAPTER I Introduction 8 Rahul Kaul and Sandeep Kumar Tiwari CHAPTER II A brief profile of Meghalaya 12 Kiranmay Sarma CHAPTER III Forest and wildlife conservation in Garo Hills autonomous district council- a policy analysis 23 Ritwick Dutta CHAPTER IV Forest resources and management in Garo Hill districts 44 Kiranmay Sarma and Sandeep Kumar Tiwari CHAPTER V Land use/land cover and community structure of major forests type in Garo Hill districts 52 Kiranmay Sarma, O. P. Tripathy and Krishna Upadhyay CHAPTER VI Natural resource extraction and utilization by the people of Garo hills, Meghalaya 69 Sandeep Kumar Tiwari, Rahul Kaul, Susenjit Nath Choudhury, Siddhartha Bhattacharjee, Satadal Acherji and Prabal Sarkar CHAPTER VII People's perception of forest management and conservation in Garo Hills 80 Susenjit Nath Choudhury, Sandeep Kumar Tiwari, Rahul Kaul, Siddhartha Bhattacharjee and Satadal Acherji CHAPTER VIII Conservation of Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) in Meghalaya 91 with special reference to corridors Sandeep Kumar Tiwari, Vivek Menon, Sunil Kyarong and Rahul Kaul CHAPTER IX Joining the Gibbon canopies to restore the Nokrek landscape 112 Sunil Kyarong, Rahul Kaul, Vivek Menon and Sandeep Kumar Tiwari ANNEXURES 117 OTHER WTI PUBLICATIONS 166 FOREWORD February 12, 2008 orests are the most important natural resources available to mankind and afford a wide range of socio- economic benefit as well as environmental values and services. However the balance between resource Favailability and utilization of these valuable natural resources has been threatened by the continuing abuse, deforestation and degradation of the forest. This trend needs to be contained and action plan prepared based on the principle of sustainable development and general human wellbeing. Meghalaya has a large area under the control of the community and private persons and less than 10% is under the control of government. By virtue of the fact that Meghalaya is a VIth Schedule area, the management of all forests other than government reserve forest and protected Areas are under Autonomous District Council Councils. The Garo hills comprising of the district of East, West and South Garo Hill is within the jurisdiction of Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) and supports a rich biodiversity in terms of flora and fauna. This is also an important Asian elephant habitat and majority of the elephants of the state are concentrated here. However, jhum cultivation, unplanned mining and other developmental activities have led to fragmentation and degradation of elephant habitats threatening their existence. This has also increased the conflict with humans in recent time. It thus bestows considerable responsibility upon the GHADC to effectively protect the forests and wildlife under their control to mitigate conflict and protect and conserve the wildlife. This publication on biodiversity conservation through awareness and capacity building of the local tribal council in Garo Hills is thus a significant contribution to forest and wildlife conservation in Garo Hills. Similar exercises should also be initiated in other Schedule VI areas to strengthen conservation initiatives. The publication is an outcome of concerted efforts by the Wildlife Trust of India and support of Garo Hills Autonomous District Council, State Forest department and other individuals involved in conservation. The effort of Wildlife Trust of India to conserve the elephants in the state by identifying and securing the elephant corridors and other landscape will definitely contribute to mitigating human-elephant conflict and afford greater protection and conservation of elephants in Meghalaya. The publication is a unique example of bringing in the administrators, policy makers, land planners, scientists and conservationists under one umbrella to protect and nurture the rich conservation tradition of the Garos. The publication I am sure will significantly contribute to achieving sustainable conservation practices in the region. A. N. Prasad Inspector General Forests & Director Project Elephant PREFACE he Balphakram and Nokrek National Parks are the only two protected areas for wildlife in the Garo Hills. Yet, the entire spine of the Garo Hills still has large potential as wildlife habitat Tand unlike the other districts of Meghalaya still harbours fairly good wildlife population. The connectivity of this landscape for elephant and gibbon, tiger or peacock pheasant lie through akhin lands, privately owned clan lands, much of which is still under forest. Extensive jhuming has cut through a lot of this, but Balphakram National Park and Siju WLS are connected to Nokrek through Rewak and Emangiri RFs and the akhin lands. WTI started a project here to try and secure the connectivity between these two important parks for elephants as part of its elephant corridors project sponsored by the World Land Trust. Soon however, the creation of the Selbelgere reserve for gibbons, a district council initiative supported by WTI (through its British High Commission sponsored district council project) had expanded the concept to include other species as well. This report chronicles the first three or four years of this project. It is a fascinating chronicle of conservation in this region, particularly as the conservation of private forests in Meghalaya is so unlike any other part of India. Community conservation takes a whole new meaning in this state where the forest department and the government control only a fraction of the forests and wildlife that exists in the region. The district council project of the BHC was an attempt at doing just this; assessing the status of forests and wildlife in four selected district councils and advising these local governments in ways to protect forests under their own rules and regulations. Many of these may rely on traditional and community based means of protection but many are powers vested under the sixth schedule listing of these lands in the Indian constitution. Despite this, local councils had not taken the issue of wildlife conservation seriously in most part. It is extremely heartening to note that in this short period, two relatively large areas of Selbelgere and Aretika have been declared village reserves by the Garo District Council. Full credit must be given to the council leaders and akhin nokmas for coming forward and transcending decades of mistrust of authorities by participating in these conservation measures to such an extent. While the role of the WTI team in the area is laudatory, they have acted only as catalysts and the credit for securing