Inside the Conservation Effort To Restore Manas National Park’s Wildlife & Ecological Balance

The Manas National Park in Assam, declared as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985, is home to around 59 species of mammals, 430 species of birds, and around 42 species of reptiles. The landscape has recognition as a tiger reserve, a national park, an elephant reserve, a biosphere reserve, and a World Heritage Site.

In 1992, the park was added to the list of ‘World Heritage in Danger’ by UNESCO, as poaching of animals for ivory and meat, and encroachment of forest areas for settlement, completely damaged the park. This happened in the backdrop of the insurgency by the ethnic Bodo community, who were protesting for a separate ‘Bodoland’(an autonomous homeland).

However, in 2003, peace prevailed once again in the region when the Bodoland Territorial Council was formed with a tripartite agreement among the Bodoland Liberation Tigers, the Government of Assam, and the Government of India.

As Manas National Park began to recover, the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), along with International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) in partnership with the Assam Forest Department, Bodoland Territorial Council, and local community-based organisations, started the Greater Manas Conservation Project (GMCP) in 2006; ‘greater’ because the conservation goals extended beyond the borders of Manas National Park.

In fact, the Wildlife Trust of India was a pioneer organisation that pushed for the political declaration on the concept of ‘Greater Manas’ (which spans 1450 sq km), working on a baseline survey that would ensure an area of 350 sq km from the eastern part of the Manas Reserve Forest to be officially declared as the first addition to Manas National Park. This happened in 2016.

An IFAW-WTI field study mapped over 24 species of mammals and 270 species of birds, including the Asian elephant, tiger, golden langur, gaur (Indian bison), greater adjutant stork, four species of hornbill, and 12 species of woodpeckers in the region.

History was made, as three orphaned greater one-horned rhinoceros calves were successfully rehabilitated from Kaziranga National Park, where they were found swept away by flood waters, to the Manas National Park.

The GMCP also engages with forest-fringe communities around Manas National Park to sustainably improve the cultivation of spine gourd, a key cash crop. By engaging farmers through surveys, discussions, and field interactions, Wildlife Trust of India aims to reduce indiscriminate pesticide use and improve productivity and livelihoods, thereby reducing community dependence on forests while conserving biodiversity.

A significant observation was that of a melanistic Rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) in March 2021. Melanism, a rare condition in primates, involves excessive production of dark pigment, resulting in unusually dark pelage. This was the first observation of a melanistic Macaca mulatta from Manas National Park and the second record from India.

Eastern swamp deer populations in Manas National Park were severely depleted during the politico-ethnic unrest of the 1990s. As Kaziranga National Park held the only viable population, establishing a second population became urgent. Following UNESCO recommendations, the Assam Forest Department and Wildlife Trust of India translocated 36 swamp deer from Kaziranga to Manas in 2014 and 2017 to support species recovery.