JOWAI: The Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) in collaboration with the Society for Rural and Urban Empowerment (SURE) and the Basin Development Unit, East Jaintia Hills District organized a one day workshop on the issue of Hoolock Gibbon preservation.
The workshop was held at Dorbar Hall of Khliehriat East and it was attended by renowned columnist and environmentalist, Rev. HH Mohrmen, The Shillongtimes Editor, Patricia Mukhim, Dr. Rajkamal Goswamia- a researcher and member of the ATREE, Dr. BK Tiwari, Dr. Narayan Sharma, Forest Conservator (Wild Life), PS Nongbri, DFO Wildlife, H Lato and Dr. Somendro Thangjam besides other.
According to Dr. Goswami who had conducted a research work on Khasi-Jaintia Hills forest of Meghalaya, he stated that the indigenous tribal communities have been known to manage and protect the forests since time immemorial.
These forests not only provided food and livelihood but were also divine, sacred grounds, critical to forge links with their gods and ancestors.
As India became a republic, the traditional forest governing institutions of Meghalaya, often found at grassroots level, were granted legal and political status under special arrangements of the Indian Constitution.
Since then, the communities have been empowered to manage over 90% of the recorded forests in Meghalaya.
These forests overlap with some of the richest repositories of coal and limestone, currently in high demand both globally and nationally.
Driven by market demands and government policies, a rapid proliferation of coal and limestone mining and establishment of cement factories took place, particularly during the last two decades. Largely unregulated, such exploitation incurred a huge loss of natural capital.
Research carried out by Dr. Rajkamal Goswami from ATREE, Bangalore have found that large extent of dense primary forests were either annihilated or left degraded and fragmented mainly due to mining and industrialisation in Narpuh elaka, one of the last strongholds of mid and low elevation evergreen forests in Meghalaya. Many streams and rivers were polluted with toxic runoffs from mines and effluents from the industries.
As the natural forest ecosystems rapidly shrank, the anthropogenic pressures on the remaining forest intensified.
These forests, while being probably the last nurseries of the traditional Khasi-Jaintia culture of yore, also ranks very high in terms of global conservation priorities.
Therefore their loss will not only have severe cultural but also great ecological repercussions.
Part of the ‘Indo-Malayan Biodiversity Hotspot’, they are critical habitats for many threatened wildlife including the endangered hoolock gibbon (Hoolock hoolock) and the critically endangered Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) in Meghalaya.
They are also the last strongholds of the rich bird and butterfly diversity that the state has still managed to preserve.
The important question remains: How to secure these last remaining forests from the current onslaught of ‘development’?
How to reconcile the food and livelihood demands from the forest to their conservation goals and priorities?
