Guwahati, Feb 4: The Northeastern region of the country is discernibly rich in biodiversity for being located at the intersection of Indo-Burma and Eastern Himalayas biodiversity hotspots.
The conservation of the wide range of flora and fauna in this frontier region has been a challenge for the Forest and other concerned government and non-government actors because a plethora of reasons including poaching and illegal wildlife trade that is routed through the landlocked region with porous international boundaries especially with Myanmar.
Effective conservation of precious flora and fauna in the region is depended on the cooperation from the masses especially the communities living on the fringes of numerous high-value wildlife protection areas.
For that to happen, the grassroot communities in the region need to be constantly kept aware of the importance of the region’s biodiversity for human well-being and the planet’s health. They have to be kept abreast of the multiple challenges posed to biodiversity conservation in the region.
A huge pool of masses well aware of the preciousness of our floral and faunal resources is always going to help the institutionalized conservation efforts to a great extent.
There are many indigenous communities in the region which have been traditionally living in harmony with nature while at the same time there have been compelling situation where a section of masses in certain communities have shown tendency to plunder the nature for vested interests.
In order to have a greater community well aware of the region’s precious biodiversity, easily accessible popular story-telling literature on various precious wildlife species and their habitats can be of great value and help.
During a recent discourse on “Nature and Wildlife Conservation” during the 12th Special Annual Pancharatna-Guwahati Session of Asom Sahitya Sabha here, passionate and globally acclaimed biodiversity conservation expert, Dr Bibhab Kumar Talukdar rightly highlighted the need for high-value and lucid literature on various precious and endangered wildlife species so that those literature can attract community members and students to contribute towards conservation of these bio-resources.
For example, Dr Talukdar cited that while one-horned Indian Rhinoceros has remained at the focus of wildlife conservation and the people of the state, some of the lesser known but precious species like white-winged wood duck (Deohanh in Assamese), Bengal florican (Ulumora in Assamese) are gradually vanishing from the state’s landscape. and people have remained oblivious to it.
Dr Talukdar opined that, “Such species could be brought to the focus of conservation efforts if the litterateurs in the state strive to create attractive story-telling literature on them so that people and policy makers become awake to the need for conservation of such heritage species for the sake of biodiversity and the progeny.”
“Popular knowledge on such precious species will go a long way in keeping the poachers away from those species as common people will become natural grassroots protectors of these wildlife as they are in case of the rhino in Assam,” he pointed out.
Being a resident of city of Guwahati which is witnessing fast-paced urbanization in all directions, Dr Talukdar also flagged the need for rejuvenation of fast receding ground water table in the city where natural wetlands/reservoirs have vanished at a fast pace over the years.
“Here in Guwahati we are grappled with the problem of ‘too little and too much water’ – too little water for daily use and flash flood on rainy days in many parts of the city. We have to do away with concrete court yards in housing/office complexes as well as concrete base in the drains so that the rainwater percolates underground to recharge the water table. This needs mass/household level efforts as only government agencies can’t achieve it,” he said.
“Rainwater harvesting may be practiced by all house owners and open spaces in all residential areas need to allow rainwater to percolate down to recharge the ground water. This way we Guwahatians can show the next generation how to conserve precious water that is needed by humans every day to survive,” the conservation scientist said.
— By Bijay Sankar Bora
