The Landscape and
Protected Areas Network in western Meghalaya
-Ashish Kumar, BG Marcot, AK Gupta, PS Roy and Ajai Saxena
ABSTRACT
We studied elements of a protected area network (PAN) in South Garo Hills and adjacent Nokrek National Park of western Meghalaya, northeast India. Our study area has been named Garo Hills Conservation Area (GCA). The PAN in GCA currently consists of (1) four protected areas (PAs; national parks or wildlife sanctuaries) and (2) five reserved forests (RFs). To more effectively provide jointly for wildlife and people over the long-term, the PAN in GCA could also incorporate formal designation of (3) seven wildlife habitat corridors linking the PAs and RFs, and their buffer zones of influence, and (4) a number of sacred groves in community lands that provide old forest environments. The PAN could also include guidelines to restore and maintain (5) designated zones of old-forest elements among shifting-cultivation or jhum community lands, such as river gallery forests and large-tree patches, and (6) specific substrates and vegetation elements within and between croplands, managed forests, and other high-use areas.
The mapping and analysis of the landscape in GIS domain revealed that old primary forests covered nearly one-fifth of the landscape. The important forest types, as per Champion and Seth’s classification, include the Tropical Moist Evergreen Forest and Tropical Moist Semi Evergreen Forest and Tropical Moist Deciduous Forests. Increasing shifting cultivation coupled with the shortened jhum cycle have been identified as severe threats to native forest and wildlife resources. There is an urgent need to bring the changes for maintaining ecological sustainability to GCA. For this purpose, the recommended actions could be implemented as local demonstrations in GCA to illustrate specific measures and approaches for conserving native old forest or important wildlife habitats. The potential themes identified for demonstration are: 1) Additions to protected areas, 2) Protection of primary forests and mature forests in wildlife corridor habitat areas, and 3) Provision of elements of older secondary forests as wildlife habitat and for biodiversity conservation in heavily jhummed area.
| Project Title | : | Management of Forests in India for Biological Diversity and Forest Productivity – A New Perspective. |
| PIs & Co-PIs | : | Sh. VB Sawarkar, Dr. P.K. Mathur, Dr. AK Gupta, Sh. Ajai Saxena, Dr. S.P. Singh, Sh. Sugato Dutt, Sh. Sanjay Srivastava & Sh. B. Banubakode; US Collaborator: Mr. Tom. L. Darden, Dr. Martin G. Raphael, Dr. Bruce G. Marcot, Dr. Richardson Holthausen, Dr. John F. Lehmkuhl |
| Researchers | : | Ashish Kumar, SRF |
| Funding Agency | : | U.S.I.F. Collaborators - WII, USDA Forest Service, IGNFA and State Forest Departments of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Tamil Nadu & Uttar Pradesh |
| Date of Initiation & Completion | : | 18/01/1996 to 30/12/2002 |