The high altitude wildlife areas of western Arunachal Pradesh

Chapter 1
Wildlife of Arunachal’s high altitudes has remained poorly explored
than the national average 11 . The people are predominantly tribal, with scheduled tribes
forming 79% of the population. There are 26 main tribes and numerous sub-tribes,
each with a specific geographic distribution and distinct linguistic, cultural and social
identities. These tribal groups speak about 50 languages and dialects, belonging mostly
to the Tibeto-Burmese branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Agriculture is the
main occupation (nearly 80%) of the people of Arunachal.
Arunachal’s wildlife reserves
Nine wildlife sanctuaries and two national parks covering an area of 9246 km² (11 %
of the state) have been established by the Arunachal Pradesh Forest Department (Fig.
1). Another wildlife sanctuary, called Tale Valley, has also been declared recently. Yet,
the protected areas of Arunachal largely cover only the low- and mid-elevation forests
(Fig. 1). This is despite the fact that 23 % of the area of the state is above 3000 m. Only
small parts of Namdapha Tiger Reserve (Changlang District), Kamlang Wildlife
Sanctuary (Lohit) and Yordi Rabe Supse Wildlife Sanctuary (West Siang) extend into
the high altitude zone. The recently designated Dibang Valley Biosphere Reserve does
cover some high altitude regions, but its protected area status is only nominal, with
minimal protection infrastructure or inventorying of wildlife.
Wildlife research and exploration in Arunachal
Most wildlife surveys in Arunachal have also been restricted to low and mid elevation
forests, and include surveys of rare species 12-16 and avifauna 9,17-20 . Recent herpetofaunal
surveys have yielded several new species, range extensions and first records for
India 17,20,21 . Our recent discovery of the leaf deer Muntiacus putaoensis in eastern
Arunachal represents a new addition to the list of large mammals of the Indian sub-
2