The high altitude wildlife areas of western Arunachal Pradesh

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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
Introduction continent 22 . Some research projects 23-26 have also been undertaken in these areas over the last five years. Observations on smaller carnivores, other mammals and turtles in the area have been published 27-30 . These few surveys and ecological studies conducted in the state have yielded important discoveries and information 15,23,25,31 , but many areas, especially in the high altitudes still remain unexplored. The only exception is a survey of pheasants in mid elevation forests and alpine areas 15 . The expedition History The Nature Conservation Foundation has a high altitude program, which is a conservation partnership with the International Snow Leopard Trust. In response to a questionnaire survey by NCF-ISLT in 2002, Arunachal’s Wildlife Department officials (The Chief Wildlife Warden and Mr. Pekyom Ringu, DCF) expressed a strong need for exploring the high altitude wildlife of the state, and identifying areas for conservation. NCF has so far been working in Namdapha National Park in eastern Arunachal. Given the wildlife department’s seriousness in conserving Arunachal’s high altitude wildlife, and in response to their request, we decided to undertake this biological expedition collaboratively with our partners, the ISLT and the Wildlife Conservation Society (India Program). Two international conservation agencies, The Rufford Foundation and the Van Tienhoven Foundation, came forward to support the bulk of the expedition costs. Arunachal’s wildlife department agreed to provide the expedition support in terms of permissions and technical advice. Objectives During this expedition, we specifically aimed to: 1. Inventory the occurrence of mammals and avifauna in the high altitudes of Arunachal Pradesh, and map wildlife habitats 2. Assess the status of high altitude wildlife and identify important threats to their conservation 3. Prepare a preliminary profile of the socio-economic status and natural resource use among the resident people in the high altitudes 4. Identify areas with long-term conservation potential for establishing wildlife reserves in the high altitudes of Arunachal Pradesh The area The survey was originally planned over three districts, namely, Tawang, West Kameng and East Kameng. However, considering field logistics, we opted to cover the entire high altitude areas of Tawang and West Kameng comprehensively, instead of partially covering all three districts. Tawang District spans over 2172 km 2 with a human population density (16 per km 2 ) marginally exceeding the average for Arunachal (13 per km 2 ) 11 . The region is drained by the Tawang Chu, Nyamjang Chu (both of which meet and drain into Bhutan) and their tributaries, and comprises five administrative circles (Tawang, Mukto, Thingbu, Lumla, and Zemithang). The Buddhist Monpa tribe is the predominant community inhabiting Tawang. There is a considerable presence 3
Page 2 and 3: Mishra, C., Datta, A. & Madhusudan,
Page 5: The High Altitude Wildlife of Weste
Page 9: Acknowledgements The need for this
Page 14 and 15: Chapter 1 The Buddhist Monpa, the m
Page 16 and 17: Chapter 1 drawings of the several m
Page 18 and 19: Chapter 1 30. Datta, A. (1999) Smal
Page 20 and 21: Chapter 2 past to occur in the Mukt
Page 22 and 23: Chapter 2 Table 2. A comparison of
Page 24 and 25: Chapter 2 Comparison of survey area
Page 26 and 27: Chapter 2 Table 4. A comparison of
Page 28 and 29: Chapter 2 References 1. IUCN. (2003
Page 30 and 31: Chapter 3 Vegetation types identifi
Page 32 and 33: Chapter 3 Fig. 2. The proposed high
Page 35 and 36: The road ahead Chapter 4 Conserving
Page 37: The road ahead livestock insurance
Page 40 and 41: Appendix 1 Pradesh, which is anothe
Page 42 and 43: Appendix 1 N. goral hodgsoni 25 . N
Page 45 and 46: The Tawang macaque Appendix 2 A rep
Page 47 and 48: The Tawang macaque Most of our sigh
Page 49: The Tawang macaque provisionally id
Page 52 and 53: Appendix 3 COMMON NAME LATIN NAME T
Page 54 and 55: Appendix 3 COMMON NAME LATIN NAME T
Page 56 and 57: Appendix 4 81. Parochetus sp. 82. P
Page 58 and 59: Appendix 5 node 6 . Besides their a

The high altitude wildlife areas of western Arunachal Pradesh

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