The high altitude wildlife areas of western Arunachal Pradesh

Chapter 3
Fig. 2. The proposed high altitude wildlife reserve (shaded region) covering parts of Tawang and West
Kameng districts, Arunachal Pradesh.
g) Forest Clearings (FCL): Large areas of CBF and BLF have been cleared and burnt to
create grazing land. These meadows and scrubland in forest clearings seem to be
maintained by livestock grazing. They are grazed by cattle, mithun, cattle-mithun
hybrids, and cattle-yak hybrids. These clearings contain several graminoids and forbs,
as well as shrubs such as Rosa and Berberis. Herbs include Anaphalis, Potentilla,
Sambucus, Rumex, Senecio etc.
Vegetation map
A map of the vegetation in areas > 2750 m is shown in Fig. 1. HGM (21 % of the area)
and CBL (20 %) were the most extensive vegetation types. Permafrost (above 5250)
constituted 5 % of the total area mapped. Vegetation in a significant proportion of the
area (30 %) remained unclassified. The areas covered by the other vegetation types
included DRM at 5 %, RSL 1%, BLF 11 %, and FCL 6 %. Problems are evident in the
classification of FCL, which appears to encompass a wide range of disparate habitats
ranging from settled agriculture and cut-and-burned pastures in forests to naturallyopen
riverine stretches. A ground truthing of this map is essential before it is further
refined.
Proposed wildlife reserve
A total of 474 basins, ranging in size from 0.6 ha to 7294 ha, upstream of Mago Chu
and Gorja Chu, were identified for inclusion in the proposed protected area (Fig. 2).
This area totals 815 km² and encompasses an elevational range of 2400 m to > 6400 m.
Indeed, the conservation importance of one part of the proposed reserve (Mago Chu)
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