If only Tigers could Vote !

[Monojit Chintey]

Assam located in the northeastern part of India, covers an area of around 78,500 sq.km. It forms part of the global bio-diversity hot spot with its diverse wildlife forms. Assam forms part of the Indian Zoogeographic Subregion within the Oriental Zoogeographic Region. But looking at microlevel details, then the areas south of the Brahmaputra river seems to be part of the Indo Chinese Subregion while Indian subregion lies towards north of the river. The fact being Assam is located in the transitional zone between the Indian and the Indo-Chinese Sub region where many Indian species have their easternmost limit of distribution. This region also forms part of two endemic bird areas, the Eastern Himalayas and the Assam plains.

The mammals of Assam in general have affinity to the Indo-Chinese group. There are 14 species of monkeys, in Assam which constitute roughly about 1/6th of the world. There are 19 cat families in Assam against all India number of 27 cat families. Quite a good number of tigers are found in the region especially in the protected areas such as the Manas Tiger reserve. Out of the 1200 species of birds in Indian sub-continent; Assam alone possesses about 950 species. Besides the common species, a large number of rare and endangered birds including waterfowls are found which also include winter visitors to the state from faraway places like Siberia, Manchuria and Tibet. Crocodiles, snakes, terrapins and monitor lizards with their various species represent the reptiles of the region. Crocodiles are found mainly in the Brahmaputra River, but these have become extremely rare nowadays.

To conserve and preserve the biodiversity of the state 25 protected areas have been notified. These include 5 national parks, 18 wildlife sanctuaries and two proposed Wildlife sanctuaries. The protected area network covers a very insignificant proportion of about 3.2% of total geographical area of the State. Some of the important national parks and wildlife sanctuaries located in Assam are, Kaziranga National Park, Manas National Park (Tiger Project), Orang National Park, Dibru-Saikhowa National Park, Nameri National Park, Garampani Wildlife Sanctuary, Bornodi Wildlife Sanctuary, Pabitora Wildlife Sanctuary, Laokhowa Wildlife Sanctuary etc.

Many NGOs like the WWF India, Rhino Foundation, Green Heart, Natures Beckon etc have been supplementing the governments efforts in saving the rich biodiversity of the region.

But and a big "But" this is !

Despite the sincere efforts of the active NGOs of the state, the destruction of Assam's forests and wildlife continues unabated. Recently there was a news article that described how a tiger reserve near the Nagaon district in Assam was being de-reserved for the tigers to make way for humans (most likely from Bangladesh). The area forms part of the electoral constituency of a powerful minister. He wants to please his voters by giving them more land -- poor tigers, unfortunately for them, do not have the right of franchise.

Thus being the state of affairs in Assam !