Assam: Pythons in Trouble

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Link: http://www.assamtribune.com/hori.html

 

Pythons in Trouble : By Abhijit Das

 

The rich wildlife wealth of northeast India is in terrible trouble.

Wide varieties of ecosystems of the region are being increasingly

fragmented, destroyed, developed, and polluted. Wild animals are

pushed away from their original habitats and many are already eaten,

traded, hunted and exploited. Wild populations are shrinking

throughout the region and local subpopulations are undergoing

extinction at an alarming rate. In case of some mega animals however,

the threats are identified and efforts are on to minimize them. But

in case of some other lesser-known animals although facing the

similar threats, however, largely remain ignored from conservation

perspective and the giant snakes like pythons are one of them.

Populations of these primitive reptiles are slowly but steadily

declining throughout its distributional range in Northeast India.

 

Pythons, essentially a tropical fauna, occupy a great variety of warm

and humid habitats, from rain forests to alluvial grasslands,

wherever plentiful supply of water is assured. Altitudinal

distribution ranges from lowlands at sea level to mountains up to

2,000 metres high. Being adaptable creatures, they also frequent

cultivations and human habitations.

 

In India, the common python species is the Rock Python, which is

represented by two subspecies Indian Rock Python, inhabiting most

parts of India and also in Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and

Sri Lanka, and the Burmese Rock Python distributed in northeast

India. The Burmese Rock Python is also found in Nepal, Myanmar,

Bangladesh, China, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia.

It seems that the Indian subspecies is ecologically replaced by the

Burmese one in northeast India. In addition to this, another species,

the reticulated python is also found in parts of northeast India;

however, reticulated pythons appear to be extremely rare in the

region with only a single authentic report from Mauling National Park

of Arunachal Pradesh. Herpetologists expect to find it in thickly

forested areas of the Northeast bordering China and Myanmar.

Of late, in many parts of northeast India, especially Assam, there

has been increasing cases where pythons are being rescued from the

vicinity of human habitation. This has led to the erroneous belief

that the python population is on the rise; sadly, this is not true.

To the contrary, it indicates that there is something drastically

wrong with the habitats they occupy. Habitat loss or alteration by

human agency poses the single most serious threat to pythons.

Clearing of forests for commercial and agricultural use has started a

chain reaction that has lead to this alarming situation. Wetlands of

the region are under severe pressure from developmental activities,

human settlements, and over fishing. Many of our biodiversity-rich

wetlands have already been reclaimed for settlement, while others are

getting silted up or drying gradually by the process of

eutrophication. Pythons being wetland-associated species and this

kind of destruction will surely affect their population in immediate

future. Similarly, excessive collection of stones and rocks

(preferred microhabitats of pythons) from hill slopes by stone

quarries pose another serious threat in northeast India. Rampant

shifting cultivation is another culprit. These giant reptiles rely on

ambush foraging rather than active search for prey. Hence, they are

dependent on specific types of ground cover where they can hide.

Excessive collection of firewood, cutting down of large dead trees

and overgrazing are some other factors which result in the loss of

these key preferred microhabitats of pythons, thus compelling them to

stray out from their habitat. Although the effect of pesticides and

herbicides has not been studied in snakes, investigations carried out

in birds and some other animals indicate the harm they can cause.

Python being top-level predators high in the food pyramid, a chance

of toxic compounds accumulating in their bodies by a process known as

biological magnification is also very high. The destruction of

natural habitats not only shrinks their space, it also divides their

distribution area. Fragmentation of forest habitats causes a large

decrease in population size, since it is divided into several smaller

populations. These smaller fragmented populations are known as

metapopulations. According to the principles of conservation biology

these metapopulations are maintained by interaction between

subpopulations and this interaction occur via dispersal of

individuals among patches. However, man-made barriers like national

highways separate many of those metapopulations. So in an effort to

move between patches in search of food, shelter and mates, many

pythons fall victim to vehicular traffic. A glaring example is that

of National Highway 37, which runs through the entire southern length

of the famous Kaziranga National Park (KNP), demarcating KNP from

Karbi Anglong hills. Every year during floods, many pythons are run

over while they try to seek refuge in the adjoining Karbi Anglong

hills from the inundated low-lying grassland habitats of KNP.

Similarly, local people and forest department staff often narrate

about death of pythons on railway tracks passing through forested

areas of North Cachar Hills and Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary. Such kind

of persistent loss at population level (due to loss of breeding

individuals) will be detrimental for the species in the long run as

road mortality of snakes has been identified as constituting a `sink'

for local populations.

 

In addition to road kill, many fragmented forests are bordered by

newly settled villages or so called `forest villages'. Being a

primitive reptile pythons find it extremely difficult to make

distinction between those new forest villages and their historical

foraging lands. Also being a predator, they find difficulty in

distinguishing between domestic and wild prey items. The result is a

steep increase in man-python conflict and in this battle these giant

reptiles are bound to lose.

 

To make matters worse, python meat is considered a delicacy in many

parts of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and Mizoram; the situation is

such that their eggs are also not spared. Python skin is also a

highly prized item in international illegal wildlife trade. Although

exact data from this region about reptile skin trade is not

available, the Northeast being an important gateway for much of the

illegal wildlife trade involving China, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal

and Bhutan, it is highly probable that python skin constitutes bulk

of the illegal wildlife items passing out from our country. Rock

pythons are declared as schedule I species in Indian Wildlife

Protection Act (1972) and also recognized as threatened by world

conservation union (IUCN) and the Convention on International Trade

in Endangered Species (CITES). In spite of such legal protection,

python slaughtering and inattentive handling is going on unabated in

the region.

 

But all is not lost for this giant reptile, at least in Assam. With a

number of NGOs across the State working for the cause of wildlife

conservation, cases of `rescue' of pythons straying into human

habitations and confiscation of pythons from snake charmers have gone

up tremendously. People of Assam are also more aware these days as

indicated by the number of distress calls to the forest department

giving information of a python sighting. However, a peculiar problem

arises when some overenthusiastic local people attempt to capture

pythons, either for genuine reasons or for mere show of bravado. Due

to lack of training and experience of these `novice rescuers' more

often than not, the pythons so rescued sustain a variety of external

and internal injuries, which eventually result in their death. The

helpless reptile is often tied and bagged cruelly to be ultimately

deposited in the State zoo or to be released in any nearby forests

without knowing whether it has sustained any internal injury or

whether the forest is suitable for that python or not. Injured snakes

thus brought to the zoo are likely to contract fungal and bacterial

diseases during its captive life and thus pose a threat to other

healthy captive individuals also.

 

In this regard, we need to distinguish between wildlife welfare and

wildlife conservation. For welfare, we can perform an act of rescue,

but for wildlife conservation we need to incorporate science into it.

It should be kept in mind that before each release of any rescued

python, the health condition, behavioral abnormality, assessment of

habitat viability, disease investigation, etc need to be assessed.

Thus, successful rehabilitation of python requires sound knowledge

about its biology, ecology and proper veterinary care. There is a

dearth of information regarding rehabilitation of snakes,

particularly in India. The Center for Wildlife Rehabilitation and

Conservation (CWRC) based at Kaziranga National Park has been

involved in rescue, veterinary management and scientific

rehabilitation of pythons. In addition, initial two phases of python

rehabilitation programme following IUCN criteria were also carried

out from Assam State Zoo in 2005-06 in which each snake was marked by

scale clipping method and its unique head pattern photographed for

individual identity and post-release monitoring. These pioneering

efforts have helped us in establishment of a python release protocol

suited for our local conditions. The time has come to initiate more

comprehensive rehabilitation programmes.

 

Any successful rehabilitation operation demands a prolonged post-

release monitoring programme and requires the implantation of

advanced electronic microchips called `PIT' (passive integrated

transponder) tags. These 10-14 millimetres long, permanent, highly

accurate and totally harmless permanent individual markers are

extremely useful in population, community and behavioral studies.

Although it is a cost-intensive process, a threatened species like

python requires such efforts to be initiated as soon as possible,

since we know that when a species is lost it is lost forever. In the

light of large-scale destruction of ecological systems, it seems that

the future of our native wildlife is dependent on scientific

rehabilitation programmes. In the coming days python rescues will

definitely increase as their habitats shrink. Thus the future of

these giant reptiles will be much dependent on the pure scientific

practice of rescue and rehabilitation.

 

Abhijit Das