(IN): Primates in India

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Link: http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/details.asp?id=sep0108/edit3

 

*Primates in India*

*— Ranjit Konwar*

 

India, blessed with a wide range of physiography and ecoclimatic conditions

along with immense variety of the edaphic and altitudinal variations from

the Indian Ocean to the high Himalayas and beyond to the cold deserts, is

among the 12 Mega-Biodiversity countries of the world. India also has a

great range of ecosystems being at the confluence of three Biogeographic

Realms (centres of origin of life), viz the Indomalayan, the Eurasian, and

the Afrotropical. This provides India with 2 of the 18 unique bio-diversity

'hot-spots'.

 

Northeast India represents the transition zone between the Indian,

Indo-Malayan and Indo-Chinese biogeographic regions and a meeting place of

the Himalayan Mountains and Peninsular India. It was the part of the

northward migrating 'Deccan Peninsula' that first touched the Asian landmass

after the break up of Gondwanaland in the early Tertiary Period. Northeast

India is thus the geographical 'gateway' for much of India's flora and

fauna. As far as altitudinal variation is concerned, the area is as high as

4261 metres to low as 36 metres from mean sea level and in this

lowland-highland transition zone that the highest diversity of biomes or

ecological communities can be found, and species diversities within these

communities are also extremely high. Though Northeast India is often called

India's forgotten corner and it is perhaps become a boon due to the

remoteness of the place has helped preserve its biodiversity.

 

Primate diversity in Assam matches countless habitats. Some of the important

ones are: tropical rainforests, tropical moist and dry deciduous, wetlands,

swamps, temperate hill forests, grasslands, vast plains, Himalayan

foothills. The State of Assam has extensive flood plains and around 35.55

per cent (27,714 sq km) of the total area of Assam consists of forests, of

which 15673.17 sq km constitutes as reserved forests area, 2815.78 sq km as

proposed reserved forests area and 1782.62 Sq.Km. as protected area network

(i.e. National Parks and Sanctuaries).

 

Sources from the study by different scholars, it is found that total of 11

species of primates are sustained in Assam. They are Hoolock Gibbon

(Bunopithecus hoolock), Golden Langur (Trachypithecus geei), Slow Loris

(Nycticebus coucang), Pig-tailed Macaque (Maraca nemesirina), Assamese

Macaque (M assamensis), Pere David's or Tibetan Macaque (M thibetana),

Stump-tailed Macaque (M arctoides), Rhesus Macaque (M mulatto), Hanuman or

Common Langur (Semnopithecus entellus), Phayre's Langur (Trachypithecus

Phayrei), Capped Langur (T Pileatus). As a matter of fact all the species

mentioned above are now in the extinction threshold. Due to destruction and

fragmentation of the habitat of the primates in Assam the only the red-faced

Rhesus macaque and the black-faced Hanuman Langur, which have adapted to

living amidst humans in urban areas, have comfortable population levels.

 

Generally, the Forest habitats of Assam can be divided into 4 different

strata, which are preferred differently by different primate species: Upper

canopy: Hoolock gibbon, Stump-tailed Macaque. Middle canopy: Capped Langur,

Golden Langur and Phayre's Langur, Assamese Macaque. Lower canopy: Slow

Loris and Slender Loris, Pigtailed Macaque. Ground: Common Langur, Rhesus

Macaque.

 

According to a recent report issued by the 22nd International Primatological

Society Congress, 50 per cent of the planet's primates are facing

extinction, with over 70 per cent of Asia's primates classified as

vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered. While it may seem like the

planet's apes and monkeys are running out of time.

 

Of the 17 primate species found in India, 9 are 'scheduled species' as these

are included in the Schedule I (1) of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 as

amended in 1991. The remaining 6 species are 'nonscheduled' species as these

are included in Part II of Schedule II of the said Act. The 'scheduled

species' enjoys more legal protection from hunting, poaching, and trade as

compared to the 'non-scheduled' species. Internationally, Convention on

International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)

declared 6 species of primates out of these 15 species are as Appendix I and

the remaining 9 in Appendix 11 by which the organisation impose ban on

commercial trade by regulating and monitoring trade that might become the

species endangered. Of course, International trade in these species are

permitted with proper documentation issued by the Government of the

exporting country.

 

The International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN) releases once every

four years a Red List of Threatened Species, which is considered the most

authoritative and comprehensive status assessment of global bio-diversity.

The Red List report uses scientific criteria to classify species into one of

eight categories: 'Extinct', 'Extinct in the Wild', 'Critically Endangered',

'Endangered', 'Vulnerable', 'Lower Risk', 'Data Deficient' and 'Not

Evaluated'. A species is classed as threatened if it falls in the Critically

Endangered, Endangered, or Vulnerable categories.

 

According to the last Red List, released in March 2004, nearly 30 per cent

of the primate species are in the threatened category. Of the 390 species of

primate species found in the globe, 21 species has been designated as

'Critically Endangered', 47 'Endangered' and 47 'Vulnerable' needs

conservation.

 

An assessment for an IUCN 'Red List' of endangered species found that 48 per

cent of the 634 known species and sub-species of primates, humankind's

closest relatives such as chimpanzees, orangutans, gibbons and lemurs, were

at risk of extinction.

 

The main causes of decimation of primates are the destruction of habitat,

hunting for meat and skin, for body parts used in traditional medicines as

well as the animals' capture for the pet trade and export for biomedical

research. Primates are particularly vulnerable to hunting because of their

relatively large body size, low reproductive rates, and large group size.

Often, conflict among humans takes their toll of nonhuman primates as

collateral damage.

 

Northeast India has 64 per cent of the total geographical area under forest

cover and it is often quoted that it continues to be a forest surplus

region. However, the forest cover is rapidly disappearing from the entire

region. There has been a decrease of about 1800 sq km in the forest cover

between 1991 and 1999 (FSI, 2000). More worrisome still is the fact that the

quality of the forest is also deteriorating, with the dense forests (canopy

closure of 40 per cent or more) becoming degraded into open forest or scrub.

 

Studies made by the Department of Zoology, Gauhati University, Assam, the

researchers of the Indo-US Primate Project Survey (1994-99) and members of

Aaranyak, an Assam-based NGO involved in conservation oriented research work

on primates in the Northeast, have shown that the following primate species

in the Northeast are endangered. They are Golden Langur, Stump-tailed

Macaque, Assamese Macaque, Pig-tailed Macaque, Pharyre's Langur, Bonneted

Langur, Hoolock Gibbon.

 

The need of the hour is that species specific project should be undertaken

to safe-guard and preserve the dwindling population of non-human primates on

the lines of 'Project Tiger' or 'Project Elephant'. At the same time the

pragmatic steps to be taken-up against the destroyer of the primate habitat

as well as the killing of the species.

(*Published on the occasion of International Primate Day*)

 

 

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