The Hindu : Opinion / Editorials : Macaques need healthy forests

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Thursday, Jun 30, 2005

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Macaques need healthy forests

The discovery of the Tibetan macaque, a large primate with a short stump-like tail, in the verdant upper Subansiri forest of Arunachal Pradesh is fresh testimony to India's breathtaking variety of flora and fauna. Much of this biodiversity is found in the rainforests of the Western Ghats and the Indo-Myanmar region, both of which are globally acknowledged to be ecological hot spots. Arunachal Pradesh occupies a unique niche because, according to scientists, it harbours the world's northernmost tropical rainforest and, within it, a high percentage of the sub-continent's flowering plants, birds, and mammals. The importance of this forest was highlighted a few months ago when a team of scientists identified an entirely new species, the Arunachal macaque, in the Tawang and West Kameng districts. Researchers have now found that the Tibetan macaque inhabits a range within India, far away from its hitherto known area of distribution in China. The report of the research team — made up of R. Suresh Kumar, Charudutt Mishra, and Anindya Sinha — published recently by Current Science, sheds light on many aspects of the life of the macaques of the region — the Assamese, the Arunachal, and the Tibetan. The exciting discovery, made with the help of the Tagin tribe, will undoubtedly count as a major advance in the understanding of primates. The authors of the report highlight the fact that seven other macaques in India occupy low altitudes and the Arunachal and Tibetan species, with their elevated habitat, will contribute to a whole new body of literature.

For biologists and conservationists alike, the presence of Tibetan macaque provides yet another reason to tread cautiously while taking up ecology-altering development programmes in the Northeast. A number of plans to generate hydroelectric power are being pursued to accelerate economic growth. The 2000 MW Lower Subansiri power project has come to symbolise the controversial development paradigm that is based on big dams across the region's rivers. There is justifiable concern about the clearance granted to such projects on the strength of weak environmental impact assessment reports. A way out of the deforestation impasse is provided by the journal Nature, which reports that the hot spot conservation approach may be particularly valuable. It will provide absolute protection to the ecological hot spots, which occupy a relatively small percentage of total land area but successfully conserve the maximum number of species. This model demands that national forests in the Indo-Myanmar section (and the Western Ghats) are protected with special Central funding to compensate the States and even particular communities for economic losses resulting from the abandonment of projects. Exclusive conservation funding linked to taxes on fuel or other revenues is already in vogue in countries such as Costa Rica, where even private lands have been repurchased and rainforest preserved by conservationists.

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