Village representatives in Manas consulted on natural resource management

Guwahati: Premier biodiversity conservation organization Aaranyak organized a consultation with representatives from Bhuyanpara, Bamunkhal, Majrabari, Kora ibari, Thwribari, Randhanipara, and Gorumara located on the fringes to Manas National Park, to finalize the strategy related to village-level awareness and education programme,  natural resource management (NRM) plan development as well as assess the scope and interest of the community leadership to set up experimentally predator-proof coral in the project village.

 The programme, organized at the Manas Conservation and Outreach Centre of Aaranyak, was attended by 16 members from 6 out of 10 project villages and the 10 volunteers from the designated project villages.

Aaranyak’s senior official Jayanta Kumar Sarma shared the key objectives of the consultation at the outset. During the first technical session, the participants shared that stress related to the scarcity of water is one of the major challenges related to the natural resources in the project villages.

 The water crisis has aggravated due to the gradual drying up of most of the traditional dongs in the area due to severance of the sources inside Manas National Park (MNP).

They also suggested that conflict with wildlife species is a serious challenge regarding raising crops especially during the winter, as these species in conflict keep damaging their crops regularly.

 Basanta Das and Mangal Medhi from Bhuyanpara stated, “We were part of a human-wildlife conflict mitigation experiment initiated and supported by Aaranyak. As part of this, three different varieties of fences - solar, green net and sound-making wire fence - were set up, and we cultivated coriander, red lentil, potato and peas during the winter months. We harvested a produce that was many times more than the amount harvested in the past without using fences. We are happy that we could take part in this process, and we want to continue with the practice.”

Participants from Bamunkhal showed interest in taking part in this experiment process during the next winter season. Representative from Thwribari stated that the major challenge for the people in the village is lack of agriculture land. He suggested that the villagers keep livestock at their homes and that the lifting of livestock by the wild animals, mainly leopards and tigers are a regular phenomenon.

 Jayanta Kumar Sarma asked the participants whether they would be interested in participating in an experiment on the protection of livestock, in a similar way as to the crop protection experiment taken up during the winter. The participants agreed unequivocally.

 They suggested that they would propose the names of the participants for the programme by the end of May 2025, and the process of setting up the protection tools will be finished by August 2025 after training the artisans on constructing predator-proof corals.

 The villagers were also briefed on the status of human-wildlife interaction across the project villages through a short presentation by Dr Partha Sarathi Ghose. During the second session, the discussions focused on upcoming series of awareness and education programmes in the landscape. Jayanta Samra requested the participants to suggest a tentative period during which these programmes can be conducted in the villages, stated a press release.

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