Guwahati: In a landmark moment for wildlife conservation in India, a male Western Hoolock Gibbon has been recorded successfully crossing a specially designed canopy bridge with safety nets over a railway line inside Hollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary.
The moment, captured on video and shared on social media by Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, is being hailed as the first confirmed use of a canopy bridge by a gibbon in the sanctuary and possibly the first documented case anywhere in the world of a gibbon using a canopy bridge structure built over a railway line.
The bridge structures were installed between February and March 2025 as part of mitigation measures linked to the electrification of the existing Lumding–Dibrugarh single-track railway line that cuts through the sanctuary, fragmenting one of the most important habitats of the endangered Western Hoolock Gibbon.
The newly surfaced video shows the gibbon carefully brachiating across the rope canopy bridge suspended above the railway track — a significant behavioural milestone for conservationists monitoring whether the arboreal primates would adapt to the artificial crossing structures.
The canopy bridges were designed by researchers from the Wildlife Institute of India in collaboration with the Assam Forest Department and Northeast Frontier Railway. Safety nets were installed below the rope structures as a fail-safe mechanism, while creepers and natural vegetation are expected to gradually integrate with the bridges over time.
Hollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary, spread across around 21 sq km in Assam’s Jorhat district, is the only protected area in India named after a primate species and is home to nearly 125 hoolock gibbons.
The sanctuary has long suffered from habitat fragmentation caused by the railway line passing through its core since the late 19th century.
Conservationists described the successful crossing as a rare positive example of balancing infrastructure development with wildlife protection.
However, they cautioned that the long-term survival of the species would require broader ecological interventions, including careful infrastructure planning, restoration of forest connectivity, and reforested canopy corridors linking isolated habitat patches.
The development has been welcomed by wildlife researchers, forest officials, and conservation groups working to reduce the impact of linear infrastructure projects on arboreal wildlife across Northeast India.
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