In the last of the three-part series, we look at how apart from oil exploration projects, the Hollongapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary is also facing additional threats from an electrified railway project.
Read part one here
Read part two here
Hollongapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary (HGWLS) could have been the most important conservation success story from Northeast India if it was not for a century-old 1.65 kilometre-stretch of a railway line dividing the forest into unequal halves. Now, the Indian Railways is all set to electrify the railway line to meet emission targets that may endanger India’s only ape, the Hoolock Gibbon and host of other species found in these forests.
Known as Western Hoolock Gibbon or Holou in Assamese, the ape has a unique place in Assamese culture. The first Assamese language lessons in schools begin with children learning a tongue twister in the guise of a nursery rhyme – Holou Uthil Tokou Gosot (The Gibbon climbs a Major Jenkins’ fan palm tree).
“At Hollongapar, children learn about gibbons by watching them swing from one tree to another, often mimicking their loud calls … But that could soon become history. We will have to tell our children that once there used to be a Gibbon Sanctuary in here,” Pinakpani Borthakur, proprietor of a home stay in Meleng village next to HGWLS tells EastMojo.
Borthakur and other village residents living around the Gibbon Sanctuary are concerned about the recent approval of the National Board of Wildlife. They say that the electrification of the railway track that passes through the Sanctuary may increase the wildlife conflict as the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) may also double the track in future.
In 2023, a proposal of North Frontier Railway to electrify with 25 KV line over a 9-kilometre stretch comprising the core area of HGWLS and its eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) reached the National Board of Wildlife (NBWL). Although no track doubling approval has been sought in the proposal, the electrification would take nine hectares of the sanctuary and its eco-sensitive zone.
“We are shocked by this development because for the last several decades the people living around this area have teamed up with the forest department and researchers to conserve this space. We wanted the government to re-route this railway track but now they want to electrify the railway track and they are also planning to double it. There is absolutely no consultation with the people living here,” Borthakur says, relaying his fears. “We have already seen the endangered capped langurs using the electric wires to cross the railway tracks which were installed recently. Once railways power it or double the railway line, these animals would easily perish,” he adds.
Stressed conservation
According to Raman Sukumar, an elephant expert and a member of NBWL, the HGWLS is already stressed. During the recent meeting of NBWL on January 9, the chairperson of the standing committee raised the reports of elephant deaths from Assam, according to minutes seen by EastMojo.
“Almost every year, we see two to three deaths of elephants due to speeding trains in and around Hollongapar. In 2023, one speeding train on a winter night hit a female elephant and dragged her body for 370 metres killing her on the spot,” says Pradip Bhuyan, a volunteer with the forest department. Bhuyan and another volunteer take turns guarding the railway track from dusk till dawn watching out for wild animals. “Our job is to only inform the control room about elephant movement. We cannot stop the train. We call the control room but there is hardly any mobile coverage in these parts,” Bhuyan says.
Indian railways, on the other hand, considers electrification as a necessity to meet the net zero emissions goal by 2030. In 2015, Indian Railway Board created the environment directorate which accomplished 94 percent electrification of existing railway tracks by January 2024.
The Dibrugarh-Lumding route which crosses through the HGWLS still has trains running on diesel, considered as a pollutant, and perhaps one of the last stretches in the country without electrified tracks.
On October 9, the Standing Committee of the NBWL recommended the proposal with certain riders. It called upon Indian Railways to electrify the track only after taking appropriate mitigation measures to prevent any conflict with the wildlife in the area and recommended speed limits.
Raman Sukumar, also present in the meeting, called for setting speed limits for the trains crossing the stretch using Buxa Tiger Reserve of West Bengal as an example.
According to a paper published by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Primate Journal in 2022, when the HGWLS was notified in 1997, the forest only covered two-odd square kilometres large due to forest fragmentation.
“With the help of the locals, the forest department started planting the state tree of Assam, Hollong over the forests along with many other tree species,” the lead author of the IUCN paper and primatologist, Dilip Chetry told EastMojo. The sanctuary now covers 20.9 square kilometres.
Besides Gibbons, the sanctuary is also home to six other primates: the capped langur, the stump-tailed macaque, the northern pigtailed macaque, the Assamese macaque, the rhesus macaque and the Bengal slow loris. The sanctuary is also a home to the Malabar giant squirrel, 200 species of butterflies and arachnids besides host of rainforest dwelling plants. There is a herd of 62 elephants that routinely visit the forest by crossing the railway lines from the nearby forests in its eco-sensitive zone.
Canopies as roads
Chetry works with Aaranyak, one of the leading conservation organizations from Northeast India. He estimates that HGWLS supports a population of 125 western hoolock gibbons divided in four compartments.
“The railway line separates the first compartment in the north from the three compartments of forests in the south. We found that four or five gibbon families were trapped in the first compartment, unable to cross over to the other compartments,” Chetry says.
Gibbons seldom come to ground. They brachiate using their forelimbs to propel their small bodies from one tree to another and dwell in canopies for their entire lifetime, according to wildlife biologists.
A technical report of Wildlife Institute of India from 2023 on setting up artificial canopies in HGWLS considered it unnatural for gibbons to come down to the ground to cross open gaps like roads or railway lines. “In addition to the risk of vehicle collision, primates like gibbons also fear the increased chances of predation on ground,” the technical report warns.
Besides being arboreal, Gibbons largely remain monogamous. “Forest fragmentation in Gibbon habitats can lead to small and isolated populations. Factors like lack of genetic diversity can easily lead them towards extinction,” warns Chetry.
Although the railway line is a century old, the threats towards wildlife were taken seriously by the Forest Department only in 2006 when there were several reported instances of wildlife deaths on the railway line.
With the support of his organization, Aaranyak, Chetry with the help of locals from neighbouring villages in Hollongapar started the Hoolock Gibbon Conservation Program. “We planted around 3,000 saplings next to the railway tracks to create natural canopies for the gibbons to move. After 13 years, the natural canopies started to form,” Chetry stated in the IUCN paper.
In October 2019, first gibbon was observed by the forest guards crossing the railway by using the canopy formed by Ficus trees. Till the natural canopy bridge stayed intact, six crossing had taken place.
On a tight rope
While natural canopies worked for the gibbons and other primates, it did not work for railways. “During the past 13 years [since the 2006 planting up to the beginning of the study period], a number of the planted trees did not survive, and some were removed by the railway company due to the risk of their falling across the tracks,” stated Chetry in his report.
At present, there are no natural canopy bridges connecting through the railway line. On the other hand, North Frontier Railway installed an artificial canopy bridge in 2015 made of iron which according to Chetry and other forest officials has not been used by any of the primates till date.
Ahead of NBWL’s recommendation for the electrification of the railway track, Indian Railway has deposited Rs 41.99 Lakhs to Jorhat DFO in February, 2024 for new canopy bridges.
According to Kapinjal Sarma, Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) of Northeast Frontier Railway, new canopy bridges will be installed in consultation with WII and Forest Department.
“The ends of the canopy bridges as well as the knots will be secured and clamped/tightened using appropriate and high-grade fastening materials and techniques. As a fail-safe mechanism, safety nets will be installed below the main twin-rope bridge to save the species, accidentally falling off the bridges,” Sarma told EastMojo.
As for any interaction with the wild elephants, the official said that intrusion detection devices, which use artificial intelligence powered signalling systems to alert the locomotive pilot to slow down, have been installed at the cost of Rs 3.04 crore over a 33-kilometre stretch covering HGWLS.
Wildlife Institute of India, a statutory body under MoEFCC and experts like Chetry however are concerned about the increasing gap between the two compartments. “At present the gap is around 30-40 metres. Electrification and possible doubling of the railway track will make these canopy bridges useless as the gap can easily increase by 100 metres considering the gap between railway tracks. That will be a failure of the mitigation measure,” says Chetry. “Since the railway stretch within HGWLS is relatively small, the Indian Railways must think long-term and demonstrate its conservation vision by exploring all possibilities to reroute the existing line outside the sanctuary [and its ESZ] limits into the adjoining revenue and non-forest land. This will ensure that a balance between ecology and economy is struck, and allow for the necessary doubling and electrification of such a rerouted line,” the WII report recommended.
Also Read: How a mother in Siaha waited for a doctor while her son breathed his last
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