Context
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Recently, Assam villagers oppose sanctuary tag for golden langur habitat at Kakoijana Reserve Forest.
About Kakoijana Reserve Forest
- Kakoijana Reserve Forest is one of the better-known homes of the golden langur (Trachypithecus geei) found only in Assam and Bhutan.
Photo by Doniv79/Wikimedia Commons. - The Assam Forest Department had in January issued a preliminary notification for converting the 19.85 sq. km. patch of forest into the Kajoijana Bamuni Hill Wildlife Sanctuary.
- Kakoijana was inhabited by the Koch-Rajbongshi, Boro, Garo, Rabha and Gorkha communities.
- As primary stakeholders, the villagers demanded that the “conventional idea of wildlife sanctuary” be dropped and the reserve forest converted into a community forest resource “using Forest Rights Act, 2006, to ensure community co-managed system of participation for sustainable conservation”.
About Golden Langur
- Schedule-I species under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972.
- It is listed as among the world’s 25 most endangered primates.
- It is listed as “rare species” in the Red Data Book of International Union for Conservation of Nature.
- It is listed under the Appendix I of CITES.
- Endemic to the semi-evergreen and mixed-deciduous forests.
- The golden langurs in Assam are hemmed in by three rivers — Brahmaputra in the south, Manas in east and Sonkosh in west. Their northern limit is the range of hills in Bhutan up to 2,400 metres above sea level.
- The main population of golden langurs in Assam is in the Manas Biosphere Reserve, a forested area in western Assam, along the border of Bhutan in the Himalayan foothills. There are also some significant populations in isolated forests south of the Manas Biosphere Reserve such as the Chakrashila Wildlife Sanctuary (WLS), Kakoijana reserve forest (RF), and nine other patches.
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