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Partnership for conserving the Sub-Himalayan grasslands of India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2022

Dhritiman Das Open the ORCID record for Dhritiman Das [Opens in a new window] ,
Bibhuti P. Lahkar Open the ORCID record for Bibhuti P. Lahkar [Opens in a new window]  and
Deba Kumar Dutta Open the ORCID record for Deba Kumar Dutta [Opens in a new window]
Dhritiman Das
Affiliation:
Pygmy Hog Conservation Programme, Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, Trinity, Jersey, Channel Islands. dhritiman.das@durrell.org
Bibhuti P. Lahkar
Affiliation:
Aaranyak, Guwahati, India.
Deba Kumar Dutta
Affiliation:
WWF–India, Guwahati, India
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Abstract

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Type
Conservation News
Information
Oryx , Volume 56 , Issue 4 , July 2022 , pp. 492 - 493
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence CC BY 4.0.
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International

The Sub-Himalayan tall grasslands support a host of wildlife, but are now found only in protected areas. These grassland ecosystems are declining as a result of conversion to woodland. These successional dynamics are governed by a number of drivers, including grassland burning in the dry season, meandering of rivers, erosion and silt deposition, soil hydrological processes, grazing regimes, invasive alien plant species and climate change.

Manas National Park in Assam, north-east India is one of the largest grassland protected areas in India. The Manas landscape underwent civil unrest during 1989–2003, interrupting the grassland management system previously in place. This absence of grassland management resulted in significant habitat degradation, potentially affecting several grassland specialist species, including the pygmy hog Porcula salvania, hispid hare Caprolagus hispidus and Bengal florican Houbaropsis bengalensis.

To address this critical issue, the National Park management and NGOs began working together in 2017, and a partnership to conserve the critical grassland habitats of Manas National Park was formally launched in November 2021. The conservation partners are jointly carrying out interventions using a common framework that includes mapping of invasive alien plants, especially Chromolaena odorata (native to the Americas), removal of invasive plant species, engaging the local community in restoration, knowledge dissemination and sharing of restoration experience with conservationists working in the Sub-Himalayan grasslands of Nepal and Bhutan.

As part of this partnership, the National Park authority has adopted a Grassland Management Action Plan. The Plan was finalized in November 2021 and all the major action points have been incorported in the National Park's working plans, including the Tiger Conservation Plan. Thus, the broader grassland habitat restoration initiatives, which were initially started by conservation partners, have now been embedded by the Forest Department in their management process. This is a unique collaborative approach for the conservation of tall grassland and the model could be adopted for other protected areas in which habitat restoration is needed.