Guwahati: While it is promising that a plant species has been documented in India for the first time from Chirang Reserve Forest in Assam, unfortunately, this positive development is accompanied by a somber piece of news.
The bad news is that the plant Amblyanthopsis burmanica is under pressure due to habitat destruction and researchers could only find less than 10 individuals growing scattered in a 20 sq km area.
The plant Amblyanthopsis burmanica of family Primulaceae, was recorded for the first time in India by Sanjib Baruah senior assistant professor, Botany Department Bodoland University and Sanswrang Basumatary Assistant Professor, Govt College Kokrajhar. The species was discovered in a field survey conducted in the Chirang Reserve Forest of Assam between April 2023 and June 2023.
The species was collected while working on the floristic study of Chirang Reserve Forest in Assam which is located at the foothills of Bhutan. After going through published work on distribution, this variety was previously recorded only from the type locality of Putao district in Kachin State of Myanmar. The distance from which the type specimens were collected is around 500 kms from the present reported location in India.
Chirang Reserve Forest is one of the oldest reserve forests in Assam and lies within the Himalayan biodiversity hotspot zone.
Sanjib Baruah of the Botany Department of Bodoland University said the plant is a shade-loving one and any cutting of forest cover is detrimental to its conservation.
“The best way to conserve this species is by way of in situ and ex-situ approach. This study has led to a series of advocacy efforts for the conservation of this endemic species and calls for further investigation into its ecology and distribution” Sanjib said.
Baruah and his team have been engaged in floristic study and conservation of threatened plants in the Bodoland Region for a couple of years and have discovered many interesting flora.
The strain on Chirang Reserve Forest is evident, as highlighted by an incident on the night of December 18 when a group of forest rangers in the Chirang district was ambushed by an illegal timber smuggling gang. The rangers were conducting an operation against timber smuggling in the region, under the jurisdiction of Ranjit Basumatary, the executive member for forests in the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC).
According to the 2021 State of Forest Report, Chirang district lost 5.21 sq kms of forest cover from 1999.
According to Global Forest Watch, Chirang lost 570 hectares of relative tree cover from 2001 to 2022 equivalent to a 100 per cent decrease since 2000 and 0.19% of the global total. “There were 19 deforestation alerts reported in Chirang between 10th of December 2023 and 17th of December 2023, covering a total of 1 hectare,” the Global Forest Watch said.
It said from 2013 to 2022, 93% of tree cover loss in Chirang occurred within natural forest. The total loss within natural forest was equivalent to 55.3 kiloton of CO₂ emissions.
From 2000 to 2020, Chirang gained 3.96 kilo hectares of tree cover region-wide, equal to 2.4% of all tree cover gain in Assam. In Chirang between 2000 and 2020, 94% of tree cover gain occurred outside of plantations.
The Assam government had recently carried out an eviction drive to clear the Chirang Reserve Forest from encroachment. The eviction exercise took place at Laokriguri village under the Runikhata range in Chirang district to clear 75 hectares of land.
The researchers said the plant needs to be included in the Critically Endangered (CR) category as per version 3.1 of IUCN (2001) as it has been recorded only from the type locality and repeated surveys located less than 20 individuals, found growing scattered in a 20 sq km area.
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