Slopes, Sunburn and Solitude: Ecotourism in the Himalayas

Furthermore, plant species generally exists in association and any change in the species composition may lead to changes in the plant community resulting in changes to the native biodiversity of the region because of the dependence of other animals, birds and microbes. The change in the biodiversity is due to three basic ecological processes: Assessment of the changes in the biodiversity or the state of the biodiversity is evident from the presence of indicator species and the distribution and the abundance of the keystone species.

The loss of species and changes in the local and global climate and their future consequences is the main concern for ecologist and environmentalist over the world. At present, biodiversity is accessed across the whole gamut of technological realms-right from molecular techniques, satellite technologies and computer based models of the climate. The ecologists are emphasizing the broader views of the planet Earth that includes the effect of life on earth, our role in influencing the species and ecosystem functioning, evolutionary changes in species and solutions to climate change effects on the earth [ 15 ].

The human population has started realizing the significance of biodiversity after the formulation of United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity UNCBD during the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development UNCED at Rio de Janeiro in June , which was aimed to conserve biodiversity, promote sustainable use of its components, and encourage suitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources. The Convention on Biological Diversity CBD obliges signatory nations to undertake an inventory of their biodiversity to provide basic information about its distribution and abundance.

Natural ecosystems, the store houses of biodiversity, are being regulated by the variety of species present there, and thus certain threshold level of biodiversity is important for the proper functioning of the ecosystems below which they may not sustain their normal functioning [ 18 ]. Biodiversity is the basis for ecosystem services and life support system for humans. Human societies derive many essential goods i. This article presents an overview on current state of forest biodiversity and its conservation strategies in the Northeast India including traditional knowledge of conservation in northeast region in India.

The article also discusses various approaches of biodiversity characterization and use of information technology mainly GIS to plan proper conservation and prioritization strategies for sustaining biodiversity in Northeast India. Northeast India is composed of eight states viz. The immense variety of the climatic, edaphic and altitudinal variations in this region pay the way for a great range of ecological habitats for the Northeast India.

Basically, the region represents sub-tropical belt that extends from the foothill of Himalaya in the west to southeast China in the east. Besides, the Himalayan temperate and sub-alpine zone extends from Northern Pakistan and adjacent Afghanistan through Northeast India.

Perspectives of Forest Biodiversity Conservation in Northeast India

The eight states of Northeast India abode several endemic flora and fauna. Besides, the region has wide range of physiographic, cultural and economic diversity with certain inter and intra-state peculiarities. The region show wide topographical variations that vary from the flood plains of Assam to highest mountain peaks of Khanchanzonga m in Sikkim.

The region is characterized by highest rainfall areas like Cherrapunji which has recently shifted to Mawsynram about 50 km apart from Cherrapunji in Meghalaya.

The states like Mizoram has highest percentage of forest cover with a characteristic of steep slopes [ 21 ]. Forest cover change in Northeast region of India [ 21 ]. The Northeast India, having high rainfall and favourable climatic conditions, occupies 7. The region is now experiencing severe alterations in land use and land cover type, due to shifting cultivation locally known as jhuming , indiscriminate felling and illegal deforestation [ 26 ].

These coupled with socio-economic changes have caused loss of natural habitats and complex assemblies of species. With the phenomenal increase in the human population, the jhum cycle has been decreased from years earlier to about years and even less in some areas [ 28 ]. This has accelerated the process of degradation of natural ecosystems. The highest change was recorded in Manipur followed by Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and lowest in Sikkim with no change Table 1. Therefore, for maintaining pristine biodiversity these complex ecosystems need to be conserved in situ.

Area is not only a storehouse of endemic flowering plants but also hosts the reptile, amphibian and butterflies as well as mammals. Collecting information about the biodiversity of the parts of the Eastern Himalayas, an Indian hot spot for biodiversity, is a challenging task. The primitive flowering plants e. This region originated some important gene pools of citrus, banana, mango and rice.

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Tropical forests found in Indo-Myanmar border area are dominated by Dipterocarpus macrophyllus, D. The listed threatened species includes Paphiopedillium spp. Besides, there are many plants having great medicinal values like Dendrobium nobile, D. Hedychiums of Zingiberaceae family are common in the region. Out of bamboo species recorded in India about 64 species are found in northeast region. The conifers of Pinus keysia ; Gymnosperms of Cycas pectinata and Gnetum gnemon and broad-leaved Gymnosperms of Podocarpus neirifolia are present in the region.

Of non-flowering plants like ferns, half of the total species recorded in the country are found in this region. Some important ferns are Dipteris wallichii, Asplenium nidus, Angiopteris evecta, Cythea gigantea etc. Among saprophytic plants Ballanophora dioca, Aginitia indica, Manopar ahimalayana, Epipogium roseum, Euryale ferox etc.

Recently Singh reported changes in plant diversity including medicinal plants and soil nutrients during stand development in subtropical semi-evergreen forest of Mizoram [ 30 ]. They reported that Schima wallichii was the dominant species in the degraded forest areas and less dominant in undisturbed areas. Castanopsis tribuloides was among the dominant species in the undisturbed and the moderately disturbed but this species was replaced by Sterculia villosa in the highly disturbed stand, and the shift in position of species and families from undisturbed to highly disturbed stands has been reported to be linked with degree of disturbance.

Northeast region has highest forest cover The region comprising eight sister states as stated above and can be physiographically categorized into the eastern Himalaya, Northeast hills and the Brahmaputra and Barak valley plains [ 32 ]. It is located at the confluence of the Indo- Chinese, Indo-Malayan and Afro-tropic bio-geographic realms [ 23 , 24 ]. The region provides a great variability of habitats and harbour diverse biota with high level of endemism [ 33 ]. Rich faunal and floral diversity with high degree of endemism in the region coupled with rapid changes due to development and resource exploitation has led to declaration of this region as one of the global biodiversity hotspot [ 34 ].

North east India harbours primary tropical to alpine forests in its almost undisturbed state due to variability in climate and topography and comparatively lesser disturbance in states like Arunachal Pradesh. The region is also rich in medicinal plants and several rare and endangered taxa [ 5 , 22 , 35 , 36 ].

A majority of the tribes is having own forest land and they have marked as a private land with temporary boundary. Due to un-even distribution of tribe group or sub-tribe group, they are not able to avail basic government facilities such as sources of daily livelihood, food, school, medicine etc. In such condition the tribes totally depend on the forest resources for the livelihood and other necessary requirements. They adapted a unique socio-cultural aspect of this region which influences the forest cover is Shifting cultivation or Jhum to earn revenue for sustaining the life.

Shifting cultivation , is a traditional system of agriculture carried out without tilling the soil, is often cited as a reason for the loss of forest cover of the region [ 37 - 40 ]. Shifting cultivation is the one of the major responsible driver of deforestation and degradation in Northeast India [ 41 ]. Most of the states of northeastern India, primary dense forest become degraded into secondary open forest or scrubland within few years, which leads to biodiversity loss primarily because of the practicing shifting agriculture. On the basis of assessment, FSI has reported forest cover loss of km 2 in Nagaland between , followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura and Assam losing and 66 km 2 respectively to Jhum , fuel wood and timber extraction [ 42 ].

The reason of the extended shifting cultivation in last three decades is the absence of effective landuse policy. Present land use policy is based on totally traditional method which gives clear identity of land ownership to do anything for livelihood. Forest based industries were encouraged for revenue without considering of biodiversity hotspot areas.

Encroachment in forest land is also responsible for degradation in forest area which is totally influenced by political issues [ 43 ]. Several biodiversity hotspot areas across the border and in catchment area have been totally eliminated through illegal cutting by migrated populations from the neighboring country across the border area.

Srivastava reported depletion of Chatterjee and Dey have also reported that Taxus wallichiana has been logged in illegal way for the medicinal values [ 44 ]. Grazing, trampling and browsing through domestic cattle give the biotic pressure on the regenerated forest under present socio-economic condition. The cattle entered in a biodiversity rich area in foothills as well as in other part of forest, where they consume younger plantation which leads to degradation of forest.

According to recent studies by Roy the Northeast India, despite various anthropogenic pressures, has still stands one of the highest biodiversity ranking areas in the country [ 5 ]. The region has some of the extensive tropical evergreen forests in India. Since the Northeast India is the confluence of three different geological origins, the resultant biodiversity has evolved from association of biota from three different biogeographic realms [ 20 ].

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The region has one of the least infrastructural developments in the South Asian region and has considerable forest cover. Geologically the region can be divided into the Himalayan Region, the Brahmaputra plains and the Garo and Khasi Hills in the south. Using satellite remote sensing and other spatial databases, around 19 forest types have been identified in Northeast Figure 1. Among the dominant vegetation cover moist deciduous forest has the largest area km 2 , followed by subtropical broadleaf forest km 2 , Himalayan moist temperate km 2 , and semi-evergreen forests km 2.

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Among the secondary vegetation, abandoned jhum contributes km 2 in the entire north east India. This region has some of the richest contiguous forest in the country. Arunachal Pradesh has contiguous forests of more than km 2 and harbours some of the richest biologically rich regions in the country. Vegetation type and land-use map of Northeast India [ 5 ].

Forests of Northeast India showed varied levels of fragmentation Figure 2 and are mostly influenced by the prevailing socio-economic practices and customs [ 5 ]. In this region the moist deciduous forests have the maximum area under high fragmentation followed by subtropical broadleaf and semi-evergreen forests. The ease of access is one of the major factors influencing the fragmentation in these forests.

Furthermore, the soil of these forests has high nutrient content and hence the indigenous people prefer these forests for practicing shifting cultivation. This practice is widespread in the region and causes significant loss to the health of forest and environment.

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Over the past century, fossil fuel combustion and agricultural activities have doubled the concentrations of reactive nitrogen N in the atmosphere that has resulted in significantly increased N deposition rates in industrialized regions of the world [ 45 - 49 ].

Chronic N deposition has been reported to cause N saturation in natural ecosystems that accelerate nutrient leaching, soil acidification and forest decline [ 50 - 53 ].

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Singh and Tripathi reported the phenomenon of environmental nutrient loading, particularly N, and possible ecological implications of nutrient loads N and P in variety of natural and modified ecosystems in India [ 54 ]. Biomass burning and vehicular exhaust have led to increase in the emissions of greenhouse gases like Co 2 , CO, CH 4 , N 2 O, NO in the atmosphere and consequently N loadings in the primary and secondary forests of this region. The data on the biological richness in the Northeast India Figure 3 showed the maximum area under high biological richness.

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