Protected landscape across India-Bhutan border a refuge for wildlife during armed conflict

From the late 1980s until 2003, ethno-political violence rocked Manas National Park (MNP), home to Bengal tigers and Indian rhinos, in the northeastern Indian state of Assam. But a shared border between the park and Bhutan’s Royal Manas National Park (RMNP) helped the wildlife find refuge from the human presence. Since the end of the unrest, MNP has managed to preserve its overall animal diversity, according to a new study. Extensive camera-trapping exercise across the three ranges of the park have confirmed the presence of 25 mammalian species, including threatened species such as clouded leopards, Asian elephants, Indian hog deer, and swamp deer. From the late 1980s until 2003, recurring ethno-political violence rocked Manas National Park, a protected area in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, in the Himalayan foothills. The conflict changed the park’s spread and abundance of wildlife, including the endangered Bengal tiger ( Panthera tigris tigris ). But Manas’s continuity with Bhutan’s Royal Manas National Park (RMNP) has helped shelter and preserve its overall wildlife diversity, according to a new study published in the Journal of Threatened Taxa . The study looked at the state of wild mammals in the aftermath of the unrest, and underscored […]

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