The Gee’s golden langur, endemic to Bhutan and Assam in India, is one of the world’s most endangered primates. Less than 7000 of the animals remain in the wild today in a slice of forests in western Assam with 80 percent of this population outside protected areas.

Conservationists and primatologists have pinned hope on legal protection for the habitat of the golden langur and scaling up community-led conservation in Assam to bolster the langur’s populations, building on previous successes of catalysing community participation.

Appearing deep cream-colored in dull light and bright golden as the sun rays strike their coat, Gee’s golden langurs (Trachypithecus geei) were once found in large forest swathes. They are now split into several small, isolated populations clinging on to splintered forest patches and fringe villages where they often come into conflicts with local communities.

Occupying what remains of the lowland evergreen, semi-evergreen, and riparian moist deciduous and sal-dominated primary forests, the animals spend 99 percent of their time on trees, with a troop traveling an average of 200 to 700 metres per day taking advantage of forest canopies. Primarily leaf eaters, golden langurs also like to take their pick from fruits, flowers, seeds, and twigs and other plant parts with a choice of over 200 species of plants.

Primatologist Jihosuo Biswas said that long-term survival depends on genetic exchange but much of the golden langur population is fragmented. They are at risk of inbreeding. A change in the birth cycle has also been noted in a recent study.

“They are mainly leaf eaters and can adapt if the forests are preserved. Irrespective of how small the populations are, they are all crucial to the long-term survival of the species and there should be a coordinated effort to manage all these small isolated populations to allow them to interbreed with other populations to minimise the genetic and demographic stochasticity through meta-population management,” said Biswas.

Genetic stochasticity due to small population size contributes to population extinction, especially when population fragmentation disrupts gene flow. Stochasticity means that smaller population could result in individuals of lesser genetic quality. 

Forest patches that are like puzzle pieces that do not fit

Listed in Appendix I of CITES, as ‘endangered’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, and in Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972,  and protected under Bhutan’s Forest and Nature Conservation Act, 1995, the golden langur in Bhutan is believed to be “more secure” with almost 50 percent of its habitat in the country falling in three protected areas but hydropower, road, and housing development are identified as high impact threats. 

The distribution of the species in India (Assam) extends over 2,500 square kilometers, in the north of the bank of the Brahmaputra. 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.

Chakrashila WLS is also a fragmented habitat but gene flow is maintained through village corridors. At 45.58 sq. km, it is the largest among all other fragments. In the Kakoijana RF hillocks, the population has bounced back over the last two decades due to a long-term conservation effort, regarded as one of the models for community participation for the species. The 17 square km Kakoijana reserve forest is proposed to be upgraded to a protected area (either a wildlife sanctuary or community reserve).

“Except for Chakrashila which is a protected area and legally protected, all other fragments are reserve forests or proposed reserved forests and have very limited legal protection, including RFs in the western buffer areas of Manas Tiger Reserve,” Biswas of Primate Research Centre North East, Guwahati, told Mongabay-India.

“The forests have very low primary forest cover (0-10 percent) and mostly covered by secondary forest or scrub or open i.e no forest cover. These forests cannot cater to the demand for food during the dry season which compelled them to visit fringe villages for subsistence which lead to human-monkey conflict and animal mortality,” said Biswas.

Further, over 70 percent of the fragmented forest patches where golden langurs are now found are less than 20 sq. km in area, with an average population of fewer than 50 individuals. Biswas said such small populations of a highly social animal makes them extremely vulnerable to extinction. “The extinction process may act simultaneously on each of the populations, with the result that they will be lost far sooner than one large continuous population,” Biswas cautioned.

Many of these populations have already been extirpated locally in the recent past due to extensive fragmentation, mainly rooted in political and ethnic conflicts that began in the 1980s in the wedge of land in western Assam, a patchwork of ethnic, religious and linguistic identities.

Additionally, roadkills, electrocution by low-slung live wires, occasional poaching, and attacks by dogs are also imperiling the monkeys, formally discovered by naturalist EP Gee in 1953 and described by Khajuria in 1956.  As recently as April, 2020, two golden langurs (a mother and a baby) were killed by a speeding car when a group of 13 monkeys from the Kakoijana RF was crossing the National Highway 31 adjoining the forest.

Meanwhile, a section of activists, organisations, and conservationists has been persistent in their demand to declare the Kakoijana reserve forest and other patches as a wildlife sanctuary to protect the species. But there are differing views on the subject.

“For Kakoijana, merely declaring an area as a wildlife sanctuary does not ensure the protection of its habitat and the primate population as in the case of Borajan-Bherjan-Podumani WLS (that had six primate species) and elsewhere in Assam,” Biswas added, emphasising community initiatives as that seen in Kakoijana.

“Local communities voluntarily support langur conservation by planting trees and protecting the forests from woodcutters and timber smugglers. As a result, the vegetation cover there has increased noticeably compared to the state average. It could be protected as a community conserved area with some legal aspect of protection so that the local community could participate and have access to the forests,” said Biswas.

The 2002 amendment to the Wildlife Protection Act, introduced two new protected area categories, conservation reserves and community reserves, with limited provisions for the participation of communities in the declaration and management of such areas. 

Primatologist Dilip Chetry, vice chair of IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group, South Asia section and executive member in the small ape section of IUCN said bringing the forest under the protected area network would mean some amount of legal protection from land grabbing. “Community participation is absolutely essential but given the current trend of land grabbing in Assam, legal protection is important too,” Chetry, of NGO Aaranyak, told Mongabay-India.

A model of community conservation 

Community participation for golden langur conservation in the form of the Golden Langur Conservation Project, was seeded in the late 1990s amid the political turmoil in the state that began with the unrest of Bodo tribal groups, in the early 1980s, who wished to establish an autonomous Bodoland state. Subsequent political unrest and ethnic violence situation led to major deforestation as forests were logged to finance the conflict in Assam.

Community conservation interventions, such as forest patrols, led by several community-based organisations and non-governmental organisations resulted in almost complete community protection of golden langur habitat, including the Manas Biosphere Reserve, and an increase in the Indian population of golden langurs.

The resolution of the conflict in 2003 saw the formation of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) and the Bodoland Territorial Administration Districts (BTAD) that was carved out in western Assam. The golden langur’s prime habitat at Manas is under the BTAD and BTC now proudly showcases the golden langur as its mascot.

Arnab Bose of Nature’s Foster who first documented the presence of the golden langurs at Kakoijana in 1995 and is spearheading the community-conservation there recalls that 20 years ago “we too had raised our pitch for a wildlife sanctuary but within a year, we realised that without communities we can’t save the golden langur and its habitat. It (wildlife sanctuary) wasn’t the solution and so we didn’t pursue it.”

But getting the community to protect forests was no cakewalk. They brought people belonging to 34 villages spanning seven ethnicities on the same page. “They were culturally distinct and had different lifestyles. We had to plan differently for the different villages. The work was difficult because a generation of people was almost entirely based on firewood collection.” 

But as the community gradually began to imbibe a sense of ownership over their forest, the springs that had dried up started babbling again and the forest canopy was restored to 75 percent. “Other species such as the hornbills have started coming back,” he said.

Divisional Forest Officer Abdel Salam Arief of Aie Valley forest division under which Kakoijana falls, adds that a couple of troops often visit the fringe villages but the people are generally quite respectful to the monkeys. “The indigenous communities don’t generally harm the monkeys,” said Arief.

Tunu Basumatary, who works with the NGO Green Forest Conservation, one of the groups involved in the golden langur conservation in its early days, echoes Arief. “The langurs are quiet. They are not like other monkeys found in the area. They visit our village and once they get what they need, they like to retreat and eat in peace. They keep to themselves and we Bodos consider them to be lucky,” said Basumatary, a resident of Kachugaon, in Kokrajhar district under the BTAD, who has been involved in conservation since 2006.

Basumatary suggests that local communities should be integrated into conservation and research projects to enable them to secure livelihoods and also because often, experts who are not familiar with the region may be overwhelmed with the local challenges. For example, social unrest in recent years and lack of funding thwarted census attempts following the last one in 2009-10. In early 2020, foresters, primatologists, and local communities initiated a fresh census for the golden langurs and efforts are on to wrap up the census.

For enhanced local participation, Arnab Bose batted for claiming community forest (CF) rights and community forest resource (CFR) rights under the Forest Rights Act 2006 (FRA). “We have been discussing with the community on the next step. We are open to community reserve but would prefer CFR rights as that would allow the community to completely manage the forest next to their village,” said Bose.

Threats likely to worsen

“In northeast India, any protected area without the support of the local community is difficult to manage because the activities of communities dominate in comparison to activities of protected area managers. In other parts of the country, for example, Western Ghats, protected areas can be better managed by the managers and many species are doing well. But in northeast India, if we do not involve the community then it doesn’t work,” said primatologist Kumara Honnavalli, Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Coimbatore.

Northeast India, a biodiversity hotspot, is home to 12 of India’s 26 primate species and is witnessing fast-tracked infrastructure development. A recently proposed ordinance in Assam to convert land for setting up industries has stirred up apprehensions.

According to the IUCN report Primates in Peril: The World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates 2016–2018, conservationists are extremely concerned that each of the major threats to golden langurs are increasing and likely to worsen considerably over the coming years, despite a number of conservation initiatives.

Golden langurs have undoubtedly drawn the attention of the public and law makers, yet they are still overshadowed by big charismatic species such as the tiger and elephant. There is a clear and urgent need for further surveys through the entire range of the species in order to record the spatial and temporal demographic changes in dwindling forest patches, the report said, batting for the urgent need to protect areas such as the proposed Ripu Chirang Wildlife Sanctuary, and proposed Kakoijana Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam.

Banner image: Golden langur are primarily leaf eaters but also feed on other plant parts. Photo by J. Biswas

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