Himchhari National Park
Anthropogenic disturbances put biodiversity at risk
Himchhari: Praised for natural beauty.
Himchhari National Park is a lush tropical forest, about 05 KM south of Cox's Bazar town. It is a part of Cox's Bazaar Peninsular Reserved Forest offering a scenic beauty of green hills and blue sea waves. Once upon a time this ever-green tropical forest was a passage for the Asian Elephants. Tigers, which once roamed on this area, are now extirpated due to lack of habitat. The natural beauty of the area provides a welcome break from the hustle and bustle of city life, for locals as well as tourists. More than two million visitors come here each year for recreational activities, picnics, hunting, sunbath and bird watching. It is a paradise for bird watchers. The park was established in 1980 comprising the reserve forest areas of Bhangamera and Chainda blocks under Cox's Bazar Forest Department. The total area of this park is 1,729 hectares bordering the Bay of Bengal, with few remaining hillside semi-evergreen tropical forest patches. The park is managed under several small administrative units (locally known as bits) such as Kolatoli, Himchari, Jhilongja, Link Road and Chainda bit. There are about 50 tree species, and another 50 species of shrubs, grasses, canes, palms, ferns and herbs in the park, while beautiful orchids break the innumerable shades of green with splashes of color. The species richness, composition, structure and canopy closure differ from one place to another. Asar/Patka, Teli-Garjan, Ahoi, Bayur, Kanak Champa, Am-chundul/ Miolam, Talmuli, Satilata and Kulanjan are the indicator plant species of this ecosystem. Most of the plants have highly ethno-botanical values. Many herbs found in this park have therapeutic properties that the local people understand and can make use of. The forest cover is degrading in natural sub-tropical hilly zones, and high forests are gradually shrinking down to low forests, scattered trees and eventually to brush land. The vegetation cover is dominated by herbs, sungrass, shrubs and bushes. Sungrass and scattered groves of natural bamboo are remnant non-wood forest products in the park. At one time the stomping grounds of herds of Asian elephant, Himchhari is still home to a limited number of this majestic animal. Much of the area has been suffering severe deforestation, but nonetheless the reserve harbours important wildlife populations. A transitional ground for the fauna of the Indo-Himalayan and Indo-Malayan ecological sub-regions, the park provides breeding areas for some globally-threatened species of fauna. Its inshore water hosts globally threatened marine turtles and mammals. There are 55 species of mammals, 56 species of reptiles and 13 species of amphibians in this evergreen forest. A small group of Capped Langur, Porcupine, Barking Deer, and Jungle Cat still exists great threats in this park. The park is a congenial habitat for Gibbon, Leopard Cat, Fishing Cat, Tiger, Sloth Bear, Wild Boar, Asiatic Wild Dog, Indian Muntjac, Assamese Monkeys, Slow Loris, Flying Squirrel, Malayan Giant Squirrel and the rare Malayan Box Turtle. The bird lovers never fail to be delighted at the extensive bird-life. Many bird lovers are gathered here to see the variety of bird species, as over 286 birds are found here. Because the area is located along the international bird migration flyways, birds remain an important source of biodiversity with 268 species found in this area including the Barn Swallow, Asian Palm Swift, Indian Myna, and Fruit Pigeons. Due to proximity to a rapidly growing tourist zone -- Cox's Bazar -- increasing population pressure made the park facing overwhelming challenges for last two decades. Dense settlements started in the early 90's by people from off-shore islands and Rohingas from Myanmer. They are dependent on forest reserves for their fuelwood consumption and a large portion of these communities further collect non-wood forest products for their livelihood. The hard core poverty of local communities compels for indiscriminate collection of bushy vegetations as fuelwood and non-wood forest products, and encroachment on forest land. People living inside the park area and neighbouring population are primary resource users who are rampant in resource exploitation and expand encroachments. Cutting / leveling of the hills, removal of remaining vegetation coverage from hills and grazing by settlers' cattle are major causes of forest degradation, erosion and landslides. Few decades ago extremely high level of illicit felling and extraction of timber, fuelwood, bamboo and other Non-wood forest products occurred. Due to absence of mother trees and consecutive firing no natural regeneration occurs and sungrass invades the areas. For the scarcity of fuelwood scavengers are removing thin bushy vegetation cover from hills. Excessive exploitation, clear cutting, poaching, expansion of settlement, Rohinga immigrants, agricultural activities, betel leaf cultivation, land encroachment, shifting cultivation, unemployment, accessibility to forest, easy mobility, brickfield/sawmill operation, forest patrol, hunting, vegetable collection, sand extraction, invasion of sun grass are the major threats to biodiversity as well as natural regeneration. Picnic is not congenial for natural regeneration due to the continuous human movements. Small seedlings cannot attain the size of large seedlings, saplings and mature trees. The intensity of picnic activities decreases the vitality of the mature trees. Picnic also decreases the level of humus, nutrient supply, pH values and electrical conductivity, and contrarily increases soil compactness. The most obvious impacts on the vegetation are caused by camping and walking with the effects of the vegetation being crushed, sheared off, and uprooted. These impacts change the vegetation including loss of height, biomass, reproductive structures (e.g. flowers, fruits), reduction in cover, damage to seedlings and change in species composition. The following measures can be taken to conserve the biodiversity and minimize the human disturbances: * Declaring the park as transnational ecosystem for plant and wildlife * Prohibiting clearance of wood, shrubs and herbs * Strictly prohibiting destruction, collection, hunting, poaching of rare species (either flora or fauna) * Motivating not only the inside of the park but also buffer zone, forest edge and adjacent areas * Promoting local people in conservation programme * Aforestation in the open space and on sand dunes by the native plant species * Monitoring of biological resources * Establishing an information system of biodiversity * Emphasizing on ex-situ conservation of endangered species * Creating public awareness by using different media * Raising funds for conservation programme * Maintaining and restoring natural ecosystem * Maintaining at least two canopy layers (bimodal or reverse J-shaped diameter distribution) * Maintaining mixed canopy tree species suited to the sites * Planting large diameter trees with strong root systems to provide critical structure for habitat of some animals and to prevent chronic erosion of beach *Strengthening forest monitoring, research and development, education, and capacity building to maintain a “cradle” of biodiversity in the core buffer zone * Halting introduction of alien invasive species * Gap filling by rare tree species * Facilitating natural regeneration * Protecting natural regenerations (seedling, sapling and juvenile trees) from cutting * Establishing gene banks to conserve the gene pool of endangered species * Bringing endangered animals in captivity for breeding * Adopting alternative income generation for local stakeholders * Planning ecotourism management that will create a bioregional ecotourism plan * Landscape regeneration coupled with well managed tourism programmes in buffer zones * Sharing the conservation plan with the communities in pivotal areas * Taking Adaptive Ecotourism Management backing by a set of research based indicators * Allowing limited number of picnic parties for particular picnic spots * Keeping balance between the number of picnic spots and the number of picnic parties * Initiating comprehensive research activities to measure and monitor the impact of tourism on soil characteristics and plants to understand the role of the damages for ecosystem processes * Reducing human population growth in forests * Introducing biological corridors * Leaving denuded forest lands untouched for 20 years to promote natural succession * Introducing pioneer and early successional species in the degraded forests * Taking effective actions against encroachers and land grabbers * Taking appropriate actions against animal poaching * Alleviating poverty in the adjacent areas of forests * Searching for alternative fuel sources in the forest and adjacent areas * Controlling animal grazing
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments