A field study was carried out on two villages in the fringe of the Kaziranga National Park in Assam from 7 March to 21 April 2012. Julie Alet, forest engineer, and Mathilde Orlhac, agronomy student, spent one month and a half in Bokakhat, Golaghat district, collecting relevant data for the study. The Indian state of Assam is facing profound changes affecting the landscape dynamics. The unpredictable Brahmaputra river regime, the high immigration, the competition for the space between human and wildlife and the construction of mega hydroelectric dams in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh are some of those factors. Inhabitants from the two villages, Dhuba Ati and Kanduli Mari, were interviewed. Those villages are located within a 5-km band around the Kaziranga Nation Park. They were selected to be as representative as possible of the focused area. Dhuba ati is a small Mising village whose main occupations are farming and fishing, and share a common frontier with the KNP. It was created some few years after the earthquake of 1950. It is now developing an eco-village, which is the first successful attempt of such an initiative in the district and could be interesting in relation to future perspectives. As for Kanduli Mari, it is composed of several communities and was created generations before the earthquake. The villagers are more independent from the agricultural sector, having commonly one job in addition to their paddy cultivation. The villagers were mainly asked about their land management since their arriving in the villages, trying to explain how they came to their current practices. Relations with the wildlife coming from the Kaziranga and the Karbi Hills, the way they are handling the floods or again the help that they receive from the government were also visited topics. In addition, some administrative bodies were met to tally with the villagers interviews. The villages were mapped, reflecting the agricultural pattern in the March-April months just before the monsoon starting. A coming analysis of satellite images of the region in the past years is planned in order to extract the past forest covers and the Brahmaputra movements. This study aims at understanding the past and current landscape dynamics of the region. Future trends could then be extrapolated and possible scenarios explored, to tackle among other the food issue in Assam, the cohabitation between humans and wildlife and the settling of new mega infrastructures.
Speakers
Julie Alet, Ingénieur d'étude, IFP
Mathilde Orlhac, Trainee, Montpellier Supagro, France
Organisers
Department of Ecology, French Institute of Pondicherry.
Venue
Parampara room, French Institute of Pondicherry, 11, Saint Louis Street, Pondicherry - 605 001.
