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CORRESPONDENCE
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 100, NO. 4, 25 FEBRUARY 2011 445
Conservation amidst political unrest: the case of Manas National Park,
India
Across the world there exists a large
overlap of biodiversity hotspots with
areas experiencing high levels of socio-
political and ethnic conflicts, making the
impacts of such activities a critical factor
for long-term conservation of biodiver-
sity in these regions1. India is no excep-
tion with many forested areas, including
protected areas, experiencing conflicts of
varying intensity owing to numerous
complicated issues ranging from cultural
identity to socio-political and environ-
mental security. Such conflicts not only
act as a major impediment to scientific
monitoring, protection and management
in the biodiversity-rich areas, but also
lead to abuse of wildlife and natural
areas by conflict parties and opportunis-
tic elements in the absence of adequate
protection and monitoring forces. There-
fore, in the collective interest of biodi-
versity conservation, a greater challenge
perhaps lies in devising new ways and
methods to conserve landscapes in strife-
torn areas, where emotions are often
charged up and conservation of biodiver-
sity does not figure among the immediate
priorities.
The Manas National Park (henceforth
Manas), a UNESCO World Heritage
(WH) site (in danger) is a part of the
Himalayan biodiversity hotspot in the
northeastern region of India. It also
forms the core of the Manas Tiger Re-
serve, which is recognized as an impor-
tant tiger habitat. In 1985, when Manas
was listed as a WH site, it not only had a
large tiger population, but also other
large carnivores as well as diverse and
abundant populations of wild ungulates
to sustain them2. Soon Manas was en-
gulfed in the politico-ethnic disturbance
that started in and around the landscape
in the late 1980s, whereby the Bodo
community, the largest tribal group of
Assam, was demanding greater political
rights and powers. The violence that
followed caused large-scale damage to
Manas, with the habitat, wildlife, and
management and protection activities
suffering immensely. It also led to the
local extinction of the great Indian one-
horned rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis) and
the swamp deer (Cervus duvauceli
rangitsinhi). In 2003, after a long and
strenuous period of political negotia-
tions, the Bodo Territorial Council
(BTC) was established within Assam,
which provided the local Bodo commu-
nity legislative, administrative, executive
and financial autonomy in the Bodo-
dominated areas of northwestern Assam.
This led to a decline in violence at all
levels, thus paving way for return of
peace and normalcy to the area. With
the resolution of the political issues, the
BTC leadership along with numerous
local and non-local stakeholders took up
the task of restoring and recovering the
lost attributes of Manas. These efforts
find mention in the monitoring mission
report of the WH site committee of
UNESCO, which recognized the will and
motivation of the administration and the
local leadership to reclaim the WH status
for Manas3. However, the major handi-
cap towards accomplishing this was
the lack of reliable scientific data on the
wildlife populations, which is critical to
formulating proper monitoring plans for
the park3.
We initiated a study in the national
park (NP) region of Manas in 2008 to
estimate the recovery of wildlife using
the current scientific techniques after
violence and political disturbance had
ceased. Due to the absence of any previ-
ous estimates of the carnivore and prey
abundances using similar methods, we
tried comparing tiger and prey popula-
tion densities from other tiger reserves
that used similar methods to gain insights
on the ongoing restorations and recovery
interventions and processes (Figure 1).
The four protected areas of India that
we chose for comparison were Pench
Tiger Reserve (PTR), Kanha NP, Nagar-
hole NP and Kaziranga NP, as they were
not experiencing any conflicts besides
having comparable data4,5. Though
Manas recorded low abundances of both
tiger (1.86 per 100 km–2) and its prey
(36.7 km–2) compared to the other
reserves, the prey abundances are compa-
rable to those of PTR (40 km–2). The
study was carried out in the central and
eastern ranges (Bansbari and Bhuyanpara
respectively) of Manas, which were fast-
recovering areas with the protection and
management regime being restored. We
recommend further rigorous sampling of
the entire NP (500 sq. km) and the Tiger
Reserve (2837 sq. km) to get a complete
picture of the recovery patterns across
the entire reserve.
Results from our study indicate some
signs of improvement for ungulates in
Manas, pointing towards a recovery in
the animal populations. The preliminary
sign encounter survey of carnivores and
they prey carried out by us in 2006 as a
planning exercise was lower than that
carried out in 2008. Multiple captures of
rare animals, viz. the clouded leopard
(Neofelis nebulosa), pygmy hog (Porcula
salvania), crab-eating mongoose (Herpe-
stes urva) and leopard cat (Prionailurus
bengalensis) through camera traps
pointed to their survival through the con-
flict. On scrutinizing the visitor’s register
in the park, we saw a consistent increase
in the number and frequency of the sight-
ings. Numerous direct sightings of
the rare, yellow-throated martens
(Martes flavigula), smooth-coated otters
(Lutrogale perspicillata), dholes (Cuon
alpinus), and the Bengal florican (Hou-
baropsis bengalensis) during the survey
were also significant indications of
recovery. The unanimous perception of
local villagers towards an improved
wildlife scenario in recent years only
substantiated the ominous signs of re-
covery. Management and protection is
also bouncing back on track with several
new protection schemes and patrols be-
ing launched. Repair and reconstruction
of the old and damaged camps, and con-
struction of newer anti-poaching camps
are also being undertaken. Translocation
of several wild rhinos to Manas in
the past two years under the aegis of the
Indian Rhino Vision 2020 and ongoing
Figure 1. Tiger (Panthera tigris) at the
Manas National Park in March 2008.
CORRESPONDENCE
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 100, NO. 4, 25 FEBRUARY 2011
446
plans of swamp-deer translocation in the
near future are important steps towards
restoration and recovery.
Recent news reports and developments
suggest an emerging system and agree-
ment of trans-boundary joint protection
and management regime, which would
be implemented jointly with Bhutan. It is
a significant development since the for-
ests of Bhutan, contiguous to Manas, not
only provide critical corridors for move-
ment of large animals, but also act as a
safe refuge during disturbance and con-
flicts to which the Indian part remains
vulnerable owing to higher population
and developmental pressures. Currently,
several organizations, including the
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-
India programme), Aaranyak and ATREE/
UNESCO are collaborating to provide
technical support to the government’s
efforts at scientifically estimating the
wildlife/tiger population in Manas.
Manas is recovering. However, to sus-
tain this recovery combined efforts of the
BTC, the Assam Forest Department, the
local community along with stakeholders
at several levels spanning local, regional
to international agencies, governments,
and academic and civil society institu-
tions would be critical. With an extended
favourable social and political climate
and popular support for conservation
activities and rigorous science informing
political decision-making, we can hope
for the emergence of a stronger and resil-
ient Manas, which can remain secure and
buffered from future setbacks.
1. Hanson, T., et al., Conserv. Biol., 2009,
23, 578–587.
2. Deb Roy, S., Tigerpaper, 1991, 18, 6–15.
3. Debonnet, G. and Lethier, H., World Heri-
tage Committee, United Nations Educa-
tional Scientific and Cultural Organization
Mission Report – Manas Wildlife Sanctu-
ary (India), Quebec, 2008, p. 39.
4. Karanth, K. U., Nichols, J. D., Kumar, N.
S., Link, W. A. and Hines, J. E., Proc.
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 2004, 101, 4854–
4858.
5. Carbone, C. et al., Anim. Conserv., 2001,
4, 75–79.
RAJKAMAL GOSWAMI*
THYAGARAJAN GANESH
Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology
and the Environment,
Royal Enclave,
Sri Ramapura, Jakkur PO,
Bangalore 560 064, India
*e-mail: rajkamal@atree.org
Misuse of scientometry for individual assessment
Many scientists in India, young and old,
are getting preoccupied with scientomet-
rics, and phrases such as ‘impact factor’,
‘h-index’ and ‘number of citations’ are
being heard often in conversations among
them. What is disturbing is that many
times these factors weigh heavily in sci-
entific hirings, promotions and awards in
the country, and actual serious discussion
of the scientific contributions which
merit such recognitions is lacking. This
trend is influencing and pressurizing
young researchers into getting unduly
concerned about citations-based recogni-
tion by pursuing scientific bandwagons
at the cost of doing creative science
which may not be fashionable at present.
Thankfully, for the most prestigious
prize in science, it is heartening to see that
scientometrics is not the basis of the award.
Recent Nobel Prizes have been awarded
to scientists who may not rank at the top
either on the number of publications or on
the h-index. Examples are Venky Rama-
krishnan (2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry)
and Koichi Tanaka (2001 Nobel Prize in
Chemistry). It is indeed well known that
in some instances the work for which a
Nobel Prize is awarded becomes highly
cited only after the award, as the award
highlights the importance of the work.
This state of affairs is reminiscent of
the efforts to measure the intelligence of
humans in the 19th and 20th centuries,
chronicled in the book, The Mismeasure
of Man by Stephen Jay Gould1. The
intelligence of a human was reduced to a
number by methods such as craniometry
(measuring the skull volume) and psycho-
logical testing. Based on these studies, it
was erroneously concluded that women
were less intelligent than men and that
whites were more intelligent than other
races. The intelligence quotient (IQ)
which was based on psychological test-
ing and which was first introduced with
the noble purpose of identifying children
who required special attention in the
Montessories, was twisted and misused.
For instance, IQ became the basis on
which lower immigration quotas were set
for East Europeans compared to West
Europeans for settling in the United
States.
It has been shown that impact factors
of journals can be raised by artificial
means. So also can the ranking of institu-
tions by methods which have a high
weightage for scientometrics. Further-
more, citation to a work does not neces-
sarily mean approval of the work and can
often be a scathing criticism. It also does
not mean that the work is original, since
reviews which are just compilations of
the work in a field often attract a large
number of citations.
Scientometry can be helpful in assess-
ing institutions and departments, instead
of individuals. This is so because,
like statistics, scientometric analysis is
helpful when applied to large numbers.
It can tell us about the state of activity of
groups to make decisions regarding
funding and remedial measures to
improve a certain institution or depart-
ment. But, using it to evaluate individual
scientists for career advancements and
recognitions must be stopped. Hence-
forth nominations for awards and
fellowships, papers for promotion, and
application forms for faculty positions
should desist from asking for scientomet-
ric information of individuals. Assess-
ments must be made solely on the merit
of the scientific contributions of the
individual concerned.
1. Balaram, P., Curr. Sci., 2004, 87, 273–274.
S. RAMASESHA1
DIPTIMAN SEN2,*
1Solid State and Structural Chemistry
Unit, and
2Centre for High Energy Physics,
Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore 560 012, India
*e-mail: diptiman@cts.iisc.ernet.in
