Shared parenting

88 T H E H I N D U S U R V E Y O F T H E E N V I R O N M E N T 2 0 1 2

It was March 2004 and the forest was hot anddry, even in the foothill forests of Pakke TigerReserve in Arunachal Pradesh. The majestic

Tetrameles nudiflora (Bhelu) tree was floweringand leafless.

High up on its main trunk was an oval-shapedcavity, left behind when a large branch had bro-ken off. Over time, the cavity had been adopted asa nest by a pair of breeding Wreathed hornbills.Eight of every ten hornbill nests here are on Bhelutrees. We had found this nest way back in 1997.And every year since then, a Wreathed hornbillpair had used it.

That day in March 2004, things changed; we

were out in the forest checking all the hornbillnests we had discovered, to see whether nestinghad been initiated. Suddenly, we saw a pair ofGreat hornbills flying around the Wreathed horn-bill nest. They chased the Wreathed hornbill pairwho were cleaning out the cavity to initiate nest-ing for the year. This strife continued for severaldays. The Great hornbill pair did not nest thatyear, although they hung around the tree andcalled frequently.

The Wreathed hornbill pair could not nesteither, and the cavity remained unused that year.The following year, it was used for nesting by theGreat hornbill. We had witnessed our first nest

Shared parenting A programme to adopt hornbill nests in Arunachal Pradesh is

giving these great birds a chance to survive in Pakke,say Aparajita Datta, Amruta Rane and Tana Tapi.

A brown hornbill male on a feeding visit to the nest in a reserve forest in Miao, eastern Arunachal Pradesh. This co-operatively breeding species has a restricted distribution in lowland forest

mainly in eastern Arunachal and upper Assam. PHOTO: RAMKI SREENIVASAN/CONSERVATION INDIA

CONSERVATION

T H E H I N D U S U R V E Y O F T H E E N V I R O N M E N T 2 0 1 2 8 9

A wreathed hornbill. PHOTO: SANDESH KADUR /WWW.FELIS.IN


takeover. This was our first evidence that suitablecavities for nesting were limited and that hornbillpairs competed for them.

Another first happened that year. We found apair of Wreathed hornbills nesting on an Ailan-thus grandis (Borpat) tree by the roadside. Thattree had a cavity that we had always thought wassuitable for hornbills, but prior to this, we hadnever seen it being used. A Tetrameles tree in a salplantation close to habitation was also used byWreathed hornbills.

On yet another Tetrameles tree with a cavity,which was partially smothered by a strangler fig,we watched a pair of Great hornbills inspectingand cleaning, and finally the female entering andsealing the cavity to spend the bulk of the nestingseason incarcerated. Again, we had watched thistree every year thinking it could be a potential nesttree, but hornbills had never used it earlier.

These observations left us wondering whyhornbills were starting to use ‘sub-optimal' cav-ities that they did not seem to care for earlier.

Between 1995-2005, there had been massive

deforestation in the forests of Sonitpur district inneighbouring Assam. Over 300 sq. km adjoiningPakke's forests had been lost. This forest was idealhabitat for hornbills. Several hornbill nest treesthat we found between 1997 and 2000 were inthese reserve forests in Assam. They were all goneby 2001. There had also been degradation of thereserve forests outside Pakke from anthropogenicactivities.

In a study between 1997 and 2000, we hadobserved that all three common hornbill species,the Wreathed, Great and Oriental Pied hornbillsused mainly Bhelu trees for nesting (another spe-cies, the endangered Rufous-necked hornbill, oc-curs mainly in higher elevation areas). But therewere fine-scale differences in the kinds of cavitiesselected, with cavity size, location and shape beingdifferent. And we had never seen direct competi-tion for nest cavities among the three hornbillspecies.

But things had changed.Since 2005, we have observed several more

instances of nest takeovers between hornbill spe-

Map showing hornbill nests being monitored inside Pakke TR and outside in the Reserve Forest in Arunachal Pradesh. MAP CREDIT: R. RAGHUNATH, NCF


cies, with Wreathed hornbills taking over Orien-tal Pied hornbill nests and Great hornbills takingover Wreathed hornbill nests. In two instances,we found that both Wreathed and Oriental Piedhornbills used different cavities on the same tree!

It became apparent that due to the shrinkingof their habitat in Assam, hornbills were facing ashortage of nest cavities and these instances ofdirect competition for nests were the outcome.Hornbills do not make their own nest cavities,and are ‘secondary cavity-nesters' with a pro-longed breeding season when they remain vul-nerable to disturbances.

In 2003, the Nature Conservation Foundationhad initiated a long-term nest and roost monitor-ing programme in Pakke. Most of the nests wehave monitored since 2003 were inside the PakkeTiger Reserve and there has been no further loss ofnest trees inside, although, all known nests are notactive every year and active nests are abandonedoccasionally or breeding is unsuccessful for other

reasons. The percentage of successful nesting inmost years is 80-100 per cent of active nests.

Since 2003, we had also monitored 7 nest treesoutside Pakke in the Papum Reserve Forest. Theirsuccess was highly variable and in some years thebreeding pair would abandon the nest trees mid-way, resulting in unsuccessful nesting, while inother years, the nests remained inactive. Ultimate-ly, all of them fell to the axe.

Out of the total 62 trees we had monitoredfrom 1997 to 2010, 12 had got cut down. All werein the Reserve Forest. Apart from their nestingtrees, countless hornbills must also have fallen tothe gun.

Yet, these Reserve Forests outside cover a largearea (> 1000 sq. km) and are important habitat forhornbills and need to be protected better. Wetend to consider only Protected Areas as beingimportant for wildlife, and disregard surroundingforest habitats as ‘sinks' not worth too muchattention.

The field team in Pakke - young nest watchers, the gaonburras (some of whom are also nest watchers and Ghora-Aabhemembers), the DFO of Pakke, Tana Tapi and NCF’s project co-ordinator Amruta Rane. PHOTO: APARAJITA DATTA

Between 1995-2005, there had been massive deforestationin the forests of Sonitpur district in neighbouring Assam. Over 300 sq. km adjoining Pakke's forests had been lost.

This forest was ideal habitat for hornbills.


We felt the need for finding a way to protectnests outside the park in the adjoining reserveforest, include villagers in the conservation effortand expand the scope and impact of the programfor long-term conservation of all the hornbill spe-cies in the area.

Hunting and habitat loss are severe threats tohornbills in North-east India. Till 2002, there wasfrequent hunting of hornbills in Pakke and itssurrounding forests, although the Nyishi had al-ways followed a traditional ban on hunting duringthe breeding season which is followed in manyother areas in Arunachal.

As a result of increased awareness among thelocal Nyishi community and efforts to substitutereal hornbill beaks with fiberglass beaks (an initia-tive of the Wildlife Trust of India and the Aru-nachal Pradesh Forest Department), the villagersaround Pakke had publicly banned hunting ofhornbills year-round since 2002.

From 2003 onwards, the Nyishi communityaround Pakke has slowly changed its attitudes towildlife conservation.

In 2006, wildlife protection efforts further ex-panded in the area. Among other initiatives, the

Ghora-Aabhe was formed. This is a council ofvillage headmen (supported by the Arunachal Pra-desh Forest Department) who are trying to ensurecompliance of the locally imposed hunting ban onall wildlife.

This was a remarkable initiative in many ways– the headmen of 14 villages were convinced tobecome conservation partners with the Forest De-partment in protecting wildlife and helping createawareness among other villagers.

Over the years, Pakke had gained a reputationas a haven for hornbills and indeed it remains thebest place in north-east India for four sympatrichornbill species.

While the threat of hunting declined and theprotection system got strengthened and hornbillsand their nest trees remained relatively safe insidePakke, hornbill habitats outside continued to rap-idly disappear.

How were we to persuade local people to pro-tect hornbill nests outside Pakke? We needed toengage at least a section of the community inprotection and monitoring activities in a mea-ningful way. The model of Pilai Poonswad's pio-neering and long-running Hornbill Family

A Great hornbill male on a feeding visit to the nest in Pakke Tiger Reserve. PHOTO: SANDESH KADUR /WWW.FELIS.IN


Adoption Program in Thailand seemed a greatway forward.

The idea was to engage and bring together twosets of distant people united by the common de-sire to conserve, local and urban. The local com-munity contributes by searching for, monitoringand protecting nests in the forests around theirvillages while the urban community contributesby supporting the program financially, assisting asvolunteers and occasionally as visitors.

The idea is simple. Concerned urban individu-als adopt a hornbill nest at a cost (Rs. 5,000).They, in turn, receive information about the sta-tus of the nests and what happened to the horn-bills that nested in a given year.

The money raised through their generosity isused for partly employing a few villagers to pro-tect nests and a share of the funds is also providedto the Ghora-Aabhe at the end of the breedingseason for village welfare and developmentactivities.

This system results, remarkably, in each horn-bill chick ending up having three sets of parents!Their biological parents who feed and take care ofthem, another set of parents belonging to the sur-rounding villages that watch over their nests andprotect them from harm, and a third far-away setof parents who help to financially sustain thisprogram.

In February 2011, we had initial discussionswith the Ghora-Aabhe members to gauge theirinterest and willingness to participate. We askedinterested members of the Ghora-Aabhe to startby locating new nests near their villages in thebreeding season of 2011 (March to July).

By May, Tajek Wage, Pahi Tachang and Bud-hiram had found nine nests (3 Great hornbillnests, 4 Wreathed hornbill nests and 3 OrientalPied hornbill nests). Tajek Wage in his enthusi-asm visited all the nests he found to check onthem all through the breeding season, eventhough we had not asked him to monitor the nestsdaily. The birds exited from the nests by the 2ndweek of July.

In June, the Nature Conservation Foundation,Ghora-Aabhe members and the Forest Depart-

ment finalized an agreement to initiate the pro-gram fully from the breeding season of 2012. Thethree partners have clearly specified roles and theagreement has been signed for 3 years.

We decided to involve all nine villages alongthe southern boundary of Pakke Tiger Reserve inthis effort. This seemed a great way to start, butwe were not sure if it was going to be easy.

However, Takam Nabum (Chairman, Ghora-Aabhe) took charge and by November had in-formed all the villages and they had meetings toselect a person from each village who would be the‘Nest protector'.

An educated Nyishi youth was also selected tobe the local field co-ordinator. On November 28,2011, all the nest watchers signed a formal confir-mation for participation in the program. The nestwatchers are a mix of old, experienced people withknowledge of the forest (veterans like Tajek Wageand Pahi Tachang) and of younger men. Theyagreed to a salary of Rs. 3000 per month for eightmonths (January to August), which encompassesthe entire breeding season.

Hornbills usually come out of the nest by July-August. The nest watchers also came forward tovolunteer during the non-breeding season to findand monitor hornbill roost sites.

Following this, we again met in December2011 for a discussion about job responsibilitiesand related issues. They were to work in groups oftwo (with the experienced people helping theyounger ones), and start searching for nests fromJanuary onwards.

Hornbills in the area start nesting from mid-March (female entry into nest cavity), however itis important to look for nests from January aspairs are seen flying around inspecting and clean-ing potential cavities and engaging in courtshipbehaviour.

In January 2012, a training session was orga-nized on how to look for nests and the data thatthe nest watchers need to record near the nesttrees. From this year onwards, nest watchers willmonitor the nests throughout the breeding seasonvisiting each nest at least 1-2 times a week takingcare not to disturb the birds, carefully record the

As a result of increased awareness among the local Nyishi communityand efforts to substitute real hornbill beaks with fiberglass beaks (aninitiative of the Wildlife Trust of India and the Arunachal Pradesh

Forest Department), the villagers around Pakke had publiclybanned hunting of hornbills year-round since 2002.


The emergent tree Tetrameles nudiflora (Bhelu), the hornbill’s favourite nesting tree in Pakke and its surrounding forests. PHOTO: APARAJITA DATTA


nest exit and entry dates and determine whethernesting was successful. They have been providedwith equipment and other essentials for theirwork.

In March the enthusiastic nest watchers hadalready located 26 potential nests of hornbills out-side in the Papum Reserve Forest and 17 of thesesites are showing signs of activity with hornbillsinspecting and cleaning the cavities. In some, thefemales have entered and have sealed the cavities.

We have already faced some challenges andanticipate more along the way. But we findenough inspiration in our collective vision ofabundant Bhelu trees, a thriving population ofhornbills, busy males providing for their partnersand the mothers in turn taking care of their chicksunder the watchful eyes of Nyishi protectors. And

this novel relationship between the Nyishi andhornbills is supported through the generosity of agrowing bunch of concerned citizens. With threesets of parents caring for them, Pakke's hornbillshave a promising future.

The Rufous-necked hornbill is listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN, and some higher elevation forests in Arunachal Pradesh are among the few places globally

to have relatively good populations. PHOTO: RAMKI SREENIVASAN/CONSERVATION INDIA

Aparajita Datta and Amruta Rane are with NatureConservation Foundation, Mysore. Tana Tapi is DFO,Pakke Wildlife Division, Arunachal Pradesh.

ENSY-07

Shared parenting

Documents