Case Facts

 A wild stretch of blue mountains lay in the front of A.J.T Johnsingh and Kamal Medhi, as
they stood at an altitude of 3352.8 metres.
 Johnsingh and Medhi were in the higher atitudes of western Arunachal Pradesh to
evaluate the three Community Conservation Areas (CCA) established by World Wide
Fund for Nature (WWF)-India.
 Arunachal Pradesh, spread over 83743 square kilometres had nearly 60 % of its area
under forest cover that is 51540 sq. km. It’s a globally important centre for biodiversity.
 60% of its forest cover was classified as “unclassed state forest, or USF “and was largely
under the control of the local community.
 Pressure on these ecological fragile forests were negligible some decades ago but several
factors have increased the pressure on them.
 The State of Forest Report (2011) had recorded a decline of 74 sq.km. in the forest cover
in the community owned forest land in the state.
 WWF-India was engaged with members of the Monpa community in the Western
Arunachal Landscape (WAL) since 2004-2005. The WWF-India in WAL covers 7000
sq.km. including snowbound areas within Tawang and West Kameng district which
together have an area 11000 sq.km.
 Its effort had resulted in the establishment of the three CCAs – the Thembang Bapu CCA
(635 sq.km.) in West Kameng district, and the Pangchen Lumpo Muchat CCA in
Pangchen Valley (98 sq.km.) and the Pangchem Lakhar CCA (85 sq.km.).
 A nullah near Baisakhi Army camp was will with plastic water bottles, plasticised
cardboard cartons and other garbage. A problem associated with the accumulation of
garbage was the proliferation of free ranging dogs, which are a threat to wild ungulates
such as the barking deer and the sambar.
 The most disturbing development in the West Kameng district was tomato cultivation in
river valleys by the encroachment upon the mountain slopes. Heavy pesticides and
fertilizers are reportedly used to cultivate the tomato crop.
 The road construction work between Bhalukpong and Tawang was going on decades. It
impacts roadside vegetation, particularly along the stretch on the slope of Sela Pass
(3962.4 km).
 The main conversation problem in Tawang district was the enormous extraction of wood.
Oak was preferred fuel wood as it generated more heat.
 Government Offices also consumed enormous amount of wood for heating rooms in the
winter. Large amount of wood for Tawang district came from areas such as Mandala-
Naga grazing grounds in West Kameng.

Page 1 of 1