REVIVAL OF BIRDSONGS

The turnaround began in 2017-18. Birds, including some from Siberia and China, have returned to the area around the national park in Assam, so have the tourists. Prasanta Majumdar reports on conservation and community growth

- Prasanta Majumdar

Known for its feral horses and bird life, Assam's Dibru-Saikhowa National Park has often been threatened by population pressures and habitat destruction.

The Brahmaputra flows gently past the national park, while its tributaries, the Dibang and Lohit, converge with it a little farther. Till a few years ago, grasslands by the verdant riverside in the park's fringe areas were facing significant threats due to siltation, overgrazing and cultivation. Birds—both residential and migratory—were not safe either. Some villagers would poison them to death for their meat.

Cut to 2025, the region has emerged as a bird-based tourism hotspot boosting the local economy, thanks to a group of young naturalists who were able to positively transform people's perspectives on nature and the environment.

Sumit Das (26), an MSc in botany, led this movement that began when he was in high school. He developed an intrinsic relationship with nature as a child, growing up in its lap. Das was born at Kalia, a nondescript village in the national park's vicinity. He was in Class 6 when he had witnessed the steady disappearance of grasslands. Birds in the wetlands were also killed with impunity.