Data Zone
Country/territory: India
IBA criteria met: A1 (2004)
For more information about IBA criteria, please click here
Area: 2,098 ha
| IBA conservation status | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year of assessment (most recent) | State (condition) | Pressure (threat) | Response (action) |
| 2003 | not assessed | high | not assessed |
| For more information about IBA monitoring, please click here | |||
Site description (2004 baseline)
Hollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary is located in Jorhat district of eastern Assam. It has a history of more than a century as a reserved forest, as it was notified on August 27, 1881 as Hollongapar Reserve Forest (Choudhury 1999). This small reserve forest is known for its primate populations and was proposed as a Sanctuary mainly for their conservation (Choudhury 1989). The Sanctuary is 25 km from Jorhat town and 320 km from Guwahati, and well connected by motorable roads. The Sanctuary covers an area of about 2,000 ha of Tropical Semi-evergreen Forest in the basin of the Brahmaputra river. The Sanctuary is known for its populations of Hoolock Gibbon Hylobates hoolock and Stump-tailed Macaque Macaca arctoides.. The first study on gibbons in this forest was carried out by Tilson (1979). Despite the fact that it is a small area, the forest is still intact. The top canopy of the forest has evergreen trees, such as Dipterocarpus macrocarpus, Shorea assamica, Artocarpus chaplasha and Tetrameles sp. The second storey also has mostly evergreens, including Mesua ferrea, Sapium baccatum and Amoora wallichii.
Key biodiversity
AVIFAUNA: No work on the bird fauna has been done in this Sanctuary, except for sight records of White-winged Duck Cairina scutulata by Choudhury (2000). This site has been selected as an IBA only on the basis of occurrence of this highly endangered species. However, more globally threatened forest species are likely to occur here. The forest, though small, and partitioned by a railway line and a kutcha road, is still intact. Many forest species are likely to occur here. We consider this as a Data Deficient site because good information on the bird life is lacking.
OTHER KEY FAUNA: The other fauna of the Sanctuary includes Asian Elephant Elephas maximus, Tiger Panthera tigris, Leopard P. pardus, Leopard Cat Prionailurus bengalensis, Sambar Cervus unicolor (no recent sighting), Barking Deer Muntiacus muntjak, Wild Boar Sus scrofa, Chinese Porcupine Hystrix brachyura, Chinese Pangolin Manis pentadactyla and Malayan Giant Squirrel Ratufa bicolor. Primates recorded were Slow Loris Nycticebus coucang, Assamese Macaque M. assamensis, Rhesus Macaque M. mulatta, Pig-tailed Macaque M. nemestrina, Stump-tailed Macaque, Capped Langur Trachypithecus pileatus and Hoolock Gibbon (Choudhury 1999).
Indian Rock Python Python molurus and a variety of other snakes are also found.
Acknowledgements
Key contributors: Anwaruddin Choudhury and Kulojyoti Lahkar.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Gibbon (Hollongapar) Sanctuary (India). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/gibbon-(hollongapar)-sanctuary-iba-india on 22/11/2024.