Submitted by Shyamal Datta, a photographer and writer from India.
Langurs on a Cliff Edge: Saving our Relatives
Some of our earliest and closest relatives, namely primates, are in trouble. They are on the brink of extinction. One of these, the Golden Langur (Trachipithecus geei), is found only in one corner of the planet (Bhutan and Western Assam and India in tiny pockets), inside so-called protected ‘reserve forests’. They are seriously threatened, with a 50% drop in their population during the last twenty years. The estimated surviving number of Golden Langurs is anywhere between 2000 to 3000 with a declining trend, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the authority of the status of wildlife worldwide.
Short of urgent action and support, these beautiful creatures are destined to be seen only in zoos in the not so distant future. Something needs to change to protect the magnificent Golden Langur.
My fascination with these beautiful and intelligent primates dates back to 2004 when I first saw and photographed them in Assam. From then on I embarked on a personal mission to do what I could through my photographic endeavours to assist in the long term conservation of these fascinating creatures. Since 2008 I have been traveling to locations in Western Assam and Bhutan on a quest to photograph them in the wild. The images are used to raise funds to assist communities and organizations who are working tirelessly at the ground level in the conservation of their habitat.
The single most significant threat to the Golden Langur is the illegal destruction of forests. Today their habitat has shrunk down to 3000 square kilometres in the state of Assam in India – between the Sankosh River in the west, to Manas River in the east and the Brahmaputra River in the south. In the north, the Blue Mountains of Bhutan contain the last remaining areas of their home. Having said that, no conservation work is worth its name without the involvement and engagement of the communities who live near the habitat of these primates. This is so because the most serious threat the Golden Langur faces now is the shrinkage of their forest habitat (sub-tropical, humid deciduous forests and also humid evergreen forests) due to illegal logging by these communities themselves.
Today the langurs live in pockets of forests cut off from each other, preventing their genetic distribution and resulting in inbreeding. There is an urgent need to reconnect the pockets of forest in order to create biodiversity corridors for them to move through their habitat and inter-mingle sexually so that a healthy population can thrive. A conservation plan to conserve existing forests, to encourage and involve communities to plant trees, to rebuild canopy corridors and wean away these communities from hunting or destroying forests is urgently needed. This will have an immediate impact on arresting the population decline of the Golden Langur.
The nine images of the Golden Langurs in my submission reflect the diversity of their behaviour and their moods. The sequence ends with the image of a female who almost seems to look upward, imploring Providence to help them survive their looming annihilation.
My images are being used in educational and awareness campaigns in the areas surrounding the forest habitat of these langurs. All images of the langurs are donated to field staff of non-governmental volunteer organisations who work in these areas to help educate and create mass awareness of the significance and importance of saving these primates from extinction in the wild. I would like to produce an illustrative book aimed at students and conservation workers as well as general distribution to libraries, book shops and zoos. The aim would be to use the book as a way of raising awareness of the plight of the Golden Langur. An audio-visual slide show with images and narration is also on my list of methods for awareness campaigns.
Ultimately it is the communities who live around these primates that are going to be the most important stakeholders in the project. In view of this, my project is targeted at these communities and at the ways in which they currently make a living. There is a need to generate an alternative and diversified sustainable livelihood for them as this will move the anthropogenic pressure away from the remaining pockets of forests where the Golden Langur lives. A part of this intervention will also be to create awareness amongst local communities, educating them about these creatures that live in their backyards. The level of awareness within communities and the ethical will of the forest department, civil administration and law enforcements needs to radically change in order to preserve this endemic and unique species.
If I can achieve some of these goals through my photographic documentation and in this way contribute to halting the decline in the population of the Golden Langur, my mission will have been accomplished.
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