By Kaushik Chakraborty
Dibrugarh: A sub-adult male Hoolock Gibbon was suspected to be killed due to electrocution at Kachijan village in Doomdooma reserve forest under Doomdooma Forest Division in Assam’s Tinsukia district on Saturday.
It has been suspected that the Hoolock Gibbon died after coming in contact with high power electric wires of APDCL.
Meanwhile, the forest officials reached the spot and took the Hoolock Gibbon along with them for autospy.
“The villagers are very sad after the death of the Hoolock Gibbon and they didn’t want to hand over the dead body of the Gibbon to forest department. I requested them to hand over the body because they have to conduct the autospy of the animal,” said Gunadhar Konwar, an environmentalist.
He added, “The villagers wanted to cremate the body of the Hoolock Gibbon in their village because they are very much attached with Hoolock Gibbons. The APDCL should change the high voltage electric wire into cable. It’s very sad that the Hoolock Gibbon died in this fashion.”
“Earlier, there were five Hoolock Gibbons in the Doomdooma reserve forest but now there are only three left in the forest. Most of them have died,” he said.
Hoolock Gibbon is the only species of ape to be found in India and the evergreen and semi-evergreen forests of the seven states of Northeast serve as the natural habitats of this endangered species.
Hoolocks are the second-largest of the gibbons, after the siamang. They reach a size of 60 to 90 cm and weigh from 6 to 9 kg approxiametly.
In Northeast India, the Hoolock are found in south of Brahmaputra and North Bank areas and East of Dibang Rivers. Its range extends into seven states covering Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura.