Tinsukia, June 2: A sub-adult male Hoolock Gibbon was found dead at Kachijan village in Doomdooma reserve forest in upper Assam Tinsukia on Saturday morning.
It is suspected that the animal died due to electrocution after coming in contact with live wires of APDCL.
“We have found a Hoolock Gibbon died after coming in contact with electric wires. The Hoolock Gibbon comes to our Village in search of food. We are very much sad after the death of the animal,” said a villager.
Meanwhile, the forest officials reached the spot and took the Hoolock Gibbon along with them for autopsy.
“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 to the forest department because they have to conduct the autopsy of the animal,” said Gunadhar Konwar, an environmentalist.
He further informed that 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 has died in this fashion,” he suggested.
“Earlier, there were five Hoolock Gibbon in the Doomdooma reserve forest but now there are only three Hoolock Gibbon 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, serving as the natural habitats of this endangered species. 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.
