The Transboundary Manas Conservation Area forms a priority landscape with an area of over 3,000 sq km. It is one of three transboundary landscapes across the Eastern Himalayas that connect Bhutan and Northeast India. The landscape faces growing threats linked to increases human populations and illegal activities, including the porous border between Bhutan and India which facilitates the poaching and trafficking of elephants. Project activities will include: 1) identify transboundary elephant migration routes and patterns; 2) based on elephant landscape usage, identify priority locations for new anti-poaching camps for the use of forest department staff; 3) conduct five joint training programs on elephant population estimations, in for forest department staff of both India and Bhutan; 4) conduct joint surveys on elephant presence/absence across the entire landscape; 5) conduct vegetation transect surveys; 6) organize two workshops with involvement of all stakeholders and local villagers to develop anti-poaching strategies; and 7) using GIS to create a landscape corridor and elephant movement map. This project will enhance transboundary collaboration on elephant conservation and population monitoring between Indian and Bhutanese authorities in the Transboundary Manas Conservation Area of Bhutan and India.
Enhancing Elephant conservation in the Transboundary Manas Conservation Area (TraMCA): An Indo-Bhutan Initiative
