Chronic extraction of forest resources is threatening a unique wildlife habitat of the Upper Brahmaputra Valley, northeastern India.

This study examines the extent and nature of harvest of non-timber forest products (NTFP) by local human communities residing adjacent to the Hollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary in the Upper Brahmaputra Valley of Assam, northeastern India. The harvest of NTFP was monitored at 15 entry points to the sanctuary over a period of 41 days. Dry timber was the most dominant form of NTFP collected and the most preferred firewood species was Vatica lanceaefolia, a critically endangered tree species. About 25% of the harvested NTFP were food plants for the six primate species of the sanctuary. Highlighting the threats posed by this chronic extraction of NTFP to the vegetation and unique primate assemblage of the sanctuary, we recommend measures to check the unsustainable extraction of natural resources from this shrinking, and now highly threatened, forest patch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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