Manas Wildlife Sanctuary
Factors affecting the property in 2000*
- Civil unrest
- Identity, social cohesion, changes in local population and community
- Illegal activities
- Land conversion
- Other Threats:
Destruction of Park infrastructures
Factors* affecting the property identified in previous reports
- Construction of a dam (issue resolved);
- Bodo people insurgency;
- Destruction of Park infrastructures;
- Illegal removal of vegetation;
- Poaching
International Assistance: requests for the property until 2000
Total amount approved : 165,000 USD
| 1997 | Contribution towards the implementation of an Emergency ... (Approved) | 90,000 USD |
| 1997 | Contribution to the implementation of an Emergency ... (Approved) | 75,000 USD |
Missions to the property until 2000**
January 1997: World Heritage Centre mission
Information presented to the Bureau of the World Heritage Committee in 2000
Summary of previous deliberations:
Twenty-third session of the Committee – paragraph number – X.9
Twenty-third ordinary session of the Bureau – paragraph number – IV.8
New information: The Deputy Inspector General of Forests (Wildlife) of the Ministry of Environment and Forests in New Delhi, India, via his letter dated 10 April 2000, has informed the Centre that the second phase of the rehabilitation plan for Manas for which the twenty-first session of the Committee (Naples, 1997) approved a sum of US$ 90,000 is currently being implemented. The Bureau may recall that the delay in utilising these funds for rehabilitation activities was caused by the unusually heavy rains experienced in 1998, the need to revise the rehabilitation plan to minimise construction activities in parts of the site where security conditions were not optimal for maintaining permanent presence of staff and for executing some community support activities to improve collaboration between staff and villagers. The implementation of this second phase of the rehabilitation plan is due to be completed by early 2001. Hence, the Deputy Inspector General has suggested that the fielding of the Centre/IUCN mission to prepare a progress report, recommended by the twenty-third session of the Committee (Marrakesh, Morocco, 1999), be delayed until 2001.
IUCN has received a report of the Regional Meeting for India and Nepal of the IUCN/SSC Asian Rhino Specialist Group held from 21 to 27 February 1999. A paper presented at that meeting by the Director of Project Tiger in Manas points out that the rhino population in Manas has been reduced by more than 40 animals during the 1990s, most of them lost to poachers during 1989 – 1993 when Bodo militancy was at its peak. The Director of the site believed that the number of rhinos inside the site may be no more than 10 and the long-term viability of such a small population is a serious concern for the management. IUCN has suggested that the State Party consider the use of armed forces to counter illegal poaching.
Action Required
Conservation issues presented to the World Heritage Committee in 2000
No new information has been received on the state of conservation of this site since the conclusion of the twenty-fourth ordinary session of the Bureau (26 June - 1 July, 2000; Paris). However, the Deputy Inspector General for Wildlife of the Ministry of Environment and Forests in New Delhi has agreed to present a case study on Manas at the Centre/IUCN workshop on the "Role of World Heritage in Danger Listing in Promoting International Co-operation for the Conservation of World Natural Heritage", in Amman, Jordan, during 6-7 October 2000. During the workshop, Centre and IUCN staff will discuss the timing of the site-visit, originally scheduled to take place in 2000, but delayed as requested by the State Party until early 2001, and report on the outcome of those discussions at the time of the Committee session.
Summary of the interventions
Decisions adopted by the Committee in 2000
24 BUR IV.A.10
Manas Wildlife Sanctuary (India)
The Bureau learned that the Deputy Inspector General of Forests (Wildlife) of the Ministry of Environment and Forests in New Delhi, India, via his letter dated 10 April 2000, had informed the Centre that the second phase of the rehabilitation plan for Manas for which the twenty-first session of the Committee (Naples, 1997) approved a sum of US$ 90,000, is currently being implemented. The Bureau recalled that the delay in utilising these funds for rehabilitation activities was caused by the unusually heavy rains experienced in 1998. Also, the need to revise the rehabilitation plan to minimise construction activities in parts of the site where security conditions were not yet optimal for maintaining permanent presence of staff and for executing some community support activities to improve collaboration between staff and villagers also caused delays.
The Bureau noted that implementation of this second phase of the rehabilitation plan is due to be completed by early 2001, and accepted the suggestion of the State Party that the Centre/IUCN mission to prepare a progress report, recommended by the twenty-third session of the Committee (Marrakesh, Morocco, 1999), be undertaken in 2001, instead in 2000 as previously foreseen. The Bureau urged that the Centre and IUCN, during the mission in 2001, take special efforts to review the status of the rhino population in Manas and the impact of rehabilitation measures implemented to counter poaching threats on the rhino. Reports received by IUCN indicate that recovery of the rhino population following the loss of more than 30 individuals during the peak of the Bodo militancy between 1989 and 1992 has been slow and continues to be a major concern for site management. The Bureau recommended that the Committee retain this site in the List of World Heritage in Danger.
24 COM VIII.11
Manas Wildlife Sanctuary (India)
VIII.11 Manas Wildlife Sanctuary (India)
The Deputy Inspector General for Wildlife of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) in New Delhi, in a letter of 26 September 2000 addressed to the Charge d'Affairs of the Permanent Delegation of India to UNESCO suggested that the proposed UNESCO World Heritage Centre mission to Manas be undertaken in May 2001. The Deputy Inspector General for Wildlife also presented a paper at the IUCN/Centre Workshop in Amman in which he emphasised the fact that the inclusion of Manas in the List of World Heritage in Danger has influenced State and Central Government decision to invest funds to rehabilitate the Sanctuary. IUCN observed that this is another example of a site where the inclusion of the site in the List of World Heritage in Danger resulted in the elaboration of a rehabilitation plan and its execution with partial support from the World Heritage Fund.
The Committee recommended that the Centre/IUCN mission to review progress in the implementation of the rehabilitation plan adopted in 1997 and partly financed by grants amounting to US$ 165,000 from the World Heritage Fund be undertaken in May 2001 as proposed by the State Party, and a report submitted to the twenty-fifth ordinary session of the Bureau in 2001. The Committee urged the Centre and IUCN to use all available information to plan the site visit, particularly to assess the impacts of the rehabilitation measures designed to minimize poaching threats to the rhinos in Manas. The Committee retained the site in the List of World Heritage in Danger.
The Committee may wish to adopt the following decision:
“The Committee recommends that the the Centre/IUCN mission to review progress in the implementation of the rehabilitation plan adopted in 1997 and partly financed by grants amounting to US$ 165,000 from the World Heritage Fund be undertaken as soon as possible in 2001 and a report submitted to the twenty-fifth ordinary session of the Bureau in 2001. The Committee urges the Centre and IUCN to use all information to be made available by the State Party during the remaining months of the year 2000 in planning the site-visit, particularly to assessing the impacts of the rehabilitation measures on minimising poaching threats to the rhinos in Manas. The Committee decides that this site be retained in the List of World Heritage in Danger”.
India
Exports
* :
The threats indicated are listed in alphabetical order; their order does not constitute a classification according to the importance of their impact on the property.
Furthermore, they are presented irrespective of the type of threat faced by the property, i.e. with specific and proven imminent danger (“ascertained danger”) or with threats which could have deleterious effects on the property’s Outstanding Universal Value (“potential danger”).
** : All mission reports are not always available electronically.
