North Bank Landscape

A large herd of elephants takes refuge in a tea estate in Assam, a favourite shelter for elephants lacking forest cover.

The North East India presents a landscape of lush evergreen forests and grasslands which provides home to a plethora of species like the Asian elephants, Indian Rhinoceros, tiger, leopard etc. Estimates point out that this region provides refuge to a sizeable population of the Asian elephants, about 40% of the entire Indian and nearly 10% of the world population.

However the very survival of this species is under threat due to expanding human population, and the consequent expansion of agriculture, jhum or the shifting agriculture, unplanned clearance for the human settlements, logging and other development activities like construction of roads and railways.

The urgent need for preserving this habitat has been addressed by the WWF under their AREAS Programme.