SINGCHUNG BUGUN VILLAGE COMMUNITY RESERVE – ENVIRONMENT
News: Arunachal felicitates 13 artists from Singchung Bugun village for representing state in R-Day event in Delhi
What's
in the news?
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Arunachal Pradesh, at the recently held
Republic Day parade, showcased its Singchung Bugun Village Community Reserve, a
17-square-kilometre biodiversity hotspot.
Singchung
Bugun Village Community Reserve:
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It is a 17-square-kilometre biodiversity
hotspot located in Arunachal Pradesh,
around 40 km from the famous Eagle nest Wildlife Sanctuary.
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The reserve was created in 2017 to protect
biodiversity in the region.
Significance:
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It is home to critically endangered
species such as the passerine bird Bugun Liocichla
(Liocichlabugunorum), which is named after the Buguns community.
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It was one of the first bird species to be
discovered in India since the country’s independence in 1947, and it lives only
on the Buguns’ community lands.
Tribal
People:
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The Buguns are an indigenous community
with a population of about 2,000 people, spread across 12 villages that are
dotted outside the forests of Eagle nest
Wildlife Sanctuary.
Go
back to basics:
Community
Reserve:
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Conservation reserves and Community
reserves in India are terms denoting protected areas of India which typically
act as buffer zones, connectors, and
migration corridors between established national parks, wildlife
sanctuaries and reserved and protected forests in India.
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Such areas are designated as conservation reserves if they are
uninhabited and completely owned by the
Government of India but used for subsistence by communities, and community reserves if part of the land
is privately owned.
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These protected area categories were first
introduced in the Wildlife (Protection)
Amendment Act of 2002, an amendment to the Wildlife Protection Act (WLPA)
of 1972.
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These categories were added because of
reduced protection in and around existing or proposed protected areas due to
private ownership of land, and land use.
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The provisions of the WLPA apply to an
area once it has been declared a community reserve.