Dhubri: On World Elephant Day, an environmental conservation group renewed its call for stronger legal protection of the forests and wetlands in Goalpara district, urging wildlife sanctuary status for the Pancharatna and Ajagar reserve forests and integrated conservation measures with the adjoining Urpad Beel.Nature’s Beckon, which has been pursuing the demand with the Assam govt for several years, said the landscape is a vital elephant habitat and a biodiversity-rich ecosystem supporting a wide range of wildlife.“The protection of elephants cannot be separated from the protection of their habitat. Pancharatna and Ajagar forests, along with Urpad Beel, form an important ecological landscape that needs stronger and more integrated legal protection,” said Nature’s Beckon director Soumyadeep Datta.He added, “Human-elephant conflict is only one manifestation of a much larger ecological problem. If we want elephants to survive, we must protect the forests, wetlands, food sources, and movement corridors on which they depend.”According to Nature’s Beckon, the Pancharatna Reserve Forest, covering about 4,240 hectares, remains one of the most important natural forests and traditional breeding habitats of wild elephants in Goalpara.Earlier surveys documented 168 bird species in Pancharatna and 196 species in Ajagar, along with around 36 mammal species across the two forests.Wildlife recorded from the landscape includes elephants, leopards, slow lorises, hog deer, barking deer, sambar, sloth bears, binturongs, Indian pangolins, porcupines, crab-eating mongooses, and 32 species of amphibians and reptiles.
