Wildlife of
Assam

Primary Threats

• Conversion and encroachment around protected areas and reserve forests for settlements, smallholder farming, and expansion of tea/other plantations reduce and isolate riverine grasslands and forest edges; erosion-prone riverine sandbar islands and shifting river courses also drive repeated human resettlement into wildlife margins.
• Crop expansion in fringe areas (including paddy and cash crops) increases pressure on corridors and grassland buffers, especially in elephant ranges of Goalpara-Kamrup-Karbi Anglong and along the Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong interface.
• Highways and rail lines bordering/near parks (notably around Kaziranga and in key elephant corridors) raise collision risk for rhinos/elephants and increase access for illegal activities; power lines and linear infrastructure further fragment movement routes across the Brahmaputra floodplain and hill foothills.
• Elephant crop-raiding and property damage are chronic in many districts (e.g., Sonitpur, Goalpara, Nagaon, Karbi Anglong foothills), while tiger/leopard depredation and occasional human injury/death occur near Kaziranga, Orang, Manas, and forest-village interfaces; conflict can trigger retaliatory killing and political pressure to reduce wildlife protections.
• Snaring and opportunistic hunting for bushmeat persist in parts of hill districts and forest fringes, impacting ungulates and smaller mammals that underpin tiger and leopard prey bases, and sometimes targeting high-value species when enforcement lapses.
• Assam's connectivity to regional trade routes elevates risks for trafficking of rhino horn, tiger parts, pangolin scales, and exotic birds; pressure spikes when organized networks exploit flood seasons, road access, and porous inter-state/international routes.
• Agrochemicals from tea estates and agriculture, urban/industrial effluents (notably around Guwahati and oil/industrial belts), and plastic waste degrade wetlands and river habitats, affecting fish, aquatic birds, and river dolphins; oil spills/leakage risks also exist in parts of Upper Assam.
• High fishing pressure and use of destructive gears in the Brahmaputra and floodplain lakes and wetlands can reduce prey availability for the Gangetic river dolphin and waterbirds, while also increasing bycatch/entanglement risks in dolphin stretches.
• Invasive plants such as Mikania micrantha ('mile-a-minute') and water hyacinth smother grasslands and wetlands, reducing forage and habitat quality in floodplain parks (including rhino/elephant habitats) and complicating grassland management.
• More erratic monsoon patterns, higher flood peaks, and prolonged inundation intensify wildlife mortality/displacement and push animals into villages and onto highways; combined with Brahmaputra bank erosion, climate stress accelerates habitat turnover and undermines long-term stability of grassland-wetland mosaics.
• Embankments, river training works, sand/silt dynamics altered by upstream interventions, and wetland drainage/change in flooding regimes can reduce the natural creation/maintenance of riverine grasslands and floodplain lakes and wetlands that rhinos, buffalo, and many birds depend on.
• Illegal felling and extraction in reserve forests and hill districts (where governance can be challenging) degrade canopy connectivity for primates (e.g., hoolock gibbon) and reduce watershed integrity, also increasing human access and edge effects.
• Coal and limestone mining in hill areas (notably Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao) can fragment forests, pollute streams, and increase road building, affecting elephant movement, primates, and downstream wetland health via sedimentation.
• High tourism concentration (especially in Kaziranga) and vehicle density around park peripheries increase noise, disturbance, and pressure for new facilities; unmanaged visitation can displace sensitive species and raise wildlife-vehicle conflict risk.
• Rapid expansion around Guwahati and other towns consumes wetlands and fringe forests, increases traffic through wildlife-adjacent corridors, and adds pollution loads to rivers and floodplain lakes and wetlands that support waterbirds and aquatic fauna.
• Extraction of sand/gravel from river channels and heavy collection of fuelwood and non-timber forest products in some areas degrade riverine habitats and forest structure, indirectly impacting nesting banks, aquatic food webs, and corridor quality.
• Livestock grazing near forest edges and seasonal congregation of wildlife during floods elevate risks of disease spillover (e.g., livestock-borne infections) to wild ungulates and elephants, and can complicate recovery of small, isolated populations.