Flora and Fauna of Bam

Plants and vegetation in Bam:Photo by Manjur Ahmed Laskar

Early Bam was a biodiversity hotspot. If Government had decided to preserve the area without settling the jungle land for human habitation, Bam would have been a wildlife sanctuary, sans the one horned rhinocerous. Early years of Bam abounded in wild life population. Bam was home to hoolock gibbons, deer, elephant, tigers, monkeys, river dolphins, numerous species of  birds like egrets, cranes, storks, heron, parrot, robin, fish eagle, mountain bamboo partridge, green pigeon, horn bill, woodpecker, bulbul, vultures, magpie robin,  house sparrow, tailor bird, jungle myna, dove, black cormorant and numerous other species.

As late as the middle of the last century, tigers would come to the localities and kill livestock of villagers and occasionally a deer would stray in to the villages. The hoolock gibbons would cry in chorus in the hillocks near human habitations at the twilight. Chirping of numerous varieties of birds would usher in the dawn for Bam inhabitants. Perhaps there was no law for the preservation of wild life. Village hunters would kill the tigers and carry it to the Dholai Police Outpost, and hand over the kill. There might have been a reward for killing tigers and leopards as the Government had a paid reward in 1904 ‘for destruction of 17 tigers and 16 leopard’ in Cachar.  With the growing human population, wild life of Bam has dwindled rapidly, if not vanished

Plants and vegetation in Bam:Photo by Manjur Laskar Ahmed

The enclosed area is a section of Bhuban  Reserved forest in  Bam between Sonai river in the east  and Bhaga Mizoram NEC road in the west .This is the home of major flora and fauna of Bam. 27 forest villages are also located in this section. Beyond Bam in the east  this reserved forest extends 10 km up to  river Barak  which forms the Cacharborder with Manipur.

Bam is rich in plants and vegetation. Betelnut, plaintain and bamboo forms the  greater  trinity  of trees, with which every home called ‘bari’ is decorated with, besides other fruit bearing trees like mango, jack fruit and other citrus fruits and trees.Valuable timber trees like nageasvar, jarul, gomari, sundi, ramdala, cham, rata, kurta, poma, gundroi, tula, kadam, simul are  available in Bam in abundance despite onslaught of human depredation. Besides trees there are numerous species of herbs, medicinal plants and orchids.

Of the total land area of 281.87 sq. km of Bam, as much as 65.91 % area is covered by reserved forest in the Bhuban Hill ranges, and provide a natural home for wild life and forest cover. The vast Bhuban reserved forest of Bam between Rukni river and Sonai river is contiguous with the vast Bhuban forest reserve of about 200 sq. km between Sonai river and Barak River, and together makes up more than 350 sq. km reserved forest, offering an opportunity for declaring it as a wild life sanctuary by the Government.

            

PS:To be continued in next section:People of Bam. Please give your comments and suggestions.

                              


                               NOTICE

SUB: BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF ALUMNI OF BAM NITYANANDA HIGHER SECONDARY & MULTIPURPOSE SCHOOL (BNHS & MP SCHOOL) DHOLAI IN 

BAM OF CACHAR ,INDIA-PIN:788114.

Section 18 of BAM history will be devoted to write short biographical sketch of some of the important personalities of Bam from all walks of life. The process is on to collect the information from various sources. Apart from other sources attempt is now made to collect information through Bam-history.blogspot.in .In the first phase it is sought to collect the biographical sketch of the following alumni of Bam Nityananda Higher Secondary & Multipurpose School. The esteemed visitors to this Blog are requested to provide biographical sketch (in less than 500 words) of any of the following alumni of BNHS & MP School of early years who had brought laurel to the School and fame to Bam.

     1. Rajmoni Nath ,Joint Registrar in Cooperation Department,Government of Assam 2.Bani Kanta Sinha ,a Wharton PhD and Professor Emeritus IIM Kolkata; 3.Ramkumar Das,MA,PhD, a London School of Economics alumnus , Principal Cotton College and Economic Adviser, Government of Assam; 4.Hironmoy Nath MSc,Retd. Professor of Physics ,Karimganj College 5. Muslehuddin Choudhury MA ,BT, former Principal Sonai N.G Higher Secondary Schoo l6 .Bimal Sinha ,MSc,retd Professor,G.C.College7.Professor Nalini Sinha of NEHU 8.Alauddin Choudhury,Deputy Registrar Gauhati High Court 9.Saadullah Choudhury, MA,BT,Senior Lecturer, District Institute of Education and Training ;10.Biman Behari Sinha MSc,Australia ,Sydney, Consultant World Bank or Director  11.Paresh Nath,an alumnus of Glasgow university who served in Civil Aviation Department Govt. of India; 12.Binoy Bhushan Sinha,Professor Mathematics, Russia .13.Ganendra Chackrabarty,MA,BT,retired Deputy Director of Education ,Tripura14.Mahendra Roy,retired Subject Teacher,BNHS & MP School 15.Kula Chandra Singha ,retired Commander, Indian Navy and retired Additional Director(MM),ONGC 16.Nanda Mohan Barman ACS 17.Dilip Kumar Purkayastha,retired Joint Director of Health Services ,Assam 18.Karunamoy Nath Laskar,MA,BT retired Vice Principal,BNHS & MP School 19.Jatindranath Laskar,MA,BT,Lecturer ,Silchar College of Education 20.Digendra Chandra Purkayastha,MA,LLB,founder Head Master,Howaithang High School and ex MLA 21.Sushil Kumar Sinha, MA, B.Ed, Principal Silchar College of Education 22.Nikhil Baran Das MA,ACS 23.Pulakeshi Sinha, MA,Ex MLA, 24.Dinendra Purkayastha, Joint Director,Veterianary Department; 25.Dinesh Chandra Nath,Assistant Director,Veterianary Department 26.Jay Prasad Goala,MA,BT Subject Teacher of English, BNHS & MP School 27.Kalachand Sinha,Subject Teacher of English,BNHS &MP School,28.Hemendra Nath MA (Double) ? .29.Jagadish Nath Engineer 30.Dr.Ramendra Choudhury ,Senior Medical and Heaith Officer Dholai Primary Health Centre 31.Harendra Barman, former Labour    Commissioner 32.Banka Behari Singha former Director Sericulture 33.Nishikanta Das, ACS/IAS ,Director Census 34.Suniti Kumar Barman, District Elementary Education Officer 35.Dr.Harendra Chandra Biswas, Assistant Director Health and Medicine GOI 36.Mukul Ranjan Barman, Assistant Diector,AIR-Silchar, 37.Debjyotih  Biswas,M.Tec ?38.Diptendu Paul,MSc ?S39.urrya Kumar Singha MSc ? 40.Pallabi Choudhury BE?41.Saurav Choudhury,BE?42.Binoy Paul-Engineer?43.Himadri Nath-Engineer?44.Roshen Ahmed Barbhuiya-Engneer ? 45.Rabijul Ali Laskar,BA,LLB ,Advocate( The designations  given may not be  accurate in some cases and in some cases it is not available which is indicated as ?.)

The biographical sketch with photo may be mailed to jiya0786@yahoo.co.in. If it is not possible to provide the biographical sketch contact details of any one who you think can give information may be given in the comment section of this Blog or mailed. Your support will make the task easier.