IUCN flags Assam’s Manas Wildlife Sanctuary under ‘significant concern’ in 2025 report

Guwahati: The IUCN World Heritage Outlook 2025 places Assam’s Manas Wildlife Sanctuary in the “Significant Concern” category.

While the park has made impressive gains in species recovery, its fragile ecosystem continues to face mounting threats from hydropower projects, invasive species, and encroachments.

The assessment, finalized on October 11, 2025, recognizes Manas as a conservation success story since authorities removed it from UNESCO’s “List of World Heritage in Danger” in 2011.

The sanctuary has seen the resurgence of greater one-horned rhinos, tigers, pygmy hogs, eastern swamp deer, and wild water buffalo, thanks to reintroduction and protection programs led by the Assam Forest Department and conservation partners such as WWF-India, the Wildlife Trust of India, and Aaranyak.

The report states, “Manas effectively used the Convention’s Danger listing process, leading to a gradual recovery and its removal from the Danger List in 2011.

Although protection measures have stabilized populations of key species like rhinos and tigers, cumulative human activities continue to threaten its Outstanding Universal Value.”

The report highlights that illegal encroachments, invasive species, and infrastructure developments pose significant challenges.

It also notes ongoing threats from climate change, grassland degradation caused by drainage problems, invasive plants, illegal livestock grazing, and indiscriminate grass burning.

Moreover, hydropower projects in Bhutan, including the Mangdechhu and Kurichu dams, may affect the park’s hydrology and biodiversity.

To address these challenges, the report urges transboundary cooperation, improved management strategies, and sustainable development approaches to mitigate long-term risks and protect the sanctuary’s ecological integrity.

However, the report warns that ecological stability remains at risk due to persistent human pressures and environmental changes.

The IUCN identifies illegal cultivation, grazing, and invasive weeds, particularly Mikania micrantha and Chromolaena odorata, as major threats that have spread over 150 square kilometers of Manas’s grasslands.

Habitat degradation, unregulated burning, and the drying up of wet alluvial grasslands have accelerated ecosystem shifts, endangering species such as the pygmy hog and Bengal florican.

The hydropower dams in Bhutan, the Mangdechhu and Kurichu projects, have emerged as transboundary threats, causing recurrent floods in the Manas-Beki river system.

The report calls for urgent bilateral cooperation between India and Bhutan to regulate water releases, establish early-warning systems, and conduct cumulative impact assessments.

It also notes that, despite repeated requests, Bhutan has yet to share the environmental impact assessment for the Mangdechhu project.

While poaching has ceased since 2016 and ethnic unrest has subsided following the 2020 Bodo peace accord, encroachments persist in the Bhuyanpara and Panbari ranges. Logging and agricultural expansion have worsened forest degradation, with around 2,200 hectares encroached as of 2019.

Tourism in Manas has grown steadily, increasing from 10,000 visitors in 2014 to over 41,000 in 2022.

The IUCN commends efforts to promote community-based ecotourism through 48 Eco-Development Committees, but cautions that unregulated visitor pressure could harm the park’s recovering ecosystems.

The report emphasizes the need for stronger transboundary collaboration, better enforcement of protection laws, and increased funding and staffing to sustain conservation gains.

It recommends integrating Manas into broader climate and hydrological planning frameworks and strengthening climate adaptation measures to safeguard its Outstanding Universal Value.

Despite these challenges, the IUCN describes Manas as a “globally significant recovery model,” where forest authorities, conservation NGOs, and local Bodo communities have revitalized a once-troubled landscape.

Yet, the report warns that without addressing cross-border hydrological threats and invasive species, Manas’s fragile ecological balance could again face serious risks.