The Indian Railways will soon build two new bridges over its tracks in Jorhat district of eastern Assam.
So, what’s the big deal? Well, unlike the innumerable railway over-bridges across the country, the ones that are coming up near Mariani in Jorhat would not be for humans. These would rather be reserved exclusively for the Hoolock Gibbons – the only ape found in the sub-continent. 
The ‘over-bridges’ will rejoin the two halves of the endangered primate’s habitat in the 19.49 sq. km Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary that was split by the railway tracks in 1930s.
“We have planned to construct two steel bridges. The bridges would be camouflaged to make them appear like trees with branches so that the gibbons from either side of the tracks could mingle,” said Rajveer Singh, an Assistant Executive Engineer of the Mariani Division of the Northeastern Frontier Railways (NFR). “These would be the first of their kind in the country,” he added.
Species in peril
The gibbons are an exclusively arboreal species and hardly set foot on ground. The railway tracks that run through what is now known as the Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary had not only partitioned the natural habitat of the diurnal ape, but had also divided their population as there was no tree over the tracks to help them brachiate from one side to another.
Apart from Assam, the Hoolock Gibbons are found in Bangladesh, Myanmar and China. Loss and fragmentation of habitat over the years have put the ape in peril.
“It was for the railway tracks that the population of the monogamous ape did not increase even after conservation efforts gained momentum in late 1970s and early 1980s,” said Assistant Conservator of Forest, Gunin Saikia.
There are 21 gibbon families in the sanctuary with each having four to six members. The sex-ratio is believed to be skewed on both sides of the tracks.
The NFR engineers and forest officials are now trying to find out the spots where the bridges are to be set up. “The bridges would help restore the gene flow from one side to another,” said the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), R K Das.