Coming from Jorhat town in Assam and moving towards the Naga hills, tea estates on both sides of the road have a pleasing effect on the eye. Especially with the early morning sun sending its rays gently piercing through the shade trees and the low-lying mist.

A railway crossing later, the tea gardens end abruptly and we are at the doorsteps of Asia’s only gibbon park, the Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary.

A small patch of evergreen forests surrounded by tea gardens, the sanctuary is home to seven primate species, six of which are endangered, including the gibbon. In its meagre span of 20 sq km, it also shelters 28 elephants, some leopards, the Malayan giant squirrel and barking deer. Census in 2000 even confirmed two tigers, according to forest staff.

The tall trees looming into the sky invite a visitor to step into the mud path. But this is no picnic for the squeamish lot. Even with rains not having set in, the soil is damp enough to host leeches that spring up on a hint of blood! What turns out to be a few soon become umanageable and we beat a hasty retreat.

The forest staff then take us on another, drier path. This time we are lucky to hear the hoolock gibbons at their bed tea. What a racket they make! Just as the noise reaches a climax, as suddenly it stops.

The brave few among our group of adults and children venture into a narrow path leading into the depths from where the hullaballoo had erupted. Guided by the forest guard and a watcher, well-versed in the nuances of the jungle, we come to a spot from where the search goes skyward as we try to discern the canopy high above, for life.

The guard is right. He is finally able to point out a gibbon right on the top most branch. And for sure the primate is watching too! All black, except for a patch of thick white above the eyes, the gibbon looks pretty small from this distance. As tiny as 100 cms and weighing just around eight kgs, they are found only in this stretch from Assam to Myanmar. The females are brown in colour while the males black.

As a camera clicks, we get a snarl, clearly indicating we are not welcome. Two more can be identified but soon the group gets wind of intruders and they swing away to disappear.

It will be difficult to catch them again unless we wait for the next meal time which could be some four hours later, informs the guard.

The gibbons start the day early at 5 am and within four hours finish their first meal. This is a time when they are the most noisy. It is silence till the next meal. As it is summer and there is plenty of green leaves and fruits high up there, the gibbons will stay at that height, rarely coming down. There are some five families of seven-eight members each in this sanctuary. This is the only place in Asia where you can find these gibbons, we are told.
The sanctuary was carved a decade ago, out of the Hollongapar Reserve Forest named after the tree species — Holong, in abundance here.

There is a danger of habitat shrinkage as the tea gardens spread. Experts have been advocating expanding the sanctuary so as to provide corridors for the animals, which are otherwise isolated in this patch. Resident populations are losers in the long run as genetic diversity is lost and inbreeding takes over. Elephant raids across the tea estates have led to conflict.

In the north-east where development indices speak of neglect, taking the animal cause does not find many takers. But given the endangered macaque and the gibbon, this is a sanctuary which should be accorded utmost priority.