Overview

• The International Primatological Society included the Western Hoolock Gibbon in its 2025–2027 list of the world’s 25 most endangered primates at its July 20–25 congress in Antananarivo, Madagascar.
• The species is already listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List and inhabits forest patches in seven northeastern Indian states, eastern Bangladesh and parts of Myanmar.
• Decades of human encroachment, infrastructure development, tea cultivation, shifting farming, hunting and illegal trade have fragmented and degraded its habitats, leading to local extinctions.
• Dr. Dilip Chetry of Aaranyak urged the government to designate the gibbon as a regional flagship species with dedicated conservation action plans for each northeastern state.
• He proposed a nationwide “Project Gibbon,” modelled after Project Tiger and Project Elephant, to secure long-term funding for habitat restoration, ecological corridors and scientific monitoring.