Assam notified Raimona and Dihing Patkai National Park

Assam notified Raimona and Dihing Patkai National Park

Subject – Environment

Context – Assam has become the second state in the country to have the highest number of National Parks after Madhya Pradesh. Raimona and Dihing Patkai National Parks have been formally notified, adding to Assam’s total tally of seven National Parks. The newly created National Parks will help to boost conservation efforts and provide a fillip to tourism and agriculture sectors

Concept –

Raimona

• In June this year, the Assam government declared the state’s sixth national park, Raimona National Park, spreading over an area of 422 sq. km. in the Kokrajhar district under the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) combining parts of Ripu-Chirang reserve forests.
• Known for its legendary elephant herds and rare butterflies, Raimona national park is also home to Gee’s golden langur, one of the world’s most endangered primates, and other rare species such as Bengal tiger, clouded leopard, gaur, and chital.
• The establishment of the park is expected to help boost biodiversity conservation, transboundary wildlife management, and ecotourism.
• The area of the park includes the northern part of the notified Ripu Reserve Forest, which forms the western-most buffer to the Manas National Park that straddles the India-Bhutan border.
• It is bounded on the west by the Sonkoshriver and the Saralbhanga river on the east.
  • Both the rivers are tributaries of Brahmaputra.
• The Pekuariver defines Raimona’s southern boundary.
• Raimona also shares contiguous forest patches of the Phipsoo Wildlife Sanctuary and the JigmeSingyeWangchuk National Park in Bhutan creating a transboundary conservation landscape of more than 2,400 sq. km.
• Raimona is an integral part of the 2,837 sq. km Manas Biosphere Reserve and the Chirang-Ripu Elephant Reserve.
• The five national parks that existed prior to the Raimona are Kaziranga, Manas, Nameri, Orang and Dibru-Saikhowa.

Dihing Patkai

• The 111.942 sq km Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary is located within the larger Dehing Patkai Elephant Reserve, which spreads across the coal- and oil-rich districts of Upper Assam (Dibrugarh, Tinsukia and Sivasagar) and is believed to be the last remaining contiguous patch of lowland rainforest area in Assam.
• While the first proposal to accord national park status to the region dates back to 1995, Dehing Patkai was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 2004. Now it has been upgraded to Nzational Park
• The 234.26-sq. km Dihing Patkai straddling eastern Assam’s Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts is a major elephant habitat and 310 species of butterflies have been recorded there. The park has 47 species each of reptiles and mammals, including the tiger and clouded leopard.
• Dihing Patkai, in focus a year ago for illegal coal mining in the vicinity, encompasses the erstwhile Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary, the Jeypore Reserve Forest and the western block of the Upper Dihing Reserve Forest.