Extension of Orang National Park

Subject – Environment

Context – Gharials to return to Orang National Park

Concept –

The gharial, wiped out from the Brahmaputra River system in the 1950s, could be the prime beneficiary of a process to expand an Assam tiger reserve that shed its “Congress connection” five months ago.
The Assam government had on January 3 issued a preliminary notification for adding 200.32 sq. km to the 78.82 sq. km Orang National Park, the State’s oldest game reserve about 110 km northeast of Guwahati.
Much of the area to be added comprises the Brahmaputra river and the sandbars or islands in it, some cultivated by locals or used as sheds for livestock.
Orang, on the northern bank of the river, is strategic to the Kaziranga Orang Riverine Landscape. Tigers and rhinos are known to use the islands in this riverine landscape, about 180 km long, to hop between Orang and Kaziranga.
But what has enthused wildlife experts is the prospect of reintroducing the gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) in the area to be added to Orang.
The Gangetic dolphin is also expected to be a beneficiary of the final notification of the addition to Orang.
One of the four major rhino habitats in Assam, Orang was recognised as a tiger reserve in 2016.
The government had in September 21 dropped the ‘Rajiv Gandhi’ prefix to Orang given by the Congress government in 1992.
Other national parks in Assam are Kaziranga, Manas, Nameri, Dibru-Saikhowa, Raimona and Dehing Patkai.

To know more about Orang National Park, please refer September 2021 DPN.

To know about Gharials, please refer December 2021 DPN.