Assam gets its sixth national park, golden langur habitat Raimona

Assam named 422-sqkm Raimona, home to golden langur, as the state's sixth national park, while celebrating World Environment Day on Saturday.

Making the announcement, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the number of national parks in the state will increase to seven soon as the process to name Dehing Patkai as another national park was under way.

Kaziranga, Manas, Nameri, Orang, and Dibru Saikhowa are the five other national parks in Assam.

Raimona National Park, situated in Korajhar district in Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) houses golden langur, an endemic species, which has been named as the mascot of Bodoland region. For decades, violence has impacted Raimona's forest and the wildlife. Raimona, which covers the northern part of the notified Ripu Reserve Forest (area of 508.62 sqkm), also has Asian elephants, tiger, clouded leopards, Indian gaur, wild buffalo, spotted deer, hornbill, more than 150 species of butterflies, 170 species of birds, 380 varieties of plants and orchids.

The new national park shares border with Bhutan in the East and North, Ripu Reserve Forest in the South and Sonkosh river flows along the Assam-West Bengal inter-state border in the West.

"Historically, the area was a part of the migratory route of the faunal species from Himalayan Mountain, Indo-Malayan and Indo-Chinese realms towards the west and Peninsular Indian realm species to the east, " said a statement issued by Assam Forest Department.

The new national park shares contiguous forest patches of Phibsoo Wildlife Sanctuary and Jigme Singye Wangchuk National Park in Bhutan (total area of 1,999 square km) creating a transboundary conservation landscape of more than 2,400 square km. "Such secured transboundary ecological landscape will ensure long term conservation of endemic species like Golden Langur and endangered species like Asian Elephant, Royal Bengal Tiger and varied other flora and faunal species it supports," said the statement.

The new national park forms the westernmost buffer to the Manas Tiger Reserve (TR), which is one of the nine such reserves in India first declared by Project Tiger in 1973. The area is also an integral part of Manas Biosphere Reserve and Chirang-Ripu Elephant Reserve. The Manas National Park is located in the heart of the tiger reserve-cum-elephant reserve, which is also a natural World Heritage Site.

"The new national park will open up huge opportunities of ecotourism for the fringe villagers, who currently are partially or totally dependent on forest resources for their livelihood. A highly viable tourism circuit through the Raimona National Park and the contiguous protected areas of Bhutan will attract national and international tourists, who will not only enjoy the wildlife and outstanding scenic beauty but also the diverse and colourful social landscapes and their rich culture and tradition," said a Forest Department official.