Raimona National Park welcoming news for nature lovers: Assam Forest Minister

GUWAHATI: The Chief Minister of Assam Dr.Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday made the announcement upgrading Raimona into a National Park. The announcement was made during Chief Minister’s address at Gandhi Mandap in Guwahati on the occasion of World Environment Day.

The announcement made by the Chief Minister has turned out to be a red letter day for the state and welcome news for wildlife lovers, nature lovers, and conservationists, according to Minister for Environment and Forest, Parimal Suklabaidya, who attended the function with Minister for GDD, Ashok Singhal. The Raimona National Park has added to Assam's five existing national parks.

Assam now has six national parks and the process of converting Dehing Patkai wildlife sanctuary into a national park is ongoing, said Dr. Sarma.

ALSO READ: Ninong Ering Demands NE’s Inclusion In Textbooks From Centre

The announcement made by the Chief Minister has turned out to be a red letter day for the state and welcome news for wildlife lovers, nature lovers, and conservationists, according to Minister for Environment and Forest, Parimal Suklabaidya, who attended the function with Minister for GDD, Ashok Singhal.

He also stated that the Dehing Patkai wildlife sanctuary is being upgraded to a national park.

The Raimona National Park which is part of the BTC's Kokrajhar district, is a contiguous forest patch with an area of 422 square kilometres that covers the northern part of the notified Ripu Reserve Forest (area of 508.62 square kilometres) and which forms as the westernmost buffer to the Manas Tiger Reserve in the Eastern Himalaya Biodiversity Hotspot.

"Historically, the area was a part of the migratory route of faunal species from the Himalayan Mountain, Indo-Malayan and Indo-Chinese realms towards the west and Peninsular Indian realm species to the east," a forest official said.

The new national park shares contiguous forest patches with Bhutan's Phipsoo Wildlife Sanctuary and Jigme Singye Wangchuk National Park (total area of 1,999 square kilometres), forming a transboundary conservation landscape of over 2,400 square kilometres.

"Such secured transboundary ecological landscape will ensure long term conservation of endemic species like Golden Langur Trachypithecus geei - the mascot of BTC - and endangered species like Asian Elephant Elephas maximus, Royal Bengal Tiger Panthera tigris and varied other flora and faunal species it supports," said the forest official.

Follow us on Facebook