GUWAHATI: Raimona in Assam’s Kokrajhar district was declared as the state’s sixth national park. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma made an announcement in this regard on the occasion of World Environment Day on Saturday.
The state’s Environment and Forest Department has issued a notification declaring Raimona as a national park. The chief minister said a process was on to also convert the Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary into a national park.
Forest Minister Parimal Suklabaidya called the announcements a piece of welcome news for conservationists and nature enthusiasts. The Raimona park, which has a rich flora and fauna and falls under the Bodoland Territorial Region, is a part of a contiguous forest patch with an area of 422 sq km, covering the northern part of the Ripu Reserve Forest that forms the western-most buffer to Manas Tiger Reserve in the southern foothills of Eastern Himalaya Biodiversity Hotspot.
It runs northwards till it touches the Indo-Bhutan international boundary on the north and the remaining part of Ripu Reserve Forest on the south. “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,” a forest official said.
The new national park shares contiguous forest patches of Phipsoo Wildlife Sanctuary and Jigme Singye Wangchuk National Park in Bhutan, creating a transboundary conservation landscape of 2,400 sq km.