Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary to be upgraded into a national park

Assam government decides to upgrade Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary into a national park

Guwahati, July 6: The Assam government on Monday has decided to upgrade Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary into a national park.

The decision was taken during a meeting held at Brahmaputra guest house in Guwahati in presence of Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and senior officials of the state Forest department.

In the meeting, Sonowal directed the officials of the state Forest department to take necessary steps to upgrade the Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary into a national park.

To expedite the process of upgrading Dehing Patkai into a national park, the Assam Chief Minister directed the forest department to prepare a draft notification and hold a public hearing to take the views of local dwellers residing around the Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary.

Sonowal also instructed to prepare an action plan for preserving the adjoining areas of the wildlife sanctuary and include the opinion of the public in the adjoining areas in the draft action plan.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal tweeted – “Our Govt has decided to upgrade the Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam, which is home to a vast variety of flora and fauna, to a National Park. In a meeting with senior officials in Guwahati today, I have directed them to take necessary steps in this regard.”

The Wildlife Sanctuary covers an area of 111.942 sq km which is spread over Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts.

The rainforest is known as Amazon of East and it has over 40 species of fauna including elephants, several varieties of big cats, bears and the famous Assam Macaque, over 300 species of birds, over 40 species of reptiles, over 60 types of trees and over 100 varieties of orchids.

The Assam Chief Minister reiterated the state government commitment’s to preserve the national resources and environment of the state and highlighted Dehing Patkai’s role in maintaining forest cover in Assam.

He also directed the Forest department to take necessary action for up-grading Dehing Patkai into national park in consultation with Union Environment and Forest Ministry.

Total number of national parks in Assam would increase to six after the up-gradation of Dehing Patkai into a national park.