Raimona boost for Greater Manas Landscape protection

The gazette notification of Raimona National Park in western Assam’s Kokrajhar district has boosted the protection of the Greater Manas Landscape apart from fulfilling the advice of the UNESCO World Heritage Site committee, wildlife consultants stated.

The Assam authorities on June 9 and June 16 notified Raimona and Dehing-Patkai to take the State’s rely of National Parks to seven. The others are Kaziranga, Manas, Nameri, Orang and Dibru-Saikhowa.

Kaziranga and Manas have been declared World Heritage Sites in 1985. But whereas Kaziranga maintained its standing and continued to improve, Manas slipped due to extremism-linked poaching and felling of bushes earlier than getting again on observe a number of years in the past.

“The notification of Raimona National Park is of huge conservation significance, strengthening the Greater Manas Landscape,” stated Vivek Menon, founder and government director of Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) and senior adviser of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

The IFAW-WTI had conceptualised the Greater Manas Landscape greater than a decade in the past.

“The addition of 700 sq. km (including Raimona’s 422 sq. km) to India’s protected area network is due to proactive leadership in the Bodoland Territorial Region supported by the Assam government and the combined efforts of the community, NGOs and 15 years of consistent conservation action through IFAW-WTI’s work in bringing back Manas,” he stated on June 16.

Raimona adjoins the Buxa Tiger Reserve in West Bengal to the west, the Phipsoo Wildlife Sanctuary and Namgyal Wangchuk Wildlife Sanctuary in Bhutan to the north and Manas National Park to the east. This interprets into greater than 3,000 sq. km within the Greater Manas Landscape.

Wildlife officers in Assam stated the notification of Raimona has helped fulfil the suggestions made by the UNESCO World Heritage Site committee in June 2011 for extension of the Manas World Heritage Site property in three States.

“The Bhutan wildlife sanctuaries contiguous to Raimona present the possibility of a transboundary peace park,” Mr. Menon stated.

India and Bhutan have an association for transboundary conservation of Manas, whose Bhutan half known as the Royal Manas National Park and covers 1,000 sq. km.

Pramod Boro, Chief Executive Member of the Bodoland Territorial Council, stated Raimona’s excessive biodiversity with 11 totally different forest varieties and subtypes could possibly be a boon for nature lovers. The National Park has a sizeable inhabitants of golden langur, elephant, tiger, clouded leopard, wild buffalo, and greater than 150 species of butterflies, and 170 species of birds.