Kelatha Wildlife Sanctuary ( my, ကေလာသ တောရိုင်းတိရစ္ဆာန် ဘေးမဲ့တော, alternatively spelt as Kaylartha Widlife Sanctuary) is a protected area in

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

stretching over . It was established in 1942. It harbours

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, whic ...

and

mixed deciduous forest Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (TSMF), also known as tropical moist forest, is a subtropical and tropical forest habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Description TSMF is generally found in large, discon ...

with elevations ranging from 0 to in Bilin Township, Mon State. The sanctuary is administered from Bilin.

Location

This sanctuary is near to the town of Taung Zun which is from the town of Belin. The sanctuary is located on the western side of the Railway line linking Taung Sun and Kyaik Hto railway stations. There are roads all along the boundary of the sanctuary. The topography of the sanctuary is mostly flat with few undulating hills.

Description

The sanctuary receives south-west Monsoon rains every year. The rainfall recorded is about per year. The sanctuary receives heavy rainfall in June, July and August every year. The Shwe Parami Forest Monastery and the Kaylartha Pagoda is a famous pilgrimage site on the hillock inside the sanctuary. The Keltha Pagoda is situated on high mountain on the edge of the Sittaung lowland Valley. The seaside view from the mountain has made it a major tourism destination. The area of the sanctuary was . However the area has been reduced to due to the degazettement of for a Prison Department housing complex and acres of mining area for the Taung Zun quarry mine. In 2016, a rock and quarry project aimed at producing rock suitable for road paving was suspended on Kaylatha Mountain after inspection from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation. The minister,

Ohn Win Ohn Win ( my, အုန်းဝင်း; born 11 November 1951) is a Burmese forester and incumbent Minister for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation (Myanmar). Prior to his appointment as the Minister, he served in t ...

, placed a temporary ban on mining within the sanctuary. Eventually, quarry projects were permitted to operate only along the boundaries area as they had historically been quarry sites.

Biodiversity

The prevailing forest type in Kelatha Wildlife Sanctuary is

and

evergreen forest An evergreen forest is a forest made up of evergreen trees. They occur across a wide range of climatic zones, and include trees such as conifers and holly in cold climates, eucalyptus, Live oak, acacias, magnolia, and banksia in more temperate zo ...

Teak Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters ( pan ...

(''Tectona grandis''), ''Antiaris toxicaria'', ''Mesua ferrea'', ''Pygeum anomalum'', ''Ficus oligodon'', '' Diospyros discolor'', ''

Baccaurea ''Baccaurea'Flora Cochinchinensis'' 2: 661. 1790. is a genus of flowering plant belonging to the family Phyllanthaceae. The genus comprises over 100 species, distributed from Malesia to the West Pacific. It is dioecious Dioecy (; ; adj ...

flaccida'', ''Dipterocarpus alatus'' are the important tree species. ''

Amherstia ''Amherstia nobilis'' ( my, သော်ကကြီး ; the Pride of Burma, in the family Fabaceae) is a tropical tree with large, showy flowers. It is the only member of the genus ''Amherstia''. It is widely cultivated for ornament in the hu ...

nobilis'' is endemic to Myanmar. In 1996, Sambar deer (''Rusa unicolor''),

wild boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The species is ...

(''Sus scrofa''),

serow The serows ( or ) are four species of medium-sized goat-like or antelope-like mammals of the genus ''Capricornis''. All four species of serow were until recently also classified under ''Naemorhedus'', which now only contains the gorals. Extant ...

and

barking deer Barking may refer to: Places * Barking, London, a town in East London, England ** London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, a local government district covering the town of Barking ** Municipal Borough of Barking, a historical local government dist ...

species were reported to occur in Kelatha Wildlife Sanctuary. Its fauna comprises 69 bird species, 17 mammals, 71

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprise ...

species, 12

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

species and 14 reptile species.

References

{{National parks of Myanmar Protected areas of Myanmar Protected areas established in 1942