Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary is a

wildlife sanctuary A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

in Bhutan, located in Merak and Sakteng Gewogs of

Trashigang District Trashigang District (Dzongkha: བཀྲ་ཤིས་སྒང་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Bkra-shis-sgang rdzong-khag''; also spelled "Tashigang") is Bhutan's easternmost dzongkhag (district). Culture The population of the district ...

and just crossing the border into

Samdrup Jongkhar District Samdrup Jongkhar District (Dzongkha: བསམ་གྲུབ་ལྗོངས་མཁར་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Bsam-grub Ljongs-mkhar rdzong-khag'') is one of the 20 dzongkhags (districts) comprising Bhutan. The dominant language ...

. It is one of the country's

protected areas Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

and is listed as a tentative site in Bhutan's Tentative List for

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. I ...

inclusion. The sanctuary has three ranges: Merak Range, Sakteng Range, and Joenkhar Range. Sakteng Range is the largest range with an area of 333.67 sq.km, followed by Merak Range (287.352 sq.km) and Joenkhar Range (121.442 sq.km).

Flora and fauna

The sanctuary represents the easternmost temperate

ecosystems An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syst ...

and landscapes of Bhutan, and is part of the

Eastern Himalayan subalpine conifer forests The Eastern Himalayan subalpine conifer forests is a temperate coniferous forests ecoregion which is found in the middle and upper elevations of the eastern Middle Himalayas, in western Nepal, Bhutan, and northern Indian states including Arunachal ...

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas o ...

. It protects several

endemic species Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

including the eastern blue pine, ''Meconopsis merakensis var. merakensis'', the

black-rumped magpie The black-rumped magpie (''Pica bottanensis'') is a species of magpie found in central Bhutan to west-central China. It was formerly classified as a subspecies of the Eurasian magpie (''Pica pica''). A molecular phylogenetic study published i ...

, and the endangered Himalayan

red panda The red panda (''Ailurus fulgens''), also known as the lesser panda, is a small mammal native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China. It has dense reddish-brown fur with a black belly and legs, white-lined ears, a mostly white muzz ...

, ''A. f. fulgens.'' Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary was created in part to protect the ''migoi'', a

yeti The Yeti ()"Yeti"
''

cryptid Cryptids are animals that cryptozoologists believe may exist somewhere in the wild, but are not believed to exist by mainstream science. Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience, which primarily looks at anecdotal stories, and other claims rejected b ...

whose existence has not been scientifically confirmed, but in which the local population strongly believes. The ''migoi'' are believed to haunt the northern part of the area.

Territorial dispute

According to Tenzing Lamsang, editor of

The Bhutanese ''The Bhutanese'' is a newspaper based in Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between Ch ...

, in all official Chinese maps, the sanctuary is shown to be Chinese territory. The area including Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary made news in June 2020 when the Chinese government reaffirmed that it is a territory disputed between China and Bhutan. Bhutan rejected the assertion, and denied that China had ever laid claim to the area in the past. In July 2020, the Indian

Border Roads Organisation The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) is a road construction executive force in India that provides support to and is now a part of the Indian Armed Forces. BRO develops and maintains road networks in India's border areas and friendly neighboring ...

was tasked with building new strategic roads to connect eastern Bhutan to western

Tawang Tawang is a town and administrative headquarter of Tawang district in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. The town was once the capital of the Tawang Tract, which is now divided into the Tawang district and the West Kameng district. Tawang ...

area such as Lumla-

Trashigang Trashigang ( dz, བཀྲ་ཤིས་སྒང་།), or Tashigang, meaning "fortress of auspicious mount," is a town in eastern Bhutan and the district capital of the Trashigang Dzongkhag (district). The town lies to the east side of th ...

road through Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary.India proposes to build road in Bhutan’s ‘Yeti territory’ which China claimed recently
Economic Times, 15 Jul 2020.

References

Protected areas established in 2003 Wildlife sanctuaries of Bhutan Protected areas of Bhutan Trashigang District Samdrup Jongkhar District {{Asia-protected-area-stub

Flora and fauna

Territorial dispute

See also

References