Sessa Orchid Sanctuary is a 100 km2
protected area of India in the
Himalayan foothills
The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...
in
Bhalukpong
Bhalukpung is a small town located along the southern reaches of the Himalayas in West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh in India. The town is located at 213m above sea level, 100 km from Bomdila, 52 km from Tezpur and 5 km ...
Forest Division of
West Kameng District
West Kameng (pronounced ) is a district of Arunachal Pradesh in northeastern India. It accounts for 8.86% of the total area of the state. The name is derived from the Kameng river, a tributary of the Brahmaputra, that flows through the district ...
,
Arunachal Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares int ...
. It conjoins
Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary
Eaglenest or Eagle's Nest Wildlife Sanctuary is a protected area of India in the Himalayan foothills of West Kameng District, Arunachal Pradesh. It conjoins Sessa Orchid Sanctuary to the northeast and Pakhui Tiger Reserve across the Kameng ri ...
to the southwest. It is a part of the Kameng Protected Area Complex (KPAC), which is an
Elephant Reserve.
See map The
department of Environment & Forests has developed trekking routes for visitors to enjoy the natural habitats of
orchids
Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant.
Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...
. There are deep gorges and valleys, high peaks and rugged terrain that are rewarding for nature lovers and adventure tourists. A nursery includes representative specimens of various orchid species of the sanctuary and a demonstration farm of
Cymbidium
''Cymbidium'' , commonly known as boat orchids, is a genus of evergreen flowering plants in the orchid family Orchidaceae. Orchids in this genus are epiphytic, lithophytic, terrestrial or rarely leafless saprophytic herbs usually with pseudobulbs ...
hybrids for cut-flower production. Most of Sessa has traditionally been claimed by the
Bugun
The Buguns (formerly Khowa) are one of the earliest recognized schedule tribe of India, majority of them, inhabiting the Singchung Sub-Division of West Kameng District of Arunachal Pradesh. Their total population is approximately 3000. The notab ...
tribe as part of their territory.
Geography and climate
Sessa and Eaglenest together occupy a rough east–west rectangle with Sessa occupying the north-east quadrant. The
Bhalukpong
Bhalukpung is a small town located along the southern reaches of the Himalayas in West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh in India. The town is located at 213m above sea level, 100 km from Bomdila, 52 km from Tezpur and 5 km ...
-
Bomdila
Bomdila is the headquarters of West Kameng district in the state of Arunachal Pradesh in India. Bomdila is one of the 60 constituencies of the state of Arunachal Pradesh.
Geography and Climate
Bomdila is located at . It has an average elevati ...
highway (and Pakke immediately beyond) are its eastern boundary. It is bounded to the north by the
Tenga River valley. Altitude is to .
Sessa and Eaglenest ridges rise to and respectively and are the first major barriers to the
monsoon
A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...
as it moves north from the plains of Assam. These ridges get over of rain on the southern slopes and about on the northern slopes.
Sessa sanctuary is drained by the Tippi Naala (Tippi river), which joins the Kameng river at Tippi village on the Bhalukpong-Bomdila highway
Topographic map
Sessa is part of the Kameng protected area complex (KPAC), the largest contiguous closed-canopy forest tract of Arunachal Pradesh, which includes Sessa, Eaglenest, Pakke, Nameri, and Sonai Rupai sanctuaries and associated reserved forest blocks. The Complex covers 3500 km2 in area and ranges from to 3300m in altitude.
Orchids
Sessa is noted for the occurrence of more than 200
orchid
Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant.
Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...
species with 5 new and
endemic
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 elsew ...
species. Sub-tropical types include the genera ''
Dendrobium
''Dendrobium'' is a genus of mostly epiphytic and lithophytic orchids in the family Orchidaceae. It is a very large genus, containing more than 1,800 species that are found in diverse habitats throughout much of south, east and southeast Asia, i ...
'', ''
Bulbophyllum
''Bulbophyllum'' is a genus of mostly epiphytic and lithophytic orchids in the family Orchidaceae. It is the largest genus in the orchid family and one of the largest genera of flowering plants with more than 2,000 species, exceeded in number onl ...
'', ''
Coelogyne
''Coelogyne'' is a genus of over 200 sympodial epiphytes from the family Orchidaceae, distributed across India, China, Indonesia and the Fiji islands, with the main centers in Borneo, Sumatra and the Himalayas. They can be found from tropical ...
'', ''
Eria
''Eria'' is a genus of orchids with more than 50 species distributed in China, the Himalayas, the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia.
Species
''Eria'' species accepted by the Plants of the Worl ...
'', ''
Phaius
''Phaius'', commonly known as swamp orchids or in Chinese as 鶴頂蘭屬/鹤顶兰属 (he ding lan shu), is a genus of forty-five species of flowering plants in the orchid family, Orchidaceae. They are evergreen, terrestrial herbs which form c ...
'' and ''
Liparis''. The sanctuary is unique in having 7
endemic
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 elsew ...
species of
saprotrophic
Saprotrophic nutrition or lysotrophic nutrition is a process of chemoheterotrophic extracellular digestion involved in the processing of decayed (dead or waste) organic matter. It occurs in saprotrophs, and is most often associated with fungi (f ...
orchids. 12 rare species of different families were found in one study of the area.
Orchid Research and Development Centre
The Government of Arunachal Pradesh in the late 1970s created a post of orchidologist in the Forest Department and in 1989 established the Orchid Research and Development Centre (ORDC) at Tipi, and the Sessa Orchid Sanctuary 20 km awy. The ORDC is actively engaged in exploration and collection of orchid species, cultivation in orchidaria and gardens for their taxonomic study, conservation of rare and endangered species, creation of germplasm collections and multiplication of rare species through tissue culture techniques.
The ORDC discovered the new species:
Biermannia jainiana
''Biermannia'' is a genus of flowering plants from the orchid family, Orchidaceae. It is native to eastern India, China and Southeast Asia.
Species
The following species are accepted as of May 2014:
#''Biermannia arunachalensis'' A.N.Rao - Ar ...
,
Cleistoma tricallosum,
Dendrobium kentrophyllum,
Epipogium sessanum,
Eria jengingensis,
Eria lohitensis,
Gastrodia arunachalenisis and
Herminium longilonbatum.,
Conservation
The
Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) is a joint biodiversity conservation initiative of l'Agence Française de Développement, Conservation International, European Union, Global Environment Facility, Government of Japan, and World Bank. CEPF ...
(CEPF), a consortium of major international and
regional organizations, has identified the Eastern Himalayan region around Arunachal Pradesh
(Nepal, Bhutan and all of North-East India) as a critical global biodiversity rich area
deserving of conservation focus. They identified the North-Bank Landscape (i.e. north bank of Brahmaputra, extending up the Eaglenest and Sessa slopes) and the
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 c ...
region as worthy of particular focus.
Sessa is within the
Conservation International
Conservation International (CI) is an American nonprofit environmental organization headquartered in Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia.
CI's work focuses on science, policy and partnership with businesses, governments and communities. The organ ...
Himalaya
The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...
Biodiversity Hotspot
A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region with significant levels of biodiversity that is threatened by human habitation. Norman Myers wrote about the concept in two articles in ''The Environmentalist'' in 1988 and 1990, after which the co ...
area.
BirdLife International
BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...
has designated Sessa and Eaglenest Sanctuaries as an Important Bird Area (IBA IN344), with
Blyth's tragopan
Blyth's tragopan (''Tragopan blythii'') or the grey-bellied tragopan, is a pheasant that is a vulnerable species. The common name commemorates Edward Blyth (1810–1873), English zoologist and Curator of the Museum of the Asiatic Society of Benga ...
identified as a
vulnerable species
A vulnerable species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being threatened species, threatened with extinction unless the circumstances that are threatened species, ...
of the area.
Visitor information
Visitors may contact the
DFO Pakke WLS Division, Seijosa, East Kameng District or The Range Officer (WL), Sessa Orchid Sanctuary, Sessa, West Kameng District or the Asst. Orchidologist, Tipi Orchid Center, Tipi, West Kameng District.
[The Hindu (9/3/2005) retrieved 10/3/0]
Sessa Orchid Sanctuary
/ref>
Notes
{{reflist
Orchid organizations
Protected areas of Arunachal Pradesh
West Kameng district
1989 establishments in Arunachal Pradesh
Protected areas established in 1989