Dampa Tiger Reserve or Dampha Tiger Reserve is a

tiger reserve Project Tiger is a tiger conservation programme launched in April 1973 by the Government of India during Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's tenure. The project aims at ensuring a viable population of the Bengal tiger in its natural habitats, protecti ...

of western

Mizoram Mizoram () is a state in Northeast India, with Aizawl as its seat of government and capital city. The name of the state is derived from "Mizo", the self-described name of the native inhabitants, and "Ram", which in the Mizo language means "lan ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. It covers an area of about in the

Lushai Hills The Lushai (Pron: ˌlʊˈʃaɪ) Hills (or Mizo Hills) are a mountain range in Mizoram and Manipur, India. The range is part of the Patkai range system and its highest point is 2,157 m high Phawngpui, also known as 'Blue Mountain'. Flora and fa ...

at an altitude range of . It was declared a tiger reserve in 1994 and is part of

Project Tiger Project Tiger is a tiger conservation programme launched in April 1973 by the Government of India during Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's tenure. The project aims at ensuring a viable population of the Bengal tiger in its natural habitats, prote ...

. The tropical forests of Dampa Tiger Reserve are home to a diverse flora and fauna. It consists of forest interpolated with steep precipitous hills, deep valleys, jungle streams, ripping rivulets, natural salts licks. Dampa Tiger Reserve is not easily accessible unlike other park where you can ride on a four wheeler but one has to walk through the forest if one wishes to sight animals. In the tiger census of 2018, no tiger was found in this reserve. A tiger was spotted recently after seven years.

Etymology

The word Dampa means "lonely men" and refers to a local

narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether nonfictional ( memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travelogue, etc.) or fictional ( fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller, novel, etc ...

about a village, where a lot of the women died.

History

The protected area was initially established as wildlife sanctuary in 1985 with an area of about , which was reduced to about . In 1994, it received the status of a

Tiger Reserve Project Tiger is a tiger conservation programme launched in April 1973 by the Government of India during Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's tenure. The project aims at ensuring a viable population of the Bengal tiger in its natural habitats, protecti ...

with an area of and thus became part of

. Jurisdiction is under two ranges, namely Teirei Range and Phuldungsei Range. Workers consist of a field director who is headquartered in W. Phaileng. There are also about five foresters and 10 regular forest guards.

Flora

Rare floral species have been found in Dampa Tiger Reserve including rare ginger species ''Globba spathulata'' and ''Hemiorchis pantlingii''.

Fauna

Mammals

Dampa Tiger Reserve hosts Indian leopard,

sloth bear The sloth bear (''Melursus ursinus'') is a myrmecophagous bear species native to the Indian subcontinent. It feeds on fruits, ants and termites. It is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, mainly because of habitat loss and degradation ...

gaur The gaur (''Bos gaurus''; ), also known as the Indian bison, is a bovine native to South Asia and Southeast Asia, and has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1986. The global population was estimated at a maximum of 21,000 m ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 i ...

, hoolock gibbon, Phayre's leaf monkey, gray langur,

Rhesus macaque The rhesus macaque (''Macaca mulatta''), colloquially rhesus monkey, is a species of Old World monkey. There are between six and nine recognised subspecies that are split between two groups, the Chinese-derived and the Indian-derived. Generally ...

and slow loris. Four

Bengal tiger The Bengal tiger is a population of the '' Panthera tigris tigris'' subspecies. It ranks among the biggest wild cats alive today. It is considered to belong to the world's charismatic megafauna. The tiger is estimated to have been present i ...

s were recorded in 1994 but none were recorded in 2019. Dampa Tiger Reserve has one of the highest

clouded leopard The clouded leopard (''Neofelis nebulosa''), also called the mainland clouded leopard, is a wild cat inhabiting dense forests from the foothills of the Himalayas through mainland Southeast Asia into South China. In the early 19th century, a ...

populations in South and South East Asia. In 2012, tiger presence was confirmed through Scat samples. No tiger was recorded in Dampa Tiger Reserve in the years 2018–2019. However, the

National Tiger Conservation Authority The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) was established in December 2005, following a recommendation of the Tiger Task Force, constituted by the Prime Minister of India for reorganised management of Project Tiger and the many Tiger Res ...

recommended that tigers from Assam’s

Kaziranga National Park Kaziranga National Park is a national park in the Golaghat and Nagaon districts of the state of Assam, India. The park, which hosts two-thirds of the world's great one-horned rhinoceroses, is a World Heritage Site. According to the census h ...

be introduced to Dampa Tiger Reserve.

Birds

Bird species sighted in Dampa Tiger Reserve include great hornbill, wreathed hornbill, oriental pied hornbill,

scarlet-backed flowerpecker The scarlet-backed flowerpecker (''Dicaeum cruentatum'') is a species of passerine bird in the flowerpecker family Dicaeidae. Sexually dimorphic, the male has navy blue upperparts with a bright red streak down its back from its crown to its tail ...

, Kalij pheasant,

grey peacock-pheasant The gray peacock-pheasant (''Polyplectron bicalcaratum''), also known as Burmese peacock-pheasant, is a large Asian member of the order Galliformes. Taxonomy In 1747 the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a descrip ...

, speckled piculet and

white-browed piculet The white-browed piculet (''Sasia ochracea'') is a species of bird in the family Picidae. It is found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam. Its natural habitats are temperate forests and su ...

, bay woodpecker, greater yellownape,

greater flameback The greater flameback (''Chrysocolaptes guttacristatus'') also known as greater goldenback, large golden-backed woodpecker is a woodpecker species. It occurs widely in the northern Indian subcontinent, eastwards to southern China, the Malay Pe ...

great barbet The great barbet (''Psilopogon virens'') is an Asian barbet native to the Indian sub-continent and Southeast Asia, where it inhabits foremost forests up to altitude. It has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since 2004 because of ...

, blue-throated barbet,

red-headed trogon The red-headed trogon (''Harpactes erythrocephalus'') is a species of bird in the family Trogonidae. Etymology ''H. erythrocephalus'' comes from the Ancient Greek terms ἐρυθρός ''eruthros'' meaning red and κεφαλή, ''kephalē'' mean ...

, Indian cuckoo, Asian barred owlet, green imperial pigeon,

mountain imperial pigeon The mountain imperial pigeon (''Ducula badia''), also known as the maroon-backed imperial pigeon or Hodgson's imperial pigeon, is a species of bird in the pigeon and dove family with a wide range in southeastern Asia. Taxonomy The Malabar i ...

, emerald dove, crested serpent eagle, Malayan night heron, long-tailed broadbill,

Asian fairy bluebird The Asian fairy-bluebird (''Irena puella'') is a medium-sized, arboreal passerine bird. This fairy-bluebird is found in forests across tropical southern Asia, Indochina and the Greater Sundas. Two or three eggs are laid in a small cup nest in a ...

blue-winged leafbird The blue-winged leafbird (''Chloropsis moluccensis'') is a species of leafbird found in forest and second growth throughout Southeast Asia as far east as Borneo and as far south as southern Sumatra. It previously included Jerdon's leafbird (''C. ...

, golden-fronted leafbird, orange-bellied leafbird, scarlet minivet, maroon oriole, greater racket-tailed drongo, Indian paradise-flycatcher, pale-chinned blue flycatcher, blue-throated flycatcher, black-naped monarch, grey-headed canary flycatcher,

white-rumped shama The white-rumped shama (''Copsychus malabaricus'') is a small passerine bird of the family Muscicapidae. Native to densely vegetated habitats in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, its popularity as a cage-bird and songster has led to it ...

slaty-backed forktail The slaty-backed forktail (''Enicurus schistaceus'') is a species of forktail in the family Muscicapidae. A slim, medium-sized forktail, it is distinguished from similar species by its slate grey forehead, crown, and mantle. It has a long and ...

spotted forktail The spotted forktail (''Enicurus maculatus'') is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae. It is found in the Himalayas and the hills of Northeast India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and southern China including Yunnan. Birds of this species are ...

, chestnut-bellied nuthatch,

velvet-fronted nuthatch The velvet-fronted nuthatch (''Sitta frontalis'') is a small passerine bird in the nuthatch family Sittidae found in southern Asia from Nepal, India, Sri Lanka ‍and Bangladesh east to south China and Indonesia. Like other nuthatches, it feeds o ...

, black bulbul,

black-crested bulbul The black-crested bulbul (''Rubigula flaviventris'') is a member of the bulbul family of passerine birds. It is found from the Indian subcontinent to southeast Asia. Taxonomy and systematics The black-crested bulbul was originally described ...

ashy bulbul The ashy bulbul (''Hemixos flavala'') is a species of songbird in the bulbul family, Pycnonotidae. It is found on the Indian subcontinent and in Southeast Asia. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical ...

, white-throated bulbul, slaty-bellied tesia and striated yuhina.

Threat

It has been reported that there has been an increase in built up (590%), bamboo forest (192.89%) and scrub (74.67%) areas. These increases are simultaneously accompanied by decrease in cover area of evergreen/semi evergreen closed forests from 152.47 km² in 1978 to 95.27 km² in 2005. This could be due to the practice of

shifting cultivation Shifting cultivation is an agricultural system in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily, then abandoned while post-disturbance fallow vegetation is allowed to freely grow while the cultivator moves on to another plot. The period of cu ...

by villagers at the border of the reserve. A 62-km fence and patrol road along the Bangladesh boundary near the reserve in Mizoram is hindering the free movement of Tigers at Dampa. Oil palm and Teak plantations which occupy areas close to the Dampa Tiger Reserve are also reducing habitat of birds and animals and could pose a bigger threat to wildlife than shifting cultivation. There have also been reported cases of poaching by different groups including local hunters and insurgent groups like Shanti Bahini and the

National Liberation Front of Tripura The National Liberation Front of Tripura (abbreviated NLFT) is a Tripuri nationalist militant organisation based in Tripura, India. It has an estimated 550 to 850 members. The NLFT seeks to secede from India and establish an independent Trip ...

References

External Links

Report of Dampa
*
Through Zakhuma’s Lens - Dampa Tiger Reserve
' b
Green Hub
on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

* {{National Parks of India Tiger reserves of India Protected areas of Mizoram 1985 establishments in Mizoram Protected areas established in 1985