Namdapha National Park is a large protected area in Arunachal Pradesh of Northeast India. The park was established in 1983. With more than 1,000 floral and about 1,400 faunal species, it is a biodiversity hotspot in the

Eastern Himalaya ] The Eastern Himalayas extend from eastern Nepal across Northeast India, Bhutan, the Tibet Autonomous Region to Yunnan in China and northern Myanmar. The climate of this region is influenced by the monsoon of South Asia from June to September. It ...

s. The

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

harbours the northernmost lowland evergreen

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...

s in the world at 27°N latitude. It also harbours extensive dipterocarp forests, comprising the northwestern parts of the Mizoram-Manipur-Kachin rain forests ecoregion. It is the fourth largest national park in India.

History

Namdapha was originally declared a Wildlife Sanctuary in 1972, then a National Park in 1983 and became a Tiger Reserve under the Project Tiger scheme in the same year. Its name was a combination of two Singpho words, namely "nam" which means water, and "dapha" which means origin – the river originates from the Dapha Bum glaciers.

Geography and vegetation

Namdapha National Park is located in Changlang district of the Northeast Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, near the international border with

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 C. Wells, Joh ...

. It spans an area of including a core area of and a surrounding buffer zone of . It is located between the ''Dapha bum'' range of the Mishmi Hills and the Patkai range with a wide elevation range between . It is crossed from east to west by the

Noa Dihing Dihing or Burhi Dihing (Dihong = wide river ) is a large tributary, about long, of the Brahmaputra River in Upper Assam in northeastern India. The river originates at above sea level in the Eastern Himalayas (the Patkai Hills) in Arunachal Pr ...

River that originates at the Chaukan Pass on the Indo-Myanmar border. The land cover changes with increasing elevation from tropical evergreen forest to temperate broadleaf and mixed forest.

Secondary forest A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has re-grown after a timber harvest or clearing for agriculture, until a long enough period has passed so that the effects of the disturbance are no longer evident. ...

s cover ; seasonal snow occurs at above between December and March.

Flora

'' Sapria himalayana'' and ''

Balanophora ''Balanophora'' is a genus of parasitic plants in the family Balanophoraceae found in parts of tropical and temperate Asia, including the Eastern Himalayas, Malesia region, Pacific Islands, Madagascar, and tropical Africa. There are about 20 a ...

'' are root parasites related to '' Rafflesia'' recorded from the area. The floristic diversity of Namdapha is as follows: Values in parentheses are percentage of total number.

Fauna

Mammals

The

Namdapha flying squirrel The Namdapha flying squirrel (''Biswamoyopterus biswasi'') is an arboreal, nocturnal flying squirrel endemic to Arunachal Pradesh in northeast India, where it is known from a single specimen collected in Namdapha National Park in 1981. No po ...

(''Biswamoyopterus biswasi'') was first collected in the park and described. It is endemic to the park and critically endangered. It was last recorded in 1981 in a single valley within the park. Because of the elevation range from and vegetation zones from evergreen, moist deciduous to temperate broadleaved and coniferous forest types to

alpine vegetation Alpine plants are plants that grow in an alpine climate, which occurs at high elevation and above the tree line. There are many different plant species and taxa that grow as a plant community in these alpine tundra. These include perennial grasses, ...

, the park is home to a great diversity of mammal species. Four pantherine species are found in the park:

leopard The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant species in the genus '' Panthera'', a member of the cat family, Felidae. It occurs in a wide range in sub-Saharan Africa, in some parts of Western and Central Asia, Southern Russia, a ...

(''Panthera pardus''), snow leopard (''P. uncia''), tiger (''P. tigris'') and

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 cl ...

(''Neofelis nebulosa''). Red Panda (25193861686)

Other predators present in the protected area are dhole, Malayan sun bear, Indian wolf and Asiatic black bear. Smaller carnivores include red panda,

red fox The red fox (''Vulpes vulpes'') is the largest of the true foxes and one of the most widely distributed members of the Order (biology), order Carnivora, being present across the entire Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe ...

, yellow-throated marten, Eurasian otter,

Oriental small-clawed otter The Asian small-clawed otter (''Aonyx cinereus''), also known as the oriental small-clawed otter and the small-clawed otter, is an otter species native to South and Southeast Asia. It has short claws that do not extend beyond the pads of its we ...

spotted linsang The spotted linsang (''Prionodon pardicolor'') is a linsang, a tree-dwelling carnivorous mammal, native to much of Southeast Asia. It is widely, though usually sparsely, recorded, and listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. Characteristic ...

, binturong, Asian palm civet, small Indian civet, large Indian civet, masked palm civet, marbled cat, fishing cat,

Asian golden cat The Asian golden cat (''Catopuma temminckii'') is a medium-sized wild cat native to the northeastern Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and China. It has been listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List since 2008, and is threatened by poach ...

, and two mongoose species. Large herbivores are represented by Indian elephant, wild boar,

musk deer Musk deer can refer to any one, or all seven, of the species that make up ''Moschus'', the only extant genus of the family Moschidae. Despite being commonly called deer, they are not true deer belonging to the family Cervidae, but rather their fa ...

, Indian muntjac, hog deer, sambar, gaur,

goral The gorals are four species in the genus ''Naemorhedus''. They are small ungulates with a goat-like or antelope-like appearance. Until recently, this genus also contained the serow species (now in genus '' Capricornis''). Etymology The original ...

, mainland serow, takin and bharal. Non-human primates present include

stump-tailed macaque The stump-tailed macaque (''Macaca arctoides''), also called the bear macaque, is a species of macaque native to South Asia and Southeast Asia. In India, it occurs south of the Brahmaputra River, in the northeastern part of the country. Its range ...

, slow loris, hoolock gibbon, capped langur, Assamese macaque and rhesus macaque.

Birds

Among the earlier papers on the birds of Namdapha was published in 1990. The park has about 425 bird species, with many more to be recorded from work in the higher areas. There are five species of hornbills recorded from the area. Several species of rare wren-babblers have been recorded in Namdapha. Other bird groups include laughing thrushes, parrotbills,

fulvetta ''Fulvetta'' is a genus of passerine birds. Originally proposed in 1877, it was recently reestablished for the typical fulvettas, which were long included with their presumed relatives in the Timaliidae (Old World babbler) genus '' Alcippe''.Co ...

s, shrike babblers and scimitar babblers. The snowythroated babbler is a rare species of

babbler Babbler may refer to: * Old World babbler, a large family of mostly Old World passerine birds * Australo-Papuan babbler, passerine birds endemic to Australia-New Guinea * Babbler (software) Babbler is a French software company founded in Septem ...

found only in the Patkai and Mishmi Hills and nearby areas in Northern Myanmar, is found in Namdapha. Other rare, restricted range or globally endangered species include the

rufous-necked hornbill The rufous-necked hornbill (''Aceros nipalensis'') is a species of hornbill in Bhutan, northeastern India, especially in Arunachal Pradesh, Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. It is locally extinct in Nepal due to hunting and significant loss ...

green cochoa The green cochoa (''Cochoa viridis'') is a bird species that was variously placed with the thrushes of family Turdidae or the related Muscicapidae (Old World flycatchers). It is considered closer to the former. Description This Himalayan thrush ...

purple cochoa The purple cochoa (''Cochoa purpurea'') is a brightly coloured bird found in the temperate forests of Asia. It is a quiet and elusive bird species that has been considered to be related to the thrushes of family Turdidae or the related Muscicapi ...

, beautiful nuthatch,

Ward's trogon Ward's trogon (''Harpactes wardi'') is a species of bird in the family Trogonidae. Its range includes the northeastern parts of the Indian subcontinent stretching eastwards to Southeast Asia. It is found in Bhutan, India, Tibet, and Myanmar. It ...

ruddy kingfisher The ruddy kingfisher (''Halcyon coromanda'') is a medium-sized tree kingfisher, widely distributed in east and southeast Asia. Description Reaching approximately 25 cm, the ruddy kingfisher has a very large, bright red bill and equally r ...

, blue-eared kingfisher, white-tailed fish eagle, Eurasian hobby,

pied falconet The pied falconet, (''Microhierax melanoleucos'') is a species of bird of prey in the family Falconidae. It is found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Hong Kong, India, Laos, and Vietnam. Its natural habitat is temperate forests. These raptors belon ...

, white-winged wood duck,

Himalayan wood-owl The Himalayan owl (''Strix nivicolum''), also known as the Himalayan wood owl, is an owl of the forests of the Asia, from the Himalayas to Korea and Taiwan. It is sometimes considered a subspecies of the tawny owl, but is separated from that spec ...

, rufous-throated hill-partridge, and whitecheeked hill partridge. Several leaf warblers and migrants such as

amur falcon The Amur falcon (''Falco amurensis'') is a small raptor of the falcon family. It breeds in south-eastern Siberia and Northern China before migrating in large flocks across India and over the Arabian Sea to winter in Southern and East Africa. ...

and several

thrush ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'' is an American spy fiction television series produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television and first broadcast on NBC. The series follows secret agents, played by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, who work for a secret ...

es can be seen here.Datta, A., Naniwadekar, R. & Anand, M.O. 2008. Hornbills, hoolocks and hog badgers: Long‐term monitoring of threatened wildlife with local communities in Arunachal Pradesh, north‐east India. Final report to the Rufford Small Grants Program (UK). Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysore, India. 80 pp
PDF
/ref> The first mid-winter waterfowl census in Namdapha was conducted in 1994 when species such as the

white-bellied heron The white-bellied heron (''Ardea insignis'') also known as the imperial heron or great white-bellied heron, is a large heron species living in the foothills of the eastern Himalayas in northeast India and Bhutan to northern Myanmar. It inhabits un ...

, a critically endangered bird, was recorded for the first time.Choudhury, A.U. (1996). Winter waterfowl count in Namdapha National Park. ''OBC Bulletin'' 23:29-30.

Butterflies and moths

The region is very rich in

Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) is an order (biology), order of insects that includes butterfly, butterflies and moths (both are called lepidopterans). About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera are described, in 126 Family (biology), families and 46 Taxonomic r ...

species. Both

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

and

moths Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

are found in equal abundance here, along with a variety of other insects. As per the observations taken during the National Camp organised in October 2014 by Bombay Natural History Society, a lot of rare species of butterflies were seen. These include the koh-i-noor, naga treebrown, red caliph,

cruiser A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several roles. The term "cruiser", which has been in use for several hu ...

, wizard, fluffy tit, East Himalayan purple emperor.

References

External links

Official Website of Namdapha National ParkWebsite of Namdapha created by the Nature Conservation Foundation
{{Authority control Eastern Himalayan broadleaf forests Tiger reserves of India National parks in Arunachal Pradesh Changlang Protected areas of Arunachal Pradesh Protected areas established in 1974 Tourism in Northeast India 1974 establishments in Arunachal Pradesh Environment of Arunachal Pradesh 1983 establishments in Arunachal Pradesh Protected areas established in 1983