Namdapha National Park

Namdapha National Park is located in the Changlang District of Arunachal Pradesh on the India Burmese border a few km from the entry point, Miau. It was designated as a National Park in 1983 under the Wildlife (Protection) Act. The same year, it was also declared as tiger reserve under Project Tiger. With a total area of 1985 sq kms, this is the largest national park in the north-east and one of the larger protected areas in the country. In fact, this was among the earliest national parks established in the seven states of north-east India. 

The park watered by the Noa- Dehing and the Namdapha rivers, is largely inaccessible, with diverse habitats of flora and fauna. The vegetation ranges from the wet evergreen tropical and sub-tropical forests to temperate and alpine forests. A variety of wild tree species and crop plants including banana, mango, citrus and medicinal and ornamental plants including wild orchids are found here. The inaccessibility has helped the forests to retain its pristine ness.

The fauna of the park comprises elephant, tiger, leopard, snow leopard, clouded leopard, golden cat, wild dog, endangered Hoolock gibbon, Namdapha Flying Squirrel, wild buffalo, guar, hog deer, sloth bear, bison, Himalayan Tahr, Bharal, python, King cobra, , the wild goats; takin peculiar to the Patkoi range, Serow and Goral etc. The park is rich in bird life. The important birds are Indian Horn bill, the state bird of Arunachal, white winged wood duck, cheer pheasants etc. 

The park is unique in its altitude, which varies around 200 metres (nearly sea level) in the valleys to more than 4,500 metres of snow covered mountain peaks. Perhaps no other national park in the world can boast of such phenomenal altitudinal variation. The park is also ideal for trekking and hiking. From Miau the entry point, a forest road stretching over 28-km gives access to the protected area up to a place called Deban where accommodation is available. You can make the journey in a jeep or Gypsy. Beyond this there is no road and one has to go on foot. It is a challenging trek through dense forests and steep hill ranges with rivers flowing in between and the varying climatic conditions from tropical to cold and temperate conditions.