Jeypore, July 3: Assam Minister for Environment and Forest Parimal Suklabaidya on Saturday formally inaugurated the Dihing Patkai National Park.
It is a red-letter day for Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts and the state as a whole that the Dihing Patkai has been created as the seventh National Park, the minister said at a function organised here to mark the occasion. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had declared Dihing Patkai as a National Park on June 5 - the World Environment Day- and the official process was completed with the publication of the notification on June 15.
Two national parks, including Raimona National Park in the Bodoland Territorial Region, have come up within the first month of the second BJP government in the state. The rich floral and faunal diversity of the park, well known for its rainforest, will soon attain the stature of one of the best national parks in the country, the minister said. He called upon everyone to live in complete harmony with nature that 'provides us sustenance and keeps us alive'. The government would take necessary steps for infrastructure development of the park to attract tourists and open up vistas of opportunities for the unemployed youths, he added.
Union Minister of State for Food Processing Industries, Rameswar Teli and legislators of Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts, and officials of both the district were present on the occasion. Earlier, the Forest Minister handed over the formal notification of the park to the people's representatives and the Director of conservation NGO, Nature's Beckon, Soumyadeep Datta. He also unveiled the plaque at the main entrance of the park. The Park which falls under the Jeypore range and Soraipung range of Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts covers an area of 234.26 sq km.
Known all over for its rain-forest, the last remaining stretches of Assam Valley Tropical Wet Evergreen Forests, the park is home to elephants, hoolock gibbons, golden cat, clouded leopard and other animals. Till date, 47 mammal species, 47 reptile species and 310 butterfly species have been recorded.
