Namdapha National Park is located in Changlang district, Arunachal Pradesh and located between the Dapha bum range of the Mishmi Hills and the Patkai range. It is established in 1983.
- A biodiversity hotspot in the Eastern Himalayas.
- Fourth largest national park in India.
- Originally declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1972, then a national park in 1983 and became a tiger reserve under Project Tiger scheme in the same year.
- Area of total 1,985 km2 including a core area of 1,808 km2 and a surrounding buffer zone of 177 km2.
Flora
- Sapria himalayana and Balanophora are root parasites related to Rafflesia recorded from the area.
- Vegetation such as Moist deciduous, temperate broadleaved, coniferous forest types and alpine vegetation.
Fauna
- Mammals :-
- Namdapha flying squirrel (Biswamoyopterus biswasi) was first collected in the park and described which is endemic to the park and critically endangered. It was last recorded in 1981 in a single valley within the park.
- Four pantherine species are found in the park: leopard (Panthera pardus), snow leopard (P. uncia), tiger (P. tigris) and clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa).
- 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, yellow-throated marten, Eurasian otter, Oriental small-clawed otter, spotted linsang, binturong, Asian palm civet, small Indian civet, large Indian civet etc.
- Large herbivores are represented by Indian elephant, wild boar, musk deer, Indian muntjac, hog deer, sambar, gaur, goral, mainland serow, takin and bharal.
- Non-human primates present include stump-tailed macaque, slow loris, hoolock gibbon, capped langur, Assamese macaque and rhesus macaque.
- Birds :-
- The park has about 425 bird species.
- Several species of rare wren-babblers have been recorded in Namdapha.
- There are five species of hornbills recorded from the area.
- The snowy throated babbler is a rare species of babbler found only in the Patkai and Mishmi Hills and nearby areas in Northern Myanmar, is found in Namdapha.
- Other bird groups include laughing thrushes, parrotbills, fulvettas, shrike babblers and scimitar babblers.
- Other rare, restricted range or globally endangered species include the rufous-necked hornbill, green cochoa, purple cochoa, beautiful nuthatch, Ward’s trogon, ruddy kingfisher, blue-eared kingfisher, white-tailed fish eagle, Eurasian hobby, pied falconet etc.
The first mid-winter waterfowl census in Namdapha was conducted in 1994 when species such as the white-bellied heron, a critically endangered bird, was recorded for the first time.
- Butterflies and moths :-
- The region is very rich in Lepidoptera species.
- 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, wizard, fluffy tit, East Himalayan purple emperor.
- Four-ringed butterfly (Ypthima cantliei) –
- Species of Satyrinae butterfly.
- Considered a rich genus of the family Nymphalidae which has some 6,000 species of butterflies.
- Of the 35 Ypthima species recorded in India, 23 have been reported from the northeast.
- The highest Ypthima diversity is in China, particularly in the Yunnan and Sichuan. The diversity is also vast in Nepal, Bhutan, and Myanmar.
- The species has dull brown-grey wings with three yellow-ringed single eye spots (ocelli) on its hind wing and a large bi-pupilled apical ocellus obscurely ringed with yellow on the forewing above.
- The butterfly was recorded in 2018 from the Namdapha National Park by Roshan Upadhaya, a member of the Arunachal Pradesh Police, Monsoon Jyoti Gogoi of the BNHS, and Renu Gogoi and Rezina Ahmed of the Guwahati-based Cotton University’s Department of Zoology.