Two new national parks notified in Assam

• The State government on Wednesday notified Dihing Patkai as a National Park, four days after creating the 422-sq. km Raimona National Park in western Assam’s Kokrajhar district.
• Assam now has the third most (7) National Parks after the 12 in Madhya Pradesh and nine in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

• The five older National Parks in the State are Kaziranga, Manas, Nameri, Orang, and Dibru-Saikhowa.

Dehing Patkai National Park

• 7th National park in Assam.
• Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary is located within the larger Dehing Patkai Elephant Reserve, which spreads across the coal- and oil-rich districts of Upper Assam (Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts).
• Dehing Patkai was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 2004.
• Dehing is the name of the river that flows through this forest and Patkai is the hill at the foot of which the sanctuary lies.
• The oldest refinery of Asia in Digboi and ‘open cast’ coal mining at Lido are located near the National park

• famous for Assam Valley Tropical Wet Evergreen Forests bordering Arunachal Pradesh.

Raimona national park

• 6th National park in Assam
• It is up-gradation of 422-sq km Ripu Reserve Forest in Kokrajhar district.
• The Raimona national park, as well as adjoining Chirang Reserve Forest, is a part of the buffer zone of the Manas Tiger Reserve.
• home to Assam’s largest endangered golden langur population.