MANAS NATIONAL PARK

• Manas National Park

Manas National Park or Manas Wildlife Sanctuary is a national park, a Project Tiger reserve, an elephant reserve and a biosphere reserve in Assam, India. Located in the Himalayan foothills, it is contiguous with the Royal Manas National Park in Bhutan. The park is known for its rare and endangered endemic wildlife such as the Assam roofed turtle, hispid hare, golden langur and pygmy hog. Manas is famous for its population of the wild water buffalo.^[2] The name of the park is originated from the Manas River, which is named after the serpent goddess Manasa. The Manas river is a major tributary of Brahmaputra River, which passes through the heart of the national park. The Manas National Park was declared a sanctuary on 1 October 1928 with an area of 360 km². Manas bio reserve was created in 1973. Prior to the declaration of the sanctuary it was a reserved forest called Manas R.F. and North Kamrup R.F. It was used by the Co och Behar royal family and Raja of Gauripur as a hunting reserve. In 1951 and 1955 the area was increased to 391 km². It was declared a World Heritage site in December 1985 by UNESCO. On 21 June 2011, it was removed from the List of World Heritage in Danger and was commended for its efforts in preservation. There is only one forest village, Agrang, in the core of the national park. Apart from this village 56 more villages surround the park. Many more fringe villages are directly or indirectly dependent on the park. The minimum temperature is around 15 degrees C and maximum temperature is around 37 degrees C.Heavy rainfall occurs between May and September. The annual average rainfall is around 333 cm. The monsoon forests of Manas lie in the Brahmaputra Valley semi-evergreen forests ecoregion.^[4] The combination of Sub-Himalayan Bhabar Terai formation with reverie succession leading up to the Himalayan subtropical broad leaf forests makes it one of the richest biodiversity areas in the world.The main vegetation types are:Sub-Himalayan Light Alluvial Semi-Evergreen forests in the northern parts,East Himalayan mixed Moist and Dry Deciduous forests (the most common type),Assam Valley Semi- Low Alluvial Savanna Woodland, and Evergreen Alluvial Grasslands which cover almost 50% of the park.The sanctuary has recorded 55 species of mammals, 380 species of birds, 50 of reptiles, and 3 species of amphibians. Out of these wildlife, 21 mammals are India’s Schedule I mammals and 31 of them are threatened.The fauna of the sanctuary include Indian elephants, Indian rhinoceros, gaurs, Asian water buffaloes, barasingha, Indian tigers, Indian leopards, clouded leopards, Asian golden cats, dholes, capped langurs, golden langurs, Assamese macaques, slow loris, hoolock gibbons, smooth-coated otters, sloth bears, barking deer's, hog deers, black panthers, sambar deers and chitals.The park is well known for species of rare and endangered wildlife that are not found anywhere else in the world like the Assam roofed turtle, hispid hare, golden langur and pygmy hog.The Manas hosts more than 450 species of birds.^[5] It has the largest population of the endangered Bengal florican to be found anywhere. Other major bird species include great horn bills, jungle fowls, bulbuls, brahminy ducks, kalij pheasants, egrets, pelicans, fishing eagles, crested serpent-eagles, falcons, scarlet mini vets, bee-eaters, magpie robins, pied horn bills, grey horn bills, mergansers, harriers, Indian Peafowl, ospreys and herons.