Guwahati News Desk: Minister of Environment and Forest Parimal Suklabaidya inaugurated the Dihing Patkia National Park on Saturday.
The inauguration ceremony of the Dihing Patkia National Park was held at Jeypore Forest on Saturday.
On the auspicious occasion Minister Suklabaidya said, “It’s a red-letter day Dibrugarh and Tinsukia district and Assam as a whole that Dihing Patkai National Park has come up”.
“The declaration of Dihing Patkai National Park as a national park on World Environment Day on June 5 by Chief Minister of Assam Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma as the official process has been completed with the publication of the notification on June 15”. Minister Suklabaidya added.
The Minister said a long drawn out conservation movement for making Dihing Patkai as national park has come to fruition and thanked the people of Jeypore for making it happen.
Minister Suklabaidya said that the rich floral and fauna diversity of the park well known for its rainforest will soon attain the stature of one of the best national parks in the country.
He also added that Assam is blessed with nature’s bounty and lauded the people of the state for conservation of nature.
Suklabaidya called everyone to live in complete communion with nature that ‘provides us sustenance and keeps us alive’.
The Minister said during the beginning of the new government, two national parks including Raimona National Park have come up in the state.
He added with the national park recognition accorded to Dihing Patkai having the conservation of the rich flora and fauna would get a big boost.
Suklabaidya also said that the Assam government would take necessary steps for infrastructure development of the park to attract tourists.
The park will open up vistas of opportunities for the unemployment youths of the State.
As the park starts fully for the tourist after the pandemic, it will create lots of opportunity to build up business in the nearby areas of the national park by setting up hotels, restaurants, eateries, markets, shops etc.
Union Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Rameswar Teli also thanked the Government of Assam and Nature’s Beckon for making people’s dream come true by according Dehing Patkai with the tag of national park.
He hoped that the national park would get a state-of-the-art guest house and other facilities to woo tourists.
During the inauguration ceremony of the Dihing Patkia National Park, MLAs like Prasanta Phukan, Taranga Gogoi, Teros Goala and Chakradhar Gogoi, PCCF (Wildlife), Amit Sahai and Director, Nature’s Beckon, Soumyadeep Datta, Deputy Commissioner, Pallav Gopal Jha, SP Mishra, Conservator of Forest & Eastern Assam Circle Narayan Mahanta, BJP and AGP District Presidents and other officials were present.
Earlier, the Minister handed over the formal notification of the park to the people’s representatives and the Director of Nature’s Beckon.
Minister Suklabaidya also unveiled the national park at the main entrance of the park as he went for a safari inside the park with park officials.
The Dihing Patkai National Park which falls under the Jeypore range and Soraipung range of Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts covers an area of 234.26 sq km also known all over for its rainforest.
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 which can be commonly seen by the tourist in the Dihing Patkai National Park.
According to the sources, 47 mammal species, 47 reptile species and 310 butterfly species have been recorded in the national park to date.