Namdapha National Park

Where exactly is Namdapha?

• Location: Changlang district, Arunachal Pradesh. It sits near Miao town, right against the Myanmar border.
• Size: 1,985 sq km in total. That is a 1,808 sq km core zone plus a 177 sq km buffer.
• Why size matters: it is one of India’s largest national parks. Big parks give wide-ranging animals like tigers enough room.

How did Namdapha become protected in steps?

Namdapha did not get full protection in one go. Each step added a stronger layer.

Why do these four cats usually live apart?

Tiger, leopard, snow leopard and clouded leopard each need a different kind of home. They differ in the height, climate and forest they prefer. A snow leopard would not survive in a hot lowland jungle.

Here’s why Namdapha is different. Its land rises from 200 m to 4,571 m. That climb packs several climate zones into one park, like stacking different countries on top of each other.

What does each height band of the park look like?

• Lower down: dense evergreen forest, warm and wet. This is tiger and leopard country.
• Higher up: the forest opens into montane forest and grassland.
• Higher still: snow-covered peaks take over. This is snow leopard territory.
• A fifth cat: the marbled cat also lives here. That makes five wild cat species, a very high number for any protected area.

What makes Namdapha’s rainforest an outlier?

Most tropical rainforests grow much closer to the equator. Namdapha breaks that pattern.

• It holds the world’s northernmost lowland evergreen tropical rainforest.
• It sits at about 27°N latitude.
• It is part of the Eastern Himalaya biodiversity hotspot.

Where does the name “Namdapha” come from?

The name joins two Singpho words. “Nam” means water, and “dapha” means origin. Together they point to a river’s source.

• The river is the Noa Dihing, a tributary of the Brahmaputra.
• It starts at the Chaukan Pass on the India-Myanmar border.
• It then flows through the park from east to west.
• A darker history: in the Second World War, refugees fleeing Burma used the Chaukan Pass to escape. Many reportedly died on the harsh crossing.

What lives in Namdapha besides the cats?

• Over 1,000 plant species and about 1,400 animal species.
• The red panda and the western hoolock gibbon, India’s only ape.
• The critically endangered white-bellied heron and Chinese pangolin.

Who are the people living inside the park?

Namdapha is not an empty forest. A few tribal settlements, mainly of the Yobin (Lisu) community, sit inside its boundaries. They depend on its forests to earn a living.

Here’s where the tension comes from. Park officials worry about encroachment and hunting. Yobin residents point out that they have lived there for generations. Both sides have a real case.

Why is the Miao-Vijaynagar road a double-edged sword?

• The road is about 150 km long. It links two remote settlements through the park.
• It has helped forest staff patrol more easily.
• But easier access also raises fears of more encroachment.

What did Eco-Sensitive Zone status add in 2024?

In 2024, Namdapha was declared an Eco-Sensitive Zone. This adds a regulated buffer around the park. It limits building and industrial activity near its edges.

How did the tiger come back on camera?

• No tiger sighting was confirmed after 2015. People began calling Namdapha a tiger reserve “without” tigers.
• On 8 February 2023, camera traps near Deban caught an adult tiger.
• Another tiger appeared on camera on 6 August 2024.

What happened to Namdapha’s elephants?

• Elephants once migrated from Namdapha to Myanmar.
• From 1996, encroachment blocked that route. Elephants then vanished from the record for years.
• One was camera-trapped again in early 2025, after a 12-year gap.

The lesson: in terrain this remote, “not seen” does not mean “gone”.

What is the Namdapha flying squirrel?

It is a squirrel first described from specimens collected here. It is critically endangered. It has not been reliably recorded since 1981.

Which new dragonfly was confirmed in Namdapha?

In August 2026, researchers confirmed the spoon-tailed duskhawker (Gynacantha basiguttata) in Namdapha. It is the species’ first verifiable record in Arunachal Pradesh.

• A single male was photographed in October 2024, on the Miao-Vijaynagar road.
• It was first wrongly listed as a different species. A later check corrected the name.
• The species was first described from the Philippines. It lives in parts of Southeast Asia.
• No specimen was collected, in line with the Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Act, 2022.
• The study appeared in the Journal of Threatened Taxa. The team wants the species added to India’s dragonfly checklist.

Here’s the exam link: dragonflies and damselflies belong to the insect order Odonata. (Source: The Hindu)

What else is happening at the park this season?

• The park reopened to tourists from 1 September 2026, after its seasonal closure.
• A tiger-count exercise is underway there for 2025-26. It is part of the 6th All India Tiger Estimation cycle.