Subtitle

  Introduction

  Forests&Wildlife

  Protected Area     Network

  Management

  Visitor Information

Bio-geographically it is situated in the Eastern Himalayan province, the richest bio-geographical province of the Himalayan zone and is one of the Mega bio diversity hotspots of the world. 40% of the nation?s biodiversity, both wildlife and plants are found here. The entire territory forms a complex hill system with varying elevations ranging from 50m in the foothills and ascending to about 7,000m, traversed throughout by a number of rivers and rivulets. Rainfall varies from 1,000mm in higher reaches to 5,750mm in the foothill areas, spread over 8-9 months excepting the drier days in winter. This diversity of topographical and climatic conditions has favoured the growth of luxuriant forests which are home to myriad plant and animal forms adding beauty to the landscape. Living in this incredible cradle of nature are the colourful and vibrant tribes of Arunachal Pradesh for whom the forests and the wildlife are of special significance.

Nature has been exceedingly kind and has endowed this beautiful State of Arunachal Pradesh with diverse forests and magnificent wildlife. Nowhere else in the Himalayas can one find so much pristine forest and intact mega-biodiversity. Species which are endangered or threatened elsewhere are widely distributed across the state-including 25 endangered mammals. The richness of life forms i.e. the flora & fauna that occur in these forests presents a panorama of biological diversity with over 6,000 plants species, over 100 species of mammals, over 650 species of birds, more than 500 species of orchids, over 52 species of Rhodendron and a large number of butterflies, insects and reptiles. Arunachal Pradesh can boast of having the 4 major cats namely Tiger, Leopard, Clouded Leopard and Snow Leopard along with 10 distict species of Pheasants (the richest in India). All of the three goat antelope occurs here (Serrow, Goral and Takin). The forests houses 105 species of Bamboos. However, the process of documentation of the Biological species shall require many more years to complete. Such an unparalleled occurrence of life forms can be attributed to the peculiar location of the State which is at the junction of the Paleoarctic, indo-Chinese, and Indo-Malayan bio-geographic regions, Biotic elements from all these regions occur in this state making it very rich in floral & faunal resources.

The vegetation of Arunachal Pradesh falls under four broad climatic categories and can be classified in five broad forest types with a sixth type of secondary forests. These are tropical forests, sub tropical forests, pine forests, temperate forests and alpine forests. In the degraded forests bamboos and other grasses are of common occurrence.