Dehing Patkai Landscape
Dehing Patkai Landscape, located in the Upper Assam, stretches for over roughly 600 square kilometres and comprises three large blocks of forests and several forest fragments. The forest is classified as a lowland Tropical Wet Evergreen Forest. It falls under Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot. Due to its biodiversity and significance for elephant habitat, parts of the landscape are recognised as Dehing Patkai Elephant Reserve and 111 km2 is protected as the Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary since 2004.
The name Dehing Patkai comes from the Dehing river and Patkai hills. It is popularly referred to as “The Amazon of East”.
Climate
Dehing Patkai landscape has tropical monsoon rainforest climate with heavy monsoon downpour. The temperature reaches a Peak in June and falls with the arrival of monsoons. July is the month of heaviest rainfall and monsoons end in September. The dry period ranges from October to February. The average temperature ranges from 6 °C to 38 °C. There are 119 to 164 rainy days per year.Flora
The Dehing Patkai Landscape is one of the richest spots for biodiversity in India. It has hundreds of plant species which range from Shorea assamica and Dipterocarpus retusus, occupying the top canopy of the forest at heights of 50 m, to Mesua ferrea and Vatica lanceifolia, which dominate the middle canopy, and a number of woody shrubs such as Saprosma ternatum, Livistona jenkinsiana and Calamus erectus, which constitute the undergrowth.Dipterocarpus retusus, or hollong, the state tree of Assam dominates the forest while the forest floor is home to charismatic ground orchids. Some of the important tree species found in the forest area are: hollong, mekai, dhuna, nahar, outenga, different species of Ficus etc.
Dehing Patkai is also an important biodiversity spot for its range of orchid species. There are around 100 species of orchid in this region, including Bulbophyllum ebulbum, Chrysoglossum erraticum, Chrysoglossum robinsonii, Eria connate, Eria pudica, Zeuxine clandestina, Hetaeria affinis, Thelasis pygmaea and Taeniophyllum crepidiforme.
Fauna
Dehing Patkai landscape is a critical refuge for biodiversity as it provides habitat for species of most conservation concern at the sub-national level in India and species that are identified under the IUCN Red List.There is a wide variety of wildlife found in the landscape with as many as 47 species of mammals, 50 species of snakes, 13 species of lizards, few rare and threatened turtle species, more than 350 species of butterflies etc. It was the first place in the world to have presence of seven different species of wild cats in the world -tiger, leopard, clouded leopard, leopard cat, golden cat, jungle cat and marbled cat.
There are also seven species of primates found in the forest - Western hoolock gibbon,
rhesus macaque, Assamese macaque, pig-tailed macaque, stump-tailed macaque, slow loris, and capped langur. It is also home to mammals like Asian elephant, gaur, Chinese pangolin, Himalayan black bear, black giant squirrel, Porcupine, Crab-eating mongoose, sambar, sun bear, barking deer, wild water buffalo etc.