Namdapha National Park

Namdapha covers around nineteen hundred square kilometres in the far east of Arunachal, and its altitude range, from about two hundred metres to over four and a half thousand, produces a stack of habitats from lowland tropical rainforest to alpine, which is why it holds what no other protected area does: tiger, leopard, clouded leopard and snow leopard all recorded within one park. The Hoolock gibbon, red panda, takin and over four hundred bird species live here. Access is on foot along a rough forest track with basic forest rest houses; there are no safari roads and no vehicle circuits, so visiting means walking and camping.

History

The name joins the Singpho words nam, "water", and dapha, "origin". Namdapha was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1972 and became a national park and a Project Tiger reserve in 1983, and in 2024 it was declared an Eco-Sensitive Zone (Wikipedia, Namdapha National Park).

What you'll find

• The four cats - tiger, leopard, clouded leopard and snow leopard are all on the park's list, a combination very few protected areas can claim.
• The altitude stack - rainforest to alpine within one protected area.
• The Hoolock gibbon - India's only ape, heard and sometimes seen.
• The forest track - the walking route in, with basic rest houses.

When to go

October to April; the monsoon makes the track impassable with leeches and landslides. Trips need arranging in advance through local operators at Miao, with porters and camping.

Things to know

There are no safaris or roads inside; visiting means multi-day walking with camping and porters. Cat sightings are effectively nil. Permits are required and access is genuinely difficult. Leeches are constant outside winter.

Nearby

Miao is the entry town; Dibrugarh lies west in Assam.

Key facts