The Raimona National Park is the 6th National Park of Assam. The 422 square kilometer Raimona is situated in the Kokrajhar District of Bodoland Territorial Region of Assam. It is a contiguous forest patch and situated in northern parts of Ripu Reserve Forest (508.62 sq. km. It is the westernmost buffer to Manas Tiger Reserve and one of the rich biodiverse areas of the Eastern Himalayan Landscape.
Sonkosh river forms the western boundary of Raimona along the inter-state boundary of West Bengal and Assam. The east side is bounded by the Saralbhanga river, Ripu RF on the south, and Indo Bhutan international boundary on the north.
The Raimona is sharing the contiguous forest patches of Phipsoo Sanctuary and Jigme Singye Wangchuk National Parks in Bhutan (total area of 1999 square kilometers). The creation of Raimona has increased transboundary protected areas landscape of over 2400 square kilometers.
In ancient times, the proposed Raimona National Park was under thinly populated human habitations. Hamilton (Francis, 1963) reported in ‘An Account of Assam’ (1808-09) that the area under report was a tributary named Ripudwar with capital at ‘Raymana’ (Raimona). The estate was controlled by a Suba (Bhutan governor) appointed by the Deva Raja (administrative king) of Bhutan. He collected tributes from the subjects in favor of Dev Raja. Ripudwar was one of the eighteen such Dwars (passes) that existed on the foothills of Bhutan.
The Suba had not alone realized taxes but also settled the disputes of the estate. It has also been reported by Hamilton that often Bhutan tax collectors raided the estate and terrorized the subjects in order to keep them panic-stricken so as to subjugate them easily. Similar were the conditions in Chirang, Sidli, and other such estates.
It has been mentioned above that during the end of the nineteenth century the area under report was covered by savannah forest recorded in Perre’s Working Plan which indicated that the area was either severely degraded due to anthropogenic or natural disturbances or was abandoned homestead settled or cultivated land once upon a time.
Perhaps there may be two primary reasons for abandonment, -
(i) the entire area is located in the Bhabar tract. In the upper Bhabar zone, people faced a grave dearth of water for agriculture and even for drinking as well.
The Hel and Pekua river, the only two perennial sources of water flowing through the area were located far apart whereas other rivulets and streams remained dry due to their very location in the Bhabar tract without any forest cover.
The topsoil and humus layer in the Bhabar soil profile is very thin (see Bhabar soil description above). Such soil is not suitable to sustain recurring crop growing.
When the forest cover was unfolded all weathering agents became active and bleached the soil, removed the humus layers leaving only sand, stone dust, and pebbles mixed with an insignificant quantity of loam elsewhere.
(ii) Another reason may perhaps be the frequent raids conducted by the Bhutan tax collectors and the realization of taxes by the Suba.
It appears that the upper part of the reserve is unsuitable for human settlement. To cite an example, all the Forest villages established in Ripu RF ever since, are existed on the lower Bhabar-Tarai transition zone, i.e. on the southern part.
There is not a single Forest Village established in the Upper Bhabar part.
However, there were some soil formations in the upper Bhabar zone where clay’s proportion was moderately significant and hence water retaining capacity was also more. In such pockets, Moist Mixed Deciduous Forests grew up later.
First Camera Trap Image of Tiger in Raimona
Historically the area was a part of the migratory route of the faunal species from Himalayan mountain, Indo-Malayan, and Indo-Chinese realms towards the west and Peninsular Indian realm species to the east.
Camera trap image of Spotted deer
This secured area would help to protect the transboundary ecological landscape and will ensure the security of endemic species like Golden Langur (the mascot of BTC), Asian elephant, Tiger, and diverse flora and fauna.
The picturesque landscape of the Raimona would open up opportunities for community-based tourism for the villagers who reside in the fringe of the national park. Finally, the creation of Raimona would be natural security of the entire lower Assam of North East India.
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