On the occasion of the World Environment Day, 2021, which one of the following was declared as a National Park in India?

Correct — A, Raimona. Raimona was declared a national park on 5 June 2021, World Environment Day, becoming the sixth in Assam. It covers the northern part of the Ripu Reserve Forest in Kokrajhar district, within the Bodoland Territorial Region, and its value lies in what it connects — Phipsoo Wildlife Sanctuary across the Bhutan border to the north and Buxa Tiger Reserve in West Bengal to the west, which together make one of the few surviving continuous forest corridors of the region. It is best known as golden langur habitat. The three other parks in the option set were all notified in the 1990s, well before the year in question.

• (b)Orang — Orang, on the north bank of the Brahmaputra and often called a miniature Kaziranga for its rhinos, has been a national park since 1999.
• (c)Dibru-Saikhowa — Dibru-Saikhowa in eastern Assam, known for its feral horses and its riverine grasslands, was upgraded to a national park in 1999.
• (d)Nameri — Nameri, on the Assam-Arunachal boundary and a refuge for the white-winged wood duck, became a national park in 1998.

A national park is the strictest category of protected area under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 — no grazing, no rights of habitation and no commercial exploitation, and its boundaries can be altered only by a resolution of the State legislature. Upgrading a reserve forest to a national park therefore does more than change the label; it changes what may legally happen inside it.

The item can be settled without knowing anything about Raimona, because the other three names are long-standing parks that appear in every list of Assam's protected areas. Announcements of this kind are routinely timed to World Environment Day, which is itself a useful hook: the same day in 2021 carried the ethanol pilot at Pune. Dehing Patkai followed within the same month as Assam's seventh national park.

• Raimona was notified as a national park on 5 June 2021 and lies in Kokrajhar district, Assam.
• It forms part of the Ripu Reserve Forest and adjoins Phipsoo Wildlife Sanctuary in Bhutan and Buxa Tiger Reserve in West Bengal.
• The golden langur is its best-known resident.
• Dehing Patkai was declared Assam's next national park within the same month.
• Orang, Dibru-Saikhowa and Nameri were all notified as national parks in 1998 or 1999.

• Choosing a famous park because the question is about a famous day.
• Confusing the year a park was declared with the year it was first protected as a reserve forest.

A dated current-affairs item that also rewards knowing when the other three parks were notified.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Raimona National Park is located in which State?

  • (a)Assam
  • (b)Arunachal Pradesh
  • (c)Meghalaya
  • (d)West Bengal

  Answer(a) Assam — in Kokrajhar district, within the Bodoland Territorial Region.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The golden langur is found mainly in

  • (a)The Western Ghats
  • (b)The forests along the Assam-Bhutan border
  • (c)The Sundarbans
  • (d)The Aravallis

  Answer(b) The forests along the Assam-Bhutan border — a narrow range that makes the species especially vulnerable.