Context: The newly created Raimona National Park is set to add a unique feature, with the decks being cleared to declare the nation’s first trans-border Friendship Park that would comprise Raimona and the adjoining Phibsoo Wildlife Sanctuary of Bhutan
About Raimona National Park:
- Declared a national park on June 5, 2021, Raimona, the State’s seventh national park, boasts of rich biodiversity and is one of the last few strongholds of the critically endangered golden langur, which is endemic to just a few pockets of western Assam between rivers Manas and Sonkosh
- It is a safe refuge to elephant, spotted deer, Asiatic black bear, Himalayan black bear, gaur, clouded leopard, slow loris, etc., besides diverse avifauna, including five species of hornbill and a bewildering variety of butterflies
About Phibsoo Wildlife Sanctuary:
- The Phibsoo Wildlife Sanctuary is the second-smallest national park in Bhutan, covering 268.93 square kilometres (103.83 sq mi) in western Sarpang District and southeastern Dagana District along the border with West Bengal.
- It is connected to Jigme Singye Wangchuck National Park and Royal Manas National Park via a "biological corridor" that crosses a national highway
- It is separated from the border with India by two rivers, the Sunkosh River to the west and the Sanathang River to the east.
- Phibsoo is unique in Bhutan for its chital (Axis axis, "spotted deer") and natural sal (Shorea robusta) forests.
- Like Royal Manas National Park, Phibsoo is inhabited by elephants, bengal tigers, gaur, three species of mahseer, and possibly the rare Ganges river dolphin.
- Phibsoo, however, has no human residents