The Dehing Patkai National Park has been officially opened to the public from Saturday onwards; this was stated by the state forest minister Chandra Mohan Patowary while participating in the inauguration ceremony.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister Patowary said, “From today onwards, Dehing Patkai National Park is officially opened to the tourists. The main gate of the national park was constructed by the state government at a cost of approximately Rs 10 lakh. The state government has plans to develop the national park further.”
The forest minister was accompanied by Thowra constituency MLA Sushanta Borgohain, Digboi MLA Suren Phukan along with other forest officials including the DFO of the Digboi Forest Division.
Dehing Patkai National Park is located in the Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts of Assam and covers an area of 231.65 km2 (89.44 sq mi) rainforest.
It was declared a wildlife sanctuary on June 13, 2004. On December 13, 2020 Government of Assam upgraded it into a national park.
On June 9, 2021, the Forest Department of Assam officially notified it as a national park.
It is located in the Dehing Patkai Landscape which is a dipterocarp-dominated lowland rainforest. The rainforest stretches for more than 575 km2 (222 sq mi) in the districts of Dibrugarh, Tinsukia and Charaideo.
The forest further spreads over in the Tirap and Changlang districts of Arunachal Pradesh.
Dehing Patkai National Park harbours the largest stretch of lowland rainforests in India.
Meanwhile, Patowary, who is also the state minister of Industries and Commerce, emphasised the importance of both oil blocks and forest cover in the area, adding that both natural resources are crucial to the state.
“Digboi Refinery, constructed in 1901, is the world's second oil refinery and Asia's first refinery. It is a small refinery with a capacity of 0.65 Million Metric Tonnes per Annum (MMTPA). In comparison to Gujarat's Jamnagar refinery, which has a capacity of 60 MMTPA, our state has four refineries with a combined capacity of only 7 MMTPA. As a result, we intend to expand the Digboi refinery to a capacity of 1 MMTPA,” added Minister Patowary before the media.
The state minister of Industries and Commerce claimed regarding the Numuligarh Refinery that its capacity of roughly 3.95 MMTPA will be increased to 9 MMTPA. A 1630-kilometer-long straight pipeline from Odisha's Paradip to Numuligarh is still under construction. Former Indian Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan laid the pipeline's foundation.
“The construction of the pipeline was laid for transporting imported crude oil from Paradip Port to Numaligarh refinery,” Patowary added further.
