A forested hill sanctuary protecting semi-evergreen habitat right next to the capital of Arunachal Pradesh.
Itanagar Wildlife Sanctuary
Itanagar Wildlife Sanctuary is a protected forested reserve in Arunachal Pradesh in northeastern India, situated immediately around the state capital, Itanagar. Established in the late 1960s and officially gazetted in 1978, the sanctuary covers approximately 140 square kilometres of hilly terrain bounded by the rivers Pachin, Pam, and Neorochi, along with the Chingke stream.
The protected area safeguards a mosaic of tropical semi-evergreen and wet evergreen forest, interspersed with patches of pure bamboo. Its biodiversity is significant for a small, urban-adjacent reserve, supporting animals such as tigers, leopards, clouded leopards, Asian elephants, gaurs, sloth bears, and several primates, while hornbills and the rare white-winged duck inhabit its canopy and streams.
Because the sanctuary lies so close to an expanding capital city, it plays an important role in environmental education, awareness, and low-key nature experiences for residents and visitors to Itanagar, even as it faces continuing pressure from hunting, grazing, fires, fisheries, and encroachment.