Wild Life Expeditions in Myanmar
Hukaung Valley Tiger Reserve
The Hukaung Valley is located in the far northern part of Myanmar. It is part of an area considered one of the global hotspots for biodiversity.
Hukaung Vallery can also be taken as the birthplace of the Chindwin River, which is one of the largest river in Myanmar.
Hukaung Vallery is a remote area, which was made famous by the building of the Ledo Road during World War II as a military supply route for the Allies between India and China. In 1999, the road was an abandoned dirt tract, bridges were washed away, and much of the interior valley was largely uninhabited.
The remoteness of the valley, widespread flooding in the lowlands during rainy season, and severe malaria have made this area inhospitable to people, but a refuge for wildlife. In the initial survey, sign of elephants, tigers, leopards, wild boars, gaur, Himalayan black bears, sambar deer and muntjacd were found in numbers rarely seen elsewhere in the forests of present day Asia. In the surrounding mountains, hunters brought us evidence of what was the newly discovered leaf deer, a commonly hunted species yet unprotected throughout its known range.
Many local and international organizations formed teams and visited the area as part of a countrywide effort to survey tigers. Camera trap photos confirmed the presence of tigers and indicated the likelihood of a viable, breeding population in the valley. In response to these findings, the Myanmar government designated a 2,500 square mile uninhabited piece of Hukaung Valley, as the country's largest protected area-the Hukaung Valley Wildlife Sanctuary.
In March 2002, with the completion of the national tiger field survey, the Hukaung Valley stood out as one of only three, out of 17 areas surveyed in the country, where tigers were found within core habitat. There are protection, training, and sustainable use schemes within Hukaung Valley.On March 1, 2004, the Minister of Forestry signed the legal declaration expanding the original wildlife sanctuary to cover the entire Hukaung Valley, an area of 8,452 square miles or 21,890 square kilometers. The Hukaung Valley immediately became the largest tiger reserve as well as one of the largest protected forest areas in the world, nearly the size of the state of Vermont. It also now became the fourth protected area of the Northern Forest Complex, a region of 12,000 square miles, more than 30,000 square kilometers, ranging from lowland Indo-Malayan jungle to alpine Sino-Himlayan habitat.
Upon the signing of the reserve declaration, the Ministry of Forestry agreed to work with Wild Life Conservation Society (WCS) to immediately initiate activities such as staffing of the reserve, settling land claim issues of the local people, properly delineating the reserve boundaries, building a headquarters and guard stations, building an education center and local education kiosks at key settlements, and providing an extensive community outreach program.
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