South East Asian Trips

Alungdaw Kathapa National Park, situated in Mingin Township of Sagaing Division, was established in 1941 as a wildlife sanctuary and opened as a national park in 1984. It covers an area of 620.35 square miles. It is 981 miles away from Yangon if you go by car. Another way of getting there is to fly from Yangon to Mandalay, 400 miles by air, then drive to Alungdaw Kathapa for 148 miles from Mandalay. The Park was established with the objectives to conserve biodiversity including flora and fauna, to study and research on ecosystem of plants and animals, and to manage forest resources including biodiversity by establishing as a national park in accordance with thesustainable production policy of natural resources.

The types of forest thriving in the Park include moist upper mixed deciduous forest, dry upper mixed deciduous forest, lower mixed deciduous forest, Indaing forest, and pine forest. Moreover, the Park is providing sanctuary to such wildlife as elephant, tiger, leopard, gaur, ban teng, sambur, barking deer, jungle goat, mountain goat, bear, wild boar, jungle cat, and a variety of birds. Conservation of natural forests and wildlife including tiger is one of the programmes conducted by the Ministry of Forestry of the Union of Myanmar.

For a nature-loving ecotourist, a number of opportunities for study and recreation awaits in Alungdaw Kathapa National Park, which include visiting and conducting research in the least disturbed forest types, doing research on tiger conservation and management, observing inland avifauna species, and study of the growing condition of Indaing and pine forests.