Murlen National Park

About Murlen National Park

Murlen National Park sits in Mizoram's Champhai district, close to the Myanmar border and roughly 245 km east of the state capital Aizawl, in the Chin Hills borderland. Established in 1991, the park covers about 200 sq km of dense, largely undisturbed forest that has earned it the local nickname "Land of No Return," a reference to how thick the canopy is: very little sunlight reaches the forest floor, making it one of the most visually dramatic and ecologically intact forests in Mizoram. The park's wildlife list includes clouded leopard, Himalayan black bear, tiger, leopard, serow, sambar, barking deer, Malayan giant squirrel, and hoolock gibbon, an unusually complete assemblage for a park of its size, reflecting how little of Murlen's forest has been logged or fragmented. Birdlife is similarly rich, with more than 150 recorded species including the peregrine falcon and Blyth's tragopan, and rarer sightings of Hume's pheasant, white-naped yuhina, and dark-rumped swift, all species that draw specialist birders to the park despite its remote location. Flora is just as significant as the fauna: Murlen is home to over 400 species of medicinal plants used by surrounding Mizo communities, alongside oak, rhododendron, wild banana, and rare orchid species that flower seasonally through the park's mid-elevation forest. Murlen's remoteness, close to the international border and far from Aizawl's tourist infrastructure, has kept visitor numbers low, which is precisely why the forest has remained so intact. For travellers or researchers interested in the Indo-Myanmar biodiversity corridor specifically, rather than Mizoram's more accessible sites, Murlen offers one of the most complete forest ecosystems remaining anywhere in the state.