Wildlife Sanctuaries & National Parks

Discover Kaziranga, Manas, Dibru-Saikhowa and the incredible biodiversity of Northeast India

2 Sanctuaries

Dampa Tiger Reserve

Dampa Tiger Reserve, in Mizoram's Mamit district on the state's western edge, is the largest protected area in Mizoram and one of Northeast India's most important tiger landscapes. It covers 988 sq km in total, made up of a 545 sq km core Critical Tiger Habitat and a 488 sq km buffer zone, after the core was expanded in 2018 to bring in the Serhmun village forest that had previously served as buffer. Dampa was brought under Project Tiger in 1994, formalising decades of earlier protection as a wildlife sanctuary. It sits along Mizoram's border with Bangladesh, and its terrain of steep hills, fast-flowing streams, and near-continuous forest cover has made it one of the least disturbed large forest blocks in the region. Lower elevations carry moist deciduous forest, giving way to tropical wet evergreen and semi-evergreen forest across most of the reserve. While Dampa is officially a tiger reserve, its standout wildlife distinction is arguably its clouded leopard population: camera-trap studies have recorded the highest density of clouded leopards found anywhere in India within Dampa's forests, a genuinely rare superlative for a species that is notoriously difficult to document. The reserve also supports leopard, Asian elephant, hoolock gibbon, and swamp deer, alongside a rich understorey and canopy fauna typical of relatively undisturbed evergreen forest. Dampa remains comparatively little-visited next to central Indian tiger reserves, both because of its remote western-Mizoram location and because sighting probabilities for its resident tigers are lower than in more open, grassland-heavy reserves elsewhere in India. For visitors and researchers focused on Northeast India's rainforest carnivores specifically, though, Dampa's clouded leopard density makes it one of the most scientifically significant reserves in the region.

Mamit

Safari & EcotourismView Sanctuary →

October to April (dry season; monsoon access is difficult given the remote hill terrain)

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.

Champhai

Safari & EcotourismView Sanctuary →