Tiger Reserve
Ringed by steep mountain ranges to the north, east and west, the valley is known as a habitat of tigers, but encroachment by man has greatly decreased their numbers, to perhaps as few as 100 animals. In 2004, the government established the world's largest tiger preserve in the Hukawng Valley, the Hukawng Valley Wildlife Sanctuary, with an area of approximately 2,500 square miles (6,500 km2); later, the Sanctuary was extended to 21,800 km2, making it the largest protected area in mainland Southeast Asia. The government's establishment of the preserve was accomplished in cooperation with the Kachin Independent Army, a formerly-rebel group that inhabits the region.
The extremely rare Leaf muntjac, also known as the phet-gyi, dwarf deer or leaf deer, also lives in the Hukawng.
Read more about this topic: Hukawng Valley
Famous quotes containing the words tiger and/or reserve:
“The tiger in the tiger-pit
Is not more irritable than I.
The whipping tail is not more still
Than when I smell the enemy
Writhing in the essential blood
Or dangling from the friendly tree.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“In a democracy—even if it is a so-called democracy like our white-élitist one—the greatest veneration one can show the rule of law is to keep a watch on it, and to reserve the right to judge unjust laws and the subversion of the function of the law by the power of the state. That vigilance is the most important proof of respect for the law.”
—Nadine Gordimer (b. 1923)