Mishmi Hills

Mishmi Hills
Mishmi Hills Location of Mishmi hills on the map of Arunachal Pradesh
Highest point
Peak	(India)
Coordinates
Geography
Country	India
District	Upper Siang, West Siang & Dibang Valley

Mishmi Hills are on the Northeastern tip of India, in central Arunachal Pradesh. They are also a part of Shan-Malaysia plate. It is recorded that their height is 5140 ft. The hills are a southward extension of the Great Himalayan ranges and its northern and eastern parts touch China. It is divided into three geographical distributions.

These hills occur at the junction of Northeastern Himalaya and Indo-Burma ranges. The Himalayan arc takes a sharp turn and meets Indo-Burma ranges. The rocks of eastern lesser Himalaya and the central crystallines appear to be largely attenuated and truncated in Mishmi Hills.

Introduction

Geomorphically, Mishmi Hills are divided into 2 sections – the flood plains of tributaries of Brahmaputra river and the Arunachal Himalayas consisting of snow-capped mountains, lower Himalayan ranges and Shivalik ranges. This hilly area is characterised by steeply sloping landform, sub-tropical evergreen forest and high rainfall. Much of these hills fall in the Dibang valley.

Administration

Mishmi Hills was declared as a district after its bifurcation of Sadiya Frontier Tract in 1948. Again in 1951, the plains area were transferred to the administrative jurisdiction of Assam. In 1952, the headquarters was shifted from Sadiya to Tezu. When North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) in 1954 it became Lohit Frontier Division.

Flora and fauna

Mishmi Hills experience heavy rainfall with pre-monsoon showers from March. The humidity and rainfall is about 90%. There are about 6000 plant species, 100 mammal species and about 700 bird species. There are also a large number of butterflies and other insects. Temperate conifers, sub-alpine woody shrubs, alpine meadows, bamboos and grasslands are found in this region. Tiger, common leopard, clouded leopard, snow leopard, golden cat, jungle cat, marbled cat and the leopard cat are found. The endangered red panda is seen in the northern reaches and the hoolock gibbon is abundant. One of the most unusual ungulates found here is the Mishmi takin. Serow, musk deer and the Himalayan black bear are also found.

Bird life

There are about 680 bird species. Some of them are Sclater's monal, Blyth's and Temminck's tragopan, chestnut-breasted partridge, rufous-necked hornbill, pale-capped pigeon, Ward's trogon, dark-sided thrush, green and purple cochoa, rusty-bellied and Gould's shortwing, beautiful nuthatch, rusty-throated and wedge-billed wren babbler, fire-tailed myzornis, at least four parrotbill species, black-headed greenfinch, scarlet finch and grey-headed bullfinch.

Tourism

Temperatures ranges from below 5 °C in winter to 38 °C in summer.