It is located about 30kms from Bhalukpong (A town at Arunachal Pradesh-Assam
boundary)
on the Chariduar-Tawang highway. Nearest airport is Hollongi Airport, Itanagar which
is
around 185kms from the sanctuary and nearest railway station is at Bhalukpong.
Private
and public bus transport facility is also available from Guwahati, Tezpur, and
Bhalukpong. The sanctuary stretches over an area of 100 square kilometer at an
altitude
ranging from 1100–1800m MSL.
In India there are about 12000 species of Orchids known to occur, out of which as
many
as 610 species and found in Arunachal Pradesh alone. Realizing the potential of
orchids
in floriculture and endangered status of number of ornamental species an Orchid
Sanctuary was established in the year 1979 to study/conserve and propagate large
number
of Orchids in their natural habitat. The area explored till date is shown in the
map.
These explorations have yielded 183 species in 55 genera. Of these, 144 are
epiphytes
and 39 terrestrials including 6 saprophytic. It is estimated that the sanctuary
harbors
more than 236 species of orchids of sub-tropical types comprising the genera like
Dendrobium, Bulbophyllum, Coelogyne, Eria, Phaius, Liparis etc. The sanctuary is
unique
in the country in having six new species of orchids and seven species of saprophytic
orchids. The nursery comprises representatives’ specimen of various orchid species
of
the sanctuary and a demonstration farm of Cymbidium hybrids for cut-flower
production.
The Sessa Orchid Sanctuary is supported with Orchids Research and Development
Centre,
Tipi located at about 25kms from the Sanctuary near Bhalukpong. It has state of the
art
facilities for research on orchids of the Arunachal Pradesh which includes
Species
House, Natural Orchidaria, Orchid Herbarium, Tissue Culture Laboratory, Orchid
Museum, Hardening Unit.
eMail ID: dfobhalukpong[at]gmail[dot]com
