Lower Dibang Valley
15 th Arunachal district a tourist delight

The road journey to this town from Dibrugarh is quite back breaking. The road does improve from Santipur in Assam’s Sadiya Subdivision as one enters Arunachal Pradesh but the dozens of unannounced speed-breakers in this section are sure to unnerve drivers. From Dibrugarh up to Dholla, the highway is generally in a bad shape, while in the God-foresaken Sadiya sub-division, the road from  Bogoribari up to Santipur cannot get any worse.

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi formally inaugurated the new district. In true Arunachalee custom, Mr. Gogoi was presented with a  mithun for doing the honours.

Both the Chief Ministers reiterated that the cordial relations between the people of the two states have a strong bond, as this has been built on several centuries of social interaction. Both the leaders agreed that to improve communication between Assam’s Tinsukia district and Arunachal’s Lower Dibang Valley district, the road from  Saikhowaghat to Santipur has to improve. Both also agreed to press the Centre for a bridge across the Lohit river at Saikhowaghat, to permanently end the transport bottleneck in the area.

The Lower Dibang Valley district has all the ingredients to become a tourists’ paradise. Right from archaeological sites to awe-inspiring forests and mountains to local handicrafts. Archaeology experts have already found ruins of Bhismaknagar fort, 29 kms from here. This 12th century Bhismaknagar fort, locally called a hill fort, was excavated between 1969 and 1973. Terracotta plaques and figures, decorative tiles, pottery, etc. shed some light on the rich history of the place. There is one line of thought that the North-East’s earliest civilisation began at this place much before the 12th century.

For those who love snow clad mountains, Mayudia is the nearest location from any Upper Assam/south-eastern Arunachal location. The civil administration’s beautiful guest house at Mayudia is an added advantage for tourists. The snowfall begins at Mayudia in end-November and continues till early April. There are several small and big lakes in the district, and the wildlife includes tiger, black panther, leopard, elephant, boar, langur, white browed gibbon, musk deer and Mishmi takin. For the bird watcher, the district boasts of hornbills, babblers, bulbuls, warblers, flycatchers and pigeons. Several snake and reptile varieties, too, are found in the jungles of the district.