Pangolakha Wildlife Sanctuary

Pangolakha Wildlife Sanctuary
Location in Sikkim, India
Location	East Sikkim District, Sikkim
Nearest city	Rangpo
Coordinates	27°20′N 88°46′E / 27.34°N 88.76°E / 27.34; 88.76Coordinates: 27°20′N 88°46′E / 27.34°N 88.76°E / 27.34; 88.76
Area	124 square km
Established	1999
Governing body	Government of India, Government of Sikkim

Pangolakha Wildlife Sanctuary (Pron: pǽngólɑ́kha, Nepali: पाङ्लखा) is a wildlife reserve in the East Sikkim district of the state of Sikkim in India. It is about 30 kilometres (19 mi) east of Rangpo and about 45 kilometres (28 mi) by road from Rangpo city. The total notified area of the park is around 124 square kilometres (48 sq mi) while inside the wildlife sanctuary there are a few hamlets: Aritar, Lingtam, Phadamchen, Zuluk, Gnathang valley and Kupup. This wildlife sanctuary is linked to the forests of Bhutan and Neora Valley National Park of West Bengal. The area that comes under this biosphere has been declared in the year of 1999 as an wildlife sanctuary under biogeographic province category 2C.

Altitudinal range of the sanctuary lies between 1760 metres to 4390 meters. Pangolakha range in the east separates Sikkim from its eastern neighboring country Bhutan. Whereas it is linked through forest patches with to the south by Neora Valley National Park of West Bengal. Some high altitude lakes are present there, which acts as a biodiversity hotspot for migratory birds, like Tsongmo. Rivers and riverine tributaries from north are frozen from December to March; whereas all these riverine tributaries and rivers flow with enormous volume of water during Rainy season(i.e. from Mid April to Mid October).

This wildlife sanctuary supports a large variety of animals, since it falls at the junction of Palearctic ecozone and Indomalaya ecozone. As a Biogeographic Province, this wildlife sanctuary comes under 2C category.

Inside this wildlife sanctuary, the primary biomes corresponding to the ecozone are: