Rema-Kalenga Wildlife Sanctuary is located in Chunarughat upazila of Habiganj. It is in very near to Srimangal of Moulvibazar district and adjacent to the Tripura border of India. The wildlife sanctuary is about 130 kilometers north-east of the capital Dhaka. It comprises four bits of Kalenga Forest Range of Habiganj District namely: Kalenga, Rema, Chanbari and Rashidpur.
Rema Kalenga Wildlife Sanctuary
Chunarughat, Habigonj, Sylhet.
Rema-Kalenga Wildlife Sanctuary (RKWS) was established in 1982 and later expanded in 1996 to 1,795 hectares. This Sanctuary is located 130 km north-east of Dhaka, in Chunarughat Upazila, in Habiganj District. It is most easily accessed from Srimangal town, and its eastern boundary is the border with Tripura State of India.
The remote and reasonably intact tropical forests of Rema-Kalenga make it of high biodiversity value. Notable mammals include threatened primates (Bengal Slow Loris, Assamese Macaque, Northern Pig tailed Macaque, Phayre’s Leaf Monkey and Capped Langur), endangered Fishing Cat, and nationally rare Black Giant Squirrel. Sadly Leopard and Royal Bengal Tiger are no longer present, but were hunted here into the 1960s. In addition to a wide diversity of forest birds, Rema-Kalenga holds a breeding colony of the critically endangered White-rumped Vulture, whose populations have been decimated since the late 1990s. The Forest Department has designated a large area around and including RKWS as a “vulture safe zone”, and local communities are supporting the ban on lethal veterinary drugs.
Around and inside the sanctuary four ethnic communities – tripura, shantal, telugu and urang communities-have lived for many years. Although these communities are traditionally forest dependent, they are now diversifying and directly involved in protecting the Sanctuary. To the west and north of RKWS are picturesque tea estates.