This wetland is 500m away from the oil well that was exploded in Assam.
Maguri Motapung Beel is less than 10 km south of the more famous Dibru-Saikhowa National Park and part of the Dibru-Saikhowa Biosphere Reserve.
The wetland derives its name from ‘Magur’, local word for the catfish Clarius batrachus, once found here in abundance. Motapung is a village nearby, and Beel is the Assamese word for wetland.
It was declared an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) in 1996.
Important species of maguri wetland are Golden Mahaseer, vulnerable species (like the Swamp Francolin and the Marsh Babbler), and two endangered (Greater Adjutant and Pallas’s Fish-eagle) and six critically endangered (like Baer’s Pochard, Red-headed Vulture and White-bellied Heron).
This reserve connects the national park in Assam to Namdapha National Park in Arunachal Pradesh, creating a big wildlife corridor of immense importance in the Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot.
The reserve is located within the Brahmaputra’s floodplains, and is limited by the Lohit river in the north and the Dibru in the south
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