Hukawng Valley
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The Hukawng Valley is an isolated valley in Burma, roughly 5,586 square miles in area. It is located in Tanaing Township in the Myitkyina District of Kachin State in the northernmost part of the country.
The rivers draining into the Hukawng Valley, the Tanai Kha, the Tabye, the Tawan, and the Turong, form the headwaters of the Chindwin River.
Ringed by steep mountain ranges to the north, east and west, the valley is known as a habitat of tigers, but encroachment by man has greatly decreased their numbers, to perhaps as few as 100 animals. In 2004, the government established the world's largest tiger preserve in the Hukawng Valley, the Hukawng Valley Wildlife Sanctuary, with an area of approximately 2,500 square miles. The government's establishment of the preserve was accomplished in cooperation with the Kachin Independent Army, a formerly-rebel group that inhabits the region.
The extremely rare leaf muntjac, also known as the phet-gyi, dwarf deer or leaf deer, also lives in the Hukawng.
Major industry includes amber and gold mining. In 2006, a fossil of the earliest known species of bee was discovered in amber taken from a mine in the Hukawng Valley.
During World War II, the Ledo Road was built by the US Army across the Hukawng Valley, largely by African-American engineer battalions and Chinese laborers, in order to supply the Chinese, who were then allied with the Western Allies in the war against the Empire of Japan.
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