Fifty six kilometers north of Nagaon district town and 19 kilometre west of Joypurhat sadar, the remote, isolated National Park Alta Dighi is situated beside the Indian frontier.
The park is characterised by its solitary environment with the deep, dark-wood. Any one will be scared and frightened in moving through serpentine walkways along this dense jungle even in broad daylight. The mounds of ants and termites inside the bush and on the teak trunk, chirping of birds and hide and seek of the sunshine through the leaves make the nature lovers emotional.
The blooming lotus inside the transparent water of the lake of the park enchants every visitor. The scene of the movement and the chirping of migratory and varieties of indigenous birds, especially during the winter, filled the visitors' mind of any age with joy and pleasure.
It is learnt, Alta Dighi (lake) is one of the places of ancient historical importance under Dhamoirhat upazila of Naogaon district. Inside 264.12 hectares of forest, the lake is situated on 43 hectares of land. It is 11oo metres long and 500 metre broad. All four sides of the lake are filled with Teak forest on the raised ground. The water body is considered as the largest live lake in Bangladesh. The Ministry of Environment and Forest declared Alta Dighi as the National Park in 2011. Another lake Ramsagar is 150 metre more in length but that is less by 150 metre in width. Ramsagar was dug around 1750 but the Alta Dighi was dug during the reign of Pala emperor, long before the Ramsagar was dug.
According to sources, the lake was dug to save the region from the prolonged drought. According to the demand of the tenants, kings Ram Paul and Sadar Paul of Jagdal Vihara(1077-1120 AD) had dug the lake to fulfill the pledge they made to their mother.
According to the wish of the mother of the kings, the lake was dug to the length and the breath that she walked on foot in a hot, summer day. The legend says, the kings' mother continued to walk without a break traversing rugged land for hours. To check her from further walking , one of her companions poured some red colour ( Alta) on her legs secretly saying her legs had been cut and thus refrained from walking. According to the pledges to their mother, the kings dug the lake upto the length and breadth the mother walked through. The lake was thus named as Alta Dighi.
Moqbul and Bulbul were seen to visit the lakeside with their family members. They said, even amid the Corona pandemic they were visiting the Alta Dighi. They said the beauty of the lake can not be expressed in languages. However, they said the place is not secured and no security personnel have been deployed around the lake to ensure safety of visitors and the wildlife and birds of the forest adjacent to the lake. There is no rest house for the visitors, they further complained.
Forest Beat Officer Abdul Mannan informed, a metalled road connecting the Altadighi National Park to Dhamoirhat sadar upazila has been constructed. Now visitors can reach the park through any vehicle. The Department of Forestry has also planted many species of trees inside the forest beside the lake and more than 20 species of wildlife including Python, Hanuman, monkey, otter, fish-eating tiger, wild cat, jackals and mongoose have been released inside the forest.
It is alleged that logging and collection of firewood, hunting of wild animals and birds and squeezing of the forest areas for the purpose of cultivation have been threatening the biodiversity of the Teak forest and surrounding forest areas of Altadighi National Park. Want of food and destruction of the food chain have made the forest areas uninhabited and deserted by the wild animals, reptiles and birds though in the near past the forest was full of varieties of wild animals, reptiles, birds and insects.