Burma's " largest wildlife sanctuar

[darnott@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Defense Week
May 29, 2001

Reporters' Notebook

WWII Landmark A Sanctuary: A remote valley surrounding a once vital allied
supply route during World War II in Myanmar, formerly called Burma, is now
the nation's largest wildlife sanctuary, the Wildlife Conservation Society 
said in
a recent statement.

Where once American volunteer pilots, called the "Flying Tigers," flew high 
over
the remote land battling the Japanese, now there's a 2,500-square-mile 
wildlife
sanctuary protecting rare Indochinese tigers and rare leaf deer and other 
wildlife
seldom seen.

The sanctuary was officially created in April by the Myanmar government 
with the
help of the conservation group.

The sanctuary surrounds part of the old Ledo Road which connected India to
the more familiar Burma  Road in northwest Myanmar. The road, completed in
1944 at an estimated human toll of "a man a mile" was later renamed the 
Stillwell
Road to honor American Gen. "Vinegar Joe" Stillwell, because it was his idea,
the conservation group said. The road provided vital communications and 
supplies
for the allies.

Over the past half-century the Stillwell Road fell into disrepair and the 
entire
valley is now largely uninhabited.