Sangti Valley

Sangti is a broad, flat-bottomed valley about ten kilometres from Dirang, reached by a steep road that drops down through pine forest into wide terraced fields. The Sangti river runs through the middle of it, bordered by rice paddies and apple orchards. The villages along the road are Monpa, with whitewashed houses and prayer flags strung between rooftops.

The valley is best known for the black-necked cranes that winter here between November and February — small numbers, but a genuine wildlife spectacle in a country where wintering cranes are otherwise found only in Ladakh. Outside crane season, the valley is worth visiting for its walks: gentle, mostly flat, through farmland with the mountains rising on either side. A small sheep breeding farm sits at the upper end.

things to do sight wildlife
A story
Black-necked cranes — sacred birds in Tibetan Buddhism — flew here from the Tibetan plateau every winter for centuries. Then in the 2000s they stopped coming. The villagers, who had treated the cranes as auspicious visitors, campaigned to clean the river and reduce disturbance. A handful of cranes returned in 2014, and now a small but stable wintering flock arrives each November.