Wildlife Sanctuaries

Located in the Kendrapara District of Odisha, it is surrounded by the Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary and the Gahirmatha Beach and Marine Sanctuary. The park is a home of the endangered Saltwater Crocodile, White Crocodile, Indian Python, King Cobra and Black Ibis. The vegetation species include mangroves (Sundari, thespia, grasses and indigo-bush). Thevery year about 80,000 migratory birds arrive in this park for nesting during monsoon season.

Bori National Park (1977)

Located in the Hofishingabad District of Madhya Pradesh, Bori Wildlife Sanctuary was established in 1977. It is a part of the Panchmarhi Biosphere Reserve. The Tawa River lies to the west of the sanctuary. The sanctuary is mostly covered by mixed deciduous and bamboo forests. The dominant species include teak dhaora, tendu etc.

Buxa Tiger Reserve (1983)

Located in the Alipurduar District of West Bengal, to the south of Bhutan, it is National Park and a Tiger Reserve. It has the species of Eastern Bhabhar and Tarai-Sal, Eastern Himalayan

Moist Deciduous Forest, Moist Sal, Northern Dry Deciduous, Sub-Himalayan Mixed Deciduous, and Northern Tropical Evergreen Forests. The main trees are sal, champa, gamar, simul and chikrasi. The fauna include Rhino, Asian elephant, tiger, gaur, wild-boar, sambhar.

Chandoli National Park (2004)

The Chandoli National Park is located in the Sangli District of Maharshtra State. Chandoli National Park is notable as the southern portion of the Sahyadri Tiger Reserve, with Koyna Wildlife Santuary forming the northern part of the reserve. The main flora of this National Park includes moist deciduous forest and the dwarf evergreen forests. Its fauna consists of iron-wood, jamun, pisa, g, olea, katak , kanjal, kokum, phanasi-false, indian laural, amla, umber and grasses. The main fauna includes tigers, leopards, gaur, barking deer, mouse-deer, sloth-bears and black-buck.

Dachigam National Park (1981)

Located about 22 km from the city of Srinagar (J & K), it sprawls over an area of about 141 km2. It is located in the Zabarwan Range of the Western Himalayas its altitudinal variation is between 1700 to 4300 meters above the sea level.

The mountain sides below tree line are heavily wooded. Most of the coniferous forests consists of broad leaf species. Interspersed between these are alpine pastures and meadows. The main animal species in the Dachigam National park are musk-deer, leopard, Himalayan serow, Himalayan grey-langur, leopard-cat, Himalayan brown bear, jackal, hill-fox, Himalayan weasel, Yellow-throated marten, jungle-cat, otter and long– tailed marmot. The main birds include cinnamon sparrow, black bulbul pygmy owlet, woodpacker, babbler, Himalayan vultures, bearded vultures, wall-creeper and chough.

Dampa Tiger Reserve (1985)

Situated in the western part of Mizoram at the international border of Bangladesh about 127 km from Aizawl. It covers an area of 550 sq km. It is the natural home of leopards, Indian bison, barking deer, sloth bear, gibbons, langurs, slow loris, Indian python, wild boar, and a variety of birds. Tigers’ population is insignificant in this sanctuary.

Desert National Park (1992)

Located near the city of Jaisalmer, it is one of the largest National Parks of India. It is a typical example of the ecosystem of Thar Desert. About 20 per cent of its area is covered by sand-dunes.

The National Park is a haven for the migratory bird s. Many eagles, harriers, falcons, buzzards, kestrels and vultures can be seen in this National Park. The endangered great Indian bustard is a magnificent bird fond in relatively fair numbers. The Indian bustard migrates locally in different seasons. The Desert National Park has a collection of fossils of animals and plants of 180 million years old. Some fossils of dinosaurs of about 6 million years old, have been found in the area.

Dudhwa National Park (1977)

This National Park is located in the Kheri-Lakhimpur District of Uttar Pradesh. The main species of vegetation include moist deciduous, tropical seasonal swamp forests and tropical dry deciduous forests. The main flora includes sal, asna, shisham, jamun, gular, sehore bahera and numerous grasses. The major attractions of the Dudhwa National Park are the tigers and swamp deer. In 1980, Indian rhinoceros was introduced into Dudhwa from Assam and Nepal.

Fossil National Park (Mandla-M.P.)

Located in the Mandla Distric of Madhya Pradesh, it has the fossils of plants existed in India between 40 million and 150 million years back,. These fossils are spread over seven villages (Barbaspur, Chanti-Hills, Chargaon, Deorakhurd, Deori-Kohani, Ghuguwa, and Umaria). The National Park is spread over agricultural fields in the seven above given villages. The fossils look like ordinary rocks and are either removed from the flood unwittingly by the farmers or are damaged by the tourists and other unscrupulous people.

Gir or Gasan Gir National Park (1965)

This National park and Wildlife Sanctuary is located in the state of Gujarat. It is the sole home of Asiatic lions. It is traversed by the seven major perennial rivers of Gir region. These rivers are Hiran, Shetrunji, Datardi, Fishingoda, Machhundri, Godavari and Raval. The Kamleshwar Dam is a located in the Gir National Park.

Teak occurs mixed with dry deciduous species. The savannah of this National Park are known as ‘vidis’. It is the largest deciduous forest in Western India. The main fauna include Asiatic lion, Indian leopard, Indian cobras, jungle cat, stripped hyena, golden jackal, Indian mongoose, India palm- civet, and ratles. Moreover there are chital, nilgai, sambar, four horned antelopes, chinkara, blackbuck, wild-boa and python.

Guindy (1977)

Located in Chennai (Tamil Nadu), it is one of the smallest National Parks, situated in a city. It is an extension of the Raj Bhavan. The park has a role in both ex-situ and in-situ conservation and is the home of over 400 blackbucks, 2000 spotted deer and a wide variety of snakes. The Guindy National Park has a dry evergreen scrub and thorn forest, grasslands, shrubs, climbers and herbs. Its vegetation also consists of sugar-apple, wood-apple and Neem trees.

There are 14 species of mammals including blackbuck, chital, or spotted deer, jackal, small Indian civet, palm civet, macaque, hyena, hedgehog, common mongoose and stripped palm squirrel. Guindy snake park is famous for king cobra, python, vipers and other reptiles.

Hamis National Park (1981)

Located in the Leh District of the Jammu and Kashmir State, it is a high altitude and the largest National Park of India. It is world famous for the highest density of snow-leopards. The Rumbak stream flows through the National Park. It also has a small population of Asiatic Ibex, Bharal (Blue sheep) and Argali (Tibetan-sheep). The endangered Tibetan wolf and the Eurasian brown bear are also found in the National Park. The Rumbak Valley offers good opportunities for bird-watching. The main vegetation includes juniper, sub-alpine dry birch and .

Indian Wild Ass Sanctuary (1972)

The Indian Wild Ass Sanctuary is located in the Little Rann of Kachchh in Gujarat. In Gujarati, Rann stands for desert. The Rann gets flooded for a period of about one month du ring monsoon and is spotted with about 74 elevated islands (plateaus) locally called ‘bets’. These bets are covered with g rasses and feed the population of animals. It has the world’s last population of Khur sub-species of wild ass.

Indira Gandhi National Park and Wildl1ife Sanctuary (1974)

Located in the Anaimalai Hills (Coimbatore District) of Tamil Nadu it is a wild life sanctuary and National Park. It has the unique Karian Shola vegetation, hills grasses. The National Park and Sanctuary are under consideration by the UNESCO as part of the Western Ghats World Heritage site. The wild animals of the sanctuary include the threatened species of Bengal Tiger, Indian elephant, dhole, and lion-tailed macaque. In addition to these there are jackals, leopards, spotted deer, barking deer, mouse deer, wild boar, common langur. Asian Palm civet, sambhar, giant squirrel, Indian porcupine and stripped squirrel.