Central Karakoram National Park

Central Karakoram National Park ( ur, ) is a national park located in Skardu district of Gilgit-Baltistan in Pakistan. It encompasses some of the world’s highest peaks and largest glaciers. Internationally renowned for mountaineering, rock climbing and trekking opportunities, it covers an area of about 10,000 sq. km and contains the greatest concentration of high mountains on earth. It has four peaks over 8,000 m including K2 (8611 m), Gasherbrum-I (8068 m), Gasherbrum-II (8035 m) and Broad Peak (8051 m), and sixty peaks higher than 7,000 m. The park was placed on the World Heritage Site Tentative List in 2016.

Features

The Central Karakoram National Park is the highest national park in the world and the largest protected area in Pakistan. It covers about in the Central Karakoram mountain range. It varies in altitude from above sea level to the summit of chogori K2, the world's second highest mountain at . There are three other mountains over , Gasherbrum I (), Gasherbrum II () and phalchanri Broad Peak (), and sixty mountains over . The park also includes the Baltoro, Panmah, Biafo and Hispar glaciers and their tributary glaciers and is considered to be one of the most beautiful national parks in Pakistan. In 2013 it was stated that the exact boundaries of the park were unclear because, twenty years after its formation, the park still lacked a management plan. At the time of its creation in 1993, four coordinates were provided to delineate the boundaries of the park. The International Union for Conservation of Nature put forward a proposed management plan in 1994, but that was not approved at the time. A management plan should cover all aspects of the park including such things as forestry, mining, other natural resources, tourism, grazing land and waste management, and without an appropriate plan, the park could not be properly administered.

In February 2015, a management plan for the park was finally established, following a year-long consultation period with stakeholders and local communities. The plan covers ten sectors: wildlife, vegetation, aromatic/medicinal plants and non-wood forest products, pastures and livestock, agriculture, mining, water, tourism, local communities involvement and research. The park is divided into two zones; the core zone, occupying about , comprises the mountain peaks, glaciers and high level mountain areas, and their fragile ecosystem; the buffer zone comprises around of mainly lower-lying areas around human settlements where unsustainable activities take place, and corridors providing access to different parts of the core zone.

A study of the size of the glaciers in the park, made using Landsat images over the decade 2001 to 2010, shows that the ice cover is substantially unchanged. This demonstrates the fact that the Karakoram region is bucking the trend for glaciers to retreat that is happening elsewhere; this is known as the "Karakoram anomaly".

Ecological zones

The park has several distinct ecological zones, each with its own natural vegetation which is closely related to the climate and topography; in general, the area has low precipitation and experiences humid westerly winds. The villages are in the valley bottoms where wheat, maize and potatoes are grown, and pomegranate and apricot trees thrive. The lower slopes consist of "alpine dry steppes". They have gravel and moraine soils and support sparse grass and scrub. The "sub-alpine scrub zone" is found beside rivers and streams, in gullies and ravines. It consists of bushes and small deciduous trees and provides browsing for livestock and wild ungulates. Higher up there is the "alpine meadows and alpine scrub zone" which has high pasture and open coniferous forest and is only available for grazing in summer. Above this are permanent snowfields and cold desert areas which occupy the zone, and here there are isolated patches of stunted grass and hardy, low vegetation.

Flora and fauna

Some valleys are dominated by communities of '' West Himalayan spruce'', '' Himalayan white pine'' and '' Pashtun juniper'', including some pure stands of ''P. smithiana''. Smaller shrubs and plants associated with these communities include ''sea wormwood'', ''Astragalus gilgitensis'', ''Fragaria nubicola'', '' Kashmir balsam'', ''Thymus linearis'', ''white clover'', ''Rubus irritans'', '' Taraxacum karakorium'' and '' Taraxacum affinis''. On some east and south-facing slopes, '' common sea buckthorn'' is the dominant shrub, often associated with ''Berberis lyceum'', and on some east-facing slopes at higher altitudes there are communities dominated by ''Rosa webbiana'' and '' Ribes orientale''. Other herbaceous plants growing on the sparse grassland, especially in gullies and ravines, are '' Salix denticulata'', ''Mertensia tibetica'', ''Potentilla desertorum'', ''Juniperus polycarpus'', '' alpine bistort'', ''Berberis pachyacantha'' and '' Spiraea lycioides''.

Larger mammals found in this region include:
* Urial,''O. vignei''
* Siberian ibex,''C.s.sakeen''
* Markhor,''C.f.cashmirensis''
* Bharal,''P.n.nayaur''
* Snow leopard,''P.uncia''
*Himalayan lynx,''L.l.isabellinus''
*Himalayan brown bear,''U.a.isabellinus''
* Himalayan black bear,''U.t.laniger''

There are only a few birds described from this region some of them are:
*Common raven,''Corvus corax tibetanus''
* Alpine chough,''Pyrrhocorax graculus digitatus''
*Golden eagle,'' Aquila chrysaetos daphanea''
* Chukar partridge,''Alectoris chukar''

Only two lizards and no amphibians are found:
*Paralaudakia himalayana
* Chitral gecko

Climbing

Expeditions come each year to this area of the Karakorum to ascend the massive peaks, climb rocky crags and big sheer rock walls, and trek. Most expeditions visit the region in July and August, but some come as early as May and June, and September can be good for lower altitude climbing. One celebrated climbing area is Trango Towers, a group of some of the world tallest rock towers, situated in the park close to the route used to trek to the K2 base camp. Every year, a number of expeditions from all parts of the world visit the area to climb these most challenging granite towers.

References

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National parks of Pakistan
Protected areas of Gilgit-Baltistan