The Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP) is a

national park A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, located in Banjar sub-division of

Kullu Kullu () is a municipal council town that serves as the administrative headquarters of the Kullu district of the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. It is located on the banks of the Beas River in the Kullu Valley about north of the airport ...

in the state of

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; Sanskrit: ''himācāl prādes;'' "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a States and union territories of India, state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen Indian Himalayan ...

. The park was established in 1984 and is spread over an area of 1171 km²; elevations within the park range between 1500 and 6000 m. The Great Himalayan National Park is a

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

to numerous flora and more than 375

fauna Fauna (: faunae or faunas) is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding terms for plants and fungi are ''flora'' and '' funga'', respectively. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively ...

species, including approximately 31 mammals, 181 birds, 3 reptiles, 9 amphibians, 11 annelids, 17 mollusks and 127 insects. They are protected under the strict guidelines of the

Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 The Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted for the protection of plants and animal species. Before 1972, India had only five designated national parks. Among other reforms, the Act established schedule ...

; hence any sort of hunting is not permitted. In June 2014, the Great Himalayan National Park was added to the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

list of

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

s, under the criterion of "outstanding significance for biodiversity conservation".

Biogeography

The GHNP is at the junction of world's two major

biogeographic realm A biogeographic realm is the broadest biogeography, biogeographic division of Earth's land surface, based on distributional patterns of terrestrial animal, terrestrial organisms. They are subdivided into bioregions, which are further subdivid ...

s: the

Indomalayan realm The Indomalayan realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms. It extends across most of South and Southeast Asia and into the southern parts of East Asia. Also called the Oriental realm by biogeographers, Indomalaya spreads all over the Ind ...

to the south and the

Palearctic realm The Palearctic or Palaearctic is a biogeographic realm of the Earth, the largest of eight. Confined almost entirely to the Eastern Hemisphere, it stretches across Europe and Asia, north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The ...

to the north. The temperate forest flora-fauna of GHNP represents the westernmost extension of the Sino-Japanese Region. The high elevation ecosystem of the Northwest Himalaya has common plant elements with the adjacent Western and Central Asiatic region. As a result of its 4,100 m elevation range the park has a diversity of zones with their representative flora and fauna, such as alpine, glacial, temperate, and subtropical forests. These biogeographic elements are result of geological evolution of Himalaya which continues today from the action of

plate tectonics Plate tectonics (, ) is the scientific theory that the Earth's lithosphere comprises a number of large tectonic plates, which have been slowly moving since 3–4 billion years ago. The model builds on the concept of , an idea developed durin ...

and

continental drift Continental drift is a highly supported scientific theory, originating in the early 20th century, that Earth's continents move or drift relative to each other over geologic time. The theory of continental drift has since been validated and inc ...

. Over 100 million years ago, the Indian sub-continent broke off from the large, southern landmass, Gondwanaland and moved north. It eventually slammed into the northern land mass,

Laurasia Laurasia () was the more northern of two large landmasses that formed part of the Pangaea supercontinent from around ( Mya), the other being Gondwana. It separated from Gondwana (beginning in the late Triassic period) during the breakup of Pa ...

, and formed the gigantic folded mountains of the Himalaya. Due to this union of Gondwanaland and Asiatic landmasses, exchange of flora and fauna was possible and this ultimately led to the unique biogeographical features in the region.

Timeline of creation

It took twenty years from inception to inauguration for GHNP to be realized as part of the Indian national park system. The following is a brief timeline: 1980: Preliminary park survey of the watersheds of Tirthan, Sainj and Jiwanal in Banjar area of Kullu district 1983: Continued park survey, the Banjar area of Kullu district. 1984: Himachal government expresses intention to create GHNP. 1988: Settlement of rights of local communities in GNHP begins. 1994-99: World Bank funds Conservation of Biodiversity project, during which 16 village eco-development committees are founded to involve local communities in biodiversity conservation; Wildlife Institute of India conducts research project at GHNP. 1996: Biodiversity Conservation Society (BiodCS) registered to share responsibility for GHNP management. 1999: GHNP instated as India’s newest national park; compensation awarded to local communities previously identified as having traditional forest rights there. 2000: WSCG organisers form SAHARA (Society for Advancement of Hill and Rural Areas) to work with GHNP management. 2008: Research on western tragopan population in GHNP, in collaboration with Wildlife Institute of India. 2010: Proposal to declare 710 sq km Parvati watershed as Khirganga National Park in the north of GHNP to strengthen the conservation efforts. Two Wildlife sanctuaries of Tirthan and Sainj proposed to be merged into GHNP for a higher protection status. 2011: Application to nominate GHNP as UNESCO World Heritage Site, submitted. 2012: IUCN evaluation team visits GHNP for critical analysis of the property. 2013: GHNP's nomination considered and put in referral list; Management council constituted by involving all the heads of 13 local governing bodies. 2014: GHNP is awarded World Heritage Natural Site status in the proceedings of the 38th World Heritage Committee meeting at Doha, Qatar

Biodiversity

Fauna

Verditer_Flycatcher_in_Great_Himalayan_National_Park

The Great Himalayan National Park is home to more than 375 faunal species. So far species of 31 mammals, 181 birds, 3 reptiles, 9 amphibians, 11 annelids, 17 mollusks and 127 insects belonging to six orders have been identified and documented. Most of the Himalayan fauna has been given protection under the high priority protection category of Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. The state government of Himachal Pradesh has banned hunting in the state for more than ten years. A trek of 35 to 45 km in any of the park's valleys brings one into the high elevation habitat (3,500 m and above) of animals such as blue sheep,

snow leopard The snow leopard (''Panthera uncia'') is a species of large cat in the genus ''Panthera'' of the family Felidae. The species is native to the mountain ranges of Central and South Asia. It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List because ...

, Himalayan brown bear,

Himalayan tahr The Himalayan tahr (''Hemitragus jemlahicus'') is a large even-toed ungulate native to the Himalayas in southern Tibet, northern India, western Bhutan and Nepal. It is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List, as the population is declini ...

, and

musk deer Musk deer can refer to any one, or all eight, of the species that make up ''Moschus'', the only extant genus of the family (biology), family Moschidae. Despite being commonly called deer, they are not true deer belonging to the family Cervidae, b ...

. Best sightings can be made in autumn (September–November) as animals start their seasonal migration to lower elevations.

Flora

The GHNP also supports a great diversity of plant life, thanks to its wide elevation range and relatively undisturbed habitats. From the lofty pines and

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' ( ), a genus of about 40 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal (taiga) regions of the Northern hemisphere. ''Picea'' ...

s and the great, spreading horse chestnuts of the lower valleys, to the dense cushions and prostrate branches of the alpine herbs and junipers, the park presents an endless variety of vegetation. Although some areas have been modified by grazing, this is one of the few areas of the Western Himalayas where the forests and alpine meadows can be seen in something approaching their original state. The

subalpine zone Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...

is richest in species, followed by the alpine and upper temperate zones.

Trekking and tourism

In the recent years, the GHNP has emerged as a popular trekking and ecotourism destination. The GHNP office at Sai Ropa issues permits for the treks. There are several popular trekking routes in the park, ranging from those that can be done in a day or two, to those that can take up from a week to ten days. Ecotourism and homestay tourism has also being gaining popularity in places outside but near to the park. The office of the Director, GHNP, is at Shamshi, in the Kullu valley.

References

{{Authority control Geography of Kullu district National parks in Himachal Pradesh Protected areas established in 1984 World Heritage Sites in India 1984 establishments in Himachal Pradesh Western Himalayan subalpine conifer forests