Pin Valley National Park is a

National park of India National parks in India are IUCN (International Union of Conservation of Nature) category II protected areas. India's first national park was established in 1936, now known as Jim Corbett National Park, in Uttarakhand. By 1970, India only had ...

located in the Spiti Valley in the Lahaul and Spiti district, in the state of

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several peaks ...

. It is located in far northern

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It is part of Cold Desert (biosphere reserve).

History

Steeped in historical and present day

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

Tibetan culture Tibet developed a distinct culture due to its geographic and climatic conditions. While influenced by neighboring cultures from China, India, and Nepal, the Himalayan region's remoteness and inaccessibility have preserved distinct local i ...

, the area has many Tibetan Buddhist influences, evident architecturally in monasteries and

stupa A stupa ( sa, स्तूप, lit=heap, ) is a mound-like or hemispherical structure containing relics (such as ''śarīra'' – typically the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns) that is used as a place of meditation. In Buddhism, circumamb ...

s, and in the daily living of its residents and

lama Lama (; "chief") is a title for a teacher of the Dharma in Tibetan Buddhism. The name is similar to the Sanskrit term ''guru'', meaning "heavy one", endowed with qualities the student will eventually embody. The Tibetan word "lama" means "hi ...

s. Pin Valley National Park, with an area of was established by India in 1987.

Geography

The park is located in the desert habitat of the Spiti Valley, within the Cold Desert Biosphere Reserve, in the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

region.Tourism, Lahaul & Spiti District, Himachal Pradesh, India
/ref> Spreading south of

Dhankar Gompa Dhankar Gompa (also Dankhar, Drangkhar or Dhangkar Gompa; ''Brang-mkhar'' or ''Grang-mkhar'') is a village and also a Gompa, a Buddhist temple in the district of Lahaul and Spiti in India. It is situated at an elevation of 3,894 metres (12,7 ...

near the

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

an border, the park marks the border between the formerly separate districts of Lahaul and Spiti. The elevation of the park ranges from about near Ka Dogri to more than at its highest point.

Ecology

With its snow laden unexplored higher reaches and slopes, the Park forms a natural habitat for a number of endangered animals including the Snow Leopards and Siberian ibex.

Flora and fauna

Yellow-billed chough Pin Valley Spiti Himachal Jun18 D72 7201

Because of the park's high altitude and extreme temperatures, the vegetation density is sparse, consisting mostly of

alpine Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National Pa ...

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

s and groves of Himalayan cedar (''Cedrus deodara''). In summer, birds such as the

Himalayan snowcock The Himalayan snowcock (''Tetraogallus himalayensis'') is a snowcock in the pheasant family Phasianidae found across the Himalayan ranges and parts of the adjoining Pamir range of Asia. It is found on alpine pastures and on steep rocky cliffs wh ...

, chukar partridge, snow partridge, finches and

chough There are two species of passerine birds commonly called chough ( ) that constitute the genus ''Pyrrhocorax'' of the Corvidae (crow) family of birds. These are the red-billed chough (''Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax''), and the Alpine chough (or yellow- ...

s flourish in the park.

Medicinal Plants

Some plants within the park's alpine

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and 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 ...

s have significant medicinal properties. Twenty-two rare and endangered medicinal plant species, have been discovered in and around Pin Valley National Park, which are distributed over 10 different habitat types. Aconitum rotundifolium, Arnebia euchroma, Ephedra gerardiana, Ferula jaeschkeana, Hyoscymus niger are the threatened but medicinally important plants occur in this national park.Kala, Chandra Prakash 2005; Indigenous uses, population density, and conservation of threatened medicinal plants in protected areas of the India. Conservation Biology, 19 (2): 368-378.

References

External links

himachaltourism.nic.in
{{Authority control National parks in Himachal Pradesh Geography of Lahaul and Spiti district Protected areas established in 1958 1958 establishments in Himachal Pradesh