Largest National Park in India

Definition of National Park

 

• A national park is a natural park founded and protected by national governments for conservation objectives. A sovereign state often proclaims or owns a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed territory. Although national parks are designated differently by each country, there is a common theme: the preservation of “raw nature” for posterity and as a source of national pride.
• While this form of national park has been proposed before, Yellowstone National Park was founded in 1872 as the first “public park or pleasuring-ground for the profit and enjoyment of the people.” Although Yellowstone was not legally designated as a “national park” in its founding legislation, it was always referred to as such in practice and is largely regarded as the world’s first and oldest national park. The Tobago Main Ridge Forest Reserve (formed in 1776) and the region surrounding Bogd Khan Uul Mountain (1778) are considered the first legally protected areas, over a century before Yellowstone.
• The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and its World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) have classified “National Park” as a type of protected area in the Category II category. In 2006, the IUCN reported that 6,555 national parks around the world matched its criteria. The parameters for creating a national park are still being debated by the IUCN.

Importance of National Park

• To maintain the area in order to preserve typical examples of physiographic regions, biotic ecosystems, genetic resources, and unaffected natural processes in as natural a state as possible;
• Maintaining healthy and ecologically effective populations and assemblages of native species at densities sufficient to preserve ecosystem integrity and resilience across time;
• Contribute to the protection of wide-ranging species, regional ecological processes, and migration patterns, in particular;
• To control visitor use for inspiring, educational, cultural, and recreational purposes at a level that does not degrade natural resources biologically or ecologically;
• To consider the needs of indigenous peoples and local populations, including subsistence resource usage, to the extent that this does not jeopardize the primary management goal;
• Contribute to the local economy by way of tourism.

Features of National Park

• The area should include exemplary examples of key natural regions, as well as biological and environmental elements or scenery, where native plant and animal species, ecosystems, and geodiversity sites are spiritually, scientifically, educationally, recreationally, or touristically important.
• The region should be large enough and of good enough ecological quality to retain ecological functions and processes that will allow native species and communities to thrive in the long run with minimum management.
• The composition, structure, and function of biodiversity should be in a “natural” condition to a large extent, or have the ability to be restored to such a state, with a low danger of non-native species successfully invading.
• India’s wildlife is diverse, and its national parks and biosphere reserves are home to a variety of endangered wildlife species, including Royal Bengal Tigers and Red Pandas, the vulnerable one-horned Rhinoceros and Snow Leopards, and the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard, among many others.
• There are 104 national parks, 551 wildlife sanctuaries, 131 marine protected areas, 18 biosphere reserves, 88 conservation reserves, and 127 community reserves in India, which span a total area of 1,65,088.57 square kilometers. There are 870 Protected Areas in total, accounting up 5.06 percent of the country’s land area.
• Corbett National Park is India’s first and oldest national park. This national park, located in Uttarakhand’s Himalayan foothills, was established in 1936.
• It covers an area of 520.82 square kilometers and is home to a diverse range of flora and fauna, including Royal Bengal Tigers.
• Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, India’s first biosphere reserve, was created in 1986. In Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka, this reserve encompasses the protected regions of Wayanad, Nagarhole, Bandipur, and Mudumalai, Nilambur, and Silent Valley.
• The Great Rann of Kutch is India’s largest biosphere reserve, covering 12454 square kilometers. Hemis National Park in Ladakh, on the other hand, is India’s largest national park, covering 4400 square kilometers.

Flora and Fauna 

• According to a study, India is one of the 17 megadiverse countries, accounting for 60-70 percent of global biodiversity. Around 400 species of mammals and 1300+ species of birds live in India’s national parks and wildlife sanctuaries.
• The Indian Sloth Bear, the Chausinga (four-horned antelope), and the Barasinga are among the uncommon and distinctive wildlife species found in these wildlife reserves (swamp deer). In fact, India is the only country in the world with both tigers and lions. It also has the world’s largest deer and tiger populations.
• The Indian wildlife reserves are home to a diverse flora as well as a diverse fauna. Flowering plants are believed to number over 15000 species, accounting for around 6-7 percent of all plant species on the planet. There are 600 varieties of flowering plants in Uttarakhand’s Valley of Flowers National Park alone, including the famous and unique Brahma Kamal.

List of National Parks in India: