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A GREAT DESTINATION
NATIONAL PARKS
ETERNAL
INDIA
encyclopedia
India's wildernesses and wildlife are her most magnificent
natural heritage, preserved and protected since ancient times by
the Indian tradition of respect for all forms of life and complemented
in modem times by enlightened environmental and ecological poli-
cies. The 3rd century B.C edicts of the Emperor Ashoka have
detailed lists of animals that should be protected. The edict goes
further on to state that forests must not be burned. Even in our
recent past the Mughal emperors Humayun and Akbar showed
their love for and sensitivity to nature. Jehangir was a born natural-
ist and many of his observations remain to inspire naturalists
today.
The British Raj changed all that.
Shikar
became the credo of
British India with everything that moved or flew being shot down.
Up to the early twenties the Indian countryside was still teeming
with game but later it all got shot out. One observer recalled that
"One's gun got so hot that you had to have a second gun because
you could no longer hold the first". The tiger came in for special
attention at the hands of the shikari so much so that tiger skins
became too commonplace even to be put on display in
sahibs bun-
galows. The British were followed by Indian
shikaris
with the
result that our wildlife got decimated. India became synonymous
with game shoots laid out for visiting royalty.
Since Independence in 1947 India's conservation policies have
not only ensured the survival of her endangered species but given a
fresh lease of life to many that were on the brink of extinction. The
country's protected wilderness consists of 70 national parks and
412 sanctuaries(covering 4.5 per cent of the total geographical area
of the country) many of which fall under the purview of Project
Tiger. Its climatic and geographic diversity make it the home of over
350 mammals and 1200 bird species, many of which are unique to
the subcontinent - the royal Bengal tiger, snow leopard, Asiatic
lion, lion-tailed macaque, Himalayan tahr, Andaman teal, great
Indian bustard and the monal pheasant — to name a few.
Project Tiger today covers 24,712 Sq Km of Tiger country
encompassing 15 reserves. It was launched by the Department of
Wildlife and the World Wildlife Fund on April 1,1973, when a tiger
census conducted in 1972 showed that only 1827 tigers still sur-
vived.
One of the finest habitats for the tiger and India's first national
park is the Corbett National Park, 300 Km north east of Delhi in the
state of Uttar Pradesh. Nestling in the foothills of the Himalayas,
the park has a rich collection of flora and fauna. Besides the tiger
there are also leopard, sloth bear, elephant, hog deer, sambar, chital
and barking deer. Through the park flows the Ramganga river. 110
species of trees, 151 species of shrubs and over 33 species of
bamboo and grass are to be found.
Motoring down from Corbett across the Terai belt of Uttar
Pradesh and close to the Nepalese border is the Dudhwa National
Park. Dudhwa is known for its large population of swamp deer
around which live the tiger and the leopard. The Indian one-horned
rhino has been introduced here from the east. Among the other
animals to be found here are the sloth bear, ratel, livet, fishing cat
and leopard cat. Among the rich collection of bird life are the great
Indian homed owl, the forest eagle owl, the brown fish owl and a
large variety of storks.
Moving away from Uttar Pradesh into the arid zone of Rajast-
han we enter the Ghana Bird Sanctuary in Bharatpur, one of the
finest water bird sanctuaries in the world. Until the late 19th
century this was an arid scrub land. It was the Maharajah of
Bharatpur who developed it into a wildfowl hunting preserve by
building small dams and dykes. It was in 1956 that this hunting
preserve became a sanctuary. Bharatpur became a National Park in
1981 and is today one of the finest bird sanctuaries in the world.
A little further up is the Ranthambhor National Park, which gets
its name from a 1000-year-old fortress which looms above the
forest and is one of the finest habitats of the sambar deer. The
nilgai, a big, ungainly animal found only in the Indian Peninsula, can
be seen here. In the last ten years Ranthambhor has become one of
the finest places to view tigers in the wild. Yet another Project
Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan is the Sarsiska Tiger Reserve, about
200 km from Delhi near the city of Alwar. This park has a number of
hides and watch towers which can be occupied before sunset to
observe the animals that come to the water. The Gir National Park
in Gujarat is the last refuge of the Asiatic lion. The Rann of Kutch
is the home of the endangered wild ass.
Adjoining Gujarat are the central regions of Madhya Pradesh,
the heart of tiger country. The Kanha National Park is where the
first-ever scientific study of tigers was undertaken by the famous
Zoologist, George Schaller. Primarily known for its tigers, Kanha
is also known for its barasingha deer, so called because of its
twelve-tined antlers. Not far away from Kanha is the Bandhavarh
National Park, which has, besides the tiger, wild boar, nilgai,
chansariga, sambar, hyena and porcupine.
Moving south in Andhra Pradesh there is now one of the largest
tiger reserves named after the dam, Nargarjunasagar. The Bandi-
pur and Nagarhole National Parks in Karnataka and the Mudumalai
Sanctuary in Tamil Nadu are probably the finest homes of the
Asiatic elephant. In Kerala too the Periyar Tiger Reserve is also
one of the finest habitats of the Asiatic elephant. Periyar has a
splendid artificial lake which provides a perch for waterbirds:
darter, grey heron, egret and king fisher.
Moving east we come to Assam and the Kaziranga National
Park which lies on the banks of the Brahmaputra River and is one
of the finest habitats of the Indian rhino.