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NATIONAL PARKS OF UTTAR PRADESH

CORBETT NATINAL PARK
Of all the National Parks established to conserve this vast range of habitat and wildlife, the first and perhaps the best is the CORBETT NATIONAL PARK.
The books of Jim Corbett have come vividly alive in the park named after him. It was in this general area that the great hunter-conservationist shutdown many of the man-eaters that pad their way in and out of his stories. But while Jim Corbett has this uncanny gift for making you feel you are looking over his shoulder as he trains his gun on a man-eater, few descriptions, if any, can really do justice to the wonder that is Corbett Park. You must see it for yourself and bring it away, gift wrapped in memories. Most people go to Corbett Park to get a peek at the tiger, no more. Fair enough. The tiger-is centre-stage, with a close contender in the elephant. But to observe no more than a single species is to be grossly unfair to yourself. Corbett Park is a vast canvas, painted in a shimmering palette of colours. And the habitat is as diverse and intriguing as the wildlife itself. So why not enjoy the whole?

DHIKALA
While planning a trip to Corbett Park DHIKALA, at the heart of the core area. No doubt Dhikala is organized, with comfortable board and lodging facilities, a library, cafeteria, machaans and elephant rides. But if you are a genuine wildlife buff, get the feel of the place by roughing it out in one of the smaller forest rest houses scattered about the park. These are no more than huts built in small clearings amid thick jungle. No electricity, no telephone, no bandobastfor food and no help forthcoming in the event of an emergency, forthere’s a ban on night driving in the park. But you have deer for company, right there in the compound and birds making a terrific shindig both morning and evening, while the chill of night is heightened by are bedded down. Corbett Park, some 520.6 sq km (201 sq mile) of reserved forest, lies sprawled across the foothills of the western Himalayas, in the district of Nainital and Pauri GarhWal, at an altitude of from 400 to 1210 meters (1312 to 3970 ft). It is a wide, ridged valley with the river Ramganga running through it roughly north-east to southwest. Various streams feed the Ramganga and it is these streams that give the land its diverse character. Thus there are ‘islands’ of sheesham trees and ridges standing tall with sal and a hundred other tree species. Pastures studded with grass and shrubs roll away like a deep pile carpet of green. The place is teeming with mammals, 577 of birds and 25 of reptiles. Among the primates, rhesus monkeys and langurs, among predators, the tiger and leopard. There’s the majestic elephant, several types of antelopes and deer, wild boar, hedgehogs and gerbille, not to mention foxes, jackals and wild dogs. The river is brimming with mahseer, gharial and mugger and ever watchful flocks of cormorants. The insect life itself is mind boggling. The most ambitious of all our conservation projects, Project Tiger, was launched here on 1st April, 1973, which really makes Corbett Park a tiger reserve. Of the 135 tigers in the park, about 95 are in the core area while another 40 have made the buffer zone their habitat. There’s a sizable population of elephants too, many wild, some trained to take visitors around. Elephant and tiger complement each other, each a king in his own right, awesome to look at and endowed with invincible strength and courage.

DHUDWA NATIONAL PARK
In the sub-Himalayan Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh, along the Indo- Nepal border, lies the 811 sq km DUDHWA NATIONAL PARK. Since 1988 Dudhwa has been designated a Project Tiger reserve but it was originally started as a sanctuary for the swamp deer or barasingha, a rare species, threatened with extinction. Intensive efforts at conservation have not, however, yielded dramatic results. When reports last came in, there were only about 1200 swamp deer in the entire sanctuary. Dudhwa is linked with Billy Arjan Singh, an ex-army officer turned agriculturist, with a keen interest in wildlife, who has long been settled in this area. His arm ‘Tiger Haven’ forms part of the southern boundary of the national park. It was his efforts at conservation that first got this sanctuary going. He has since been celebrated for his successful hand-rearing of Tara, a tiger cub, which he later released to freedom and a life in the wilds. To start with, Dudhwa had a good population of tigers, though the dense forest cover stood in the way of frequent sightings. Dudhwa does not have a buffer zone, so tigers roam dose to the human habitation and sugarcane fields along the boundary of the park. In the past there have been cases of man-eating and a consequent tussle between man and beast but of late no such cases have corm to tight.

Barring the convroversy, Dudhwa remains a rich wildlife reserve. With dense sal forests and grasslands where the grasses rise to all of 15 feet in height. There are numerous swamps and lakes too, and if you are a bird-watcher, this is the place for you, particularly during the winter months when it is thick with migratory birds. Egrets, herons, storks and cormorants squabble for space with a whole range of ducks, geese and teals. And all the while a greyheaded fishing eagle or marsh harrier may be biding his time, waiting to pounce on an unwary waterfowl. Other birds like woodpeckers, kingfishers, hornbills and warblers are plentiful. In the forest you may occasionally sight a sloth bear and, with great good luck, a tiger. But cheetal (spotted deer) and wild boar are always around. Dudhwa- has the distinction of providing an alternative home to the Great Indian one-horned rhinoceros. Time was when the species ranged freely in the region but mindless hunting brought the numbers down to a dangerous low and it was feared that the rhino may be wiped out altogether. To give the rhino a better chance it was decided to trans-located it to a wider area, and Dudhwa was found suitable for the purpose. With most of the females having calved in their new location in recent years, the programme seems to have paid off.

RAJAJI NATIONAL PARK
One of the richest elephant habitats in the country is the RAJAJI NATIONAL
sprawled over the districts of Dehradun, Pauri Garhwal and Saharanpur. It is a picturesque blend of wooded hills and valleys and seasonal streams, with the Ganga flowing in near Rishikesh and out again near Hardwar. It is a delicately balanced habitat, this national park, hemmed in by human settlements and factories and by the Gujjar tribes living within the precincts along with their cattle, leading to lopping of trees and grazing within the forest. But even within the fragmented areas available to them, elephants are seen following the rhythms set by nature and the seasons. From Corbett to Rajaji, the elephants belong to a single population group and migrate along forest corridors in search of water, fodder and other needs.
But Rajaji National Park has much more to offer, even apart from its elephants. More than a hundred species of birds, jackal sloth bear, wild boar, common langur and rhesus monkey, king cobra, python and krait, to name only a few species. The park is home to tigers and leopards too, though few can be sighted during the day. If you wish to spend a night at the park, you can’t do better than book in at the Chila rest house. A richly appointed place, with all the amenities You could wish for. But it is the real feel of being one with nature.
As the terrain rises towards the north-north-west, to culminate in the magnificent Himalayan peaks of Uttar Pradesh, the flora and fauna also change, presenting a unique high altitude range of plants and animals.

NANDA DEVI NATIONAL PARK was established in 1980, all of 630 sq km, in the vicinity of Nanda Devi peak, India’s second highest mountain. It is in fact a natural sanctuary, with mountains as a barrier and the altitude acting as a deterrent for all save the most determined of climbers. The first recorded entry of humans into this area was by the celebrated British mountaineers, Eric Shipton and Bill Tilman. The year, 1934. Tilman went on to make a successful attempt on Nanda Devi in 1936, but for the rest the area remained undisturbed till the “50s. And then a sudden burst of climbing and trekking expeditions was released, threatening to shatter the finely balanced eco system. Since 1980, access to this area has been restricted. Even climbing expeditions must first obtain permission from the Indian Mountaineering Federation. Shipton reported viewing whole herds of bharal (blue sheep) and ghoral (goat antelope). Not any more. Herds are a thing of the past, though a few heads can still be seen, along with musk deer and serow. And there is always the possibility of sighting a snow leopard, something to live for!

VALLEY OF FLOWER NATIONAL PARK
To F.W. Smythe, a mountaineer, must go the credit for discovering one of the most remarkable areas in the Himalayas, now designated as the VALLEY OF FLOWERS NATIONAL PARK.
Having lost his way among the Himalayan ranges, Smythe stumbled upon this 10 km long valley quite by accident and was enthralled by the dazzling display of flowers. Those who still manage to reach this remote valley come away with a similar reaction. The place is unforgettable, what with its thousand and more fragrant varieties of Himalayan flowers in deep red, blue, yellow, mauve and white, the famed Blue Poppy and Brahma Kamal, and masses of herbs and ferns. There’s the Lari Bank glacier for a backdrop, beyond which lie perennial snowfields. The sparkling, snowfed Pushpawati Gange (River of Flowers) runs the entire length of the valley. There are waterfalls raining diamonds down the hillsides and an air of perfect peace and repose permeates everything. Apart from the remarkable flora, the Valley of Flowers has an arresting range of birds and animals — the little known tahr and musk deer and the mystery man of the mountains — the snow leopard.