National Parks and Sanctuaries

Introduction

National Parks in India can be discussed here along with the Wildlife Sanctuaries. These are the suitable places for biodiversity conservation. Generally, National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries are protected areas as declared by the Government with the primary objective to preserve wildlife, save flora & fauna and to restore the natural ecological balance. A total of 103 National Parks and 544 Wildlife Sanctuaries are present in India. Madhya Pradesh and Andaman & Nicobar Islands represent the maximum number of National Parks with (9 each). The mind-blowing natural beauty across the national parks and wildlife sanctuaries in India helps in attracting millions of tourists every year.

National Parks

National park represents an area that is set aside by the national government in order to preserve the natural environment. A national park can also be set aside mainly for the purpose of public recreation and enjoyment or due to its historical or scientific interest. Majority of the landscapes and their plants and animals in a national park are kept in their natural state. The national parks present in the United States and Canada tend to focus on the protection of both land and wildlife, those in the United Kingdom focus mainly on the land, and those present in Africa mainly exist to conserve animals. Many other countries possess large areas that are reserved for national parks, such as Brazil, Japan, India, and Australia. The oldest national park of India is the Corbett National Park. Sprawling in the foothills of the Himalayas in Uttarakhand, this national park was established in 1936.

Largest National Park: Jammu & Kashmir.

Smallest National Park: Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

List of National Parks in India

• Kaziranga National Park: located in Jorhat (Assam).
• Keoladeo National Park: located in Bharatpur (Rajasthan).
• Bandhavgarh National Park: located in Shahdol (Madhya Pradesh).
• Kanha National Park: located in Mandla ( Madhya Pradesh).
• Dudhwa National Park: located in Lakhimpur, Kheri (Uttar Pradesh).
• Corbett National Park: located in Nainital (Uttarakhand).
• Rajaji National Park: located in Dehradun, Haridwar, Pauri Garhwal (Uttarakhand).
• Dachigam National Park: located in Srinagar (Jammu & Kashmir).
• Bandipur National Park: located in  Mysore (Karnataka).
• Gir National Park: located in Junagarh (Gujarat).
• Hazaribagh National Park: located in Hazaribagh (Jharkhand).
• Silent Valley National Park: located in Palakkad, (Kerala).
• Rani Jhansi Marine National Park: located in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
• Campbell National Park: located in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
• Galathea National Park: located in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
• Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park : located in Andaman & Nicobar Islands

Objectives of National Parks

• In order to preserve, to manage the area as a natural means. As seen in physiographic regions, biotic communities, genetic resources, and unimpaired natural processes.
• It contributes to the conservation of wide-ranging species, regional ecological processes, and different migration routes.
• To balance viable and ecologically functional populations. In the long term, to preserve the wholeness of the ecosystem and resilience and due to this accumulation of native species at densities is being done.
• Also for inspirational, educational, cultural, and recreational purposes, in order to manage visitor use so that it does not cause any significant biological or ecological degradation to any natural resources.
• To consider the needs of  different people and local communities including maintenance of the resource use. So far, these do not adversely affect the primary management objective.
• Through tourism, to contribute to the local economies.

Sanctuaries

A wildlife sanctuary mainly refers to an area in which animal habitats and their surroundings are protected from any sort of disturbances. The capturing, killing and poaching of animals is strictly restricted in these areas. The main objective of a sanctuary is to provide a comfortable living habitat to the animals. India possesses beautiful wildlife sanctuaries, including dense forests, large rivers, high and beautiful mountains.  

Largest Wildlife Sanctuary: Rann of Kutch, Gujarat.

Smallest Wildlife Sanctuary: Bor Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra.

List of Sanctuaries in India

• Chandraprabha Sanctuary: located in Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh).
• Ranthambore Tiger Sanctuary: located in Sawai Madhopur (Rajasthan)
• Ghataprabha Bird Sanctuary: located in Belgaum (Karnataka).
• Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary: located in Nellore (Andhra Pradesh).
• Mudumalai Sanctuary: located in Nilgiris (Tamil Nadu).
• Periyar Sanctuary: located in Idukki (Kerala).
• Simlipal Tiger Sanctuary: located in Mayurbhanj (Odisha).
• Gahirmatha Turtle Sanctuary: located in Kendrapara (Odisha).

Importance of Sanctuaries

• The sanctuaries provide protection to many endangered species.
• It is very important to protect the animals and birds that are present in their natural habitats as it can be hard to relocate these species to any other place and cause disturbances to them.
• The endangered or vulnerable species can be easily monitored via the people working there. Their reproduction rate is usually measured and maintained as they are under protection and some of the species are generally kept for breeding in other conservation parks so the species do not become extinct.
• This also helps researchers to do their research and the findings and it becomes beneficial for them as they can learn about the species present there and also to improve the protective measures.
• It provides care and rehabilitation that improves the health of the animal and ensures their full recovery before they are released in the wild again.

• The main purpose of sanctuaries is the protection of endangered species from humans and the predators thereby maintaining their numbers.

Conclusion

Natural Parks and wildlife sanctuaries are a country’s natural wealth and they come with a great variety of advantages both to mankind and the environment, and thus they need to be protected at any cost. Here, we come to an end of this topic. We hope you were able to clear all your concepts regarding the natural parks and sanctuaries.