Kishtwar National Park is a national park

National park

A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...

 located in the Kishtwar

Kishtwar

Kishtwar is a town and a notified area committee in Kishtwar District in Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost state of India.-Geography:Kishtwar is located at...

 district of Jammu and Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir is the northernmost state of India. It is situated mostly in the Himalayan mountains. Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south and internationally with the People's Republic of China to the north and east and the...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. it is bounded to the north by Rinnay river, south by Kibar Nala catchment, east by main divide of Great Himalaya and west by Marwa river.

Date and history of establishment

It was declared a National Park on 4 February 1981 (Notification no. 21/FST of 1980-1981).

• Area 42,500 ha
• land Tenure state
• Altitude Ranges from 1,700 m to 4,800 m

Physical features

The National Park encompasses the catchments of kiar, Nath and Kibar nalas, all of which drain south-west into Marwa River which joins the Chenab River just above Kishtwar Town. the terrain is generally rugged and steep, with narrow valleys bounded by high redges opening in their upper glacial parts. The area lies in the Central Crystalline belt of the Great Himalyas. Rocks are strongly folded in places and composed mainly of granite, gneiss and schist, with the occasional bed of marble. The shallow, slightly alkaline soils are mostly alluvial with gravel deposits (Kurt,1976;Bacha, 1986).

Climate

The influence of the monsoon is weak. Mean annual rainfall at palmar and Sirshi (1,761 m), located near the periphery of the national park, is 827 mm and 741 mm, respectively, precipitation is maximal and in excess of 100 mm per month in March and April, and again in July and August.Most snow fall in December and January when the whole area becomes snowbound. Mean maximun and minimum temperatures recorded at Sirshi are 13⁰ and -7⁰ in January and 35⁰c and 11⁰c in July respectively (Kurt, 1976;Bacha,1986).

Vegetation

Based on revised classification of Champion and Seth (1968), some 13 vegetation types are represented (Bacha,1986). In general, silver fir Abies pindrow and spruce Picea wallichian, mixed with cedar Cedrus deodar and blue pine Pinus griffithii are predominant from 2,400m to 3,000m. Notable is the small expanse of chilgoza pine Pinus geradiana in the Dachan Range. At lower altitudes (1,700-2,400m) occur nearly pure stands of cedar and blue pine, and moist temperate deciduous forest, represented by horsechestnut, Aesculus indica, walnut Juglans regia, maple, Acer spp. poplar, Populus ciliata, hazel Corylus cornutam bird cherry Pasus corfnuta, ash Fraxinus cornuta and yew Taxus wallichiana. The sub-alpine zone, from 3,000m to the tree line at 3,700m, supports mostly silver fir and birch Betula utilis

Betula utilis

Betula utilis is a Birch tree native to the Himalayas, growing at elevations up to . The specific epithet, utilis, refers to the many uses of the different parts of the tree. The white, paper-like bark of the tree was used in ancient times for writing Sanskrit scriptures and texts...

forest and this merges with birch -rhododendron Rhododendron campanulatum scrub, above which is alpine pasture.

Among the animals that make their home here include the Himalayan Snowcock

Himalayan Snowcock

The Himalayan Snowcock 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 where they will dive down the hill slopes to escape. It overlaps with the slightly...

 and the brown bear

Brown Bear

The brown bear is a large bear distributed across much of northern Eurasia and North America. It can weigh from and its largest subspecies, the Kodiak Bear, rivals the polar bear as the largest member of the bear family and as the largest land-based predator.There are several recognized...

.

Cultural heritage

Racial groups include Thakurs, Kashmiris,Gujars, Rajputs and Brahmans (Bacha, 1986)

Local human population

There are permanent settlements but some 1,115 families of nomadic graziers, with 25,000 head of livestock, and an unspecified number of families from nearby villages, with 10,000 head, have grazing rights in the national park. Some agriculture is practised in peripheral areas. (Bacha, 1986)