Valmiki National Park
| Valmiki National Park | |
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IUCN category II (national park)
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| Location | West Champaran, Bihar, India |
| Coordinates | 27°19′54″N 84°9′45″E / 27.33167°N 84.16250°ECoordinates: 27°19′54″N 84°9′45″E / 27.33167°N 84.16250°E |
Valmiki National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary is located in the West Champaran district of Bihar state, India. The extensive forest area of Valmikinagar was previously owned by the Bettiah Raj and Ramanagar Raj until the early 1950s. Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR) is one of the natural virgin recesses in east India, situated in the north west corner of Bihar. The pristine forest and wilderness of VTR is an excellent example of Himalayan Terai landscape. VTR comprises the Valmiki National Park and Valmiki Wildlife Sanctuary. The VTR forest area covers 899.38 square kilometres (347.25 sq mi), which is 17.4% of the total geographical area of the district West Champaran. As of 2013, there were 22 tigers in the Reserve.
The name of the district West Champaran derives from two words, Champa and Aranya, meaning forest of Champa trees. Geographically, it is situated between 83°0 50′ and 84°0 10′ E longitude and between 27°0 10′ and 27°0 03′ N latitude. Total forest area comprises about 900 square kilometres (350 sq mi), out of which the Valmiki Wildlife Sanctuary is 880 square kilometres (340 sq mi) and spread of the National Park is about 335 square kilometres (129 sq mi) area. In the north, the protected areas are bordered by Nepal while the Indian state Uttar Pradesh bounds the sanctuary from western side.
Bihar Government is turning 800 hectares of forest in VTR into Grassland making it India's biggest grassland.
The landscape of VTR encompasses foothills ranges of Himalayan Siwaliks with mosaic of the cliffs, ridges, gorges, hills, streams and valleys; dense forests, open woodlands, grasslands, swamps and riverine fringe. Situated in Gangetic plains bio-geographic zone of the Country, the forest has combination of bhabar and terai tracts. Boulder and pebble deposits by the Himalayan rivers in foothills characterized the Bhabar tract while the finer sediments deposits feature terai lands.
Someshwar Hill Range and Dun Hill system with knife-edge ridges and precipitous slopes, cliffs, spurs, gorges, narrow valleys.
Older alluvium with sandy soil with variegated clay and loose boulder deposits and artesian flows; lateritic formations on higher contours and newer Alluvium on southern parts with reissuing springs akin to artesian flows.
Criss-crossing and meandering rivers, streams and rivulets, man-made canals; Swamps and Grasslands.
River Gandak forms the western boundary of Valmiki wildlife sanctuary. It enters in India at Valmikinagar, where two rivulets Sonha and Pachnad joins it, forming a holy confluence ‘Triveni’. The river is called ‘Narayani’ in Nepal. Harha – Masan River system originates from the Valmiki Forests and forms Burhi Gandak River down south. River Pandai flows into Bihar (India) from Nepal in the eastern end of the Sanctuary and meets Masan.
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Wikipedia