Great Himalayn National Park
Shamshi District Kullu
Himachal Pradesh INDIA
Great Himalayan National park is bestowed with nature’s blessing in true sense. This is the area where nature is in its purest form. Great Himalayan National Park administration is toiling hard to protect this nature treasure. The cacophony of rare pheasants and birds in conifer forest adds additional feathers to its beauty .The arduous treks inside the park give maximum opportunities to the hill trekkers to test their endurance and at the same time it serve as blessing in disguise to the poachers and illegal herb collectors. Nevertheless these hardships, the park sentinels with their limited strength patroll the park area on regular basis. The service condition inside great Himalayan national park is all together different from the regular working of forest department. One can count the hardship faced by the staff by noting the single factor that there is no road inside the park boundary .The whole 754.6 square kilometer area is deprived of road facility. This vast chunk of land is inviolate. The altitude variation in the park is from 1800 meter to 6000 meter above mean sea level. There are no well furnished rest houses inside its boundary .One can imagine a life in its wildest form inside. In the name of shelter there are unmanned patrolling huts. These huts serve as shelter with roof deep inside the park. Staff has to carry sleeping bags and grocery items for survival. In order to make shelter in different locations inside the park, the officials have come out with very innovative ideas of modifying natural rock shelters in its natural form so that the officials and staff can get shelter in chilling winter nights. Despite all odds men in khaki are there with the commitment to protect nature’s gift for future generation. These unsung heroes have multifarious jobs to perform. At one end they have to turn hard and carry out policing job and on the other end they have to involve local people for the protection of this open natural wealth. Both these roles are contradictory .Despite these they are marching forward with highest level of motivation. There are many things to celebrate .This park has been nominated for UNESCO’s world heritage sites. The visit of inspecting team of UNESCO is on card. The team is schedule to visit the area in the month of October this year. If all goes well this park will have the Honor of highlighting Himachal Pradesh as ‘nature’s blessed state’ on world’s Map. This will definitely increase the number of visitors who are passionate to see the nature’s gift in this part of globe in Western Himalayan region.
There are many precious floral and faunal elements in this area which need respect protection and conservation on each front. The park management is concentrating on three basic aspects of management. i.e. Conservation through efficient protection regime ,Documentation and monitoring the natural wealth and thirdly by involving local villagers through eco development activities. At present active patrolling and establishment of temporary Nakas at vulnerable areas are in place. It is this effort which had yielded result in recent past. The park staff is able to apprehend approximately 100 kg of nagchatri “Trillidium govianum” .This is a herb which had been growing in these forest since long. Its potential to earn money was unknown to locals till last two years. Unconfirmed reports says that the material is being smuggled too China .Illegal herb collectors are getting 1500 -2000 Rs per kg of dried roots of Nag chatri at their door step. Park management is taking external help from home guards. The request for deployment of homeguards had been accepted and three teams are in place at vantage points. This effort has given impetus to the protection efforts. Besides, patrolling parties are being sent inside on identified tracks to nab the offenders. Locals are made aware through street plays in peripheral villages. The second effort is on documentation of floral and faunal elements inside the park. The park administration is of firm view that unless you measure the stock of available element in particular area it is virtually impossible to manage that area. In order to set everything under control annual census of major pheasant species say Western tragopan,( Tragopan melanocephalus),Koklash,Monal( Lophopherous impajinus) ,and cheer pheasants(catrerus wallichi) is being done on regular basis. The park officials have reason to smile. Their continuous painstaking efforts had yielded results. This fact is testified by the recent census data of western tragopan.The Density per square kilometer of western tragopan, in its habitat, has increased since last year. This trend is encouraging. This result has direct correlation with the health of the park. It also indicate about the decrease in biotic pressure. This particular species is highly elusive and vulnerable to biotic pressure. Besides, the density per square kilometer for other pheasants is also ascending. Other animals like Ghoral ( Nemorhaedus goral),,Himalayan thar, Musk deer( Moschus moschiferus) are also monitored on regular basis. The list is not restricted to faunal elements but a long term Ecological monitoring (LTEM) is covering 52 different floral and faunal elements available in the park. Last year LTEM results are encouraging. This monitoring was done with the help of two professional institute on the state i.e. .IHBT palampur and UHF Solan( Dr.Y.S parmar University of horticulture and forestry nauni solan) .The result of monitoring clearly bolster the fact that effective protection and management can yield results in the field of conservation. The results clearly reveal the fact that the health of alpine pastures and forests have significantly improved after declaration of the area as National Park. The drive doesn’t stop here. Park management is working on fixing Camera traps in vantage points. Recent fixing of these traps and their results are eye opener to the park administration too. Camera traps were able to bring direct pictures of the animals which are difficult to locate in hilly terrain. This efforts had other positive effect on protection as it do not differentiate between animals and human . It take pictures of each object which passes through its range. In that way it helps the staff to check any illegal movement inside the park boundary.
Park management very well realizes the fact that no effort of protection will work unless the villagers on the peripheral area are dependent on forests of Great Himalayan national park. All round efforts are being made to increase the livelihood options, at their door step, for these villagers so that they do not resort to any illegal activities inside the park. The management had succeeded in organizing them into ninety different self help groups. The women folk of these villages prepare local material and they sell them through their outlets which have been provided by Great Himalayan National Park .At present four such outlets are operational at Manali, Sairopa and Aut. There is proposal to open two more outlet at Jhiri ( Nagwain) and Sainj. The results are encouraging. The young men are being organized as ecotourism specialist of this park. They can take nature lovers inside the park and help them to explore the mysteries of nature in a responsible way and earn money.
The Great Himalayan national park is at the threshold of elite list of World heritage Site. If these efforts of park managers are continued unabated the park will definitely position the name of Himachal Pradesh in the elite group which is working for the sustenance of future generation
