Valley of Flowers National Park

Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Parks

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Criteria	Natural: vii, x
Reference	335
Inscription	1988 (12th Session)
Extensions	2005

Valley of Flowers National Park is an Indian national park, located at a height in West Himalaya. It is renowned for its meadows of endemic alpine flowers and the variety of flora found there. It is located in Uttarakhand state. This richly diverse area is also home to rare and endangered animals, including the Asiatic black bear, snow leopard, brown bear and blue sheep. The gentle landscape of the Valley of Flowers National Park complements the rugged mountain wilderness of Nanda Devi National Park to the east. Together they encompass a unique transition zone between the mountain ranges of the Zanskar and Great Himalaya. The park stretches over an expanse of 87.50 km². Both parks are encompassed in the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve (223,674 ha) which is further surrounded by a buffer zone (5,148.57 km²). This Reserve is in the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves since 2004.

The Valley of Flowers is a high-altitude Himalayan valley that has been acknowledged by renowned mountaineers and botanists in literature for over a century and in Hindu religion for much longer.The Valley of Flowers has many colorful different flowers, taking on various shades of colours as time progressed. The valley was declared a national park in 1982 and now it is a World Heritage Site. The locals believed that it was inhabited by fairies.The valley is home to many flowers like the Brahmakamal, the Blue Poppy and the Cobra Lily. It is a much sought after haunt for flower-lovers, botanists and trekkers.

The Valley of Flowers is internationally important on account of its diverse alpine flora, representative of the Western Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows ecoregion. The rich diversity of species reflects the valley's location within a transition zone between the Zaskar and Great Himalayas ranges to the north and south, respectively, and between the Eastern Himalaya and Western Himalaya flora. A number of plant species are internationally threatened, several have not been recorded from elsewhere in Uttarakhand and two have not been recorded in Nanda Devi National Park. The diversity of threatened species of medicinal plants is higher than has been recorded in other Indian Himalayan protected areas. The entire Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve lies within the Western Himalayas Endemic Bird Area (EBA). The Valley of Flowers National Park is the second core zone of the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve. Seven restricted-range bird species are endemic to this part of the EBA.

The Valley of Flowers was declared a national park in 1982. It is part of Uttarakhand, in the upper reaches of Garhwal, is inaccessible for most of the year. The area lies on the Zanskar range of the Himalayas with the highest point in the national park being Gauri Parbat at 6,719 m above sea level.

a mesmerizing scene from valley of flowers

History and legends

Margaret Legge's memorial grave

File:Geranium Flowers in valley of flowers.........jpg

Valley Of Flowers

The place had disappeared from the tourist map due to its inaccessibility, but in 1931, Frank S. Smythe, Eric Shipton and R.L. Holdsworth, all British mountaineers, lost their way while returning from a successful expedition to Mt.Kamet and happened upon the valley, which was full of flowers. He was attracted to the beauty of the area, he named it the "Valley of Flowers." He later authored a book of the same name.

In 1939, Miss Margaret Legge, a botanist deputed by the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, arrived at the valley for further studies. While she was traversing some rocky slopes to collect flowers, she slipped off and was lost. Her sister later visited the valley and erected a memorial near the spot.

The Valley of Flowers was established as a national park with effect from 6 November 1982.

Prof. Chandra Prakash Kala, a botanist deputed by the Wildlife Institute of India, carried out a research study on the floristics and conservation of the valley for a decade, beginning in 1993. He made an inventory of 520 alpine plants exclusively growing in this national park and authored two important books - "The Valley of Flowers - Myth and Reality" and "Ecology and Conservation of the Valley of Flowers National Park, Garhwal Himalaya."

Dates and History of Establishment

1862: The Pushpawati valley was discovered by Col. Edmund Smyth;

1931: The valley visited by the climberFrank S. Smythe who wrote a book publicising the “Valley of Flowers”;

1936: The upper Nanda Devi basin was reached and described by mountaineers E.Shipton & N.Odell who climbed Nanda Devi;

1939: The basin established as the Nanda Devi Game Sanctuary by Government Order 1493/XIV- 28 of 7/01;

1962: Border disputes closed the area to traffic, altering the local economy;

1974-82: The Sanctuary was opened to mountaineering but the ensuing degradation led to its closure to all users;

1980: The Park was established as Sanjay Gandhi National Park by Notification 3912/ XIV 3-35-80; grazing and mountaineering stopped;

1980: The Valley of Flowers was declared a National Park by Government Order 4278/XIV-3-66-80 under the provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972, for the conservation of its flora;

1982: The Park was renamed Nanda Devi National Park;

1988: The Nanda Devi National Biosphere Reserve established (223,674 ha) with the National Park as core zone (62,462 ha) and a 514,857 ha buffer area surrounding both sites; restrictions were imposed on the rights of nearby villagers;

2000: The Biosphere Reserve extended by the government to 586,069 ha and the Valley of Flowers National Park was added as the second core zone (62,462 ha+ 8,750 ha, totaling core areas Of 71,212 ha

2004: The two core zones and buffer zone designated a UNESCO MAB reserve.

Management

The park is administered by the Uttarakhand State Forestry Department, the national Ministry of Environment and Forests, India. There is no settlement in the national park and grazing in the area has been banned since 1983. Earlier, when grazing was permitted it was felt that grazing animals were introducing invasive weeds to the valley. The park is open only in summer from June to October, as it is covered by heavy snow for the rest of the year.

Location

File:Beautiful glacier on the way to valley of flowers.jpg

Glacier on the way to the valley of flowers

State: Uttarakhand, India

District: chamoli

Nearest town: Joshimath

Location: The Valley of Flowers is nestled in the upper expanses of Bhyundar Ganga near Joshimath in Gharwal region. The lower reaches of Bhyundar Ganga near Gobindghat are known as Bhyundar Valley. The Valley of Flowers is in the Pushpawati valley 23 km north-northwest of Nanda Devi Park, It lies between 30° 41' to 30° 48'N and 79° 33' to 79° 46'E.

The Valley is 20 km northwest of Nanda Devi National Park across the wide valley of the Bhyundar Ganga. It is one of two hanging valleys lying at the head of the Bhyundar valley, the other being the shorter Hemkund valley which runs parallel some 10 km south. It runs east-west approximately 15 km by an average of 6 km wide, in the basin of the Pushpawati river, a small tributary flowing from the Tipra glacier which descends from Gauri Parbat in the east.

Climate

Being an inner Himalayan valley, the Nanda Devi Basin has a distinctive microclimate. Conditions are generally dry with low annual precipitation, but there is heavy monsoon rainfall from late June to early September. Prevailing mist and low cloud during the monsoon keeps the soil moist, hence the vegetation is lusher than is usual in the drier inner Himalayan valleys. From mid April to June temperatures are moderate to cool (19°C maximum). The Valley of Flowers also has the microclimate of an enclosed inner Himalayan valley, and is shielded from the full impact of the southwest summer monsoon by the Greater Himalaya range to its south. There is often dense fog and rain especially during the late summer monsoon. Both Basin and Valley are usually snow-bound for six to seven months between late October and late March, the snow accumulating deeper and at lower altitudes on the shadowed southern than on the northern side of the valleys .

Trek

Valley of Flowers; see trek in left hand side and valley in front

Getting to the Valley of Flowers requires a trek of about 17 km (10.5 mi). The nearest major town is Joshimath in Garhwal, which has convenient road connections from Haridwar and Dehradun, both about 270 km (168 mi) from Joshimath. From Delhi, one can take the train to Haridwar and then travel by bus to Govindghat via Rishikesh. Govindghat is approximately 16 km before another important destination of Badrinath. It is also possible to drive from Delhi to Govindghat, a distance of about 500 km.

Govindghat is a small place close to Joshimath (around one hour distance), where the trek begins. From Gobindghat, a trek of 14 km (8.6 mi) brings trekkers to the Ghangaria, a small settlement located about 3 km (about 2 mi) from the valley. The trek from Gobindghat to Ghangaria is common to the Sikh Temple at Hemkund and a trekker is likely to find many Sikh pilgrims on the route. As one nears Ghangaria one is greeted by fields of perfumed wild flowers, wild rose bushes and wild strawberries by the sides of the path. One may trek to the valley of flowers the next morning.The valley starts near a gorge over the Pushpawati River.

Vegetation

Pushpawati River rushing out of the valley of flowers

The valley has three main vegetation zones: sub-alpine between 3,200m and 3,500m which is the limit for trees, lower alpine between 3,500m and 3,700m, and higher alpine above 3,700m. The habitats include valley bottom, river bed, small forests, meadows, eroded, scrubby and stable slopes, moraine, plateau, bogs, stone desert and caves. The lower surrounding hills in the buffer zone are thickly forested. The Forest Research Institute in 1992 recorded 600 species of angiosperms and 30 pteridophytes in the valley and surroundings, discovering 58 new records for the valley of which 4 were new for Himalayan Uttar Pradesh. Of these plants, 5 out of 6 species globally threatened are not found in Nanda Devi National Park or elsewhere in Uttarakhand: Aconitum falconeri, A. balfouri, Himalayan maple Acer caesium, the blue Himalayan poppy Mecanopsis aculeate and Saussurea atkinsoni (Green & Peard, 2005). 31 species are classified as nationally rare. The dominant family is the Asteraceae with 62 species. 45 medicinal plants are used by local villagers and several species, such as Saussurea obvallata (brahmakamal) are collected as religious offerings to goddesses Nanda Devi and Sunanda Devi.The site is designated a Centre of Plant Diversity.

Characteristic of the sub-alpine zone are high altitude forests which help to retain moisture and snow and support a large number of floral and faunal communities. It is dominated by the uncommon Himalayan maple Acer caesium (VU), west Himalayan fir Abies pindrow, Himalayan white birch Betula utilis, and Rhododendron campanulatum with Himalayan yew Taxus wallichiana, Syringa emodi and Sorbus lanata Some of the common herbs are Arisaema jacquemontii, Boschniakia himalaica, Corydalis cashmeriana, Polemonium caerulium, Polygonum polystachyum (a rampant tall weed), Impatiens sulcata, Geranium wallichianum, Helinia elliptica, Galium aparine, Morina longifolia, Inula grandiflora, Nomochoris oxypetala, Anemone rivularis, Pedicularis pectinata, P. bicornuta, Primula denticulate and Trillidium govanianum. In trampled areas where past livestock congregated, Himalayan knotweed Polygonum polystachium is a rampant weed.

Fauna

Lime Butterfly

Snow Leopard

The density of wild animals in the Valley is not high but all the animals found are nationally rare or endangered. 13 species of mammals are recorded for the Park and its vicinity although only 9 species have been sighted directly: northern plains gray langur Semnopithecus entellus, flying squirrel Petaurista petaurista, Himalayan black bear Ursus thibetanus (VU), red fox Vulpes vulpes, Himalayan weasel Mustela sibirica, and Himalayan yellow-throated marten Martes flavigula, Himalayan goral Naemorhedus goral, Himalayan musk deer Moschus leucogaster, Indian chevrotain Moschiola indica, Himalayan thar Hemitragus jemlahicus (VU) and serow Capricornis sumatraensis (VU). The tahr is common, the serow, goral, musk deer and bharal, blue sheep are rare. The common leopard Panthera pardus is reported from lower parts of the valley closer to the villages. Local people have also reported evidence of brown bear Ursus arctos and bharal or blue sheep Pseudois nayaur . A recent faunal survey in October 2004 has established the presence of snow leopard Panthera uncia (EN) in the National Park. The area is within the West Himalayan Endemic Bird Area but there have been no surveys specific to the Valley. 114 species were seen in 1993 in Nanda Devi Park. Species frequently seen in the valley include lammergeier Gypaetus barbatus, Himalayan vulture Gyps himalayensis, yellow billed and red billed choughs Pyrrhocorax graculus and P. pyrrhocorax, koklass pheasant Pucrasia macrolopha, the nationally listed Himalayan monal pheasant Lophophorus impejanus, found in rhododendron thickets, scaly-bellied and yellow-nape woodpeckers Picus squamatus and P. flavinucha, great and bluethroated barbets Megalaima virens and M. asiatica, snow pigeon Columba leuconota and spotted dove Stigmatopelia chinensis. The area is relatively poor in reptiles: most often seen are the high altitude lizard Agama tuberculata, Himalayan ground skink Leiolopisma himalayana and Himalayan pit viper Gloydius himalayanus. Along with the flowers are wild bees and many species of butterfly which need to be more researched. A few of the more evident species are lime butterfly Papilio demoleus demoleus, common yellow swallowtail Papilio machaon, common mormon Papilio polytes romulus, spangle Papilio protenor protenor and common blue apollo Parnassius hardwickei.

Flora

The flora was surveyed and inventoried in 1987 by the Botanical Survey of India, in 1992 by the Forest Research Institute and in 1997 by the Wildlife Institute of India which found five species new to science. A research nursery and seed/rhizome/tuber bank for propagating rare plants and valuable medicinal herbs has been created at Musadhar near the entrance of the site. Rare and valuable medicinal plants are the subject of special programs. These include Aconitum heterophyllum, A. falconeri, Arnebia benthamii, Dactylorhiza hatagirea, Gymnadenia orchides, Megacarpaea polyandra, Picrorhiza kurrooa, Podophyllum haxandrum and Taxus wallichiana. Research plots have been set up to determine the best way to control the spread of the tall Himalayan knotweed Polygonum polystachium without damaging other plants or the surface of the soil. A first annual survey was conducted in 2004 and will be repeated annually.

Flowers mostly orchids, poppies, primulas, marigold, daisies and anemones carpet the ground. Sub-alpine forests of birch and rhododendron cover parts of the park's area. A decade long study of Prof. C.P. Kala from 1993 onwards concludes that the Valley of Flowers endows with 520 species of higher plants (angiosperms, gymnosperms and pteridophytes), of these 498 are flowering plants. The park has many species of medicinal plants including Dactylorhiza hatagirea, Picrorhiza kurrooa, Aconitum violaceum, Polygonatum multiflorum, Fritillaria roylei and Podophyllum hexandrum.

Species

Gaultheria trichophylla flowering June–September, used to prepare appetizer

A flower found in the park

A flower with several insects on it

Himalayan bell flower

A fly feeding on a red flower

Morning dew on a pink flower

Multi storied flowers

A white flower

No.	Name of Flowers	Time of flowering
1.	Rhododendron arboreum	February–June
2.	Primula denticulata	April–July
3.	Iris kemaonensis	June–July
4.	Fritillaria roylei	June–July
5.	Lilium oxypetalum	June–July
6.	Arisaema costatum	June–July
7.	Thermopsis barbata	June–July
8.	Rosa macrophylla	June–July
9.	Caltha palustris	June–July
10.	Fragaria nubicola	May–July
11.	Saxifraga roylei	July–August
12.	Anemone obtusiloba	June–August
13.	Cypripedium himalaicum	June–August
14.	Rheum australe	July–August
15.	Phlomis oracteosa	June–August
16.	Hackelia uncinata	June–August
17.	Senecio jacquemotianus	August–September
18.	Ligularia amplexicaulis	July–August
19.	Morina longifolia	July–September
20.	Geum elatum	July–August
21.	Geranium wallichianum	July–August
22.	Impatiens sulcata	July–August
23.	Meconopsis aculeata	July–August
24.	Delphinium roylei	July–August
25.	Aconitum hookeri	August–September
26.	Thalictrum reniforme	July–September
27.	Potentilla atrosanguinea	July–September
28.	Sedum ewersii	August–September
29.	Dactylorhiza hatagirea	June–July
30.	Bistorta affinis	August–September
31.	Stachys sericea	August–September
32.	Nepeta connata	August–September
33.	Pedicularis hoffmeistri	July–August
34.	Swertia hookeri	August–September
35.	Gentiana ornata	August–September
36.	Gaultheria erichophy	August–September
37.	Codonopsis affinis	August–September
38.	Angelica cyclocarpa	July–September
39.	Leontopodium jacotianum	July–September
40.	Saussurea fastuosa	July–September
41.	Campanula latifolia	August–September
42.	Cyananthus lobatus	August–September
43.	Saussurea obvallata	August–September
44.	Cremanthodium ellisii	July–September
45.	Anaphalis triplinervis	July–September
46.	Inula grandiflora	August–September
47.	Aster albescens	July–September
48.	Selinium tenuifolium	August–September
49.	Heracleum pinnatum	August–September
50.	Epilobium latisperma	August–September
51.	Silene setisperma	August–September
52.	Arenaria griffithii	August–September
53.	Corydalis juncea	August–September
54.	Erigeron multiradiatus	August–September
55.	Polygonum molle	August–September
56.	Himalayan Blue Poppy	July–September
57.	Codonopsis viridis	July–August
58.	Origanum vulgare	July–August
59.	Hackelia uncinata	July–August
60.	Salvia hins/lanata	July–August
61.	Smilacina purpurea/oleracea	June–July
62.	Viola biflora	June–August
63.	Rhodiola heterodonta	July–August
64.	Epilobium latifolium	July–August
65.	Cotoneaster integrifolius	July–August
66.	Dubyaea hispida	August–September
67.	Saussurea costus	July–August
68.	Ligularia fisheri	July–August
69.	Androsace museoidea	July–August
70.	Eritrichium conum	July–August
71.	Lindelofi anchusoides	July–August
72.	Thymus linearis	June–August
73.	Rheum webbianum	June–August
74.	Megacorpaea polyandra	June–August
75.	Trillidium govanianum	June–August
76.	Satyrium nepalense	June–August
77.	Podophyllum hexaneum	June–August
78.	Picrorhiza kurrooa	June–August
79.	Polygonatum multiflorum	June–August

See also

• Lakshman Ganga River
• Pushpawati River
• Official website, Valley of flowers
• Valley of flowers

External links

• Official UNESCO website entry
• United Nations Environment Programme
• The Encyclopedia of Earth

• Details of flowers from Valley of flowers