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National parks and Bird Sanctuaries in india

India overall has around 80 National Parks and 441 sanctuaries. Many of these wildlife sanctuaries and national parks have been established in hunting reserves of the times when the Britishers ruled our country. Each national park is famous for some animal. For example, the Gir forest is famous for the lions, the Indian rhinoceros is well known in Kaziranga (Assam), elephants are famous in Periyar (Kerala), and tigers in Kanha (Madhya Pradesh) and Bandavgarh (Madhya Pradesh).

The mangrove forests of the Sunderbans are a very unique habitat for the Royal Bengal Tiger.These are a living museum of nature's creations with a wide variety of animals, plants, landscapes and rock formations. The Indian forests has a wide variety of wildlife, but the thick and dense forests donot allow good visibility. The wild animals can be seen depending on their daily habits and their patterns of activity of the season. The visibility of the wildlife in national parks and sanctuaries wholly depends on the time of the year.

Flora

India has a great variety and diversity of vegetation and wildlife. Around 16 forest kinds are found in India, with around 15,000 species of plants. However, with the pasing time, many species of flora are dying because of deforestation.

The Himalayan belt is very famous for the vegetation available there. The thick tropical forests in the eastern region of India is a sharp contrast to the pine and coniferous forests of the western Himalayas. The Natural cover of the forest changes with the altitude; evergreen forests with mainly high alpine meadows nearer the snowline have more of temperate forests in the lower elevations.

The chir pine grows anywhere around the northwest Himalayas, with the exception of Kashmir. Chilgoza (pine nut), oak, maple, grow abundantly in the Inner Himalayas. The foothills are covered with the deciduous trees, shrubs, fern and grass. The Brahmaputra Valley has many patches of tea plantations and fluorescent-green rice fields, while the mulberry trees on which tussar silk worms are bred, are many on the slopes.

The most luxuriant rain forests, however, lie on the southwestern coast, in Kerala – where the lagoons are canopied by coconut trees, leading to the longest uninterrupted stretch of rain forests in the country. The Andaman Islands and Arunachal Pradesh are other regions with well preserved rain forests. Dense sandal, teak and sisoo (Dalbergia sissoo) forests, where elephants roam wild and free, flourish on the wet Karnataka plateau. Nudging this is the dry Telengana plateau in Andhra Pradesh, which offers only thorny scrub and wild Indian date palm.

Fauna

India’s rich fauna is known all over the world, but unfortunately many of the species either live in restricted habitats, or are on the verge of extinction. The threats to Indian wildlife is rampant.

India is known for the tigers, elephants and rhinoceros, but it is also home to over 500 mammal species. Antelopes and deer like the barasinghas chitals muntjacs and sambars can be easily spotted in the forests and the wildlife reserves. The other animals that can be commonly spotted include buffaloes, massive Indian bisons (gaurs), striped hyenas, wild pigs, jackals, Indian foxes and wild dogs. The common smaller mammals include mongooses and the giant squirrels. Big cats include leopards and panthers, short-tailed jungle cats, and the leopard cats. Monkeys are a very common sight, especially near temples.

The country also has around 2000 species and sub-species of birds. The numerous sanctuaries around the country are not only breeding colonies for these feathered creatures, but they also serve as resorts for these migratory birds from the higher altitudes. There are around 500 species of reptiles and amphibians. King cobras, pythons, crocodiles, large freshwater tortoises and monitor lizards are some of them. There are around 30,000 insect species, and very stunning butterflies. Following is a list of the most famous National park and Bird sancturies: