Site description (2004 baseline):
AVIFAUNA: The area is particularly noted for its prolific pheasant populations. The Park is home to over 300 species of birds (Gaston et al. 1994), an excellent representation of West Himalayan avifauna. The Himalayan Monal Lophophorus impejanus, Koklass Pheasant Pucrasia macrolopha, Kaleej Pheasant Lophura leucomelanos and Hill Partridge Arborophila torqueola are common, while Cheer Pheasant Catreus wallichii and the Western Tragopan Tragopan melanocephalus have more restricted ranges. Chukar Partridge Alectoris chukar, Snow Partridge Lerwa lerwa and Himalayan Snowcock Tetraogallus himalayensis occur in suitable habitats all over the Park. This IBA site could be the most important site in Himachal Pradesh as far as Galliform conservation is concerned. Ramesh et al. (1999) studied pheasants in this Park during 1997- 1999 and reported encounter rates (Number of birds per km walk) for Himalayan Monal (range 1.5 to 3.9), Western Tragopan (0 to 0.4) and Koklass Pheasant (0.3 to 1.4). This sprawling Park, and the adjoining IBA has the largest intact Montane Broadleaf Deciduous Forests and Mixed Broadleaf Coniferous Forests left in the Western Himalayas. BirdLife International (undated) has identified various biome-restricted bird assemblages. In this IBA, the main biome is Sino-Himalayan Temperate Forest (Biome-7), between 1,800 m to 3,600 m but on the higher reaches, above 3,600 m, Eurasian High Montane (Alpine and Tibetan) bird fauna is seen (Biome-5), while below 2,000 m, in the Sino-Himalayan Subtropical Forest (Biome-8), many subtropical bird assemblages are found. As expected, the largest number of bird species are from Biome-7. BirdLife International (undated) has listed 112 species, out of which 50 have been identified till now. Forty-eight birds are listed for Biome-5. This site has 12 of them. As the area is remote, perhaps more than double the known number would be present, if detailed surveys are conducted. Eleven out of 95 species of Biome-8 could be located till now. More are likely to be found. This large IBA lies in the Western Himalayas Endemic Bird Area (EBA), (Stattersfield et al. 1998) and has five out of 11 restricted range species. Looking at the undisturbed habitat available, some restricted range species would have considerable percentage of their numbers in this IBA alone.
OTHER KEY FAUNA: The Park has almost all the representative mammalian fauna of the Western Himalayas. Among primates, both Rhesus Macaque Macaca mulatta and Langur Semnopithecus entellus are present.
Carnivores such as Leopard Panthera pardus and both Asiatic Black Bear Ursus thibetanus and Brown Bear Ursus arctos are commonly encountered. Himalayan Tahr Hemitragus jemlahicus and Goral Nemorhaedus goral occur in good numbers, and Barking Deer Indian Muntjak Muntiacus muntjak and Serow Nemorhaedus sumatraensis in smaller numbers. Himalayan Musk Deer Moschus chrysogaster has been recorded in Tirthan and Sainj valley (Gaston et al. 1981; S. Sathyakumar pers. comm. 2003). Bharal Pseudois nayaur is also found in the upper reaches of Tirthan and Sainj valleys (Fox 1987; Vinod and Sathyakumar 1999).
Despite its large size and protected status, the Great Himalayan NP is not free from human disturbances. There are 4 villages and numerous settlements inside the Park, and 75 villages in the buffer zone. Villagers have the right to graze livestock, collect timber, fuelwood, herbs and other minor forest produce. Nomadic graziers can get permits to graze their livestock. In order to promote the growth of new grass, graziers start fires, which sometimes go out of control. Some poaching is known to occur, and a few cases have been registered. The locals are known to deliberately start fires in the forest area to catch escaping animals. However, the greatest and irreversible threat to the Park comes from denotification of certain areas for development projects. On the pretext of settlement of people’s rights, 1,060 ha of Jiwanal Valley was denotified in May 1999. The real reason was to make way for a hydroelectric project. The Deodar-dominated forest of this valley is extremely important for the Western Tragopan. Brushing aside all protests from conservationists, the Prime Minister himself laid the foundation stone of the Project.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Great Himalayan National Park (India). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/great-himalayan-national-park-iba-india on 24/12/2024.