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Site description (2004 baseline):

This high altitude Sanctuary in Kullu district is adjacent to the Great Himalayan National Park. Part of its originally declared area has now been included in the Great Himalayan National Park. The Sanctuary forms part of the catchment area of the Tirthan river. There are a great variety of forest types due to the variations in altitude. Forest types include Ban Oak Forest, Moist Deodar Forest, Western Mixed Coniferous forest, Moist Temperate Deciduous Forest, Kharsu Oak Forest and alpine pastures (Singh et al. 1990).

AVIFAUNA: Except for a brief description in Singh et al. (1990), not much information is available in the literature, particularly on the avifauna of this area. Western Tragopan Tragopan melanocephalus and Cheer Pheasant Catreus wallichii, two globally threatened species, are found here (R. Kaul pers. comm. 2002). Other pheasants found are Himalayan or Impeyan Monal Lophophorus impejanus, Koklass Pheasant Pucrasia macrolopha and Red Junglefowl Gallus gallus. According to the endemic bird areas of the world, described by Stattersfield et al. (1998), Tirthan WLS would come under the Western Himalayas Endemic Bird Areas (EBA). This important EBA of India has 11 Restricted Range (endemic) birds, out which three have been identified from this site. Once we have a detailed bird list, perhaps more restricted range species would be found here. This site also has biome-restricted species of Biome-7 (Sino- Himalayan Temperate Forest) and Biome-5 (Eurasian High Montane- Alpine and Tibetan). BirdLife International (undated) has listed 112 species in Biome-7. We could find evidence of only two Biome-7 species. As we do not have a good bird list of this site, we do not know how many more birds of this biome are found here. Similarly, data on Biome-5 species are also lacking. Based on the available list of mammals and the extent of forest cover available, it is likely that many restricted range and biome-restricted bird species would be present in this IBA. As it adjoins the Great Himalayan NP, where the bird life is comparatively better known (300 species of birds: Gaston et al. 1994), it is likely that similar number of birds are present in Tirthan also. Nevertheless, presently we are considering this as a Data Deficient site as far as general bird life is considered. We have included Tirthan WLS in the IBA list based on confirmed evidence of two globally threatened and one restricted range species.

OTHER KEY FAUNA: This high altitude sanctuary has records of Snow Leopard Uncia uncia and its wild ungulate prey such as Blue Sheep or Bharal Pseudois nayaur, Musk Deer Moschus chrysogaster and Himalayan Tahr Hemitragus jemlahicus. At lower elevations, Barking Deer Muntiacus muntjak, Ibex Capra sibirica and Serow Nemorhaedus sumatraensis and their predator Leopard Panthera pardus have been reported. Other species include Brown Bear Ursus arctos and Asiatic Black Bear Ursus thibetanus. The Common Giant Flying Squirrel Petaurista petaurista albiventer, Kashmir Flying Squirrel Hylopetes fimbriatus, Stone Marten Martes foina, Himalayan Weasel Mustela sibirica, Golden Jackal Canis aureus and Langur Semnopithecus entellus are some other mammal species recorded.

MAIN THREATS: Burning of vegetation; Grazing; Firewood collection; Timber extraction; Mining.

The people living in surrounding areas have rights to grazing, quarrying, agriculture, collection of timber, fuelwood and minor forest produce.

Key contributor: IBA team.

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Tirthan Wildlife Sanctuary (India). Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/tirthan-wildlife-sanctuary-iba-india on 23/11/2024.