IUCN to inspect Himachal national park next year

December 17th, 2011 - 8:10 pm ICT by IANS  

Shimla, Dec 17 (IANS) A team of international wildlife experts will visit Himachal Pradesh next year to evaluate the flora and fauna of the Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP) in Kullu district, an official statement said here Saturday.

The statement, quoting Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, said a team of the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) would visit the park early next year.

Dhumal also revealed that GHNP was poised to be on the list of Unesco’s ‘World Heritage Sites’ as soon as its nomination was accepted.

With magnificent glaciers, lofty mountains and gurgling streams, the GHNP is one of the richest biodiversity sites in the western Himalayas.

The nominations of three other parks — the Bhitarkanika Conservation Area in Odisha, the Neora Valley National Park in West Bengal and the Desert National Park in Rajasthan - have also been accepted by Unesco.

Dhumal also announced that a Himalayan snow leopard research centre would soon be set up near Kibbar village in the Spiti Valley at a cost of Rs.5.15 crore. “The centre would carry out research and development programmes for the preservation of the snow leopard,” he added.

Likewise, the government would shortly start a breeding programme of the Himalayan monal, a pheasant species, near Manali.

To study the migratory routes of the birds, the chief minister said the state wildlife wing in collaboration with Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) would fit 18 solar-powered transmitters on migratory birds.

Last year, the government and the BNHS for the first time installed a radio chip on the ruddy shelduck, a migratory bird species, at the Pong Dam wetlands in the Kangra Valley.

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