Facts About Kishtwar National Park

Kishtwar National Park is a national park located in the Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It is bounded to the north by Rinnay river, south by Kibar Nala catchment, east by main divide of Great Himalaya and west by Marwa river. It is a wonderful place.

The National Park encompasses the catchments of Kiar, Nath and Kibar Nalas, all of which drain south-west into Marwa River which joins the Chenab River just above Kishtwar Town. The terrain is generally rugged and steep, with narrow valleys bounded by high ridges opening in their upper glacial parts. The area lies in the Central Crystalline belt of the Great Himalayas. Rocks are strongly folded in places and composed mainly of granite, gneiss and schist, with the occasional bed of marble. The shallow, slightly alkaline soils are mostly alluvial with gravel deposits (Kurt,1976;Bacha, 1986).

Based on revised classification of Champion and Seth (1968), some 13 vegetation types are represented (Bacha,1986). In general, silver fir 'Abies pindrow' and spruce 'Picea wallichian', mixed with cedar Cedrus deodar and blue pine Pinus griffithii are predominant from 2,400m to 3,000m. Notable is the small expanse of chilgoza pine Pinus geradiana in the Dachan Range. At lower altitudes (1,700-2,400m) occur nearly pure stands of cedar and blue pine, and moist temperate deciduous forest, represented by horsechestnut, Aesculus indica, walnut Juglans regia, maple, Acer spp. poplar, Populus ciliata, hazel Corylus cornutam bird cherry Pasus corfnuta, ash Fraxinus cornuta and yew Taxus wallichiana. The sub-alpine zone, from 3,000m to the tree line at 3,700m, supports mostly silver fir and birch Betula utilis forest and this merges with birch -rhododendron Rhododendron campanulatum scrub, above which is alpine pasture.