Govind Pashu Vihar

Govind Pashu Vihar is a national park in the Supin Range near Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand, in the higher Garhwal Himalayas. It covers 958 km² and rises from 1,400 to 6,323 m^[1]. It is named after Govind Ballabh Pant.

About 15 large mammal species live here, including Asian black bear, brown bear, leopard, musk deer, bharal, Himalayan tahr and serow, and the snow leopard is the target of a national project. Around 150 bird species include golden eagle, Himalayan monal and western tragopan. It is one of the remaining Himalayan strongholds of the bearded vulture^[1].

Vegetation changes with elevation: western Himalayan broadleaf forest low down, subalpine conifer forest in the middle, and alpine shrub and meadow above. Lower slopes have chir pine, deodar and oak; above about 2,600 m come blue pine, silver fir, spruce, yew, maple, walnut and rhododendron^[1].

The park spans a mountain range from 1,400 m to peaks over 6,000 m^[1].

The vegetation zones from broadleaf forest to alpine meadow reflect the sharp climate change with altitude^[1].

Under British rule the area was managed mainly for timber extraction, road building and forest rest houses. After independence the state forest department took over and timber extraction declined. Indigenous people still live inside the park boundaries^[1].

It was established on 1 March 1955 as a wildlife sanctuary and later converted to a national park^[1].

The Har Ki Doon valley is a known trekking destination, with a forest rest house in a valley of wildflowers. Ruinsiyara is a high-altitude lake. Rest houses at Naitwar, Taluka and Osla lie on the route^[1].

A motor road reached Naitwar and by 1988 had been extended 20 km into the park to Sankri. Dehradun, about 190 km away, has the nearest airport and railway station. Visitors grew from about 300 in 1988 to over 1,000 in 1990^[1].

The Government of India inaugurated its Snow Leopard Project here. The snow leopard is threatened by prey decline, poaching and retaliatory killing, and tourism interests sometimes conflict with residents^[1].