Valmiki National Park

Valmiki National Park:

Introduction:

Valmiki National Park and wildlife Sanctuary is located in the West Champaran district of Bihar state  India. The extension forest area of Valmikinagar was previously owned by the Bettiah Raj and Ramanagar Raj until the early 1950s. Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR) is one of the natural virgin recesses in east India, situated in the north west corner of Bihar. The Pristine forest and wilderness of VTR is an excellent example of Himalayan Terai landscape. VTR  comprises of the Valmiki National Park and Valmiki Wildlife Sanctuary. The VTR forest area covers 899.38  sqkm which is 17.45 % of the total geographical areas of the district West Champaran. 

The Valmiki National  Park and wildlife sanctuary lie in the West Champaran district of Bihar. Name of the district has been derived from two words champa and Aryana - meaning Forest of Champa trees. Geographical, It is situated between 830 50'and 840 10' E longitude and between 270 10' and 270 03' N latitude. Total forest area comprises of about 900 sqkm, out of which expense of Valmiki Wildlife Sanctuary is 880 sq. km. and spread  of the national park is about 335 sq.km. area. In north, the protected areas are bordered by Nepal while the Indian state Uttar Pradesh bounds the Wildlife Sanctuary from western side.

Administrative Structure:

The Conservator of forests cum- Field Director exercises administrative control over the Valmiki Tiger Reserve which is constituted into two forest Division viz Valmiki Tiger Reserve Division- 1 and  Divisoin- 2, that are under the control of two divisional forest officers- cum- Deputy Director. 

The VTR  is divided  into 8 Range headed by Range officers, out of that 3 ranges falls in Division- 1 and 5 ranges in Division- 2

Valmiki Tiger Conservation Foundation was established in year 2010 by vide letter no Vanyaprani 08/ 2007 -467 (E) /Va. Pa. Dated 31st December 2010. The aim of Valmiki Tiger Conservation Foundation is to help VTR management in biodiversity conservation and better functioning of ECO Development Commitees. 

Conservation History 

Prior to independence, the Valmiki forests were owned by two erstwhile Zamindari Estates- Bettiah Raj and Ramnagar Raj. The forest were managed for timber production. The state government took over the management of of Ramnagar Raj forest in 1950and the Bettiah Raj forests in 1953 and 1954 under the Bihar Private Protected Forests act (1947).  Subsequently  these forests got the status fo "Protected Forests " by notification vide no. C/PF-6036/52-87 R Date  6th January 1953 covering 909.86 sq. km. Out of these 909.86  sq.km,  8.73 sq.km,  of Udaipur  forest is far away from main forest of Valmiki and later declared as "Udaipur wildlife Sanctuary". From early sixties  to 1994, the forests were under the management of the state Forest department. The area was subjected to large scale afforestation with teak, semal , shisham , and bamboo. Subsequently in 1947 the entire forests were handed over to the Bihar State Forest Development Corporation on lease, which managed the forest were commercial objectives. 

A fraction of the forest recognized as significant wildlife habitat was notified as "Valmiki Wildlife Sanctuary" wide notification no. S.O. wildlife - 12/78 -2336, dated 4th may 1976 covering area of 462 sq.km. Later in year 1990 an area of 419 sq.km. is declared as part of "Valmiki Wildlife Sanctuary" wide no. S.O. 136 dated 6th march 1990 covering an aggregate area of 880.78 sq.km 

"Valmiki National Park " was notified out of the sanctuary. "Valmiki National Park" was notified wide notification no. S.O. 989 dated 5th December 1990 covering an area of 335.64 sq.km.

                          

The forest were taken back from the state Forests Development Corporation in 1994 and Valmiki Tiger Reserve under project Tiger of Government of India wide notification no. Vanyaprani 11/94-303-E/Va.Pa.dated 11th March 1994 covering 840.26 sq.km.

In 2012, cores (598.45 sq.km.) and buffer (300.93 sq.km.)  of Valmiki Tiger Reserve has been notification no. Vanyaprani 22/08-425(E)/Va.Pa. Dated 7th August 2012.

Conservation Significance

      

                          

                                     Valmiki - Chitwan -Parsa Tiger Conservation unit

The VTR tract of India merges with the Chitwan National Park and Parsa Wildlife Reserve in Nepal which is jointly known as Valmiki- Chitwan- Parsa Tiger Conservation Unit. The total area of this trans boundary wildlife Zone is 3549 sq. km. The Valmiki Protected area in India and Chitwan National Park & Parsa Wildlife Reserve in Nepal has been assessed as level-1 Tiger Conservation Unit (TCU) by US-WWF  due to adequate core areas and low poaching pressure. In this landscape there is a far chance of survival of Tiger in long term. 

Landscape

  

The landscape of VTR encompasses foothills ranges of Himalayan Siwaliks with mosaic of the cliffs , ridge, gorges, hills, streams, and valleys  dense forests, open woodlands, Grasslands, swamps and riverine fringe. Situated in Gangetic plains bio- geographic Zone of the country. The forests has combination of bhabhar and terai tracts. Boulder and pebble deposite by the Himalayan rivers in foothills characterized the bhabhar tract while the finer sediments deposite features terai lands.   

                             Foothills of Himalayan Terai outliers - a continuation of Shiwaliks

Someshwar Hill Range and Dun Hill system with knife - edge ridges and preciptious slopes cliffs, spurs, gorges, narrow valleys.

Bhabar - Dun tract  

Older Alluvium with sandy soil with variegated clay and loose boulder deposits and artesian flows. Lateritic formation on higher contours and newer Alluvium in southern parts with reissuing springs akin to artesian flows. 

Criss Crossing  and meandering rivers, streams and rivulets, manmade canals, Swamps and Grassland. 

River Gandak from the western boundry of Valmiki wildlife sanctuary. It enters in India at Valmikinagar, where two rivulets Sonha and Pachnad joins it forming a holy confluence "Triveni" . The River is called Narayani in Nepal. Harha- Masan River system originates from the Valmiki Forests and forms Burhi Gandak River down south. River Pandai flows into Bihar (India) from Nepal in the eastern end of the sanctuary and meets Masan.

All these rivers with their precursor and tributaries namely Rohua, Kotrahai, Manor, Bhaspa, Koshil, Singha, Dhonghi, Ganguli, Dhoram are full of youth and verve. Their cascades in wanton and wayward playfulness while descending from hills ridges and gorges are enchanting. Meeting the planes they slowly nature of serene grandeur. 

Flood plains of Gandak and Burhi Gandak and their tributaries

Cultral Diversity   

The Valmiki landscape harbors vivid socio- cultural diversity. 'Tharu' a Scheduled tribe is the dominant community in the landscape. There are several theories on colonization of this community in the Himalayan terai. It is said that the community migrated from Rajasthan to the Himalayan foothills some 400 years ago. their prime occupation in agriculture and staple food is rice. They are non- vegetarian and like chicken , pork, snails and fish and gents relish liquor locally prepared from jaggary. Tharus speak Bhojpuri worship Hindu deities. Ramnavami is their main festival. They also maintain socio- cultural relationship with the Tharus of Nepal.Their population is around 2.5 Lakhs.

   

The Scheduled tribes other than Tharu in the Valmiki landscape are collectively called Dhangar- which means retained labourer in Oraon dialect. Dhangar comprises or four tribes. Oraon, Munda, Lohra, and Bhuiya. The 'Dhangar' were brought to area as agriculture laborer from the Chhotanagpur Hills. Each Dhangar tribe has its own dialect and they observe their traditional festivals. Currently their population is around 0.5 lakhs.

Communities other than the tribes are called 'Bajiyan'. They are outside and involved in agriculture as well as small business in the villages.