Gangotri National Park, Gangotri, Uttarakhand India

Gangotri National Park is a national park located in Uttarkashi District Uttarakhand, India. The size of this national park is about 1,553 square km. The park provides majestic beauty of coniferous forests and grandeur of glacial world combined with lush green meadows.

The Gangotri National Park is typical of high altitude ecosystems, with decisive influence from Trans Himalayan elements in both physical and biological characteristics. The landscape is dominated by alpine scrub, although forests of kharsu oak and betula are observed in patches in lower and higher elevation areas respectively. The mountain sides along the entire route from Gangotri to Gaumukh are steeper and are distinctly broken up by consequential landslides. These landslides appear to have caused irreversible isolation between forest patches including the alpine vegetation. The impact of these natural events on the forest and the dependent organisms is important to document, so as to assess the long-term value of this park in the wildlife perspective.

The Gangotri national park has a lot of diverse flora and fauna. The park has two different types of forests.  The forests on the lower elevation point include the Western Himalayas Sub alpine coniferous forests. They comprises of coniferous trees and grass vegetation. On the higher point of elevation, the forest is western Himalayan alpine shrubs. It comprises of fir, oak and spruce trees. The fauna of the park is also diverse. The species of mammals count at fifteen different types. The park has the blue bull, the snow leopard and the black beer. It also has other animals like Himalayan snowcock and munal.  The park also has a variety of birds. Some of these include the doves, pigeons and hornbills.