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Dudhwa National Park
- The Largest and Thickest Forests Reserve
As the morning sun shines over the 50 feet tall Sal trees,
dragonflies stretch out their wings by the gentle warmth
of the golden sun. Sitting calmly on the dew- drenched
leaves, they bask in the fresh warmth to recharge
themselves for the day’s flight. Somewhere in the distance
a koyal welcomes the morning with it's musical ode. Very
little of the sun is able to cut through the thickness of
the jungle. But what reaches the ground definitely
explodes into a majestic display of light and shadow on
the canvas of dry leaves. An occasional rustle sends
shivers down the spine. This is Dudhwa National Park,the
most precious reserves, that makes excellent wildlfie
holiday vacations in India.
Location
Around 420km by road from Delhi and 260km from Lucknow,
Dudhwa National Park is spread over 490sq km along with a
buffer area of over 100sq km. Besides massive grassland
and swamps, the Park boasts of one of the finest qualities
of Sal (Shorea robusta) forests in India. Some of these
trees are more than 150 years old and over 70 feet tall.
But when the area was first notified as a Wildlife
Sanctuary in 1965, and later as a National Park in 1977,
it faced intense opposition from foresters, game lovers
and local inhabitants.
Converted Into National Park
Nobody wanted to lose this precious piece of land that was
a life-support system for the locals. It was Billy Arjun
Singh who stepped in to see Dudhwa through its fate.
Committed to the point of being obsessive, this man stood
firmly in favour of the jungle and convinced the erstwhile
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to notify the forest as a
National Park.
This was a turning point in the history of Dudhwa National
Park. Till then, the forest was a safe haven for both
poachers and timber smugglers. Soon strict measures were
taken to save the forest. In 1976, the park boasted of a
population of 50 tigers, 41 elephants and 76 bears apart
from five species of deer, more than 400 species of birds,
a few crocodiles, and some other species of mammals and
reptiles. officials claim that today the tiger population
in Dudhwa has touched 70. However, the local NGOs believe
that the number of tigers in Dudhwa doesn’t cross 20. |
