Katarniaghat, Dudhwa to remain close from today TNN

BAHRAICH: With the arrival of monsoon season Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary and Dudhwa National Park would remain closed for tourists from June 15th.

The Park would reopen for tourists on November 15 after the end of the monsoons, said officials of the Park on Tuesday.

Dudhwa National Park, established in 1958, is situated on the Indo-Nepal border. In 1988, the park was declared as a tiger reserve. It forms the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve together with the Kishanpur Wildlife Sanctuary.

Some rare species inhabit the park. Hispid Hare, earlier thought to have become extinct, was rediscovered in 1984.

In the mid 1980s, Indian Rhinoceros was reintroduced into Dudhwa from Assam and Nepal. The other animals to be seen here include Swamp Deer, Sambar Deer, Barking Deer, Spotted Deer, Hog Deer, Tiger, Rhinoceros, Sloth Bear, Ratel, Jackal, Civet, Jungle Cat, Fishing Cat, Leopard Cat.

The major attractions of Dudhwa National Park are the Tigers and Swamp Deer.

A strip of dense jungle adjoining the Indo-Nepal international border in District Bahraich which once comprised the West Bahraich Forest Division, was declared as Katerniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary in May 1975. Four hundred forty sq km in area, this sanctuary is now being managed along with the Dudhwa National Park and Kishanpur Wildlife Sanctuary, as part of the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve under Project Tiger of the Government of India. The Katerniaghat Forests provide strategic connectivity between tiger habitats of Dudhwa and Kishanpur in India and the Bardia National Park in Nepal. Its fragile Terai ecosystem comprises a mesmerizing mosaic of Sal and Teak forests, lush grasslands, steaming swamps and wetlands. Unfortunately, the sanctuary is in most places just 10 km or less in width, making it increasingly vulnerable to intense human pressures along both its northern and southern boundaries. In spite of this, it is still quite unique for the number of endangered and critically endangered species which occur here and include the gharial, the tiger, the rhino, the Gangetic dolphin, the Swamp Deer, the Hispid hare, the Bengal florican and the White-backed and Long-billed vultures.

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