Sunday, December 19, 2010

Langtang National Park

Lantang national park_SONI
Abstract
The paper is focused on Langtang National Park, its challenges and issues with regards to the proposed books: Bhuju Ukesh Raj and Groom M. J. The paper is divided into six different sections. Secondary data are collected for the preparation of the paper. The objective of preparing the paper is to analyze every aspects of Langtang National Park critically with regard to different approaches to protected areas. The first section deals with general introduction of the park, its key flora and fauna and has a GIS map of the park. Second section is about issues, challenges the park is facing. The third section deals with conservation trials, trends, policies implemented. Fourth section has tried to analyze protected areas critically on the basis of Groom’s book. The last section is about conclusion, recommendation and references.

Langtang National Park

Introduction:
Langtang National Park is the fourth national park in Nepal and was established in 1976 as the first Himalayan national park. The protected area exceeds an altitudinal range of 6,450 meters (21,160 ft) and covers an area of 1710 km2 in the Nuwakot, Rasuwa and Sindhulpalchok districts of the Central Himalaya. Already in 1970 a royal approval designated the establishment of Lang tang National Park as the first protected area in the Himalayas. The national park was gazetted in 1976 and extended by a buffer zone of 420 km2 in 1998. While the main reason for the park is to preserve the natural environment, an equally important goal is to allow local people to follow traditional land use practices that are compatible with resource protection.
The variations in altitude and topography along with the existing forest cover (approx. 25% of the total area) provide habitat for a wide range of animals including wild dog, red panda, pika, muntjac, musk deer, Himalayan black bear, Himalayan tahr, ghoral, serow, rhesus monkey and common langur.
The Trisuli-Bhote Koshi River forms an important route for birds on spring and autumn migrations between India and Tibet. In this Park we can found 300 species of birds,46 species of mammals,11 reptile species,1000 plant species,30 species of fish etc.The key biodiversity features of this park are snow leopard, musk deer and red panda. These species are in the list of endangered according to the IUCN red list.
The land use pattern of this park is as follows:








Issues, problems and challenges:
The Langtang National Park is administered under the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 2029 and the Himalayan National Park regulation 2036 .It provide limited use of the park resources for the local people included by within park boundaries. Park and people conflict is further motivated by the presence of cheese factory and associated Yak and Chauri population. An over-increasing number of trekkers and mountaineers (7,000 individual in 1991) in the park area and associated support of porters and guides exert obvious pressure on natural resources.
The demands of tourists have increased pressures on forests, especially those close to trails, lodge and village. Litter and water pollution also continue to be major problems in the park Poaching of animals especially the musk deer is sporadic. Crop depredation due to wildlife especially wild boars is a serious problem for the local people. Besides, the presence of Army in the community is not viewed as a welcome strategy of the government The road from Betrabati to the Chinese boarder and the link road to the mining site of Ganesh Himal has posed new conservation challenges to the western regions of the park. To be clearer about the park issues here are some pictures. They are:

Habitat destruction Crop raid and animal depredation
Illegal Trade



Forest fire

Over-grazing

Poaching, and illegal collection of NTFPS

Buffer Zone:
Including the impacting zones of the Langtang National Park in 1998 the total area of d420sq km touched with the three districts of Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Sindhupalchok was declared as the buffer zone. In this Langtang National Park 316 sub-buffer zones are established in village level and 21consumer committee was formed to earn their livelihood along with the preservation of the area. Social development of people and participating them in the park’s different preservational work are the main objective of the buffer zones. In the total area of 420 sq. km:181.35 sq,km is the populated area,29.8sq km is the forest area,58.45sq km is grass land,106.12sq km is bushy area,5.59sq km are covered by other areas.
Opportunities:
 Help and promotion by the local community in different developemental works.
 Production of environment friendly products,
 As an area of great scenic beauty of Himalayan mountains and valleys, it has a high potential of tourist development. It offers great opportunity of high altitude biological researches as well.
 The main achievement is increment of people's participation in conservation efforts.
Major Attraction :
This park is very much rich in its mountain range, landscape along with its religious and historical aspects. The main attraction on mountains are Lirung mountain(7245m), LangtangII (6761m),Langsisa ri(6427m),Yala pick(5500m)Surya peak(5145m).There are many Kundas as its attraction ,like:
Goshaikunda and nearby it there are many other kundas,they are,Surya Kunda,Bhairav Kunda, Parbati Kunda,Saraswoti Kunda, Rakta Kunda,Ama Kunda, Chandra Kunda, Nau Kunda, raja Kunda etc. This area is famous for the Glacier. Many Glaciers like Langtang glacier, Langsisa glascier, Taho glacier, Lirung glaciers adds the beauty and attraction to this park. More than 10 kinds of Rodhododendron can be found here, different endangered species like snow leopard, red panda and beautiful birds like Danphe, Munal are also sfound here in this Langtang National Park.
Act, policy implemented in Langtang National Park:
All parks are under Act and policy. They also have some rules and regulations. Rules are not there just for the sake of it, they are used to prevent the park and its environment from being damaged. Rules are also used to keep the people who use a park safe. If someone breaks a rule, there may be consequences such as a fine to pay. Parks are for everyone to enjoy and they are important for the environment. If people use a park correctly, everyone gets to enjoy them. The acts and policy implemented by Langtang National Park are:
 National Park and Wildlife Conservation Act, 2029
 Buffer Zone Management, 2056
Conservation Critiques:
Although there are done many efforts for the conservation still there are many obstacles on its conservation. People are not aware for conservation. There are many illegal cases related to hunting, illegal trade, habitat destruction, illegal trade of medicinal plants etc. From the Annual Report 2066/67 of Langtang National Park, here are some cases given:
In this Annual year 2066/67 there are other cases as well related to the damage and losses by wild animal to the people and forest fire .They are listed below:
Damage or loss to human due to wild animal:
Due to the heavy rain and different awareness programme to the local level related to the forest fire the rate of forest fire is decline than the previous years.
Conclusion:
Conclusion and Recommendation
The conservation program broadly combined with legal protection, habitat protection and management, education, community participation, and other components. All of these should contribute to a balanced program: sustain of the species and the community people. Conservation measures should work across national, cultural and boundaries. Conservation measures should involve local people in species recovery and, ecosystem management program must continue seeking to address local community development.
The TAL-Nepal Landscape strategy is a good measure taken for the conservation of the species, biodiversity and all those endangered species. The conservation researchers should work; investigate further in detail to apply best suit measures in collaboration with NGOs and INGOs to meet the hidden objectives of conservation.

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