Gir National Park & Wildlife Sanctuary is situated 65 kilometers from Junagarh City of Gujarat state. The park is formed in 1965, with entire area of 1412 square kilometers, out of that 258 km square area is officially under “protected area” and 1153 km is entirely for the widlife sanctuary. Gir National Park and widlife sanctuary is quite enriched with deciduous forest interspersed with semi-evergreen and evergreen flora, scrub jungle, grasslands acacia, and rocky hills. The entire region of the wildlife land is full of streams and beautiful rivers, the sanctuary has huge water reservoir like the Kamleshwar Dam, where crocodiles and water birds are found. The park is having mugger or marsh crocodile, which is among the 40 species of reptiles and amphibians are officially recorded in the sanctuary. There are about 2000 species of invertebrate and the trails around the forest area.
During 1913 when the Lion populace over here fell radically to just 20 animals, due to strict watch and required protections the lion population have shoot up to around 300 Asiatic lions, this breed of the lions are slightly smaller than the African lions, there are also around 300 leopards. As a result this park is one of the major big-cat concentrations in India. Blue bull, four-horned antelope, striped hyena, Indian gazelle, jungle cat, rusty-spotted cat, wild boar, Jackal, langur, porcupine, black-naped Indian hare and many more.
The park is having the recorded various nos of birds which is around 250 and about 50 other species (including the endangered lesser florican and the saras crane) are recorded in the grasslands along the periphery of the sanctuary. Many species like the Asian paradise flycatcher, greenish warbler, painted sandgrouse, black-naped monarch, grey francolin, quails, white-browed fantail, Asian brown flycatcher, grey-headed flycatcher, white-eye, coppersmith barbet, verditer flycatcher, tickell's blue flycatcher, common and marshal's iora, rufous treepie, yellow-footed green pigeon have been spotted by our guests around the lodge itself. Long-billed vulture, Indian white-backed vulture, Eurasian griffon vulture, crested serpent eagle, red-headed (king) vulture, changeable hawk-eagle, bonneli's eagle, greater spotted eagle, lesser spotted eagle, peregrine falcon, laggar falcon, tawny eagle, steppe eagle, oriental honey-buzzard, imperial eagle, Pallas's fish eagle, grey-headed fish eagle, osprey, white-eyed buzzard, red-headed falcon, and other raptors are founded and can be seen in the sanctuary. The park is also has Eurasian eagle owl, brown fish owl, spotted owlet. In the evening, nightjars can be dotted near the jungle resorts.
The park is with mix of deciduous jungle with flame of forest: tea, Banyan and acacia trees. A diverse strap of vegetation is flourished in area of rivers and streams. Main Species like Vad, Kalam, Sirus, Jambu, Karanj, Umro, Amli and Charal are found here. Most of trees are evergreen through out the year and having broad leaves, providing moisture and cool climate in the forest area.
In the Gir region there are several human settlements of cattle herders called Maldhars, this is believed they are 20,000 heads of livestock, The people of this community live in traditional manner called nesses and tend Jafrabadi cows and buffalos, cows with livestock.. Sorathi Rabari which is the pastoral group of this community lives in the region with sheep, goats and camels.
Siddis are a community, they have African origins. Believed to have come from African countries as slaves and labour, mercenaries, the Siddis raised themselves to become powerful rulers and generals. In Gir, there are township and villages of the Siddis, who are quite popular for their traditional dances and other performances. There is also a major shrine for Siddi communities called Nagarshi Pir at Jhambur town. Also some of other Hindu temples, shrines and sulphur springs at Kankai Mata and Tulsi Shyam. Indian Gazelle is protected by the local communities with case of religious sentiments.
The Jeep Safari is the best way to observe the big cats is, of course, in their natural surroundings, at dawn and dusk, when they are on the prowl.
The park official organize every Sunday wildlife show for widlife lovers to sights the majestic wilderness and animals wandering nonchalantly in the forest.
Morning: 6:30 am. to 9:30 am.
Evening: 3.00 pm to 5.00 pm.
Wildlife enthusiasts can visit Gir Park throughout the year.
The ideal period will be between Novembers to June.
By Air:The Nearest Airport is Keshod 90 kms from the main park Via Veraval. And Diu Airport 110 kms. There are daily flights from Keshod & Diu to Mumbai.
By Rail:The meter gage rail head is Ahmedabad 395 kms.
By Road: Ahmedabad 400 kms, Junagarh 60 kms, Somnath 43 kms, Mendarda 65 kms, Rajkot 165 kms, Diu 110 kms..
Explore Indian widlife tourism, widlife tours to various tourist destinations of India, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal, Uttaranchal, Gujarat, Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, we provide special interest tours packages with all kind of travel related services for individuals and groups. We provide services right from the pick up from the airport till departure of the tourists to their home town. We are into this industry for past 12 years handling overseas tourist from various countries. There are lots of tour options in our below mentioned tour packages links, however all the tour programme incorporated in our website can be modified as per your requirement, per say: nos. of days in hands, travel period, preferred destinations, if you are looking to make specific tour plans, please let us know your choice of destinations, nos. of days for the tour, travel period, and preferred hotel category or per hotel room night budget, this will enable us to work out a detailed tour plan for you.
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