NANDA DEVI NATIONAL PARK (नन्दा देवी सुनन्दा देवी)

 The Nanda Devi National Park — a national park and Biosphere reserve protecting Nanda Devi peak and its surroundings, in the state of Uttarakhand, northern India.

It is a 630.33 square kilometres (155,760 acres) park, within the Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Parks UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Nanda Devi is the second highest mountain in India and the highest entirely within the country (Kangchenjunga being on the border of India and Nepal).

Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Parks

Nestled high in West Himalaya, India’s Valley of Flowers National Park is renowned for its meadows of endemic alpine flowers and outstanding natural beauty. This richly diverse area is also home to rare and endangered animals, including the Asiatic black bear, snow leopard, brown bear and blue sheep. The gentle landscape of the Valley of Flowers National Park complements the rugged mountain wilderness of Nanda Devi National Park. Together they encompass a unique transition zone between the mountain ranges of the Zanskar and Great Himalaya, praised by mountaineers and botanists for over a century and in Hindu mythology for much longer.

he Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Parks are exceptionally beautiful high-altitude West Himalayan landscapes with outstanding biodiversity. One of the most spectacular wilderness areas in the Himalayas, Nanda Devi National Park is dominated by the 7,817 m peak of Nanda Devi, India’s second highest mountain which is approached through the Rishi Ganga gorge, one of the deepest in the world. The Valley of Flowers National Park, with its gentler landscape, breath-taking beautiful meadows of alpine flowers and ease of access, complements the rugged, inaccessible, high mountain wilderness of Nanda Devi.

 Nanda Devi (Hindi: नन्दा देवी ) is the highest mountain in Uttarakhand, the second highest mountain in India, and the highest located entirely within the country (Kangchenjunga is on the border of India and Nepal); owing to this geography it was considered the highest known mountain in the world, until computations on Dhaulagiri by western surveyors in 1808. It was also the highest mountain in India before Sikkim joined the Republic of India. It is part of the Garhwal Himalayas, and is located in the state of Uttarakhand, between the Rishiganga valley on the west and the Goriganga valley on the east. The peak, whose name means "Bliss-Giving Goddess",^[4] is regarded as the patron-goddess of the Uttarakhand Himalaya. In acknowledgment of its religious significance and for the protection of its fragile ecosystem, the peak as well as the circle of high mountains surrounding it—the Nanda Devi sanctuary—were closed to both locals and climbers in 1983. The surrounding Nanda Devi National Park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988.

Sunanda Devi (Hindi: सुनन्दा देवी) previously known as Nanda Devi East is the lower of the two adjacent peaks of the highest mountain in Uttarakhand and second highest mountain in India; Nanda Devi is its higher twin peak. Nanda Devi and Sunanda Devi are part of the Garhwal Himalayas, and are located in the state of Uttarakhand. The graceful peaks of twin mountains are visible from almost everywhere in Kumaon. The first ascent to the Sunanda Devi peak in recorded history appears to be in 1939 by Jakub Bujak and Janusz Klarner. The elevation of Sunanda Devi is 7,434 m (24,390 ft) and its prominence is 260 m (850 ft).

Nanda Devi National Park lies in eastern Uttarakhand, near the Tibetan border in the Garhwal Himalaya, 300 km northeast of Delhi

Nanda Devi National Park along with the Valley of Flowers National Park are some of the most spectacular wilderness areas in the Himalayas. It is dominated by the peaks of Nanda Devi and Sunanda Devi of India’s second highest mountain which is approached through the Rishiganga gorge, one of the deepest in the world. No humans live in the Park which has remained more or less intact because of its rugged inaccessibility. It has a very diverse flora and is the habitat of several endangered mammals, among them the snow leopard, serow, himalayan musk deer and bharal.

Source: internet Wikepedia / Unesco word heritage site