Wildlife Sanctuaries and National Parks In Bihar
Valmiki National Park Wildlife Sanctuary
Valmiki national Park is established in 1989 and covered across 340 sq km. Previous it was a wildlife sanctuary (area is 550 sq km.) till 1978. It is located at West Champaran district of Bihar. This park is famous for the Royal Bengal Tigers, rhinoceros and bison. Huge number of flying fox i.e a kind of bat are also observed here. It has vast grass land and a large number of wild cats move across this land. The best time to visit here is winter.
Kaimur Wildlife Sanctuary
Established in 1992 and covered up across 1350 sq km area. It is located at Kaimur Hills range (Kaimur District of Bihar) where beautiful lakes are present. This is the largest Wildlife Sanctuary in Bihar. It is famous for Black Buck. The best time to visit here is also winter season because many species specially the birds come here and increase the beauty of this sanctuary. This is also famous for historical terracotta painting, caves etc.
Rajgir Wildlife Sanctuary
The Rajgir Wildlife Sanctuary is located at Nalanda district of Bihar state. This is established in 1976 and covered up across 150 sq km. Various medicinal plants as flora and deer, leopards etc make this sanctuary important and differentiate form others.
Vikramshila Gangetic Dolphin WildLife Sanctuary
As its name suggests that Vikramshila Wildlife Sanctuary is famous for its Dolphins. It is established in 1991 and located at Bhagalpur district of Bihar. Not only Dolphin but its biodiversity is also rich for its aquatic wildlife. It spread over 55 sq km. Total number of Gangetic dolphins in the world is approximately 1500, but half of them are found here.
Kanwar Lake Bird Sanctuary
Established in 1987 and located at Begusarai district of Bihar. It spread across 70 sq km. Kabar Taal Lake increase its importance, which is the largest Asia’s largest freshwater oxbow lake. This is the famous place for the birds lovers. This is the home of thousands of birds.
Bhimbandh WildLife Sanctuary
Bhimbandh Wildlife Sanctuary established in 1975 and covered across 700 sq km, situated in Munger district of Bihar state.
Bhimbandh is situated south of the Ganges River, at the northern edge of Chota Nagpur Plateau and west of Santhal Pargana. it is surrounded on all sides by densely inhabited non-forestry areas. In the valley portions and at the foothills are several hot springs of which the finest are at Bhimbandh, Sita Kund and Rishi Kund. All the hot springs maintain nearly almost same temperature all year round. Of them, the Bhimbandh springs have the hottest temperature (52 °C to 65 °C) and discharge (0.84-1.12 cum/sec) and constitute the best area for the exploration of geothermal energy potential.
Gautam Budha WildLife Sanctuary
Established in 1976 and spread over 140 sq km, situated in Gaya district of Bihar Koderma district of Jharkhand. Leopard and Elephant are the important animals.
The refuge covers portions of the Lower Gangetic Plains moist deciduous forests and Chota Nagpur dry deciduous forests ecoregions. Plant communities include dry and moist sal (Shorea robusta) forests, ravine thorn forest, and tropical dry riverine forest. Fauna include tigers, leopards, wolves, sloth bears, chitals, chinkaras, and many species of birds.
Nagi Dam Wild Life Sanctuary
Nagi Dam Wildlife Sanctuary is Situated in Jamui District, Nagi Dam Bird Sanctuary is the smallest bird sanctuary in Bihar. It is spread over an area of about 2 sq km near Jhajha. The birdwatchers can identify a large variety of migratory birds.
Flora:
Dry moist and sal forest, Mixed Deciduous forest and thorn forest.
Fauna:
Mahuadwar Wildlife Sanctuary is home to Leopard, Jungle Cat, Chinkara, Cheetal and many spices of terrestrial and aquatic birds.
Nakti Dam Bird Sanctuary
The Nagi Dam (791 ha) and Nakti Dam (332 ha) are two sanctuaries so close to each other that they can be taken as one bird area. Nagi is c. 7 km from Jhagha in the district Jamui, and Nakti is a further c. 4 km from Nagi, occupying similar habitat. These notified sanctuaries are surrounded by rocky hillocks, formed by the damming of streams. Both these waterbodies are quite deep, with a clear watersurface. These dams were built to supply water to local farms. There are cultivable lands adjacent to both the waterbodies.
Udaypur Wildlife Sanctuary
Udaypur Wildlife Sanctuary (also spelled Udaipur) is a wildlife sanctuary located in West Champaran district of Bihar state, India. It was established in 1978, and covers an area of 8.74 km².
The wildlife sanctuary is predominantly wetland, located on an oxbow lake in the floodplain of the Gandaki River. It is home to a variety of water birds, both resident and migratory. The sanctuary has areas of swamp forest, dry riverine forest, and khair-sissoo forest (Acacia catechu-Dalbergia sissoo). It is in the Lower Gangetic Plains moist deciduous forests ecoregion.
The sanctuary has a rest house. The nearest town and railhead is Bettiah. The sanctuary is under the authority of the Deputy Director of the Champaran Forest Division, headquartered in Bettiah.