Shey Phoksundo National Park

Shey Phoksundo National Park covering an area of 3,555 square kilometers, is the largest and the only trans-Himalayan National Park in Nepal. Large portion of the park is located in Dolpa District district with 810 square kilometers in Mugu District district. [ [http://www.dnpwc.gov.np/national-parks-shey.asp Shey-Phoksundo National Park.] Nepal Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation]

The park was formally gazetted in 1984 with its headquarters in Palam, in Dolpa district.

The park provides a diversity of magnificient landscapes comprising the mountain peaks including Kanjiroba mountain, rivers, valleys, and gorge. The major rivers are Khung, Nmajung and Panjang, Suligad and Jugdual. It is well-known for the Jugdual river valley, the Langu gorge, the Shey monastery and the Phoksundo Lake. Phoksundo Lake is the deepest and second largest lake in Nepal.

The park has over 9000 inhabitants, who mostly practice Bon Buddhism.

Flora

The park contains forests mainly composed of blue pine, spruce, birch, fir, rhododendron, cypress, and poplar in the southern region. The northern region has barren areas owing to the himalayas. The trans-himalayan area has almost desert type of vegetation with a few dwarf juniper, and caragna shrubs.

Fauna

The park is a habitat of alpine mammals like yak, himalayan tahr, gazelle, antelope, himalayan beer, yellow-throated marten, langur monkeys including the endangered musk deer, snow leopard, and blue sheep. 200 species of birds including impeyan pheasant, blood pheasant, cheer pheasant, yello-billed chough(alpine chough), lammergeier, patridge, himalayan griffon, brown dipper etc have been reported. It is home to 29 species of butterflies including the highest flying butterfly in the world.

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