Karimpuzha National Park

Karimpuzha National Park is a 230 km² proposed National Park located at coord|11|16|30|N|76|25|25|E| in the Nilgiri Hills, Palakkad district, Kerala, in South India, [UNEP, World Commission on Protected Areas (04/07/2007) World Database on Protected Areas, retrieved 7/4/2007 [http://sea.unep-wcmc.org/wdbpa/sitedetails.cfm?siteid=26250&level=nat] ] IUCN category: PRO [World Wildlife Fund, (2001) South Western Ghats montane rain forests (IM0151) retrieved on Mar 25, 2007 [http://www.worldwildlife.org/wildworld/profiles/terrestrial/im/im0151_full.html ] ]

History

Madras Forest Act came into force in 1882. The forests of Karimpuzha, New Amarambalam, Silent Valley, Valayar and Chennath Nair Reserve were declared as Reserved Forests during 1883 - 1887. [Kerala Forests & Wildlife Department(2004) "History" , retrieved Feb 7, 2007 [http://www.keralaforest.org/html/general/index.htm History] ]

In 1988 the Wildlife Institute of India recommended that Karimpuzha Valley 225.00 Km² be established as a protected area. Given that this valley is inhabited by forest-dependent tribes, sanctuary rather than national park status is more appropriate in the short-term [(Rodgers and Panwar, 1988)] . Such proposals were submitted to the Kerala Government.

In 1991 the UNESCO World Heritage Committee strongly encouraged the Indian authorities to re-formulate the boundaries of Silent Valley National Park to take in a larger area, particularly the adjacent Karimpuzha Valley National Park and the Nilgiri Thar Wildlife Sanctuary and complete the legal processes to establish the proposed Karimpuzha Valley National Park and upgrade the status of the Nilgiri Thar Wildlife Sanctuary. [UNESCO, CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE WORLD CULTURAL AND NATURAL HERITAGE, BUREAU OF THE WORLD HERITAGE COMMITTEE, Fifteenth session, Paris, 17-21 June 1991, retrieved 3/25/2007 [http://whc.unesco.org/archive/repbur91.htm ] ]

Silent Valley National Park was nominated as a World Heritage site in 1990 but the decision regarding its inclusion in the World Heritage List was deferred by the committee pending the Indian Government's revision of the nominated area's boundary to include the adjacent Karimpuzha Valley National Park and the Nilgiri Thar Wildlife Sanctuary, and the completion of legal measures to establish the Karimpuzha Valley National Park andupgrade the legal status of the Nilgiri Thar wildlife Sanctuary. [N. Ishwaran, (September 21-23, 1994) "Application of the World Heritage Convention and the Biosphere Reserve Concept in South Asia", CNPPA 42ND WORKING SESSION 65,Proceedings of the Commission on National Parks and Protected Areas 42nd Working Session, Islamabad, Pakistan [http://www.iucn.org/places/pakistan/pdf/Parks%20for%20Life.pdf] ]

In 1997 United Nations Environment Programme's World Conservation Monitoring Centre listed Karimpuza as a Protected area that overlaps with the South Western Ghats montane rain forests Ecoregion. IUCNcategory PRO (proposed) [Eric D. Wikramanayake, Eric Dinerstein, Colby J. Loucks (1997) "Terrestrial Ecoregions of the Indo-Pacific: A Conservation Assessment", Island Press, retrieved 3/28/2007 [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN1559639237&id=_VGRBWqIG2gC&pg=RA2-PA286&lpg=RA2-PA286&dq=Karimpuzha&sig=oO_ZgqUBxJV0ozLxrTxuv2-54jg#PRA2-PA286,M1 Terrestrial Ecoregions of the Indo-Pacific] ]

In 1998 Karimpuzha was listed by the first World Heritage Forest meeting in Berastagi, Indonesia, as being of potential interest as a World Heritage Forest. [Forest Protected Areas Warranting Further Consideration as Potential WH Forest Sites: Summaries from Various and Thematic Regional Analyses (Compendium produced by Marc Patry, for the proceedings of the 2nd World Heritage Forest meeting, held at Nancy, France, March 11-13, 2005) [http://whc.unesco.org/uploads/activities/documents/activity-43-1.pdf 2nd World Heritage Forest meeting] ]

In 2006 Karimpuza was listed as a proposed Wildlife Sanctuary by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (India). KARIMPUZHA Biounit 05B, 225.00 km² [National Wildlife Data Center (2006) List of Proposed Wildlife Sanctuaries in India, Wildlife Institute of India, retrieved 3/26/2007 [http://www.wii.gov.in/nwdc/list_proposedwls.pdf List of Proposed Wildlife Sanctuaries in India] ]

References