Flora and Fauna of Jammu and Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir is the northern most state of India.It has an area of 222,236 km². It is also known as ''Little Tibet''. It is located mostly in the Himalayan Mountains and shares a boundary with Himachal Pradesh and Punjab in south. Jammu and Kashmir shares and international boundry with China in the east, and the Line of Control separates it from Pakistan in west. It is a home to 1.2 million people. Let us view its flora and fauna.

The Flora

This state is rich in flora and fauna. Here, the flora ranges from the thorn bush type in the plains to the flora of higher altitudes. On the plains, grow maple, horse chestnuts, silver fir etc. At the higher altitudes grow birch, rhododendron, berbers and a large number of herbal plants. Mountain valleys have dense deodar, pine and fir. Walnut, willow, almond and cider also add to rich flora of Kashmir.

The Fauna

The dense forests of Kashmir are a delight to adventure sport lovers. The animals living here are ibex, snow leopard, musk, deer, wolf, markhor, red bear, black bear and leopard. The winged game includes ducks, goose, partridge, chakor, pheasant, wagtails, herons, water pigeons, warblers, and doves. In otherwise arid desert of Ladakh some 240 species of local and migratory birds have been identified including black necked crane. The Ladakh fauna includes yak, Himalayan ibex, Tibetan antelope, snow leopard, wild ass, red bear and gazelle.