Kashmir is a beautiful Himalayan valley with breathtaking mountain scenery, clear lakes, lush vegetation and magnificent forests. The capital city Srinagar (1,730m) is famous for its canals, houseboats and Mughal gardens. The valley is home to a rich biodiversity including a large number of birds species, many of which are unique to Kashmir.

Number of bird species: 550+
Ladakh is a a cold high altitude desert cut off from the monsoon clouds by the Great Himalayas. Wind, water and snow and chemical reactions within the rocks themselves have carved out a fantastic, and at places grotesque, landscape referred to as the moonscape. Ladakh lies at altitudes ranging from about 9,000 feet (2,750m) at Kargil to 25,170 feet (7,672m) at Saser Kangri in the Karakoram. Leh, the capital city lies at 3505m. Ladakh has a number of high-altitude lakes and is the only breeding ground for the black-necked crane outside China.

Click here for Orient Bird Club's excellent overview of birding in Ladakh.

Number of bird species: 300+

Top Birding Sites in Kashmir

1. Kashmir Wetlands [Hygam, Hokersar, Shalibug, Mirgund]

Migratory birds from Siberia and Central Asia use the wetlands in Kashmir as their transitory camps between September and October and again around spring.
Avifauna: Migratory ducks and geese include Brahminy Duck, Tufted Duck, Gadwall, Garganey, Greylag Goose, Mallard, Common Merganser, Northern Pintail, Common Pochard, Ferruginous Pochard, Red-Crested Pochard, Ruddy Shelduck, Northern Shoveler, Common Teal and Eurasian Wigeon.

Hygam, Wular Lake [Ramsar site no. 461]

A number of wetlands, such as Malgam, Hygam and Nawgam are located on the fringes of the Wular Lake, which is the largest freshwater lake in India with extensive marshes of sub-water tubers and floating vegetation, like the water chestnut. These wetlands play a vital role in sustaining a large population of wintering, staging and breeding birds. The Hygam wetland located some 50 kms from Srinagar has shrunk from 4.5 sq. kms to less than 1.5 sq. kms.
Status : Theatened by siltation and human encroachment.

Hokersar [Notified Wildlife Sanctuary, Ramsar notification under process]

Hokersar, 14 km north of Srinagar is another world class wetland spread over 13. 75 sq kms including lake and marshy area. It attracts birds from Siberia, Central Asia, China, North Europe and the Indian sub-continent. A record number of migratory birds have been spotted at the Hokersar Wildlife Sanctuary in recent years.
Status: Threatened by siltation from the Doodh Ganga river.

Shalibug is Kashmir's largest bird reserve.
Status: Theatened by siltation and human encroachment.

2. Tso Morari Lake, Ladakh [Ramsar site no. 1213]

This freshwater to brackish lake lying at 4,595m above sea level is the world's highest Ramsar site.
Avifauna: The lake is the only breeding ground outside of China for one of the most endangered cranes, the Black-necked crane (Grus nigricollis), and the only breeding ground for Bar-headed Geese in India. A small northern offshore island forms the main nesting site for the Bar Headed Geese and the Brown Headed Gull.
Status: Threatened by increased tourism. A Tso Morari Conservation Trust has been recently formed with the help of the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) Leh office for conservation of the lake.

3. Dal Lake

The famous Dal Lake of Srinagar has been described as "hardly what one would expect a lake to be like - it's a maze of intricate waterways and channels, floating islands of vegetation, houseboats that look so firmly moored they could almost be islands and hotels on islands which look like they could simply float away". The famous Dal Lake has shrunk from an area of 16 sq. kms in the 1980s to about 9 sq. kms today.
Avifauna: All the lake birds on the www.birdsofkashmir.com site have been photographed in and around the lake.
Status: Theatened by unplanned tourism, pollution, siltation, human encroachment and overgrowth of vegetation.

4. Dachigam National Park

This one-time exclusive hunting preserve of the Maharaja of Kashmir was declared a national park in 1951. Dachigam contains the last viable population of Hangul or Kashmir Stag in the world. The two sectors of the Park - Upper and Lower Dachigam are spread over an area of 141-sq-km. and altitudes vary between 1,700 and 4,300m. Two steep ridges enclose the Park with its great topographical variety - deep ravines, rocky outcrops, steep wooded slopes and rolling alpine pastures. The Dagwan stream flows from the Marsar Lake (4,300m) through Lower Dachigam.
Avifauna: Over 150 species of birds have been reported in Dachigam.
Status: Theatened by human encroachment.

5. Gulmarg Biosphere Reserve

Gulmarg is located at a distance of 48-km to the south-west of Srinagar. It is a world-class ski resort and a major tourist destination boasting of the worlds highest ropeway.
Avifauna: A wide variety of bird life is seen in the biosphere which ranges from 2000m at Tangmarg to 4114m at Apharwat with the Gulmarg valley lying at 2,699m.
Status: Theatened by unplanned tourism.

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