Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Parks, Uttarakhand's natural World Heritage property

Background

Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Parks, in Uttarakhand, are together inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as a single serial property.
The date of inscription is 1988, with significant modifications to the boundaries in 2005.
The property is listed under criteria (vii) and (x).
The property area is 71,210 ha and the buffer zone covers 514,857 ha.
The landscape is dominated by the 7,817 m peak of Nanda Devi, which is approached through the Rishi Ganga gorge, one of the deepest in the world.
Both the parks form the core zones of the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve.
The property is representative of the West Himalaya biogeographic zone and is a transition zone between the mountain ranges of the Zanskar and Great Himalaya.
Its wildlife includes the snow leopard, the Himalayan musk deer and a large population of bharal, or blue sheep.