Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers: the World Heritage parks of Chamoli district
Background
Saraswati Tal, one of the two glacial lakes a state expert team set out to survey, lies in Chamoli district, the same district that holds Uttarakhand's natural World Heritage site.
Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Parks were inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1988 and the property was extended in 2005, under criteria (vii) and (x).
The property covers 71,210 hectares, with a buffer zone of 514,857 hectares.
Nanda Devi National Park is dominated by the 7,817 m peak of Nanda Devi, India's second highest mountain, and is a remote mountain wilderness; the Valley of Flowers offers a gentler landscape of alpine flower meadows.
The parks shelter threatened species including the snow leopard, the Himalayan musk deer and the bharal or blue sheep.
The site lies in the West Himalaya, in a transition zone between the Zanskar and Great Himalaya ranges, and has seen minimal human impact since 1983.
In plain words
Buffer zone A surrounding area given added protection — Land around a World Heritage property that is managed to shield the core site from outside pressure.
Bharal Blue sheep — A high-altitude Himalayan wild sheep and the main natural prey of the snow leopard.