A Bio Diverse Hot Spot

Kanger Valley National Park

The Park is a paradise for the nature lovers. The moist peninsular sal forests and the south Indian tropical moist deciduous forests are seen in their finest form here. The park is situated northern limit of teak forests overlap, hence both sal and teak are seen together in this valley.

The valley is in fact one of the last pockets of almost virgin forests still left in the peninsular region. To protect this unique eco-system, it has been proposed as biosphere reserve under the MAB programme . The valley is nearly 34 km long with average width of about 6km. the terrain is mostly hilly. The park fauna consists of tiger, panther, wildcat, cheetal (Spotted Deer) , Sambhar, Barking Deer , Wild Pig , jackal, , Langur , Rhesus Macaque, sloth bear, Flying squirrel , python, Hyena, Rabbit, Crocodile, otter and civet. The fauna includes birds of prey, scavenging birds , water birds , pheasants etc. the reptiles includes , lizards and the insects include butterflies, moths, dragonflies, grasshoppers etc. lower forms of plants such as fungi, algae, bryophytes and pteridophytes are also quite common. All these put together with the virgin forests make the park a unique ecosystem. The park derives its name from the kanger river which flows throughout the park in its length. The other main attractions of the part are kutumsar caves, kailash gupta , tirathgarh falls , bhaisdarha etc.

The bio-sphere reserve houses many water falls and caves.

Tirathgarh Falls : Situated 39 kms south-west of jagdalpur, the picturesque waterfall of munga bahar river cascades down from a height of 100 ft. in the form of several steps. An ancient shivparvati temple is also present here.

Kangerdhara : Kanger river which waters the national park, in the course of its eastward journey forms a beautiful cataract at one point known as kangerdhara. This is a favourite photo spot for the visitors of national park.

Kutumsar cave : Situated in kanger valley national park, the place abounds in stalactite and stalagmite columns. The entrance to the caves is a small passage of 5ft height and 3 ft width. There are five chambers in the cave which have several blind wells- all except one covered with a sheet of rock which, when struck, gives a hollow sound.

Kailash Cave : Situated 16 Kms from kutumsar on the lowr kanger valley road. There are stalactite and stalagmite columns in the form of big durbar halls on mountain top. This is an abode of Lord shiva. The seres of other famous limestone rock caves in the Dandkrnaya are Dandak gupha,m Aranya gupha, Sakalnarayan Gupha, tula gupha, Rani gupha, Mkar gupha Etc.

Dandak Caves : this was invented is april 1995. This cave is 200m long and its depth is 15-25 m. There are two compartments is this cave. After entering into first compartment a big chamber can be seen. in this hall, solid and bright structures of huge dripstone are formed. To reach into second compartment one has to go by crawling on knees. A well like structure into deep dark is also present there. After that, white and beautiful structure of stalactite is formed . the cave is lit by solar lights.