Named after the famous monastery Hemis Gompa, the national park spread
out over 600 sq. Km, is situated at Ladakh in J&K. The park known
as the Snow leopard capital of India has an altitudinal range of 3,300
to 6,000 m, and hosts a remarkable variety of wildlife. Hemis was established
as a national park on 4th February 1981. This national park offers the
tourists an abundant treasure of natural beauty with mountains of various
shapes and sizes, mixed with vast flatlands, deserts and bordered by the
fast flowing river Indus.
Hemis occupies much of the catchments of the lower Zanskar River, from its confluence with the Markha river to its meeting with the
Indus. The smaller northern sector consists of Sumdah Valley which runs
south-east until it meets the main Zanskar Valley. In the southern sector
is the beautiful Markha Valley, also a tributary of the Zanskar Valley,
and the Rumbak Valley which runs eastwards directly into the Indus Valley.
 The
area of this cold desert is rocky and the thin soil cover supports a poor
vegetative growth. Grass growth is relatively rapid during the summer
season after the melting of the snow. The Markha and Rumbak valleys are
high altitude deserts charecterised by sparse grasslands and herbaceous
vegetation on mountain slopes. These areas consists of trees and plants
like Junipers, Myricaria, Poplar, Salix, Birch, Astragalus, Taraxacum,
Leortopodium, Ephedra and many sparse grasslands.
The National park is famous for its population of the
rare Snow Leopards and the Ibex. The other main species recorded in the
National park are Palla's cat, srapu, bharal, red fox, rhesus macaque,
Hanuman languor, wolf, marmot, Tibetan argali and Ladakh urial etc. The
bharal and urial are seen in large numbers. The park has been earmarked
as one of the snow leopard reserves under a central government project
to conserve the species. |
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Wildlife 
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