The Dachigam National Park is home to the Kashmir Stag or Hangul (Cervus elaphus hanglu), one of our planet's rarest deer. The 140 sq km (54 sq mi) park, ranging between 1700-4000 metres (5580-13,100 feet), also has some 20 other mammal species, as well as 150 species of birds - including the iridescent Monal Pheasant, Koklass Pheasant, Lammergeier or the bearded vulture, Golden Eagle and the colourful western Yellow-billed Blue Magpie.
The park provides half the catchments area for Dal Lake, so its survival is as vital to the inhabitants of Srinagar as it is to the Hangul. Maharaja Hari Singh, the erstwhile ruler of Kashmir, realised this and in 1910 declared Dachigam his private hunting ground, moving ten villages (dachi = ten; gam = village) within the area to the periphery of the newly declared preserve.
Hangul were protected as royal deer by the Maharaja until the confusion of partition in 1947-48, when the Hangul population was decimated by poachers. Dachigam was made a sanctuary in 1951, but by 1970 poaching and destruction of habitat had brought the deer population down to between140 and 170. The persistence of graziers still threatens the deer but poaching has been controlled and there are now over 300 cervids (deer) in the sanctuary.
Dachigam is divided into two parts: (1) Upper Dachigam with its flowering alpine meadows, high ridges and the Marsar Lake - source of the Daghwan River; and (2) Lower Dachigam consisting of grasslands, pine forests, and woodlands of Indian horse-chestnut, walnut, poplar, willow, mulberry and chinar. Upper Dachigam is accessible from June to September, while the best game viewing in Lower Dachigam is from September and through the winter. Bird watching is especially good from Mid March to Mid June
The Hangul are best seen in the winter when they move into the lower part of the park. Large herds, chiefly of one sex, form and congregate near salt licks where some grazing is still possible during the worst of the winter months. In spring the herds break up and the males move up the hillsides, where they shed their antlers in April. Fawns are born in May and June, in the higher pastures. In autumn the Hangul begin their downward march as in September the rutting season commences. The stags generally gather in the Numbal area where their bellows can be heard over long distances, and only good conservation practices will ensure that Dachigam will continue to reverberate with the calls of this rare and beautiful animal!
