Nawaz Manzoor
Kashmir is a land of fabled beauty & external romance. It is blessed by nature with beauteous scenery, wondrous fertility and salubrious climate. Kashmir is the paradise on earth, a fine land where each curve presents a grand picture and every horizon a new scene, each leaf a distant lesson and each flower a new look. So far as the BangusValley is concerned, it’s one of the relatively unexplored grasslands and unknown tourists paradise situated in the North Western periphery of Tehsil Handwara of District Kupwara, approx. 130 Kms away from Srinagar, Summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir (India). The said grassland is at an altitude of about 10,000 ft above sea level. Occupying an estimated area of 300 SqKms, Bangus is surrounded by Shamsbery ranges and Leepa valley. Word “Bangus” is derived from two words “Ban” derived from Sanskrit word “Van” means “forest” and “Gus” means “Grass”,so it is a meadow with lush growth of wild grass. The Bangus Valley has variety of flora, considered an ideal yard for cattle grazing. The area is supposed to have been discovered by an unknown nomad, while grazing his cattle. This is by far the most productive land in this area as it provides a largest niche for producer-consumer relationship. In the summer season numerous cattle and sheep are seen grazing in these meadows which are sent from the adjoining areas by the locals. Bangus Valley is surrounded by Chowkibal Mountains on the northern side, Qazinagand Shamsbery Mountains on the Western side. Besides other hills also seem to provide protection to the grassland namely; Meeldar, Nastichavan and Yaddil etc.
The prominent resident birds include pheasants, tragophan, monal pheasant, black partridge, bush quail, and wild fowl.
Bangus comprises a mountain biome which includes grassland biome with flora at Lower altitudes and coniferous forests at a higher altitude. An area of 300 sq. Kms is proposed to be protected biome under the name of Bangus Valley. In the deep valley is a marshy type grassland which is traversed by a small stream popularly known as Tilwan Kohl. Bangus Valley is 140 Kms from Srinagar via Kupwara- Chowkibal Road.
It can be reached from ReshwariRajwar (upper rim of wadarbala) through two paths or gullies
a) Rahwali
b) Yaddil.
Rahwali leads to a bigger ground known as MasheedAngan and Yaddil culminates into a yaddilmaidan (ground) Masheed Angan and Yaddil comprise chotta Bangus . Chotta Bangus narrows down into a lane known as Goriber, surrounded on two lateral sides by number of mountain peaks.
Goriber opens into a large grazing meadow known as BadaBangus. It is vast meadow comprising hundreds of acres abounding in large number of wild and rare medicinal plants. At one side of BadaBangus is another plain table land called as Nicherian, at the top of which it harbours alpine vegetation and still at a good height is a flat ground known as Jatti which is approachable through Mawar area via Neelvan forest. This area is famous for medicinal plants.It takes at least three days stay at Bangus to visit major portion of the Bangus Valley.
Flora And Fauna : Bangus is replete with a diverse variety of flora and fauna. The meadows and the slopes of the side plateaus are covered with a range of flowers and medicinal plants. Fresh water fishes of moderate size and their fingerlings inhabit the streams. The valley’s forests and plains serve as the breeding, feeding and protection grounds for many wild animal species. The wild life of includes about 50 species of animals and about 10 species of birds. The animal species include the musk deer, antelope, snow leopard, brown bear, black bear, monkeys, and red fox. A large number of residents and migratory birds can also be found feeding and breeding in the valley. The prominent resident birds include pheasants, tragophan, monal pheasant, black partridge, bush quail, and wild fowl.
(The author is a student of Aligarh Muslim University. Views are his own) [email protected]
