'' The Vansda national Park established in 1979 in Navsari district, Gujarat got its name Vansda as the area was privately owned by the Maharaja of Vansda. The Park covering an area of 24 sq.km is nestled in the mountains of Western Ghats or Sahyadris and is under the control of the government. Even though the park is small, it is extremely dense and has a wide variety of flora and fauna. Some parts of the park are dark even during daytime. The park lies close to the National Highway - 8 and is bisected by the Waghai-Vansda State Highway.
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The Vansda National Park in Gujarat has mainly moist deciduous and dry deciduous forest and bamboos, tall teak trees, orchids, mango groves and gigantic creepers are the predominant trees of the forest. At present the Vansda National Park at Gujarat has more than 250 species of plants including variety of rare wild animals.
Attractions in Vansda National Park
Vansda National Park 450 species of plants, Vansda Park has its unique appearance where collection of large variety of bamboo and teak and approximately 443 flowering plant species make a good choice for exploration. Some of them include adad, shimlo, haldu, khakhro, timru, dudhkod, chopadi, bondaro and ambla amongst others. Ample varieties of orchids are found in the northeastern side of this park due to constant blowing of winds from Ambika there. This park also has good collection of pythons besides 30 rest snake species. Some of them are even venomous especially Russel's viper, cobras and kraits present in the park. The park has good collection of the insects as well like centipedes, millipedes and snails etc. The 121 species of spiders and those found too much in Gujarat named giant wood spider are part of its collection. Some 8 new spider species had been added into the park’s collection recently. This park houses 11 varieties of frogs and toads which are excellent foods for the snakes there. It’s true that mammals, reptiles and insects are attractions for researcher and adventure lovers but equally are notable the bird collection in Vansda. In fact bird-watchers feel amazed to see the bird species which are more than 115 indeed. A few of them such as racket-tailed drongo, yellow back sunbird, pompodour pidgeon, paradise flycatcher, jungle babbler, leaf birds, grey hornbill, thrushes and peafowls and those having been threatened worldwide owlets are huge collections, so are the exclusive ones from the Western Ghats Indian malabar trogon, great black woodpecker, shama and emerald dove to name a few.
Best Time to Visit Vansda National Park
October and May is the best time for visiting the park.
How to Reach there
Air: The nearest airport is at Surat (120 km.).
Rail: Waghai is the nearest railway station here.
Road: The park lies close to National Highway 8 and is bisected by the Waghai-Vansda State Highway.