Kashmir EcoWatch
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Historically designated as City Forest National Park in honor of ornithologist Dr. Salim Ali, this urban forest and wetland reserve protected flood absorption basins and migratory flyways on Dal Lake. Later transformed into the Royal Springs Golf Course; preserved in KEW archives as a critical urban ecology case study.
Auto-generated multi-dimensional insight from 8 linked biodiversity systems.
Health driven by active habitat signals monitoring.
Ecosystem shows moderate stress primarily from climate vulnerability and water extraction.
High conservation priority due to imminent threat presence and high connectivity value.
Automatically linked 0 migration events.
2 habitat signals detected.
Salim Ali National Park, originally established as City Forest National Park, was notified in 1986 to preserve a critical urban wetland and riverine forest system in close proximity to Dal Lake in Srinagar. Named in honor of Dr. Salim Ali, India's most celebrated ornithologist, the park served as a sanctuary for avian diversity, seasonal waterfowl, and riverine woodlands in an otherwise rapidly urbanizing landscape.
The park spanned 9.07 km² of low-lying floodplains, deltaic marshlands, and dense willow-poplar canopy. It acted as an ecological buffer for the Dal Lake ecosystem, filtering run-off, recharging aquifers, and regulating microclimatic temperature before its controversial conversion.
The creation of City Forest National Park represented a forward-looking vision of urban conservation in Kashmir, recognizing that urban centers require designated wilderness zones. The park was unique as it was the only valley-floor wetland-forest national park in Jammu & Kashmir.
Its loss remains a benchmark reference case in South Asian environmental law and conservation biology, illustrating how state cabinets can override national park status for tourism and development. Today, it serves as an educational precedent for protected-area downgrading, downsizing, and de-gazettement (PADDD).