Velavadar Blackbuck National Park

Brief History

This beautiful, 34-sq-km park that is  an hour’s drive north of Bhavnagar, encompasses large areas of pale, custard-coloured grassland stretching between two seasonal rivers and is famous for its blackbucks – beautiful, fast antelope that sport elegant spiraling horns as long as 65cm in mature males. Some 1800 inhabit the park, alongside blue bulls (India’s largest antelope) and birds such as wintering harriers from Siberia (about 2000 of them most years). There are over 120 species of birds that can be found in the park and around. If you’re lucky, you may even spot wolves! The best time to visit the sanctuary is early in the morning when chances of seeing the wolves are a lot more. In the day, the blackbucks are easy to spot but the wolves are elusive. The pale gold grassland is dotted with clusters of blackbucks. They move around in gendered groups – the males together, and the females and fawns in their own groups. It is good that hiring a guide is mandatory as anecdotes about the animals and life in the village are always fun to know more about. 

The sanctuary was established in July 1976, as an initial protected area of about 18 sq km. In 1980, another 16 sq km were added to increase the total area to 34 sq km. Even though this is one of the smallest national parks of the country, it packs in a robust amount of species for the wildlife lover.