Papikonda National Park

Papikonda National Park contains valuable and varied flora supported by variety of fauna including carnivores and herbivores. The luxuriant forest vegetation, varied fauna, high rain fall and undulating steep hill slopes with a number of hill streams makes the area a typical, ecological, faunal, floral and geomorphological zone worth protecting and preserving. The area is mostly is inaccessible with hilly terrain with high slopes & valleys. The area plays a key role in high precipitation and the consequent origin of various small streams and rivulets which drain and enrich the perennial River Godavari. The park exists in the Eastern Ghats which is known for rich floristic diversity with more than 2531 species under 700 genera and 125 families constituting about 13% of the flowering plants of India. The moist deciduous forests have maximum number of endemic species (173 taxa), followed by dry deciduous (121 taxa).

The park has carnivore species like the Tiger, Leopard, Hyena and vulnerable bovidae the Indian gaur present in the area. It has species like sambar, barking deer, chowsinga, spotted deer forming the prey base for the top predators. The park includes 92 bird species recorded which includes the common peacock, Red jungle fowl, etc., and reptiles like Indian python, king cobra, Indian cobra, monitor lizard, chamaelon, fresh water crocodile, Indian Golden gecko etc. The park has floral species with a high degree of ecological significance. There are around 31 species of plants that are being red listed and been recorded in ENVIS website are present in the park. The park is also know for agro-biodiversity with the presence of 96 species which are wild relatives of crops. A unique dwarf breed of goat known locally as the “kanchu mekha” originates in this region.

The predominant and most extensive forest type found in the park is Southern Tropical Dry Deciduous type (Type 5A) and the species found in this type are mainly dry deciduous species.

The quality of the crop is mostly quality IV ranging from 40 to 60 feet of height. In pockets where the soils are fertile with good drainage, the quality, is of II quality where the average height ranges from 60 to 80 feet. This geological formation consists of Granite, Graphite, Gneisses, and associated Rocks, Ferrugenous quartzites, banded magnetite and quartz. Gneiss and Schiests form the underlying rock in all the hill forests, sand stone formations are well developed in the plain forests in West Godavari District. Most of the rocks are metamorphic with granitic intrusions, which have undergone long and severe weathering resulting in sandy to sandy loam soils.