National Parks of India: A State-wise Quick Reference

National Parks are protected areas established under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 to conserve wildlife and natural ecosystems, and India today has over 100 of them spread across nearly every state and Union Territory. A state-wise mental map is one of the most efficient ways to prepare this topic: Assam is home to Kaziranga, Manas, Orang and Dibru-Saikhowa; Gujarat has Gir, Blackbuck (Velavadar) and the Marine National Park; Madhya Pradesh hosts Kanha, Bandhavgarh, Pench, Panna and Satpura; Rajasthan has Ranthambore, Sariska and the Desert National Park; and Uttarakhand includes Jim Corbett, Rajaji, Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers.

Further south and east, Karnataka has Bandipur, Nagarhole and Kudremukh; Kerala has Periyar, Eravikulam and Silent Valley; Maharashtra has Tadoba, Sanjay Gandhi and Navegaon; Uttar Pradesh has Dudhwa; West Bengal has Sundarbans, Gorumara and Jaldapara; Odisha has Bhitarkanika and Similipal; and Tamil Nadu has Mudumalai, Mukurthi, Guindy and the Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park. Three facts stand out for Prelims: Jim Corbett National Park (1936) was India's first national park, Hemis National Park in Ladakh is the largest, and Gir remains the only natural habitat of the Asiatic Lion — details that examiners return to frequently under GS Paper III's wildlife conservation theme.

National Parks differ from Wildlife Sanctuaries in important legal ways worth remembering: activities such as grazing and private land rights are more strictly prohibited inside National Parks, and their boundaries can only be altered through a legislative resolution rather than an executive order, reflecting the higher degree of legal protection they enjoy. This distinction, along with the state-wise list above, forms the backbone of most Prelims questions on India's protected-area network, and is best revised through repeated map-based practice rather than plain text memorisation.

In short: remember Jim Corbett as the first, Hemis as the largest, and Gir as the exclusive Asiatic Lion habitat — three landmark facts that anchor a much longer state-wise list.