{"id":65479,"date":"2025-09-29T12:15:46","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T06:45:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=65479"},"modified":"2025-09-29T12:16:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T06:46:00","slug":"key-facts-about-cold-desert-biosphere-reserve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/key-facts-about-cold-desert-biosphere-reserve\/","title":{"rendered":"Cold Desert Biosphere Reserve"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Cold Desert Biosphere Reserve Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, the Cold Desert Biosphere Reserve (CDBR) in Himachal Pradesh has been included in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR) by UNESCO.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Cold Desert Biosphere Reserve<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is perched high in the <\/span><b>trans-Himalayan region.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It spans approximately 7,770 sq. km. across the landscapes of <\/span><b>Himachal Pradesh\u2019s Lahaul-Spiti district.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was declared a <\/span><b>biosphere reserve in 2009.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Terrain:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It encompasses windswept <\/span><b>plateaus, glacial valleys, alpine lakes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and rugged high-altitude deserts.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is <\/span><b>India\u2019s first high-altitude cold desert biosphere reserve<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and one of the coldest and driest ecosystems in UNESCO\u2019s WNBR.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With this addition, <\/span><b>India now has 13 biospheres<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> listed in <\/span><b>UNESCO\u2019s World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR).<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It covers the <\/span><b>Pin Valley National Park<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and its surroundings, <\/span><b>Chandratal and Sarchu &amp; Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Flora:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">harbours 732 species of <\/span><b>vascular plants,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> including 30 endemics and 157 near-endemics of the Indian Himalayas,<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This fragile cold desert ecosystem supports hardy <\/span><b>alpine grasses, medicinal herbs<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and rare stands of Willow-leaved sea-buckthorn, Himalayan birch and Persian juniper.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Fauna:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is home to leopard, Himalayan ibex, blue sheep, Himalayan wolf, and rich bird life such as the Himalayan snowcock and golden eagle.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/india\/himachal-cold-desert-enters-unesco-biosphere-reserve-list-10275673\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Cold Desert Biosphere Reserve is perched high in the trans-Himalayan region. Read more about Cold Desert Biosphere Reserve, Terrain, Flora and Fauna, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":65610,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2960],"class_list":{"0":"post-65479","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-cold-desert-biosphere-reserve","9":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}