Location: outside of Mumbai, Maharashtra State Map
Area: 104 km2 (40 mi2)
Sanjay Gandhi National Park is a small pristine park on the
outskirts of Mumbai in Maharashtra State in India. Sanjay Gandhi
National Park covers an area of 104 km2 (40 mi2) of thick jungles.
The Sanjay Gandhi National Park has a long history dating back to
the fourth century BC. In ancient India, Sopoara and Kalyan were two
nearby ports that traded with ancient civilizations such as Greece
and Mesopotamia. The 45 km land route between these two ports was
partly through the forest.
The Kanheri caves in the center of the park were an important
Buddhist learning center and pilgrimage site sculpted by Buddhist
monks between the 9th and 1st centuries BC. They were carved in a
basalt outcrop.
The park was called "Krishnagiri National Park" in the time before
independence. At that time the surface of the park was only 20.26
km2. In 1969, the park was expanded to its current size by acquiring
various properties of the forest reserve near the park. after this,
an independent unit of the forestry department called "subdivision
of the Borivali natural park" managed the area. The Krishnagiri
National Park was created in 1974 and later renamed "Borivali
National Park". In 1981, it was rededicated as "Sanjay Gandhi
National Park" in memory of Sanjay Gandhi, the son of former Indian
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who was killed in an 1980 aviation
accident.
Originally called Krishnagiri National Park, in 1950 the name recalled Krishnagiri (Black Mountain, a basaltic rock formation widespread in the area). It was later renamed Borivali National Park, due to its geographical position and then, to remember the late Sanjay Gandhi, son of Indira Gandhi, it became Sanjay Gandhi National Park.
The park was re-established in 1996 after having had a long history lasting decades since it was born as a merger between different areas which took place at various times. With the new headquarters in Borivali it has emerged as one of the main national parks located within a metropolitan city and has become one of the most visited protected areas in the world.
Sanjay Gandhi National Park is easily accessible from Mumbai and occupies a huge area.
The enormous area of the park contains sectors that are real forests in which a very rich variety of flora and fauna lives, offering space for some species at risk of extinction. There are over a thousand species of plants, hundreds of species of migratory birds and also insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles and mammals, with a population of leopards.
Inside the park there are the Kanheri Buddhist caves which date back to the 1st century BC. and the largest Buddhist school in Western India arose nearby, frequented until the 10th century. The site was rediscovered by the English archaeologist James Bird in 1839.