National parks of India

National parks are the strictest widely taught wildlife category after the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. The first is Jim Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand, created in 1936 as Hailey National Park and later renamed. That date-and-name pair is the one every paper still wants.

Four parks do most of the MCQ work: Kaziranga (Assam) for the one-horned rhinoceros, Gir (Gujarat) for the Asiatic lion, Sundarbans (West Bengal) for the tiger in a mangrove delta, and Corbett as the first park and a Project Tiger landscape. Project Tiger itself began in 1973.

India has 100+ national parks. The exact integer moves as state notifications change. We do not invent a 2026 headcount. Verify the current list with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) or a named Wildlife Institute table. Tiger numbers from the last official estimation are also year-stamped — do not guess a 2026 census.

Key points

1. First national park: Jim Corbett, 1936, originally Hailey National Park, Uttarakhand.
2. Kaziranga: one-horned Indian rhinoceros; also on the UNESCO list in the usual teaching.
3. Gir: only wild home of the Asiatic lion in the standard key. Lion is not the national animal (tiger is).
4. Sundarbans: mangrove forest, tiger, Ganga–Brahmaputra delta; shared ecology with Bangladesh.
5. Project Tiger: 1973. National animal: tiger. Do not write Gir under Project Tiger as if lions were tigers.
6. 100+ national parks — exact count: verify the MoEFCC list. Do not memorise a blog’s 2026 number.
7. Silent Valley (Kerala) is a national park and a conservation-movement case (environment one-liners in Hindi sit on the other desk).
8. Hemis (Ladakh) is often taught for the snow leopard; Ladakh has been a UT since 31 October 2019.
9. Desert National Park (Rajasthan) and a marine park in the Gulf of Kachchh appear in many static lists.
10. Kanha, Bandipur, Ranthambore, Dudhwa, Manas — famous names; we do not invent a 2026 “largest park” without an official table (boundaries change).
11. Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 is the statute year to pair with parks.
12. National parks versus wildlife sanctuaries versus biosphere reserves: parks are more strictly protected in the usual teaching (no grazing rights in the simple contrast).
13. Ramsar wetlands are a different list; their count has grown — check the official Ramsar/India list rather than a frozen integer.
14. We do not invent a 2026 new park in a brand-new state.
15. Sundarbans is both a park/tiger story and a river-mouth story — cross-link to Ganga.
16. Himalayan parks exist; Kangchenjunga / Khangchendzonga is a name students may see — confirm the official park title if asked.
17. This page is not a safari booking site and not live poaching news.
18. Related: Ganga (Sundarbans), Himalayas, national symbols (tiger).
19. If the question is “first national park”, Corbett/Hailey 1936 is enough.
20. If the question is “only Asiatic lions”, Gir. If “one-horned rhino”, Kaziranga (Manas also has rhinos in some texts — Kaziranga is the stock MCQ).
21. Elephant is the national heritage animal; Project Elephant 1992 — not a park count.
22. Do not quote a 2026 tiger estimate as if Census 2011 had counted tigers that year.
23. State GK pages may list that state’s parks; this desk stays with the national four plus the 100+ caution.
24. MoEFCC / NTCA / WII are the three letterheads to trust for a changing number.

National parks of India — facts (2026)

Exam tip: Four names, four animals/roles: Corbett = first (1936), Kaziranga = rhino, Gir = lion, Sundarbans = mangrove tiger. Then write “100+, check MoEFCC”.

Read next

More on GKSchools

• Hindi student search
• World facts
• India facts
• All study desks
• World facts
• English home