Tag Archives: Khangchendzonga National Park

Sikkim has added another feather to its cap with the recent addition of the Khangchendzonga National Park to the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites as India’s first ‘Mixed World Heritage Site’. The UNESCO recognition will give a further push to eco-tourism in our state, while also helping us to regulate the high influx of visitors to more popular destinations with only a minimal negative impact of tourism,” said Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling. “This is important since tourist arrivals to our state more than doubled to 38,479 in 2015 and our target is around 12 lakh visitors by 2025,” he said in a statement. The park was initially commissioned in August 1977 with a declared area of 850 Sq km and was extended to 1,784 sq.km some years later. Khangchendzonga National Park had been on the Unesco’s tentative list of World Heritage Sites since 2006, and has among the sharpest altitudinal variations for any site in the world — from a low of 1,220 metres to 8,586 metres — within a small aerial distance of 42 km.

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