A Visit to Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary
Barda Wildlife Sanctuary is located at about 15 km from Porbandar, which faces the Arabian Sea. Barda was a private forest of the ex-princely State of Ranavav (Porbandar) and Jamnagar and, therefore, it is still popularly known as Rana Barda and Jam Barda.
The entire area is the reserve forest and had been notified as Sanctuary in the year 1979. The settlement of the area has been completed, but final notification is yet to be issued. The Sanctuary is distributed in two districts, Porbandar and Jamnagar.
The Sanctuary hardly has 192.31 sq. km area. The terrain of Barda is almost hilly and undulating with an altitude ranging from 79.2 m to 617.8 m. above sea level. At places, there are gentle slopes with exposed rocks. Khambala and Fodara are important dams in the Sanctuary.
Apart from this, the Sanctuary exhibits a great variety of invertebrate species including the variety of butterflies. Lion, Chinkara, Sambar and spotted Deer found in the recent past, are now exterminated from Barda.
