Dudhwa National Park, National park in Lakhimpur Kheri district, India
Dudhwa is a national park in the Awadh region of northern Uttar Pradesh, near the border with Nepal. The area consists of wide grasslands, wetland zones, and dense forests, crossed by small rivers and clearings.
British colonial officers used these forests as hunting grounds in the early 20th century. After Indian independence, the area was declared a sanctuary in 1958 and later expanded into a national park.
The park's Hindi name links it to the Terai grasslands, and the swamp deer, or barasingha, is the animal most associated with Dudhwa: the sanctuary was created for it in 1958, and numbers rose from 3,691 in 1977 to 6,137 in 2022. Billy Arjan Singh, who hand-reared zoo-born tigers and leopards and released them here, is the figure visitors hear about most.
Visiting is most comfortable between November and March, when the climate is moderate and visibility improves. Guided safaris in open vehicles are the usual way to explore the terrain, and lodging options of different standards are available nearby.
About half of all barasingha swamp deer in the world live here, a species with unusually wide hooves. This adaptation allows them to move safely through the wet grasslands where they spend most of the year.
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