The Margalla Hills National Park instituted in 1980 is located in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. It comprises the Margalla Hills spread over 12,605 hectares, the Rawal Lake, and Shakarparian Sports and Cultural complex. The hill range nestles between an elevation of 685 meters at the western end and 1,604 meters on its east.
The National Park is the most accessible in Pakistan due to its close proximity to the national capital, Islamabad. Many hiking trails are available here, most popular being trail three and trail five. Home to a large number of birds such as larks, paradise flycatcher, black partridge, shrikes pheasants, spotted doves, Egyptian vultures, falcons, hawks and eagles, many reptiles such as the Russell’s viper, Indian cobra and saw-scaled viper are found here.
Margalla hills have stunning torrents gushing down in the monsoon and also natural springs. Margalla has a variety of mammals, they include the leopard, gray goral, barking deer, wild boar, jackal, red fox and the porcupine among others.
The vegetation of the southern slopes is short stuttered, comprising deciduous and evergreen trees with diverse shrub growth. In the north, stand pines and groves of oak. The fauna is mainly Indo Himalayan, with some overlapping of Palearctic species. The birds found here are residents as well as winter migrants from higher altitudes of the north, spring and summer visitor for breeding, and short day transit species arrive in spring.
