The Valley of Flowers is located in

Concept

Indian national parks and biosphere reserves are identified by their exact administrative location and any UNESCO/heritage designation attached to that specific site. Several Himalayan states each have their own high-altitude meadows or valleys popularly nicknamed after flowers, so the district and state of the named protected area must be pinned down precisely rather than assumed from a state’s general reputation for scenic valleys.

Application

The Valley of Flowers National Park lies in the Bhyundar Valley of Chamoli district, Uttarakhand, in the Western Himalayas, at an elevation of roughly 3,250–3,650 metres. It was notified as a National Park in 1982 and inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005, together with the adjoining Nanda Devi National Park, as part of the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve — recognised for its meadows of rare, endemic alpine flora.

Cross-check

Each of the other Himalayan states offered has its own distinct high-altitude attraction, but none of them is this UNESCO-listed park:

• Jammu & Kashmir is famous for scenic gardens and valleys, such as the Tulip Garden in Srinagar and the broader Kashmir Valley, but it does not contain this particular UNESCO World Heritage park.

• Himachal Pradesh has its own protected high-altitude ecosystem, the Great Himalayan National Park (a separate UNESCO World Heritage Site), which is a different park in a different valley system.

• Sikkim's Yumthang Valley is popularly nicknamed a 'valley of flowers' for its rhododendron sanctuary, but that is a distinct, non-UNESCO site, not the officially designated Valley of Flowers National Park.

Uttarakhand is therefore the state where the Valley of Flowers National Park is located.