Band-e Amir National Park (Dari: پارک ملی بند امیر; Pashto: د امیر بند ملي پارک) is located in the central Bamyan Province of Afghanistan. It was created on May 22, 2009, as Afghanistan's first national park to protect the area's natural beauty. The park features a series of very blue lakes formed by natural dams in the Hindu Kush mountains. These lakes are part of a chain of six lakes in the southern mountainous desert area of the park. The Balkh River begins here and flows north to Balkh Province.
The lakes at Band-e Amir are among the few natural lakes in the world formed by travertine systems. These systems develop when water containing dissolved minerals flows through cracks in the ground and leaves behind deposits of calcium carbonate. Over time, these deposits build up into walls that hold the water in place.
Band-e Amir is sometimes called Afghanistan's Grand Canyon National Park. It attracts more than 100,000 local and international visitors each year.
History
The name Band-e Amir means "the Ruler's Dam" in Dari. Some people believe this name refers to Ali, the fourth Muslim Caliph. The area is mostly made up of ethnic Hazaras, who are estimated to make up about 30% of Afghanistan's population.
In her 1970 guide to Afghanistan, historian Nancy Dupree wrote that a full description of Band-e Amir would take away the sense of wonder and amazement that people feel when they see it. Parts of the 1975 Bollywood film Dharmatma, starring Feroz Khan and Hema Malini, were filmed at Band-e Amir National Park.
Plans to create a national park at Band-e Amir began in the 1970s but were stopped because of wars. According to CBC, which interviewed Mustafa Zahir, who was head of Afghanistan's Environmental Protection Agency at the time, there were plans to build a hydrodam in the area before it became a national park. This threat to the region's natural beauty and importance led Abdullah Barat, a Hazara activist from the Shaidan Valley and head of the Future Generations sub-office in Bamyan, to take action. He worked to convince Mustafa Zahir to protect the area as a natural and cultural treasure instead of using it for development. Barat's efforts led to the decision to make Band-e Amir Afghanistan's first national park.
In 2004, Band-e Amir was submitted for recognition as a World Heritage site. In April 2009, Band-e Amir was officially declared Afghanistan's first national park. This change in policy helped set an example for conservation efforts in Afghanistan.
By 2023, more than 100,000 local and foreign tourists visited Band-e Amir National Park each year. The area is protected by park rangers.
Geography
Band-e Amir is located about 75 km (47 mi) to the north-west of the ancient city of Bamyan, near the town of Yakawlang. Along with the Bamyan Valley, Band-e Amir is an important part of Afghanistan's tourism, attracting more than 100,000 local and international visitors each year, as of 2023. The lakes of Band-e Amir are mainly visited during late spring and summer because the central Hazarajat region of Afghanistan is very cold in winter, with temperatures sometimes dropping to −20 °C (−4.0 °F). The six lakes of Band-e Amir are:
- Band-e Gholaman (Lake of the slaves)
- Band-e Qambar (Lake of Caliph Ali's slave)
- Band-e Haibat (Lake of grandiose)
- Band-e Panir (Lake of cheese)
- Band-e Pudina (Lake of wild mint)
- Band-e Zulfiqar (Lake of the sword of Ali)
White travertine dams, formed by fault lines common in the Band-e Amir Valley, create barriers between the lakes. Band-e Haibat is the largest and deepest of the six lakes, with an average depth of about 150 metres, as measured by a team from New Zealand. Another similar lake, Band-e Azhdahar (The Dragon), is located a few kilometres southeast of Bamyan. This lake was also formed by water rich in carbon dioxide escaping from underground faults, which deposits calcium carbonate to create travertine walls.
Located high in the Hindu Kush at approximately 2,900 m (9,500 ft) above sea level, the national park has a subarctic climate (Dsc), which is similar to a warm-summer humid continental climate (Dsb). The climate is very harsh, and the lakes often freeze during winter.
- The Band-e Amir Lake
- One of the Lakes at Band-e Amir Area
- Another Lake at Band-e Amir Area
- Band-e Panir
Current status
After the park was officially created in 2009, a park office with a park warden and a group of rangers was set up to protect and preserve the park's natural resources. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is the only non-government organization with an office in the park. The WCS helps park staff and works with local people to support conservation and the sustainable use of natural resources. Ecotourism is expected to reduce the local community's reliance on the park's natural resources for income. Tourists visit Band-e-Amir National Park mainly during the summer months when the weather is warm. A weak local economy and limited outside investment have made it difficult to attract visitors during the winter.
People living near Band-e-Amir National Park depend heavily on the park's natural resources for their daily needs. Activities such as grazing livestock, collecting shrubs for fuel and winter food, and farming that depends on rain are still common within the park. Although the park office officially bans the illegal hunting of birds and some mammals, there is no current information to assess the health of wildlife and biodiversity in the area.
In August 2023, the Taliban banned women from entering the park. The temporary minister of Virtue and Vice, Mohammad Khaled Hanafi, claimed that women were not following hijab rules inside the park. He asked religious leaders and security groups to stop women from entering until a solution was found.
A 41,000-hectare (100,000-acre) area that overlaps with the national park was named an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it is home to populations of Himalayan snowcocks, Hume's larks, white-winged snowfinches, Afghan snowfinches, and Eurasian crimson-winged finches. It has been reported that more than 170 bird species live in the park.