Kaimoor Wildlife Sanctuary

Kaimoor Wildlife Sanctuary covers part of the Kaimoor range of the Vindhya hills in south-eastern Uttar Pradesh and is one of the larger protected areas in the state. Besides forest and valleys it takes in waterfalls, ancient cave paintings and, at Salkhan, a fossil park described as the oldest in India, with fossils thought to be about 1,400 million years old.

Animals recorded here include blackbuck, Indian pangolin, leopard, sloth bear, wild boar and the greater horseshoe bat. Around 70 bird species live in the sanctuary all year, and migrants join them in winter. Mukha Falls is known locally for water believed to have healing qualities, while the Lekhaniya caves carry paintings thousands of years old that are thought to record the lives of early nomadic people.