Asia's Protected Lands From the Ural Mountains to Sri Lanka

Begin in the southern Urals, where a 1920 decree created this zapovednik as a mineralogical reserve, protecting a dense concentration of mineral species in the Ilmen Mountains. It is among the earliest reserves anywhere set up for geology rather than living things.

Barguzinsky, on the eastern shore of Lake Baikal, was established in 1916 to save the Barguzin sable from commercial extinction, and it is generally regarded as the oldest strict nature reserve in Russia. Its slopes climb from the lakeshore through taiga to alpine tundra.

On Kamchatka the reserve was created in 1934 and protects active and dormant volcanoes, hot springs and the Valley of Geysers, part of which was reshaped by a major landslide in 2007. It forms part of the Volcanoes of Kamchatka World Heritage Site.

Founded in 1935 to protect the sable, this Primorsky Krai reserve became the core stronghold of the Siberian tiger and of old-growth Manchurian mixed forest. UNESCO inscribed its central portion in 2001 for the unusual meeting of northern taiga and southern subtropical species.

Japan's Shiretoko Peninsula is reachable only on foot or by boat and holds the country's largest population of brown bears. Its 2005 World Heritage listing drew criticism from the Ainu, who felt a purely natural framing overlooked their long settlement of the region.

In Gangwon Province the park rises to 1,708 meters at Daecheongbong and shelters the endangered Korean goral and musk deer. Its Buddhist temples Baekdamsa and Sinheungsa give it cultural weight, and UNESCO designated it a Biosphere Reserve in 1982.

Golestan in northeastern Iran protects part of the Hyrcanian forests, with elevations from 450 to 2,411 meters, and shelters leopards, brown bears and Caspian red deer. The Hyrcanian forests were recognized as a World Heritage Site in 2019.

In Afghanistan's Bamyan Province, six blue lakes high in the Hindu Kush are held back by natural travertine dams built from deposited calcium carbonate. The park was established in 2009, and its largest lake, Band-e Haibat, reaches about 150 meters deep.

In Uttarakhand this high alpine valley, between roughly 3,352 and 3,658 meters, holds about 520 plant species, among them orchids, poppies and primulas. With Nanda Devi National Park it forms a World Heritage Site inscribed in 1988, and snow keeps it open only from June to October.

In eastern Rajasthan the park surrounds the ruined Ranthambore Fort and was one of the founding reserves of Project Tiger in 1973, becoming a national park in 1980. It is known for tigers that can be watched hunting by day.

Sri Lanka's most visited national park grew from a sanctuary first protected in 1900 and was reclassified as a national park in 1938. It is known for one of the world's highest recorded densities of leopards, and its coast was badly damaged by the 2004 tsunami.

End in Vietnam, where one of the world's two largest karst regions holds roughly 300 caves, including Son Doong, considered the largest cave in the world. The area was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2003 for its geological significance.