All activities / Wildlife Safaris / Deosai
Wildlife Safaris in Deosai
A national park protecting the world's second highest plateau, a treeless expanse of grass and wildflowers above 4,000 metres between Skardu and Astore in Gilgit-Baltistan. Created in 1993, Deosai is the last stronghold of the Himalayan brown bear in Pakistan and holds golden marmots, ibex and golden eagles, with the deep blue Sheosar Lake at its edge. Snowbound most of the year, it is open and alive only through the short high summer.
Why here
Deosai is a national park protecting the world's second highest plateau, a rolling sea of grass and wildflowers above 4,000 metres between Skardu and Astore, and the last real stronghold of the Himalayan brown bear in Pakistan. The park was created in 1993 largely to save this bear, and its summer population of a few dozen animals is the reason wildlife watchers come, tracked on foot with park officers around the Bara Pani and Kala Pani meadows. The plateau also holds golden marmots that whistle from every slope, Himalayan ibex on the rim, red foxes and golden eagles, and in July and August it turns into a carpet of lupins, forget-me-nots and dozens of other alpine flowers around the deep blue of Sheosar Lake. Snowbound and empty for most of the year, Deosai is open and alive only for a short high-summer window, which is exactly when the bears are out and the flowers are up.
Best months
Deosai is reachable only from about late June to September, once the snow clears the access tracks. Even then it is cold, the air is thin above 4,000 metres, and the weather swings from hot sun to sleet within an hour, so warm and waterproof layers matter. Brown bears are most reliably seen in the early morning and evening around the Bara Pani area, and jeeps are not allowed into the core bear zone, so the last approach is on foot with a wildlife officer. Nights are best spent camping on the plateau or back down in Skardu.
Getting there & around
The usual base is Skardu, a short flight or a long Karakoram Highway drive from Islamabad, from where it is a two to three hour 4WD climb onto the plateau by the Sadpara road. Day trips are possible, but bear watching rewards an overnight, either camping at Bara Pani or staying in Skardu and starting before dawn. You need a 4WD, a park permit and ideally a wildlife guide or park officer to reach the bear areas on foot. There are no shops or fuel on the plateau, so carry food, water and warm kit for the whole day.
Skill levels: beginner, intermediate
Schools & guides (2)
Indus Caravan
OutfitterIndus Caravan is an Islamabad travel company, based in the F-10 sector, that runs a specialised five-day Himalayan brown bear expedition on the Deosai plateau, visiting the bear observation points around Bara Pani and Sheosar Lake on foot with a park wildlife officer. It operates its own wildlife and trekking programmes across northern Pakistan with local guides and 4WD support, rather than reselling, and frames the Deosai trip specifically for photographers and serious wildlife watchers.
Tours to Pakistan
OutfitterTours to Pakistan is a licensed operator with bases in Islamabad, Hunza and Karachi that runs a dedicated Deosai National Park brown bear tracking trip staged from Skardu, in the field for up to five days across the May to October season. Its wildlife trips are led by experienced trackers, including a guide with four decades of experience following brown bears and snow leopards in the northern ranges, and it arranges its own guides, park permits and 4WD logistics rather than reselling.