Mussoorie, June 2 -- Valley of Flowers National Park, a part of Nanda Devi Biosphere with an area of 87.5 sqkm in Chamoli district, declared a UNESCO world heritage site and known to house more rare floral species growing in the wild, opened for tourists on Sunday, said forest department officials. Chetna Kandpal, the forest range officer of Valley of Flowers National Park, said, "A total of 83 tourists visited the Valley of Flowers, out of which 79 had registered online, while four had registered offline on the opening day on Sunday." Pramendra Chauhan, president of the Eco Development Committee, the gram Pradhan from Bhyundhar village in the region and the forest staff were present at the opening of the valley of flowers, said the officials. "Spread across 87.5 square kilometres at an altitude of 12,995 feet above sea level in Chamoli district, the Valley of Flowers will remain open for tourists until October 31 this year, after which it will close for the winter," Chauhan added. To reach the Valley of Flowers, one must first travel 14 kilometres from Govind Ghat to Ghangharia, which serves as the base camp, and the valley is 3.2 kilometres from there. However, this route is quite challenging. Overnight stays in the valley are prohibited, so tourists must return to Ghangharia by 2pm at the latest, he added. Adult Indian tourists are charged a fee of Rs.200, while foreign nationals pay Rs.800. Students between 12 to 18 years are charged Rs.50 per person, students above 18 are charged Rs.100, and physically handicapped and senior citizens are charged Rs.100, according to the forest department officials. More than 600 species of alpine flowers bloom in the valley from July to October of which like Potentilla Primula, Blue Poppy, Brahma Kamal, Fain Kamal are prominent, in addition to this several wild animals including seven endangered mammal species such as the snow leopard (Panthera unica), Himalayan black bear (Selenarctos thibetanus), brown bear (Ursus arctos), musk deer and bharal the blue sheep ) have been sighted here, said officials....