Vasona

The locality of Vasona in the Dadra and Nagar Haveli region, within the tribal cultural landscape of the Warli, Kokni and Dubla communities who make up about 65% of the UT population. Vasona preserves traditional Warli house architecture and the Vasona Lion Safari Park (established 2000 by the Indian government on the Vasona wildlife sanctuary). The Portuguese-era mango and cashew plantations around Vasona were the economic basis of the colonial Dadra and Nagar Haveli possession from 1783 to 1954. Modern Vasona is a residential suburb of Silvassa; the surrounding Vasona Forest Reserve preserves the Western Ghats-foothill biodiversity of the UT. The 2020 UT merger brought Vasona under the combined Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu administration.