Nepal measures about 880 kilometers (547 mi) along its Himalayan axis by 150 to 250 kilometers across. It has an area of 147,516 km2 (56,956 sq mi).
Jim Corbett National Park is a national park in India located in the Nainital district of Uttarakhand state. The first national park in India,it was established in 1936 during the British Raj and named Hailey National Park after William Malcolm Hailey,a governor of the United Provinces in which it was then located. In 1956,nearly a decade after India's independence,it was renamed Corbett National Park after the hunter and naturalist Jim Corbett,who had played a leading role in its establishment and had died the year before. The park was the first to come under the Project Tiger initiative.
SagarmāthāNational Park is a national park in the Himalayas of eastern Nepal that was established in 1976 and encompasses an area of 1,148 km2 (443 sq mi) in the Solukhumbu District. It ranges in elevation from 2,845 to 8,848 m and includes Mount Everest. In the north,it shares the international border with Qomolangma National Nature Preserve in Tibet Autonomous Region. In the east,it is adjacent to Makalu Barun National Park,and in the south it extends to Dudh Kosi river. It is part of the Sacred Himalayan Landscape.
The Terai or Tarai is a lowland region in parts of southern Nepal and northern India that lies to the south of the outer foothills of the Himalayas,the Sivalik Hills and north of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. This lowland belt is characterised by tall grasslands,scrub savannah,sal forests and clay rich swamps. In North India,the Terai spreads from the Yamuna River eastward across Haryana,Uttarakhand,Uttar Pradesh,Bihar and West Bengal. The Terai is part of the Terai-Duar savanna and grasslands ecoregion. Nepal's Terai stretches over 33,998.8 km2 (13,127.0 sq mi),about 23.1% of Nepal's land area,and lies at an elevation of between 67 and 300 m. The region comprises more than 50 wetlands. North of the Terai rises the Bhabar,a narrow but continuous belt of forest about 8–12 km (5.0–7.5 mi) wide.
Chitwan National Park is the first national park of Nepal. It was established in 1973 as the Royal Chitwan National Park and was granted the status of a World Heritage Site in 1984. It covers an area of 952.63 km2 (367.81 sq mi) in the subtropical Inner Terai lowlands of south-central Nepal in Nawalpur,Chitwan,Makwanpur and Parsa Districts. It ranges in elevation from about 100 m (330 ft) in the river valleys to 815 m (2,674 ft) in the Sivalik Hills.
The Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve is a protected area in the Terai of eastern Nepal covering 176 km2 (68 sq mi) of wetlands in the Sunsari,Saptari and Udayapur Districts. It comprises extensive reed beds and freshwater marshes in the floodplain of the Kosi River,and ranges in elevation from 75 to 81 m. It was established in 1976 and designated as a Ramsar site in December 1987. It hosts Nepal's last remaining herd of the wild water buffalo.
The Terai–Duar savanna and grasslands is a narrow lowland ecoregion at the base of the Himalayas,about 25 km (16 mi) wide,and a continuation of the Indo-Gangetic Plain in India,Nepal and Bhutan. It is colloquially called Terai in the Ganges Basin east to Nepal,then Dooars in West Bengal,Bhutan and Assam east to the Brahmaputra River. It harbours the world's tallest grasslands,which are the most threatened and rare worldwide.
The Kosi or Koshi is a transboundary river which flows through China,Nepal and India. It drains the northern slopes of the Himalayas in Tibet and the southern slopes in Nepal. From a major confluence of tributaries north of the Chatra Gorge onwards,the Kosi River is also known as the Saptakoshi for its seven upper tributaries. These include the Tamur River originating from the Kanchenjunga area in the east and Arun River and the Sun Kosi from Tibet. The Sun Koshi's tributaries from east to west are the Dudh Koshi,Likhu Khola,Tamakoshi River,Bhote Koshi and Indravati. The Saptakoshi crosses into northern Bihar,India where it branches into distributaries before joining the Ganges near Kursela in Katihar district. The Kosi is the third-largest tributary of the Ganges by water discharge after the Ghaghara and the Yamuna.
Makalu Barun National Park is a national park in the Himalayas of Nepal that was established in 1992 as the eastern extension of Sagarmatha National Park. It is the world's only protected area with an elevation gain of more than 8,000 m (26,000 ft) enclosing tropical forest as well as snow-capped peaks. It covers an area of 1,500 km2 (580 sq mi) in the Solukhumbu and Sankhuwasabha districts,and is surrounded by a bufferzone to the south and southeast with an area of 830 km2 (320 sq mi).
The Bengal florican,also called the Bengal bustard,is a bustard species native to the Indian subcontinent,Cambodia,and Vietnam. It is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List because fewer than 1,000 individuals were estimated to be alive as of 2017. It is the only member of the genus Houbaropsis.
The wild water buffalo,also called Asian buffalo,Asiatic buffalo and wild buffalo,is a large bovine native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. It has been listed as Endangered in the IUCN Red List since 1986,as the remaining population totals less than 4,000. A population decline of at least 50% over the last three generations is projected to continue. The global population has been estimated at 3,400 individuals,of which 95% live in India,mostly in Assam. The wild water buffalo is the most likely ancestor of the domestic water buffalo.
The Inner Terai Valleys of Nepal comprise several elongated river valleys in the southern lowland Terai part of the country. These tropical valleys are enclosed by the Himalayan foothills,viz the Mahabharat Range and the Sivalik Hills farther south.
The 2008 Bihar flood was one of the most disastrous floods in the history of Bihar,an impoverished and densely populated state in India. The Koshi embankment near the Indo-Nepal border broke on 18 August 2008. The river changed course and flooded areas which had not been flooded in many decades. The flood affected over 2.3 million people in the northern part of Bihar.
Shuklaphanta National Park is a national park in the Terai of the Far-Western Region,Nepal,covering 305 km2 (118 sq mi) of open grasslands,forests,riverbeds and wetlands at an elevation of 174 to 1,386 m. It is bounded by the Mahakali river in the west and south. A small part extends north of the Mahendra Highway to create a wildlife corridor for seasonal migration of wildlife into the Sivalik Hills. It was gazetted in 1976 as Royal Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve and was enlarged to its present size in the late 1980s. A buffer zone of 243.5 km2 (94.0 sq mi) was added in 2004. It receives a mean annual rainfall of 1,579 mm (62.2 in) and harbours 700 floral,456 bird,56 reptile and 15 amphibian species.
The ecology of the Himalayas varies with climate,rainfall,altitude,and soils. The climate ranges from tropical at the base of the mountains to permanent ice and snow at the highest elevations. The amount of yearly rainfall increases from west to east along the southern front of the range. This diversity of climate,altitude,rainfall and soil conditions supports a variety of distinct plant and animal species,such as the Nepal gray langur
Chandra Prakash Kala is an Indian ecologist and professor. His research interests include alpine ecology,conservation biology,indigenous knowledge systems,ethnobotany and medicinal aromatic plants. He is an assistant professor in the faculty area of Ecosystem and Environment Management at the Indian Institute of Forest Management.
Paige Fischer is an environmental scientist from the Pacific Northwest whose research focuses mainly on the human dimensions of environmental changes. She is especially interested in forest ecology and conservation. She is currently an assistant professor at the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability,teaching upper-level classes about analysis methods and social vulnerability to climate change.
Adrian Treves is an American interdisciplinary ecologist and an academic. He is a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
