Terai

Terai means wet country, and is the fertile lowlands to the south of the Himalayas in India, Nepal and Bhutan from the Yamuna in the west extends to the Brahmaputra in the east. Between Terai and the actual high Himalayas are Bhabhar, Siwaliks and Front Himalayas.

The Terai is the Duars ( Bengali: ডুয়ার্স ) of the eastern part to a joint WWF ecoregion, the Terai Duars savannas and grasslands, Eng. Terai - Duar savanna and grasslands together.

Terai in Nepal

The 25-100 km wide, a few hundred meters above sea level, the plain stretches along the 800 km long border with India. The Terai with its tropical to subtropical monsoon climate is the warmest and wettest part of the country, which accounts for 17% of the land area of Nepal. Here live 47 % of the population. About 18% of the country are exploited for agriculture, of which 53% are located in the Terai region.

Core of social life is the extended family in the Terai in general.

History

Long and wide, covered with rain forest and elephant grass parts of the Terai were sparsely populated. Probably from the West Indies originating Tharu were probably as early as the 16th century down here. Because of the high risk of malaria, however, few other settlers ventured down to the Tharus here. Only in the 1950s, the Nepalese government launched a major program to combat malaria. At the same time, the economic situation deteriorated dramatically in the mountains, so that many impoverished farmers are resettled in Terai. The population of the Terai grew rapidly; to create new settlement area, large parts of the forests were cleared using DDT. As a whole, the annual population growth in Nepal amounts to 2.6 %, the growth rate is in the Terai, also due to the influx of Indian immigrants, at 4 %; in the mountains it is only 1.2%.

Significant sites

Lumbini, located in Rupandehi District, is the birthplace of Buddha. Here are sculptures to find remains of the Ashoka Pillar and ruins of an old monastery. Lumbini was declared a World Heritage Site in 1997.

The Chitwan National Park covers an area of 932 km ². In 1973, the former hunting ground was declared the first national park in Nepal. In the vegetated primarily with Salbäumen jungle area countless animal species, including threatened with extinction, such as the rhinoceros, the Bengal tiger, and gharial ( Gavialis gangeticus ). The use of the Frankfurt Zoological Society developed protection programs contributed to the recovery of endangered stocks, so that now animals were moved from the Terai in other national parks of Nepal. The rhinoceros population of the park is the second largest of the Earth. The Chitwan National Park is a World Heritage Site since 1984.

Fauna

In addition to the endangered Indian rhinoceros, Bengaltigern, elephants and going on dolphins to the wildlife of the Terai include many mammals such as leopards, deer, jackals, bears, martens, various monkeys, as well as amphibians and reptiles such as snakes and gavials, about 500 species of birds and over 100 species of fish and countless species of butterflies.