Beeshazar Tal is a Ramsar site

Ramsar Convention

The Ramsar Convention is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands, i.e., to stem the progressive encroachment on and loss of wetlands now and in the future, recognizing the fundamental ecological functions of wetlands and their economic, cultural,...

 in central Nepal

Nepal

Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...

. Established in August 2003, it covers an area of 3200 ha (7,907.4 acre) in the buffer zone of Chitwan National Park and is situated between the Mahabharat

Mahabharat Lekh

The Mahabharat Range -- also called the Lesser Himalaya -- is a major east-west mountain range [a series of east-west mountain ranges] with elevations 1,500 to 2,700 metres along the crest, paralleling the much higher Great Himalaya range from the Indus River in Pakistan across northern India,...

 mountain range to the north and the Siwalik

Siwalik Hills

The Sivalik hills is a mountain range of the outer Himalayas also known as Manak Parbat in ancient times. Shivalik literally means 'tresses of Shiva’. This range is about long enclosing an area that starts almost from the Indus and ends close to the Brahmaputra, with a gap of about between the...

 range to the south at an altitude of 286 m (938.3 ft). This Ramsar site forms an extensive oxbow lake

Oxbow lake

An oxbow lake is a U-shaped body of water formed when a wide meander from the main stem of a river is cut off to create a lake. This landform is called an oxbow lake for the distinctive curved shape, named after part of a yoke for oxen. In Australia, an oxbow lake is called a billabong, derived...

 system, typical of the tropical Inner Terai
area.

Fauna

The forested wetland provides excellent habitat as a waterhole and wildlife corridor for critically endangered and vulnerable species including Bengal tiger

Bengal Tiger

The Bengal tiger is a tiger subspecies native to the Indian subcontinent that in 2010 has been classified as endangered by IUCN...

, Sloth bear

Sloth Bear

The sloth bear , also known as the labiated bear, is a nocturnal insectivorous species of bear found wild within the Indian subcontinent. The sloth bear evolved from ancestral brown bears during the Pleistocene and shares features found in insect-eating mammals through convergent evolution...

, Smooth-coated otter

Smooth-coated Otter

The Smooth-coated Otter is a species of otter, the only extant representative of the genus Lutrogale. The species is found from southern Pakistan and parts of the India east to Southeast Asia, and there is a disjunct population in Iraq...

, One-horned rhinoceros, White-rumped vulture, Pallas's fish-eagle, Lesser Adjutant stork

Lesser Adjutant

The Lesser Adjutant, Leptoptilos javanicus, is a large wading bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. It is a widespread species which is resident breeder in southern Asia from India east to southern China and Java....

, Ferruginous duck

Ferruginous Duck

The Ferruginous Duck is a medium-sized diving duck from Eurasia. The species is known colloquially by birders as "Fudge Duck"....

, gharial

Gharial

The gharial , , also called Indian gavial or gavial, is the only surviving member of the once well-represented family Gavialidae, a long-established group of crocodilians with long, slender snouts...

 and Marsh crocodile.

External links

• The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands: The Annotated Ramsar List of Nepal