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Terai
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The Terai ("moist land") is a belt of marshy grasslands, savannas, and forests at the base of the Himalaya range in India, Nepal, and Bhutan, from the Yamuna River in the west to the Brahmaputra River in the east. Above the Terai belt lies the Bhabhar, a forested belt of rock, gravel, and soil eroded from the Himalayas, where the water table lies from 5 to 37 meters deep. The Terai zone lies below the Bhabhar, and is composed of alternate layers of clay and sand, with a high water table that creates many springs and wetlands.
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The Terai ("moist land") is a belt of marshy grasslands, savannas, and forests at the base of the Himalaya range in India, Nepal, and Bhutan, from the Yamuna River in the west to the Brahmaputra River in the east. Above the Terai belt lies the Bhabhar, a forested belt of rock, gravel, and soil eroded from the Himalayas, where the water table lies from 5 to 37 meters deep. The Terai zone lies below the Bhabhar, and is composed of alternate layers of clay and sand, with a high water table that creates many springs and wetlands. The Terai zone is inundated yearly by the monsoon-swollen rivers of the Himalaya. Below the Terai lies the great alluvial plain of the Yamuna, Ganges, Brahmaputra, and their tributaries.
The Terai-Duar savanna and grasslands is an ecoregion that stretches across the middle of the Terai belt, from Uttarakhand state through southern Nepal to northern West Bengal. The Terai-Duar savanna and wetlands are a mosaic of tall grasslands, savannas and evergreen and deciduous forests. The grasslands are among the tallest in the world, and are maintained by silt deposited by the yearly monsoon floods. Important grasses include Kans grass (Saccharum spontaneum) and Baruwa grass (Saccharum benghalensis). The ecoregion is home to the endangered Indian Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis), as well as elephants, tigers, bears, leopards and other wild animals. Much of the ecoregion has been converted to farmland, although Royal Chitwan National Park and Royal Bardia National Park preserve significant sections of habitat, and are home to some of the greatest concentrations of rhinoceros and tiger remaining in South Asia.
Terai in Nepal
In Nepal the Terai is differentiated: There is an "outer" and an "inner" Terai.
"Outer Terai" refers to the alluvial, generally forested and often marshy terrain that is transitional between the 1,000 metre Siwalak Range -- the first and lowest range of Himalayan foothills -- and the Gangeatic plain proper. In Nepal, it is conventionally taken to include any extent of Gangeatic Plains proper extending from this transition zone south to the Indian border.
"Inner Terai Valleys of Nepal" refers to various elongated valleys lying between the Siwalak Range and the 2-3,000 metre Mahabharat Range further north. In India these valleys are also called "Duns", e.g. "Dehra Dun". In some places these two mountain ranges lie next to one another, but in other places they are separated by valleys approximately five to ten kilometres wide and tens of kilometres long.
Major examples in Nepal are Chitwan southwest of Kathmandu and the parallel Dang and Deukhuri valleys in western Nepal. Inner Terai valleys were agriculturally productive, but infested with malaria. The indigenous Tharu people had a degree of inherited resistance and populated these areas. After an eradication campaign people migrated to the Terai from the mountains and from neighbouring India. Today more than half the population and by far the most cities can be found there.
Economy
Economically, Terai is the most productive region of Nepal. The majority of the major industries in Nepal are in this region.
Agriculture is the main economic stake of the region. Main crops are paddy, wheat, pulses, moong, sugarcane, jute, tobacco, and maize. Many agro-based industries like jute factories, sugar mills, rice mills and tobacco factories are established throughout the region.
Tourism
The main places to visit in the Terai are Lumbini, considered to be the birth place of Buddha; Bardia National Park, Chitwan National Park and Janakpur, the birthplace of Sita and where she married Rama, described in the epic of the Ramayana.
The main east–west road through Nepal is the Mahendra Highway, which goes from the Karnali River at the western border of to Kakarbhitta on the eastern border of Nepal.
Major municipalities
See also
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