The Terai–Duar savanna and grasslands is a narrow lowland

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) is an ecological and geographic area that exists on multiple different levels, defined by type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and c ...

at the base of the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

, about wide, and a continuation of the

Indo-Gangetic Plain The Indo-Gangetic Plain, also known as the Northern Plain or North Indian River Plain, is a fertile plain spanning across the northern and north-eastern part of the Indian subcontinent. It encompasses North India, northern and East India, easte ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

and

Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...

. It is colloquially called ''

Terai 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 ...

'' in the

Ganges Basin The Ganges ( ; in India: Ganga, ; in Bangladesh: Padma, ). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international which goes through India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China." is a trans-boundary rive ...

east to Nepal, then ''

Dooars The Dooars or Duars () are the alluvial floodplains in eastern-northeastern India and southern Bhutan that lie south of the outer foothills of the Himalayas and north of the Brahmaputra River basin. This region is about wide and stretches ov ...

'' in

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

, Bhutan and

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

east to the

Brahmaputra River The Brahmaputra is a trans-boundary river which flows through Southwestern China, Northeastern India, and Bangladesh. It is known as Brahmaputra or Luit in Assamese language, Assamese, Yarlung Tsangpo in Lhasa Tibetan, Tibetan, the Siang/Dihan ...

. It harbours the world's tallest

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominance (ecology), dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other Herbaceo ...

s, which are the most threatened and rare worldwide.Dinerstein, E., Loucks, C. (2001).

Location and description

This

tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands is a terrestrial biome defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. The biome is dominated by grass and/or shrubs located in semi-arid to semi- humid climate regions of subtropical and ...

biome A biome () is a distinct geographical region with specific climate, vegetation, and animal life. It consists of a biological community that has formed in response to its physical environment and regional climate. In 1935, Tansley added the ...

stretches from western

to southern

, westward to Banke, covering the Dang and Deukhuri Valleys along the Rapti River to

Bhabar Bhabar or Bhabhar is a region south of the Lower Himalayas and the Sivalik Hills in Garhwal and Kumaon, India. The Bhabhar region contains some of the largest cities of Kumaon and Garhwal: Dehradun, Haridwar, Haldwani, Rishikesh, Ramnagar ...

and

Doon Valley The Doon Valley is an unusually wide, long valley within the Sivalik Hills and the Lesser Himalayas, in the Indian states of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana. Within the valley lies the city of Dehradun, the winter capital of Uttar ...

. Each end crosses the border into India's states of

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand (, ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. The state is bordered by Himachal Pradesh to the n ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

and

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

. The eastern and central areas are wetter than the western end. In Nepal, the wetlands of

Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve The Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve is a protected area in the Terai of eastern Nepal covering of wetlands in the Sunsari District, Sunsari, Saptari District, Saptari and Udayapur Districts. It comprises extensive reed beds and freshwater marshes i ...

, Beeshazar Tal in the bufferzone of

Chitwan National Park 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 in the Terai of south-central Nepal. It ra ...

Jagdishpur Reservoir The Jagdishpur Reservoir is a reservoir in Jahadi Village development committee (Nepal), Village Development Committee, Kapilvastu District, Nepal which was named after Er. Jagadish Jha who designed and supervised the construction of Banaganga dam ...

and

Ghodaghodi Tal Ghodaghodi Tal is a Ramsar site in western Nepal. It was established in August 2003 it covers an area of in Kailali District at an elevation of on the lower slopes of the Siwalik Hills. It was declared as a bird sanctuary in March 2022. This R ...

are designated

Ramsar site A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention,8 ha (O) *** Permanent 8 ha (P) *** Seasonal Intermittent < 8 ha(Ts) **

Sukla Phanta Wildlife Reserve Shuklaphanta National Park is a national park in the Terai of the Far-Western Region, Nepal, covering of open grasslands, forests, riverbeds and wetlands at an elevation of . It is bounded by the Mahakali river in the west and south. A small p ...

is Nepal's largest patch of continuous grassland.

Flora

The Terai–Duar savanna and grasslands are a mosaic of tall riverside grasslands, savannas and

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has Leaf, foliage that remains green and functional throughout the year. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during the winter or dry season. Consisting of many diffe ...

and deciduous forests, depending on

soil quality Soil quality refers to the condition of soil based on its capacity to perform ecosystem services that meet the needs of human and non-human life.Tóth, G., Stolbovoy, V. and Montanarella, 2007. Soil Quality and Sustainability Evaluation - An integ ...

and the amount of rain each area receives. The grasslands of the

in Nepal are among the tallest in the world, and are maintained by silt deposited by the yearly

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in Atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annu ...

floods. Important grasses include baruwa (''Tripidium bengalense'') and

kans grass ''Saccharum spontaneum'' (wild sugarcane, kans grass) is a grass native throughout much of tropical and subtropical Asia, northern Australia, and eastern and northern Africa. It is a perennial grass, growing up to three meters in height, with s ...

(''Saccharum spontaneum''), which quickly establishes itself after the retreat of the monsoon waters. In the hillier areas the dominant tree is sal (''Shorea robusta''), which can grow to a height of . The belt also contains riverside tropical

deciduous forest In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, after flo ...

comprising ''

Mallotus philippensis ''Mallotus philippensis'' is a plant in the spurge family. It is known as the kamala tree or red kamala or kumkum tree, due to the fruit covering, which produces a red dye. However, it must be distinguished from kamala meaning "lotus" in many In ...

'',

jamun ''Syzygium cumini'', commonly known as Malabar plum, Java plum, black plum, jamun, jaman, jambul, or jambolan, is an evergreen tropical tree in the flowering plant family Myrtaceae, and favored for its fruit, timber, and ornamental value. It is ...

, cotton tree, '' Mallotus nudiflorus'', and '' Garuga pinnata''.

Fauna

The ecoregion is habitat for a huge number of

mammalian A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

and

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

species. Notable are the large numbers of the endangered

greater one-horned rhinoceros The Indian rhinoceros (''Rhinoceros unicornis''), also known as the greater one-horned rhinoceros, great Indian rhinoceros or Indian rhino, is a species of rhinoceros found in the Indian subcontinent. It is the second largest living rhinocer ...

and

Bengal tiger The Bengal tiger is a population of the ''Panthera tigris tigris'' subspecies and the nominate tiger subspecies. It ranks among the largest wild cats alive today. It is estimated to have been present in the Indian subcontinent since the Late ...

s as well as

Asian elephant The Asian elephant (''Elephas maximus''), also known as the Asiatic elephant, is the only living ''Elephas'' species. It is the largest living land animal in Asia and the second largest living Elephantidae, elephantid in the world. It is char ...

sloth bear The sloth bear (''Melursus ursinus''), also known as the Indian bear, is a myrmecophagous bear species native to the Indian subcontinent. It feeds on fruits, ants and termites. It is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, mainly because of ...

Indian leopard The Indian leopard (''Panthera pardus fusca'') is a subspecies of the leopard (''P. pardus''). It is widely distributed on the Indian subcontinent. It is threatened by illegal trade of skins and body parts, and persecution due to human-leopard ...

s. In Nepal's

, more than 400 rhinos were sighted in 2008, and 125 adult tigers were recorded during a survey conducted from December 2009 to March 2010, which covered an area of .WWF Nepal (2010) ''More tigers found in Nepal as Nepal-India trans-boundary efforts for tiger conservation intensify'
article online
Nepal's

Bardia National Park Bardiya National Park is a protected area in Nepal that was established in 1988 as ''Royal Bardia National Park''. Covering an area of it is the largest and most undisturbed national park in Nepal's Terai, adjoining the eastern bank of the Karna ...

and

, and India's

Valmiki Valmiki (; , ) was a legendary poet who is celebrated as the traditional author of the epic ''Ramayana'', based on the attribution in the text itself. He is revered as ''Ādi Kavi'', the first poet, author of ''Ramayana'', the first epic poe ...

and

Dudhwa National Park Dudhwa National Park is a national park in the Terai belt of marshy grasslands in northern Uttar Pradesh, India. It stretches over an area of , with a buffer zone of . It is part of the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve in the Kheri and Lakhimpur districts ...

s are home to nearly 100 tigers. Chitwan along with the adjoining

Parsa National Park Parsa National Park is a national park in the Terai of south-central Nepal covering an area of in the Parsa, Makwanpur and Bara Districts and ranging in elevation from in the Sivalik Hills. It was established as a wildlife reserve in 1984 and ...

is of major importance, especially for tigers and

clouded leopard The clouded leopard (''Neofelis nebulosa''), also called mainland clouded leopard, is a wild cat inhabiting dense forests from the foothills of the Himalayas through Northeast India and Bhutan to mainland Southeast Asia into South China. It w ...

. Grazing animals of the grasslands include five species of deer,

barasingha The barasingha (''Rucervus duvaucelii''), sometimes barasinghe, also known as the swamp deer, is a deer species distributed in the Indian subcontinent. Populations in northern and central India are fragmented, and two isolated populations occu ...

, sambar,

chital The chital or cheetal (''Axis axis''; ), also called spotted deer, chital deer and axis deer, is a deer species native to the Indian subcontinent. It was first described by Johann Christian Polycarp Erxleben in 1777. A moderate-sized deer, mal ...

hog deer ''Axis'' is a genus of deer occurring in South and Southeast Asia. As presently defined by most authorities, four species are placed in the genus. Three of the four species are called hog deer. The genus name is a word mentioned in Pliny the Elde ...

and

muntjac Muntjacs ( ), also known as the barking deer or rib-faced deer, (URL is Google Books) are small deer of the genus ''Muntiacus'' native to South Asia and Southeast Asia. Muntjacs are thought to have begun appearing 15–35 million years ago, ...

along with four large grazing animals, Asian elephant, rhinoceros,

gaur The gaur (''Bos gaurus''; ) is a large bovine native to the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia, and has been listed as Vulnerable species, Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1986. The global population was estimated at a maximum of 21,000 ...

and

nilgai The nilgai (''Boselaphus tragocamelus'') (, literally meaning "blue cow") is the largest antelope of Asia, and is ubiquitous across the northern Indian subcontinent. It is the sole member of the genus (biology), genus ''Boselaphus'', which was ...

. Endangered mammals found here include the

wild water buffalo The wild water buffalo (''Bubalus arnee''), 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 198 ...

and the near-endemic

hispid hare The hispid hare (''Caprolagus hispidus''), also known as the Assam rabbit and bristly rabbit, is a species of rabbit native to South Asia. It is the only species in the genus ''Caprolagus''. Named for its bristly fur coat, the hispid hare is a ...

(''Caprolagus hispidus''). The grasslands are also home to a number of reptiles including the

gharial The gharial (''Gavialis gangeticus''), also known as gavial or fish-eating crocodile, is a crocodilian in the family (biology), family Gavialidae and among the longest of all living crocodilians. Mature females are long, and males . Adult males ...

mugger crocodile The mugger crocodile (''Crocodylus palustris'') is a medium-sized broad-snouted crocodile, also known as mugger and marsh crocodile. It is native to freshwater habitats from south-eastern Iran to the Indian subcontinent, where it inhabits marsh ...

and

soft-shelled turtles Trionychidae is a family of turtles, commonly known as softshell turtles or simply softshells. The family was described by Leopold Fitzinger in 1826. Softshells include some of the world's largest freshwater turtles, though many can adapt to liv ...

. The grasslands partly cover two

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

Endemic Bird Area An Endemic Bird Area (EBA) is an area of land identified by BirdLife International as being important for habitat-based bird conservation because it contains the habitats of restricted-range bird species (''see below for definition''), which are th ...

s, the Central Himalayas EBA in western Nepal and the western end of the Assam Plains EBA south of Bhutan. There are three near-endemic bird species. The 44 threatened and declining bird species of the grasslands include the

Bengal florican The Bengal florican (''Houbaropsis bengalensis''), 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 1,00 ...

(''Houbaropsis bengalensis''),

lesser florican The lesser florican (''Sypheotides indicus''), also known as the likh or ''kharmore'', is the smallest in the bustard family and the only member of the genus ''Sypheotides''. It is endemic to the Indian Subcontinent where it is found in tall gra ...

(''Sypheotides indica''),

sarus crane The sarus crane (''Antigone antigone'') is a large nonmigratory Crane (bird), crane found in parts of the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and northern Australia. The tallest of the flying birds, standing at a height of up to , they are a c ...

(''Grus antigone'') and the elusive Indian grassbird.

Threats and conservation

Although the population density has been low it is now growing, especially in the Terai belt. Much of the ecoregion has been converted to farmland since the forest was cut down for timber.

Shuklaphanta National Park Shuklaphanta National Park is a national park in the Terai of the Far-Western Region, Nepal, covering of open grasslands, forests, riverbeds and wetlands at an elevation of . It is bounded by the Mahakali river in the west and south. A small p ...

Chitwan Chitwan District (, , ) is one of seventy-seven districts of Nepal, and takes up the southwestern corner of Bagmati Province. Bharatpur, largest city of Nepal after Kathmandu, is its administrative centre. It covers , and in 2011 had a popul ...

Bardia Bardia, also El Burdi or Bardiyah ( or ) is a Mediterranean seaport in the Butnan District of eastern Libya, located near the border with Egypt. It is also occasionally called ''Bórdi Slemán''. The name Bardia is deeply rooted in the ancient ...

and

s, Some protected areas preserve significant sections of habitat, and are home to some of the greatest concentrations of

Indian rhinoceros The Indian rhinoceros (''Rhinoceros unicornis''), also known as the greater one-horned rhinoceros, great Indian rhinoceros or Indian rhino, is a species of rhinoceros found in the Indian subcontinent. It is the second largest living rhinocer ...

and

remaining in

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

. The areas with tall grasslands are of special conservation importance. The remaining forest is mostly in the drier bhabar belt, with some forest patches in Chitwan National Park.

References

External links