Bardiya National Park

Bardia National Park is the largest park in the lowland Terai covering an area of 968 sq. km. The park situated in Nepal's Western Terai was established to protect representative ecosystems and conserve tiger and its prey species. Initially, a small area was gazette as the Karnali Wildlife Reserve in 1976. When this area was protected, approximately 1500 people of the Babai valley were resettled outside the park allowing the vegetation and wildlife to flourish. In 1982, it was renamed as Bardia Wildlife Reserve, and in 1984 it was extended to its current size. The reserve was given the status of a National Park in 1988. Greater One-horned Rhinoceros were Trans located from Chitwan National Park in 1986, 1991, and 1999.

The park offers a variety of experiences in its vast undisturbed wilderness. About 70% of the forest consists of Sal trees with a mixture of grassland and riverine forests. Sal leaves are used in festival and religious offering. The park is home to endangered animals such as the Royal Bengal tiger, wild elephant, Greater one-horned rhinoceros, swamp deer, and black buck; the other endangered species include gharial-crocodile, marsh mugger and Gangetic dolphin. Endangered birds found in the park are Bengal florican, lesser florican and sarus crane, more that 30 different mammals, over 230 species of birds and several species of snakes, lizard and fish have been recorded in the park's forest, grassland and river. In addition to the resident species, several migratory birds visit the park.