The Terai “low-lying land at the foot of the Himalayas”, stretching from Corbett NP in the West until Kaziranga NP in the East, throughout India, Nepal and Bhutan, is a focal area of the programme.
The 49,500 km2 Terai Arc is a part of Terai which stretches for over 700 km along the southern boundary of Nepal and the sub-Himalayan region of North India. It supports an estimated 485 tigers.
In the west, Zoological Society of London (ZSL) works with others towards improving the management effectiveness of protected areas and focuses on five key sites, namely Nandaur Wildlife Sanctuary in India, Sukla Phanta Wildlife Reserve, Bardia and Banke National Parks and Parsa Wildlife Reserve in Nepal.
This adjoins a project being undertaken by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Germany, in collaboration with WWF Nepal and WWF India, targeting in particular the buffer zones of Chitwan National Park and Parsa Wildlife Reserve in Nepal and the buffer zone and core area of Valmiki Tiger Reserve in India. Chitwan, a World Heritage site where tigers are thriving, will serve as a tiger source population from which dispersing individuals can colonize other sites to increase their tiger numbers.
Going east again, in Manas National Park (N.E India), IUCN is supporting the Indian NGO Aaranyak. This project works in tandem while another initiative, led by the Department of Forests and Park Services of the Government of Bhutan, is working in Royal Manas National Park.
The work in Terai should not only allow an increasing in tiger populations, but also protects key habitats that shelter amongst other species the Asian elephant and the greater one-horned rhinoceros.
