Bardiya National Park

Bardiya is Nepal's most extensive lowland Terai park — nine hundred and sixty-eight square kilometres of forest and grassland in the country's western lowlands, set up to protect the ecosystems of the Terai and to sustain tiger populations alongside the prey species they depend on. The land was first protected in 1976 as a small wildlife reserve; it was enlarged to its present boundaries in 1984.

In 1997, a buffer zone of three hundred and twenty-seven square kilometres was declared around the park's edge, combining community forests and privately held land. The park authority and local communities jointly govern this buffer zone, managing natural resources and running community development work in tandem.

The Babai Valley draws most wildlife watchers — tigers, greater one-horned rhinos and wild elephants move through this stretch of lowland terrain in numbers that make sightings realistic rather than lucky. Elephant-back travel lets you move off the main trails onto ground that vehicles cannot reach. Park-wide, the recorded fauna runs to sixty-one mammal species, five hundred and thirteen bird species, forty-two herpetofauna species and one hundred and twenty fish species.

The park lies in Lumbini Province in the Bansagadhi area, accessed via Nepal's western lowland road network.