Valmiki Tiger Reserve:
The Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR) in West Champaran is also emerging as one of the state’s richest reptile habitats with more than 45 species of snakes recorded in its forests.
- Valmiki Tiger Reserve is located at the India-Nepal border in the northern part of the West Champaran District of Bihar.
- It forms the easternmost limit of the Himalayan Terai forests in India and is the only tiger reserve of Bihar.
- It comprises the Valmiki National Park and the Valmiki Wild Sanctuary.
- Situated in the Gangetic Plains bio-geographic zone of the country, the forest has a combination of Bhabar and Terai tracts.
- It is surrounded by the Royal Chitwan National Park of Nepal in the north and the river Gandak on the western side.
- The Rivers Gandak, Pandai, Manor, Harha, Masan, and Bhapsa flow through various parts of the reserve.
- The reserve boasts a variety of vegetation types, including tropical wet deciduous forests, grasslands, savannas, and riverine forests.
- Sal trees dominate the forests, but the region also features species like teak, bamboo, semal, and khair.
- Tiger, leopard, fishing cat, leopard cat, sambar, hog deer, spotted deer, black buck, gaur, sloth bear, langur, rhesus monkey, etc.
