The Tarai (or sometimes incorrectly written Terai) is a flat strip of land bordering the plains of India which the foothills suddenly rise out of.
Whilst Nepal has traditionally been seen as the hill region, the Nepalese people were “rewarded” with the prime agricultural land of the Tarai by the British for being brave Gurkha soldiers.
The land at that time was malaria-infested subtropical jungle and took years of hard work to turn into today’s safe rice fields.
Aptly named “damp” in Persian, the Tarai is humid in the summer and cold and misty in the winter, and the home to tigers, hyenas, rhinos, and elephants.
