From royal hunting ground to tiger stronghold
This land has changed hands more than once. Under the Sugauli Treaty of 1815, Nepal lost the western Terai to the East India Company. In 1860 the British returned it, in thanks for Nepal's help in putting down the 1857 uprising in India, and people here still call the four districts of Banke, Bardia, Kailali and Kanchanpur Naya Muluk, the new country. For a century the forest belonged mainly to the Tharu and to malaria. Bardia's Tharu still use the old name with a mix of pride and irony.
In 1969 an area of 368 sq km was set aside as a royal hunting reserve. It became the Royal Karnali Wildlife Reserve in 1976 and the Royal Bardia Wildlife Reserve in 1982, and in 1984 it was extended to include the Babai valley. About 1,500 people who lived in the Babai valley were resettled elsewhere, and the abandoned fields there have since grown back into prime habitat. In 1988 the reserve became a national park. The cleared Babai valley is now one of the best places in the Terai to feel truly alone in the forest.
Rhinos were brought from Chitwan from 1986 onwards; poaching during the years of conflict nearly wiped them out from the Babai valley, but protection improved and numbers recovered in the Karnali floodplain. Tigers have done better still. The national tiger count released in July 2026 put Bardia at 112, one of the highest densities in Nepal. Living close to tigers has a cost: in 2021 a few tigers killed several people in villages around the park, and the relationship between farmers and wildlife is something every guide here will talk about honestly.
