Rara Lake | Nymph of Heaven |

Deep blue lake, coniferous forest around, highland above and snow capped himalayan range in the top, a blend of unbelievable beauty and boundary people often compare it with Nymph of Heaven.

Annapurna I

Annapurna I was the first eight-thousander to be conquered and lies 34km east of Dhaulagiri. The Annapurna

range stretches from 55km and is made up of a series of peaks. Between this massif and the Dhaulagiri range flows the great Kali Gandaki river which has carved what is believed to be the world's deepest gorge with an eight-thousander on either side. Translated from Sanskrit, Annapurna would mean "Full of grain" but is generally known as the "Goddess of harvests". This area has been well-protected under Annapurna Conservation Area Project  (ACAP), one of the most successful conservation projects. Four other peaks in this range share the name Annapurna: Annapurna II (7,937m), Annapurna III (7,555m), Annapurna IV (7,525m) and Annapurna South (7,219m).
As the French expedition led by Maurice Herzog in 1950 had come with the intension of climbing Dhaulagiri, it took them two weeks to locate Annapurna I after they chenged their plans.

Makalu

Like Everest and Lhotse, the fifth highest mountain, Makalu lies in the Khumbu region of North-eastern

Nepal. It has two subsidiary peaks: Kangchungtse or Makalu II (7,678m) is north-northwest of the main summit while Chomo Lonzo, the other peak, lies north of it. On 15th May 1955, Lionel Terry and Jean Couzy, members of a French expedition led by Jean Franco reached the summit of Makalu. The following day, Franco, G. Magnone and SherpaGyaltsen Norbu also summitted. The North face and the north-east ridge via which they climbed became the standard route for the clumbers who came after them.
Over the following years, mountaineers climbed over the south-east ridge, the West Pillar route.

Mt. Everest- Pride of the World

Mt. Everest was first climbed on 29th May 1953 by Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of

Nepal. This British Expedition was led by John Hunt. The first expedition on Everest was led y Lt. Colonel Charles Howard-Bury in 1921. The early atttempts were make from the Tibetan side as Nepal was closed to outsiders until 1950. Since 1953, more than a thousand people have climbed Everest and among them Apa Sherpa has summitted twenty times. The most commonly used route up the mountain is the South-east Ridge.

Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve - Nepal Tourism Year 2011

Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve is located in the far-eastern lowland Terai of Nepal. The pristine sub-tropical

jungle makes Shuklaphanta Nepal's second largest wildlife reserve in Terai. The open grasslands and numerous waterholes of the park extend into a vast expanse of plain grasslands and Sal foress, while marsh vegetation is found along rivers and lakes. The reserve that was originally a hunting area was later converted to wildlife reserve to protect swamp deer. There serve now shelters to almost 2,000 swamp deer, around 50 wild elephants and 30 tigers. Other animals found here are spotted deer, blue bulls, barking deer, hog deer, wild boars, leopards, jackals, langurs and rhesus monkeys. Among birds the reserve provides habitat to sarus crane, swamp francolin, grass owl, warblers, flycatchers, and endangered Bengal florican. Reptile species include marsh mugger, crocodile,

Parsa Wildlife Reserve - Nepal Toursim Year 2011

The Parsa Wildlife Reserve spreads over parts of Chitwan, Makawanpur, Parsa and Bara districts. The

vegetation is tropical and sub tropical mostly covered with Sal forests, while the hills are covered with chir pine. Khair, sissoo and silkcotton are found along water areas. The reserve provides good habitat for animals like wild elephant, tiger, leopard, sloth bear, gaur, blue bull and wild dog. Other common animals in the reserve are sambar, chital, hog deer, barking deer, langur monkey, rhesus macaques, striped hyena, rat, palm civet and jungle cat. There are 370 species of birds found in the reserve, one being the endangered great hornbill found in certain parts of the forest. Other bird species include peafowl, red jungle fowl, flycatchers and woodpecker. Apart from birds and animals the reserve is also habitated by snakes like king cobra, common cobra, krait, rat snake and python.

Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park

Popular trekking, hiking and recreation area, the Park offers the retreat from Kathmandu.The park was

estalished as a watershed and Wildlife Reserve in 1976 and was declared as a national park in 2002 for the protection of flora and fauna. Vegetation varieties in the park include its 129 species of mushrooms while animals include 19 species of mammals including Himalayan black bear, leopard, barking deer, wild boar, wildcat, rhesus monkey and langur monkey. The park also boasts of 177 species of birds and 102 species of butterflies.

National Parks, Wildlife Reserves and Conservation Area of Nepal

The geography of Nepal can be divided into high mountains, mid hills and low lands. A wide range of ecosystem from sub-tropical jungles of the Terai to the arctic conditions of Himalayan highlands are found within an area of 147,181 sq. Km.

There are a total of 9 national parks, 3 wildlife reserves, 6 conservation areas, 1 hunting reserve in including 11 buffer zone areas in an around protected areas, covering a total of 28,998.67 sq Km. (19.07%) of the country's total land. Nepal's rich bio-diversity renders it ideal as an eco-tourism destination.