The Babai River () originates in and completely drains Inner Terai Dang Valley of Mid-Western

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

. Dang is an oval valley between the

Mahabharat Range The Lower Himalayan Range, also called the Lesser Himalayas and Mahabharat Lekh or Himachal, is one of the four parallel sub-ranges of the Himalayas. It has the Great Himalayas to the north and the Sivalik Hills to the south. It extends from th ...

and

Siwalik Hills The Sivalik Hills, also known as Churia Hills, are a mountain range of the outer Himalayas. The literal translation of "Sivalik" is 'tresses of Shiva'. The hills are known for their numerous fossils, and are also home to the Soanian Middle Pale ...

in its eponymous district. Dang was anciently home to

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...

Tharu people The Tharu people are an ethnic group living in the Terai in southern Nepal and northern India. They speak Tharu languages. They are recognized as an official ethnicity by the Government of Nepal. In the Indian Terai, they live foremost in Uttara ...

and came to be ruled from India by the

House of Tulsipur Tulsipur State was a small kingdom in the Awadh region of India that became the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh under the British Raj. Tulsipur also extended north beyond Dundwa Range of the Siwaliks to include the Dang and Deukhuri ...

who also counted as one of the

Baise Rajya Baise Rajya () were sovereign and intermittently allied petty kingdoms on the Indian subcontinent, ruled by Khas, Khasas from History of Nepal, medieval Nepal, located around the Karnali River, Karnali-Bheri River, Bheri river basin of modern-day ...

()—a confederation of 22

petty kingdoms A petty kingdom is a kingdom described as minor or "petty" (from the French 'petit' meaning small) by contrast to an empire or unified kingdom that either preceded or succeeded it (e.g. the numerous kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England unified into t ...

in the Karnali (Ghagra) region. About 1760 AD all these kingdoms were annexed by the

Shah Dynasty The Shah dynasty (), also known as the Shahs of Gorkha or the Royal House of Gorkha, was the ruling Chaubise Thakuri dynasty and the founder of the Gorkha Kingdom from 1559 to 1768 and later the unified Kingdom of Nepal from 1768 to 28 May ...

during the

unification of Nepal The unification of Nepal () was the process of building the modern Nepalese state, by invading fractured Malla kingdoms including the Baise Rajya's 22 kingdoms and the Chaubisi Rajya's 24 kingdoms. It began in 1743 CE (1799 BS), by Prithvi N ...

, except Tulsipur lands south of the Siwalik Hills were not taken. Since Dang Valley was somewhat higher, cooler, better-drained and therefore less

malaria Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects vertebrates and ''Anopheles'' mosquitoes. Human malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, Fatigue (medical), fatigue, vomitin ...

l than most of the country's Inner Terai, it was settled to some extent by Shah and

Rana Rana may refer to: Astronomy * Rana (crater), a crater on Mars * Delta Eridani or Rana, a star Films * Rana (2012 film), an Indian Kannada-language action drama * Rana, a 1998 Telugu-language action film directed by A. Kodandarami Reddy * R ...

courtiers and other Paharis long before

DDT Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, commonly known as DDT, is a colorless, tasteless, and almost odorless crystalline chemical compound, an organochloride. Originally developed as an insecticide, it became infamous for its environmental impacts. ...

was introduced to control the disease-bearing ''

Anopheles ''Anopheles'' () is a genus of mosquito first described by the German entomologist Johann Wilhelm Meigen, J. W. Meigen in 1818, and are known as nail mosquitoes and marsh mosquitoes. Many such mosquitoes are Disease vector, vectors of the paras ...

'' mosquito. Exiting Dang Valley and its district, the Babai enters Salyan District and flows between sub-ranges of the Siwalik Hills along their west-northwest axis. Sharada Khola drains about half of Salyan's larger Middle Hills region before cutting through the Mahabharat Range and joining the Babai from the right. Salyan was another Baise principality before unification. About beyond this confluence, the Babai crosses into

Bardiya District Bardiya District (), one of the seventy-seven Districts of Nepal, is part of Lumbini Province of Nepal. The district, with Gulariya as its headquarters, covers an area of and according to the 2001 census the population was 382,649 in 2011 it h ...

and enters

Bardiya National Park Bardiya National Park is a protected area in Nepal that was established in 1988 as ''Royal Bardia National Park''. Covering an area of it is the largest and most undisturbed national park in Nepal's Terai, adjoining the eastern bank of the Karna ...

. The river continues another west-northwest until the enclosing Siwalik hills fall away and the Outer Terai begins. At this point the river crosses Nepal's main east–west

Mahendra Highway Mahendra Highway or NH01 (previously: H01) (), also called East-West Highway (), runs across the Terai geographical region of Nepal, from Mechinagar in the east to Bhim Datta in the west, cutting across the entire width of the country. It is th ...

and exits the national park. On the Outer Terai the Babai is finally free to gradually bend left toward the main inclination of the

Indo-Gangetic Plain The Indo-Gangetic Plain, also known as the Northern Plain or North Indian River Plain, is a fertile plain spanning across the northern and north-eastern part of the Indian subcontinent. It encompasses North India, northern and East India, easte ...

. The river flows south some and enters

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

state. The Babai continues about (straight line) south from the border before joining the much larger

Ghaghara The Ghaghara River, also known as the Karnali River in Nepal, Mapcha Tsangpo in Tibet, and as the Sarayu River in the lower Ghaghara of India's Awadh, is a perennial trans-boundary river that originates in the northern slopes of the Himalaya ...

from the left at about west-northwest of

Bahraich Bahraich is a city and a municipal board in Bahraich district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Located on the Saryu River, a tributary of the Ghaghara river, Bahraich is north-east of Lucknow, the state capital. The districts of B ...

. This confluence is about upstream of the Sharda (Mahakali) confluence from the right. In Nepal the

catchment A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, th ...

of the Babai is bordered by that of the Rapti on the north, east and south; and by the main Ghaghra catchment on the west until their confluence. In India the Rapti takes a more easterly course, joining the Ghagra some southeast of the Babai's confluence. In Season 9, Episode 55 of the television series River Monsters,

Jeremy Wade Jeremy John Wade (born 23 March 1956) is a British television presenter, an author of books on angling, and a biologist. He is known for his television series '' River Monsters'', ''Mighty Rivers'' and ''Dark Waters''. He is regarded as one of th ...

visits Bardia National Park to fish the Babai. He hoped to catch a large Goonch catfish but was unsuccessful.

Gallery

File:Babai River.jpg, Babai River File:Babai River 03.jpg, Babai River File:Babai River 04.jpg, Babai River File:Babai River 05.jpg, Babai River File:Babai River 06.jpg, Babai River File:Babai River 07.jpg, Babai River

References

{{Authority control Rivers of Lumbini Province Rivers of Uttar Pradesh International rivers of Asia

Gallery

See also

References