The Terai-Duar savanna and grasslands form a narrow lowland belt at the base of the Himalayas, stretching from northwest India across the inner river valleys of southern Nepal to southwest Bhutan, where it is known variously as the Terai and the Dooars. It is a mosaic of tall riverside grasslands, savannas, and evergreen and deciduous broadleaf forests, and it harbors some of the world's tallest grasslands, with stands more than 7 meters high; characteristic grasses include baruwa (Tripidium bengalense) and kans grass (Saccharum spontaneum), while sal (Shorea robusta) dominates the forest patches. The climate is hot, humid, and wet during the summer monsoon with temperatures reaching 40C, then cooler in winter with morning ground frost, and the annual cycle of monsoon floods deposits the silt that keeps the grasslands renewed. This habitat shelters globally threatened wildlife, including the greater one-horned rhinoceros, Bengal tiger, and Asian elephant, but the grasslands themselves are among the most reduced and threatened in the world, largely lost to agricultural conversion and altered water flows.

At a glance

About the tropical & subtropical grasslands, savannas & shrublands biome

Warm grasslands and savannas where grasses dominate and trees are scattered, maintained by seasonal rainfall, grazing, and fire. They support large herbivore communities and respond sharply to wet–dry cycles.

Catalog plants suited to this ecoregion

Computed from each plant's stated USDA zone range against this ecoregion's CHELSA-derived current zone range, with the CHELSA mid-century warming delta applied for the projection. Plants whose stated range falls outside both the current and projected zone end up dropped; the rest land in one of the three buckets below.

Collections for this ecoregion

Curated multi-plant collections whose members all fit this ecoregion's zone range — no won't-grow members smuggled in. Overall fit class shown per collection is the weakest link across its members.

Related ecoregions