However, many of the records from Nepal are based on either presence-only surveys or anecdotal information. Herein we provide a checklist of snakes found in and around Bardiya National Park (BNP) and its buffer zone.Bardiya National Park (28°15'-28°35.5'N, 80°10'-81°45'E; elevational range 152-1,564 m asl) (Fig. 1) covers an area of 968 km 2 in the southwestern lowlands of Lumbini Province, Bardiya District, Nepal (Bhuju et al. 2007; DNPWC 2021). A buffer zone of 327 km 2 with forested areas and farmland surrounding the park was added in 1996 and another 180-km 2 area in the north was included in 2011. The climate is temperate with dry winters and hot summers. Biomes include tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, shrublands, and tropical and subtropical coniferous forests, although no forests are intact. The recorded biodiversity is 839 species of plants and 667 species of animals.We collected information on snakes collected from BNP and its buffer zone in 2010-2021 from the database of the National Trust for Nature Conservation, Bardiya Conservation Program (NTNC-BCP) rescue records and by reviewing the literature, recording opportunistic sightings, interviewing local residents, and gathering data posted on various social media platforms. We evaluated all data and included only reliable information documented by photographs acquired from snake handlers and nature guides of the Buffer Zone User Group (BZUG) or technicians and staff of the NTNC-BCP. We identified species using published guidebooks (Dutta and Manamendra-Arachchi 1996;Shah and Tiwari 2004;Sharma et al. 2013;Bhattarai et al. 2020).We recorded 24 species of snakes in eight families in and around BNP and its buffer zone (Table 1; Fig. 2). Twentytwo of the species were among the 27 recorded by Shah and Tiwari (2004) in and around Bardiya National Park, and 16 were among the 18 listed by Subedi et al. (2021) in the Chure Region. We recorded eight species not listed by Subedi et al. (2021) and three species that had not been recorded by Shah and Tiwari (2004). Subedi et al. (2021) listed two species and Shah and Tiwari (2004) six species we did not find during our survey. When compared to other areas in Nepal, the species diversity in the vicinity of BNP corresponds to the 19 (18 in common) recorded in Parsa National Park (Bhattarai et al. 2018), 25 (16) throughout the Chure Range (Bhattarai et al. 2020), and 30 (22) in Shuklaphanta National Park (Rawat et al. 2020).Nepal's snake diversity and that of BNP in particular are threatened by habitat degradation, nest damage, roadkills, and indiscriminate killing attributable to unfavorable perceptions of snakes (Shah and Gautam 2010). Many Nepalese do not distinguish venomous and non-venomous snakes and assume that all snakes are dangerous and must be killed (Thapa 2007
Human – Elephant Conflict (HEC) causes the socio-economic distress in the settlement around Bardiya National Park (BNP). The transboundary migration of Asian elephant from Katarniyaghat Wildlife Sanctuary (KWS) in India to BNP and vice versa through Khata corridor exposes the vulnerable settlement in the corridor to frequent elephant encounters. The distance to conflict sites from features such as the forest frontage, the river edge, and the boundary of protected areas influences the severity of the crop damage. Municipalities within Khata corridor i.e., Thakurbaba and Madhuban were the study area that were further divided into three sample clusters i.e., MB, MBBZ and TBBZ. Hundred sample households (HHs) were surveyed and the annual stored crop damage and the crop damage on the agricultural field were quantified. ArcGis and R – studio were used to map and analyse the raid pattern. The result showed that small to medium landholding was possessed by most sample HHs and paddy was the most grown crop. Paddy was also the most depredated crop. The most severe crop damage in the agricultural field was sustained by MB cluster whereas the most severe stored crop damage was experienced by MBBZ cluster. A moderately strong correlation between the crop damage and the distance to BNP, the distance to KWS, and the number of elephants in a raiding herd was identified. The crop raid from larger herds was suffered by settlements closer to KWS. However, more study on the question raised regarding the elephant behaviour on transboundary movement through Khata corridor is required.
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