Valmiki National Park, West Champaran, Bihar India

The Valmiki tract is broken and undulating often showing highly fragile geological formations. As a result, there are steep ravines, knife-edge ridges and precipitous walls formed by land slips and soil erosion.

Valmiki National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary is located in the West Champaran district of Bihar state. The extensive forest area of Valmikinagar was previously owned by the Bettiah Raj and Ramanagar Raj until the early 1950s. Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR) is one of the natural virgin recesses in east India, situated in the North West corner of Bihar. The pristine forest and wilderness of VTR is an excellent example of Himalayan Terai landscape. VTR comprises the Valmiki National Park and Valmiki Wildlife Sanctuary. The VTR forest area covers 899.38 square kilometres (347.25 sq mi), which is 17.4% of the total geographical area of the district West Champaran.

The name of the district West Champaran derives from two words, Champa and Aranya, meaning forest of Champa trees. Total forest area comprises about 900 square kilometres (350 sq mi), out of which the Valmiki Wildlife Sanctuary is 880 square kilometres (340 sq mi) and spread of the National Park is about 335 square kilometres (129 sq mi) area. In the north, the protected areas are bordered by Nepal while the Indian state Uttar Pradesh bounds the sanctuary from western side.

The national park consists of moist Sal bearing forests, dry sale bearing forests, moist mixed deciduous forests without Sal, cane and tropical seasonal swamp forests containing reed beds and wet grasslands. The one  horned rhinoceros and Indian bison often migrate from Chitwan to Valmikinagar.

The great Gandak and the Masan rivers collect all the water from the numerous, tortuous tributaries. These rivers and streams keep changing course from side to side, facilitated by the erosion prone sandy and immature soil of the banks. Seasonal rivers like Panchanad, Manor, Bhapsa and Kapan display peculiar behaviour of erosion at one place and deposition of transported soil at another place.

Hill system is the continuation of Siwalik Range, largely made of imperfectly compacted and ill-formed sandstone dotted with pebbles and boulders. Owing to the fragile nature of parent rock material, the soil produced at the foothill is immature, loose sand and display sheet. The menace is further aggravated by maltreatment of the forests by people in general, frequent fires and heavy grazing.