In the crowded, farm-covered lowlands of southeastern Nepal, satellite images reveal something unusual: a solitary green island, roughly 6,100 hectares, surrounded entirely by fields and villages. This is Jalthal Forest, in Jhapa District, a fragment of the once-continuous Charkoshe forest belt that stretched across the Tarai plains. At just 70–120 meters elevation, it's among Nepal's lowest-elevation forests, and one of its most biodiverse.
Despite covering only 0.1% of the country's forest area, Jalthal hosts more than a quarter of all tree species found in Nepal around 90 documented so far, likely the richest concentration in any single Tarai forest patch. One tree, locally called Lathar, has been recorded nowhere else in the country.
The forest also holds midhill species growing far below their expected elevation, rare Cycas trees, and palms almost unheard of elsewhere in the lowlands. Wildlife includes Burmese pythons, threatened birds like the lesser adjutant, and wild elephants, whose presence near farmland creates ongoing tension with nearby communities.
Jalthal is also a working forest. Managed by 22 Community Forest User Groups, it supports the livelihoods of more than 80,000 people, who rely on it for firewood, fodder, timber, and a wide range of wild foods from fiddlehead ferns to a dozen varieties of wild fruit. Elders recall a forest once thick with beehives and roaming tigers, far larger than the isolated patch that remains today.
That decline is visible throughout the forest. The invasive vine Mikania micrantha, or "mile-a-minute," has spread across more than half of Jalthal since a devastating 1996 storm opened the canopy for its growth; the forest now hosts 15 of Nepal's 27 recognized invasive plant species.
Elsewhere, widely spaced trees show little young growth, a once-swimmable pond has silted into a marsh, and old grazing and logging pressures have left lasting scars even as the forest retains pockets of true old-growth character, with massive trees and ancient lianas rarely matched even in national parks.
Community management has already curbed encroachment, hunting, and unregulated harvesting. Building on that, groups like ForestAction Nepal, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, and a dedicated Jalthal Biodiversity project have paired scientific survey work with local participation; over 300 community members contributed to recent biodiversity documentation.
Separately, ARC and Village Hope Nepal are running a reforestation initiative across 3,512 hectares, using an "Employ to Restore" model that pays local workers to restore the forest, tackling ecological decline and underemployment at once. Jalthal's fate hinges on that same combination: treating the forest's survival and the wellbeing of the people around it as a single, shared problem.
