Scientists have found the oldest face—and it's a fish. (Not a fishface, though.)

The 419-million-year-old fish fossil could help explain when and how vertebrates, including humans, acquired our faces—suggesting a far more primitive origin for this critical feature of our success, a new study says.

"Entelognathus primordialis is one of the earliest, and certainly the most primitive, fossil fish that has the same jawbones as modern bony fishes and land vertebrates including ourselves," said study co-author Min Zhu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

"The human jaw is quite directly connected to the jaw of this fish, and that's what makes it so interesting."

The bones comprising the fish's cheek and jaws appear essentially the same as those found in modern bony vertebrates, including humans, Zhu added. Because it boasts maxilla and mandible much like our own, the fish may be the earliest known creature with what we'd recognize as a face. (Related: "Ancient Toothy Fish Found in Arctic—Giant Prowled Rivers.")

Key Evolutionary Step

The development of jaws and faces was a key step in vertebrate evolution, and probably appeared as a way for fish to catch bigger and/or more nimble prey, according to the study, published September 26 in the journal Nature.

There remains much to learn about how it happened, however.

University of Oxford paleobiologist Matt Friedman, who wasn't involved in the research but penned a commentary for Nature, said the fossil boasts a jaw and face structure that's nothing like those in any other known members ofEntelognathus's extinct family of primitive armored fishes, the placoderms. These creatures had simple jaws and cheeks composed of just a few large bones, Friedman explained, rather than complex arrangements of smaller bones like those found in modern bony fishes.

But in the new fossil, found in China, has a distinctive three-bone system still used by chewing vertebrates today: a lower jawbone called the dentary and two upper jaw bones called the premaxilla (holding the front teeth) and the maxilla (holding the canine and cheek teeth).

"The exciting thing about this fossil is that when you look at the top of it, it looks like a placoderm, but when you look at the side of the fish and the structure of the jaw, it doesn't look like any placoderm that we know of," Friedman said.

"This tends to suggest the exciting possibility that these jawbones evolved way deep down in the lineage, so these features we used to hold as being unique to bony fishes may not be so unique.” (Related: "Ancient Fish Downsized But Still Largest Ever.")

Understanding Our Origins

The ramifications of that theory, if confirmed, would extend far beyond fish into the deepest roots of our own family tree, Friedman said.

"Basically, as terrestrial vertebrates, we are a kind of very specialized, very bizarre fish that about 370 million years ago went on land and lost its fins. Understanding the origin of bony fishes is inextricably linked to understanding our own origins because we're bony fishes.

"These different bones in our skull, the ones that medical students learn the names of, where and when in our family tree did they arrive?” he asked. (Related: "Flat-Faced Early Humans Confirmed—Lived Among Other Human Species.")

If it's the case that the bones we see in Entelognathus are genuinely related to the ones in our own faces, Friedman explained, we can trace the origin of those features very deep down into our own family tree, even before the lineage of bony fishes (including terrestrial vertebrates like humans) split from that of the cartilaginous fishes (including sharks and rays).

"It suggests a real antiquity to some of the most prominent features of our own bony faces."

Read more…

                                                        

Read more…

                                                                                                                                                                                              

Read more…

Read more…

Read more…

Once a year, thousands of people descend on the remote town of Birdsville, Australia, for a three-day horse racing event in western Queensland's Diamantina Shire. Commissioned to document the Shire—a 36,000-square-mile area on the edge of the Simpson Desert—Your Shot contributor Rowan Bestmann was covering the event from a light plane when he came across this view of parked 4x4s. "The owners of these vehicles had driven from all over Australia," he says. "During the races, the town's two service stations sell more than 160,000 liters [42,000 gallons] of diesel fuel."

Read more…

With its tubular, bulbous nose, it may look like a character from a Dr. Seuss book or the bar scene in Star Wars.

But don't be fooled by its droll appearance: The saiga antelope is one of the animal world's great survivors. (See video: "Ice Age Antelope Under Threat.")

Saiga (Saiga tatarica) are about the size of a small goat—males weigh on average 90 pounds (41 kilograms) and females around 60 pounds (27 kilograms)—and live in the steppes, the arid grasslands that encompass parts of Eastern Europe and most of Central Asia.

Saigas, an endangered antelope species, are returning to Kazakhstani wildlife, thanks to conservation efforts.

Saiga graze near a watering hole.

Photograph by Klaus Nigge

Despite their awkward running gait, head down, stubby legs on either side driving in tandem, they can clock 50 miles an hour (80 kilometers an hour) on their long migrations.

Saiga date back to the Ice Age—and they were once as prolific in Central Asia as bison were on the plains of North America. More than two million roamed the Eurasian steppes as recently as last century.

But following the breakup of the Soviet Union, poaching and other disruptions to their habitat led to a precipitous decline: In just 15 years their numbers plunged by nearly 95 percent, making the saiga antelope one of the world's most threatened animals.

Saiga gather at a watering hole. This scene was impossible to imagine, even a few years ago.

Photograph by Klaus Nigge

In 2002, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)—the world's leading conservation body—placed Saiga tatarica on its "red list" of critically endangered species.

Conservationists, scientists, and non-governmental organizations have rallied to the little ungulate's side.

One informal grouping, called the Saiga Conservation Alliance (SCA), helped formulate an action plan for the saiga's preservation. All four countries where the antelopes still exist—Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Mongolia—have signed on.

The SCA works alongside the Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan (ACBK), the main organization coordinating the saiga's defense, which is headquartered in the Kazakh capital, Astana.

ACBK is establishing protected areas across a region the size of France in Kazakhstan, home to around 90 percent of the world's saiga.

The most recent saiga reserve to have been declared is a 1.2-million acre swath in the Altyn Dala (Golden Steppe) region.

Under the ACBK's auspices, to monitor their status, saiga are being caught and tagged, and the calves weighed.

Scientists weigh a newborn saiga.

Photograph by Klaus Nigge

Local people are being educated about the saiga's significance and the need to protect them.

This often constitutes a reintroduction to a lost tradition: Some indigenous groups once regarded the saiga as a holy animal.

The initiative is already yielding heartening results: From a low just a few years ago of around 20,000 to 30,000 saiga, spread thinly across Kazakhstan, their numbers last year passed the symbolic 100,000 mark. At last count they exceeded 150,000.

"This is a big deal, given the fact that the population was almost eradicated ten years back," says Steffen Zuther, a German scientist who works with the Kazakh government and the various organizations supporting the project.

Although, as Zuther says, saiga are still close to disappearing in some parts of their range, the hope in Kazakhstan is to return them to their early 1990s level of half a million.

Discussions are taking place about whether, and when, saiga can be taken off the critically endangered list, Zuther says.

Promising Signs

Poaching is on the decline in Kazakhstan, and saiga have been allowed to roam more or less freely.

A herd of saiga rush through the grasslands.

Photograph by Klaus Nigge

The antelope's own fertile reproduction patterns are a boon. Females start giving birth when they're only one year old, and they often produce twins and triplets. (Saiga female life spans average ten years, and one doe may produce as many as 20 young.)

Saiga congregate Serengeti-like at a spot that shifts slightly from year to year, where they give birth en masse over roughly a week's time. This mass birthing allows enough calves a battling chance to survive predators such as wolves and eagles.

Once, the flat expanses and shallow rolling hills of the Betpak-Dala region—greened from the spring rains and dotted with the whites, yellows, and reds of wild tulips—were blanketed with tens of thousands of massing saiga.

During the past decade, though, their numbers in Betpak-Dala (also known as Hunger Steppe) fell to just a few hundred.

The first indication that protective measures were taking root in Betpak-Dala came in the spring of 2011, when some 20,000 saiga returned to give birth.

Saiga Spotting

Steffen Zuther recently led me and a small group of others on a hike to witness the calving.

As we walked under the enveloping sky, the smell of wild sage hanging in the air, he spoke of the subtle beauty of the steppe—and the saiga's importance within it.

"If you draw a circle of the steppe's ecosystem, the saiga is at the very center," Zuther said.

Steppe regions are defined by extreme temperatures (from minus 40 to more than 110 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 40 to 43 degrees Celsius) and by modest rainfall (between 8 and 20 inches or 20 to 50 centimeters a year), allowing only grasses, herbs, and shrubs to grow.

Although the steppe may conjure images of emptiness, some 2,000 species of plants grow in northern Kazakhstan alone, about 30 found nowhere else.

Saiga help maintain this vegetative balance through grazing and by carrying seeds in their fur that drop to the ground during their migrations between summer and winter pastures.

And, Zuther said, the antelope themselves are sustenance for those predators.

"The steppes that don't have saiga are somehow deader, quieter, and less diverse," he said.

Poaching: A Post-Soviet Crisis

During the late 1980s and 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the region underwent economic convulsions, and saiga became an easy means to supplement reduced diets.

Or make a quick buck. Chinese use the males' foot-long translucent horns, ground into a powder, as a medicine for headache and fever. A pound of saiga horn could earn a poacher U.S. $2,000.

A preferred hunting method was to chase a saiga in a car or motorcycle until it collapsed from exhaustion.

Poaching played havoc with saiga reproduction. The rutting season is an intense affair: Males fight to the death—between 50 and 70 percent perish in the process—and in the end one buck will maintain a harem of around a dozen does.

During the worst of the poaching, the ratio was reduced to one male for every hundred females—an impossible situation for long-term survival of the species.

A saiga carcass is inspected by scientist Steffen Zuther and a driver.

Photograph by Klaus Nigge

As our group walked on, we encountered a Kazakh ranger patrol on the lookout for poachers. The men suspected that a group might be operating there—they'd seen tire tracks.

Equipped with high-powered SUVs and fast motorcycles, poachers frequently outrun law officers, who more often than not drive clapped-out Soviet-era jeeps.

Nevertheless, saiga poaching is on the decline, thanks to a higher number of rangers and more vigilant policing.

New Concerns

Disconcerting developments loom on other fronts.

Kazakhstan has built a fence along its border with Uzbekistan, bisecting the Ustyurt Plateau migration route of one saiga population, which is still dangerously sparse.

At the same time, Kazakh officials are planning to build a railroad across the all-important Betpak-Dala steppe, where most of the country's saiga live.

And over the last four years, a mysterious disease has struck down thousands of saiga, mostly females, in various locations at the end of their calving season.

Experts originally blamed the bacterial infection pasteurellosis for the deaths. Now some believe the saiga had eaten too much "moisture-laden" grass during their postpartum period, when they're particularly hungry and thirsty.

Birth of Hope

Moving softly, single file, we at last spotted a female saiga a few hundred yards ahead of us. She sprang up, then darted away.

Saiga calves are left alone after birth. Their mother picks them up the same day or the next day and brings them back to the herd.

Photograph by Klaus Nigge

As we approached the spot, we saw twin calves lying in the brittle, pungent grass. They couldn't have been more than minutes old.

Their downy, earth-brown fur was damp, their eyes unblinking black orbs, their twitching noses like miniature vacuum spouts.

The mother would return later, Zuther explained, and in a few days they would leave here altogether.

In the distance, eagles circled in the dome-like sky. Predators aside, the future for these newborns seemed reasonably secure.

As we stood admiring them, the only sounds were the soughing of the wind, the song of a lark, and the rapid breathing of the babies.

We were elated—and humbled. Yet another generation of a creature that had coexisted millennia ago with woolly mammoths was emerging into the world of humans.

David Stern is based in Kiev, Ukraine. He writes primarily about the countries of the former Soviet Union.

Read more…

Pigeons and doves constitute the bird clade Columbidae, that includes some 310 species. They are stout-bodied birds with short necks, and have short, slender bills with fleshy ceres. Doves feed on seeds, fruits, and plants. This family occurs worldwide, but the greatest variety is in the Indomalaya and Australasia ecozones.
In general, the terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat interchangeably. In ornithological practice, "dove" tends to be used for smaller species and "pigeon" for larger ones, but this is in no way consistently applied, and historically, the common names for these birds involve a great deal of variation between the terms. The species most commonly referred to as "pigeon" is the Feral Rock Pigeon, common in many cities.
Doves and pigeons build relatively flimsy nests from sticks and other debris, which may be placed in trees, on ledges, or on the ground, depending on species. They lay one or two eggs, and both parents care for the young, which leave the nest after seven to 28 days. Unlike most birds, both sexes of doves and pigeons produce "crop milk" to feed to their young, secreted by a sloughing of fluid-filled cells from the lining of the crop. Young doves and pigeons are called "squabs".
The Pteroclididae (sandgrouse) were formerly included in the order Columbiformes largely due to this drinking behavior ("The only other group, however, which shows the same behavior, the Pteroclididae, is placed near the doves just by this doubtlessly very old characteristic." ); more recently, it had been reported that they cannot drink by "sucking" or "pumping", and they are now treated separately in the order Pteroclidiformes and are considered to be closer to the shorebirds.
Columbidae are usually divided into five subfamilies, probably inaccurately. For example, the American ground and quail doves, which are usually placed in the Columbinae, seem to be two distinct subfamilies.[5] The order presented here follows Baptista et al. (1997) with some updates (Johnson & Clayton 2000, Johnson et al. 2001, Shapiro et al. 2002).
Osteology and DNA sequence analyses indicate the Dodo and Rodrigues Solitaire are better considered as a subfamily Raphinae in the Columbidae pending availability of further information.
The arrangement of genera and naming of subfamilies is in some cases provisional, because analysis of different DNA sequences yield results that differ, often radically, in the placement of certain (mainly Indo-Australian) genera. This ambiguity, probably caused by long branch attraction, seems to confirm the first pigeons evolved in the Australasian region, and that the "Treronidae" and allied forms (crowned and pheasant pigeons, for example) represent the earliest radiation of the group.
As the Dodo and Rodrigues Solitaire are in all likelihood part of the Indo-Australian radiation that produced the three small subfamilies mentioned above with the fruit-doves and -pigeons (including the Nicobar Pigeon), they are here included as a subfamily Raphinae, pending better material evidence of their exact relationships.
Exacerbating these issues, columbids are not well represented in the fossil record. No truly primitive forms have been found to date. The genus Gerandia has been described from Early Miocene deposits of France, but while it was long believed[citation needed] to be a pigeon, it is more likely a sandgrouse.[citation needed] Fragmentary remains of a probably "ptilinopine" Early Miocene pigeon were found in the Bannockburn Formation of New Zealand and described as Rupephaps; "Columbina" prattae from roughly contemporary deposits of Florida is nowadays tentatively separated in Arenicolumba, but its distinction from Columbina/Scardafella and related genera needs to be more firmly established (e.g. by cladistic analysis). Apart from that, all other fossils belong to extant genera. For these, and for the considerable number of more recently extinct prehistoric species, see the respective genus accounts.

Description
Pigeons and doves exhibit considerable variations in size. The largest species is the Crowned Pigeon of New Guinea, which is nearly turkey-sized, at a weight of 2–4 kg (4.4–8.8 lb) The smallest is the New World Ground-Dove of the genus Columbina, which is the same size as a House Sparrow and weighs as little as 22 g. With a total length of more than 50 cm (19 in) and weight of almost 1 kg (2 lb), the largest arboreal species is the Marquesan Imperial Pigeon, while the Dwarf Fruit Dove, which may measure as little as 13 cm (5.1 in), has a marginally smaller total length than any other species from this family. Smaller species tend to be known as doves, while larger species as pigeons, but no taxonomic basis distinguishes between the two.
Overall, the Columbidae tend to have short bills and legs, and small heads on large compact bodies. Their characteristic head bobbing was shown to be due to their natural desire to keep their vision constant in a 1978 experiment by B. J. Frost in which they were placed on treadmills – they did not bob their heads as their surroundings were constant. The wings are large and have low wing loadings; pigeons have strong wing muscles (wing muscles comprise 31–44% of their body weight) and are amongst the strongest fliers of all birds. They are also highly maneuverable in flight.


The Common Indian Dove mostly seen in the Villages of India
The plumage of the family is variable. Granivorous species tend to have dull plumage, with a few exceptions, whereas the frugivorous species have brightly coloured plumage.[8] The Ptilinopus fruit doves are some of the brightest coloured pigeons, with the three endemic species of Fiji and the Indian Ocean Alectroenas being amongst the brightest coloured. Pigeons and doves may be sexually monochromatic or dichromatic. In addition to bright colours, pigeons may sport crests or other ornamentation.
Like some other birds, Columbidae have no gall bladders. Some medieval naturalists concluded they have no bile (gall), which in the medieval theory of the four humours explained the allegedly sweet disposition of doves. In fact, however, they do have gall (as Aristotle already realised), which is secreted directly into the gut.

Read more…

• Chitwan District , is one of the seventy-five Districts of Nepal, a landlocked country of South Asia. The district is in the western part of Narayani Zone with Bharatpur, the Fifth largest city of Nepal, as its district headquarters. It covers an area of 2,218 km2 (856 sq mi), and in 2011 had a population of 579,984 people. Bharatpur is a commercial and service centre of central south Nepal and merger destination for higher education, health care and transportation of the region.
• The district takes its name from the Chitwan Valley, one of Nepal's Inner Terai valleys between the Mahabharat and Siwalik ranges, both considered foothills of the Himalayas.
• Bharatpur, on the bank of Narayani River, is the main town with numerous shopping zones where people come from all over the district and neighbouring districts.
• Now there are about 40 Village Development Committees (each of which has nine wards or villages) and one sub-Metropolitan city - Bharatpur and a municipality Ratnanagar each of which has more than nine wards or urban areas.
• Chitwan is one of the few remaining undisturbed vestiges of the Terai region, which formerly extended over the foothills of Nepal.
• 
  
• Agriculture and industry
• 
  
• The people inhabiting the Chitwan District are predominantly peasant farmers cultivating mainly food and cash crops such as rice, maize, wheat, beans, lentils, mustard and vegetables. The district is the major maize producing area in Nepal, with an area under maize cultivation of 27,170 ha (104.9 sq mi) in the year 2003-04. Maize is cultivated on irrigated /seasonal irrigated land in winter and spring, and on rain fed land in summer. Due to an easy road access, maize produced can be easily distributed to other parts of the country. The poultry industry in the district constitutes a significant proportion of the country's poultry industry.
• Chitwan is famous in Nepal for mustard growing and production of mustard oil. This popularity of the mustard in Chitwan is attributed to the predominant soil type silt, resulting from the flooding of the Narayani River and tributaries. Chitwan is also profusely spotted with clay lands, which are very good for growing rice, wheat and vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower, radish, potato, broccoli, cucumbers, pumpkins, and carrot. Chitwan is also famous for floriculture, mushroom cultivation and bee keeping.
• At present Bharatpur's largest business area, Narayangadh, is less accessible due to the movement of the main bus terminal due to the previous king's son's anger with the politics of the citizens of the city. This bus terminal is however no longer in use following a successful people's movement in 2006. It is believed that Nepali leftist revolutionary leader Prachanda spent his childhood and youth in Chitwan. Chitwan is adapting the New Community Movement South Korean model of development.believed that Nepali leftist revolutionary leader Prachanda spent his childhood and youth in Chitwan. Chitwan is adapting the New Community Movement South Korean model of development.
• 
  
• Bharatpur Airport in the central part of the city offered four domestic airlines and one government airline with seven to 11 flights daily to Kathmandu. Mahendra East West Highway connects the city to various parts of the country, and another highway connects Bharatpur with Kathmandu to the north east and with Birgunj on the border of India to the south. Bus, micro bus and other land transportation are available to go out of the city, for internal transportation taxi, rickshaw and car/jeep hiring is available. Hakim Chowk and Chaubiskothi, Shaheed Chok, Pul Chowk, Bel Chowk and Lila Chowk are major centres at intersections of major roads.
• Four major local FM radio stations broadcast from Bharatpur. They are "Synergy FM", "Hamro FM", "Radio Triveni", "Radio Chitwan", "Radio Kotagiri", "Kalika music FM", "Kalika FM" and "Narayani FM". The city also has Beso Channel, "Aviyan Channel" and Unique Television.
• Land line telephone services and mobile telephone services are available to the majority of areas. There are multiple private Internet service providers.

Read more…

• Butwal  is a city in southern Nepal in Rupandehi District, in Lumbini Zone—of which it is the administrative center. It is located 240 kilometres west of Kathmandu and 22 kilometers north of Siddharthanagar, at the northern edge of the Terai plain below the Siwalik Hills. Its name is derived from Batauli Bazaar in the town's oldest district.
• Through highway and air links, Butwal connects western Nepal to the capital Kathmandu. It has highway connections to the Indian Border at Sunauli and to hill towns Tansen and Pokhara. Butwal is a major gateway to Nepal.
• History
• Fossils of ancient hominoids Ramapithecus were found near the Tinau River as early as 1932, including a 10.1 million year old tooth.
• Historically Butwal connected Nepali people with their Indian neighbors. As the British East India Company annexed Awadh from its hereditary rulers while the Shah Dynasty attempted to annex the Terai, Butwal became one of bones of contention leading to the Gurkha War 1814-16.
• When King Tribhuvan fled to India in 1950 during the revolt against the Rana dynasty he travelled through Butwal. Then it was little more than a village on the western bank of Tilottama River (also known as Tinau). With completion in 1968 of Siddhartha Highway from the border at Sunauli through Butwal to Pokhara and then in the 1990s Mahendra Highway across the full east-west expanse of Nepal's Terai, Butwal has developed rapidly.
• Economy
• The economy of Butwal centers around education, ment of Batauli Bazar at the edge of the hills in old Butwal. Presently the main trading centre are near Traffic Chok and Puspalal Park. Numerous shops sell Chinese and Indian goods. Butwal also has small and medium scale manufacturers of woodwork, ironsheet, metalware and aluminium sheet. There are rice mills including Siddhababa Rice mill, Aryal Rice Mill (Jharbaira-Murgiya) and Sita rice mill.Butwal leads the sale of marbles,tiles sanitary and hardwares in nepal ,we can find them at cheaper cost in comparision to other places nepal ,like usha marbles,narshang hardware etc, students from nearby hilly regions contributes to Butwal's economy. Additional income is remitted by expatriate Nepalis and from Gurkha Soldiers employed by the Indian and British Armies.
• Transport
• Buses are the dominant form of transportation. Private operators offer service to various destinations. Until 2003 most of the fleet was older large buses; since then operators have added newer minibuses popularly called micro. Older jeeps are used to take people to nearby hilly regions. Rickshaws are used for short-distance urban transport, however taxicabs are gaining popularity with increasing affluence. Motorcycles are a common means of personal transportation around town. The number registered has increased from 1,200 in 1999 to 80,000 in 2008. Nearly 100 buses depart to Kathmandu from Butwal daily, from 5am morning from Butwal, and at every 20-30 min bus will depart from Butwal to Pokhara, through Siddhartha highway. With the improvisation of the main road that runs on the mid of Butwal into 6 lanes and also due to the provision of second and third highways running along the inner areas, transportation has become more efficient, well-managed and accessible to the residents.

Read more…

• Dharan is a major city in eastern Nepal, in the Sunsari District, and is situated on the foothills of the Mahabharat Range in the north with southern tip touching the edge of the Terai region at an altitude of 1148 ft (349m). It serves as a trading post between the hilly region and the plains of Terai region. It was once the location of a recruitment center for the Brigade of Gurkhas, opened in 1953. The recruitment center is closed and the campus is now the home of B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences since 1993. Dharan Municipality organised a Golden Jubilee celebration of Dharan from January 28 to 31 January 2011 marking the 50th year of establishment of the municipality.
• 
  
• The Ten Kings of Limbus came together to formally declare all the ten kingdoms between the Arun River and Teesta River to be called "Yakthung Laaje".
• The ten rulers, their kingdoms and their forts:
• Samlupi Samba Hang, King of Tambar and his capital Tambar Yiok.
• Sisiyen Shering Hang, King of Mewa and Maiwa kingdoms and his capital Meringden Yiok.
• Thoktokso Angbo Hang, King of Athraya and his capital Pomajong.
• Thindolung Khokya Hang, King of Yangwarok and his capital Hastapojong Yiok
• Yengaso Papo Hang, King of Panthar and his capital at Yashok and Pheden (Phe meaning "plain", den meaning "place").
• Shengsengum Phedap Hang, King of Phedap and his capital at Poklabung.
• Mung Tai Chi Emay Hang, King of Ilam and his capital at Phakphok.
• Soiyak Lado Hang, King of Bodhey (Choubise) and his capital at Shanguri Yiok.
• Tappeso Perung Hang, King of Thala and his capital at Thala Yiok.
• Taklung Khewa Hang, King of Chethar and his capital at Chamling Chimling Yiok.
• 
  
• During this chaos and the waning phase of King Chemjong hang, King Sirijonga of Yangwarok kingdom rose to power. He subdued all the independent rulers and took over as the new supreme ruler of Limbuwan. He built two big forts in Phedap (present day Terhathum district) and Chainpur (present day Sankhuwasabha district). The remains of the structure still stand today. One of legacy was that he brought all the Limbus under the same writing system in Kirat script. He also brought feudal reform in Limbuwan and divided Limbuwan into new boundaries and districts.
• Eventually after the establishment of Namgyal dynasty in Sikkim and under the Lho-Mehn-Tsong Tsum, a treaty between the Bhutia, Lepcha and Limbu people of the Sikkim area, Limbuwan lost the area between Kunchenjunga range (present day eastern border of Nepal) and Teesta River to the Bhutia Kings of Sikkim. Since then Limbuwan comprises all the area between Arun River and Koshi River in the west to Kunchenjunga Mountains and Mechi River in the east.
• In the beginning of 15th century, the descendants of King Sirijonga became weak and Limbuwan again fell into chaos and anarchy. At the time Lowland Limbuwan Kingdom of Morang was ruled by King Sangla Ing. Sangla Ing declared independence and became the first independent ruler of Morang in a century. His son Pungla Ing adopted Hinduism and changed his name into Aamar Raya Ing. He was succeeded by his descendents, who also bore Hindu names. Kirti Narayan Raya Ing, Aap Narayan Raya Ing, Jarai Narayan Raya Ing, Ding Narayan Raya Ing, and Bijay Narayan Raya Ing.
• King Bijay Narayan Raya Sanlga Ing built a new town in the middle of Varatappa and Shangori fort and named it Bijaypur after him. He had no issue and died without an heir.
• Bijaypur town was founded in 1584 AD and is currently located next to Dharan, Sunsari District. Bijaypur town remained the capital of Morang Kingdom and Limbuwan region until the Gorkha Limbuwan War in 1774 AD.
• It was the most powerful and influential of all the Kingdoms in Limbuwan region and was able to establish its hegemony among all the other Limbu rulers. But in 1609 AD Kirant King Lo hang Sen of Sen dynasty captured Morang and ruled it for seven generations.
• King of Phedap Murray Hang was made the chief minister of Morong. He stayed in Bijaypur and the King of Morong made his post hereditary. Murray Hang was given a Hindu name and he became Bidya Chandra Raya . His descendents remained Chief Ministers of Morong until Buddhi Karna Raya . Buddhi Karna Raya succeeded the last Sen King of Morang Kama Datta sen and sat in the throne of Bijaypur Palace in 1769 AD.
• 
  
• Dharan is a tourist destination in its own right. Communication is mainly in Nepali and English. People who are English speakers should have no problem comprehending many signs and road maps in Nepal.
• Beyond Bhedetar lies the eastern hilly district such as Dhankuta, Bhojpur, Phidim, Terathum. Dharan serves as a gateway to some of the remote tourist attractions like Kumbhakarna Himal, Kanchenjunga, Makalu Barun National Park, Arun Valley, Tinjure-Milke (Rhododendron Protection Area), Gupha Lake, Hyatrung Fall, and Sabha Pokhari. They are quite further and therefore require extended day trips.
• To the south of Dharan is the city of Biratnagar and connecting towns, all within an hour's drive. The towns of Tararah and Itahari are popular with the local population of Dharan.
• Dharan, with its diverse population has numerous centers of worship i.e. temples, churches and a mosque. Bijaypur hill is of a particular significance, as it has several temples of importance, such as Dantakali temple, Pindeshwar temple, Budha Subba Temple and Panch Kanya. These temples are of historical and archaeological importance in as much as religious. These temples are centers for rituals, fairs and events.
• Other potential tourism prospects include:
• White water rafting in Tamur River, starting from Tamur Tamur to Chatara Ghat.
• Paragliding from surrounding hills and Bhedetar for the dare-devils.
• Development of Panchakanya, a Natural Park into a mini zoo.
• Protection and development of flora and fauna of Chaarkose forest.
• Cable car at Dharan-Bishnupaduka-Baraha Kshetra.
• Better advertisement of Babadham fair.
• Construction of an airport in Dharan.
• Some measures taken by the Municipality of Dharan to promote tourism:
• Emphasis on the development infrastructures of the city.
• Support development and management of Pindeshwar Babadham fair, Baraha Kshetra fair and Bishnupaduka fair to promote religious tourism.
• Budhasubba Football Tournaments coordinated by the municipality every year.
• Annual publication of a brochure and city information of Dharan.
• Publication and distribution of postcards and photographs of Dharan and Bhedetar.
• Promote Dharan festivals. E.g. Dharan Mahotsav.
• Dharan Clock Tower.
• Development of the Saptarangi Park (Park of Seven Colours) and Panchakanya Natural Park.
• Financial and other assistance to the development of a privately run Yalambar Park.

Read more…