Barun Valley

Barun Valley is a valley in the Himalaya at the base of Mount Makalu, in the Sankhuwasabha district of Nepal Province No. 1, entirely contained within Makalu Barun National Park. It was carved by the Barun River, known locally as the Chukchuwa, which becomes a glacier in winter, and the valley runs about 46 kilometers with no permanent human settlement. Its terrain is mostly grassland (kharka) grading from Eastern Himalayan broadleaf forest at lower elevations through subalpine conifer forest to alpine shrub and meadow higher up, and it is recognized for exceptional biodiversity, with more than 3,000 flowering plant species, 440 bird species and 75 mammal species including snow leopards and red pandas. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/