Rara National Park (RNP)
Rara National Park (hereafter RNP) is located in the Karnali Province of North-West Nepal, between 29º 26′ – 29º 34′ North and 82º 00′ – 82º10′ East. The park, smallest national park in Nepal, was gazetted in 1976. It covers an area of 106 km2. Out of the total area, 10.8 km2 is occupied by Rara Lake, which is considered as the largest lake of Nepal. The Buffer Zone of RNP was declared on September 25, 2006 covering 198 km2 surrounding the park. Similarly, the park was listed as a Ramsar Site under high altitude wetlands on September 23, 2007 . There are 156 User Groups organized under 10 Users Committees and there are 19 Buffer Zone Community Forests . There are 13,876 population within one Municipality and two Rural municipalities of Mugu and one Rural Municipality of Jumla district. A larger part of RNP lies in Mugu district while a southern tip of the Park lies in Jumla district.