Eastern Himalayas

The Eastern Himalayas extend from eastern Nepal through northeastern India, Bhutan, Tibet and Yunnan in China into northern Myanmar, and rank among the world's most significant biodiversity hotspots, carrying substantial biocultural diversity alongside their ecological richness. The region is home to more than 10,000 plant species, some 240 mammal species and roughly 750 bird species, including snow leopards, Indian rhinoceroses and Asian elephants, sustained by a monsoon climate that brings hot, wet conditions to the lowlands from June through September and average annual rainfall of about 10,000 millimeters in places, making the Eastern Himalayas markedly wetter than the Western Himalayas. Its dramatic elevation gradient, from steaming lowland valleys to high alpine terrain, has driven the evolution of a wide range of distinct habitats within a comparatively small area, and the region remains a major focus of global efforts to conserve mountain biodiversity.