The
Dooars or
Duars (Pron: ˌdu:ˈɑ:z) are the
floodplains and
foothills of the eastern
Himalayas in
North-East India around
Bhutan.
Duar means 'door' in
Assamese,
Bengali,
Nepali,
Maithili,
Bhojpuri,
Magahi and
Telugu languages, and the region forms the gateway to Bhutan from
India. There are 18 passages or gateways through which the Bhutanese people can communicate with the people living in the plains. This region is divided by the
Sankosh river into the Eastern and the Western Dooars, consisting of an area of 8,800 km² (3,400 sq mi). The Western Dooars is known as the Bengal Dooars and the Eastern Dooars as the Assam Dooars. Dooars is synonymous with the term
Terai used in
Nepal and northern India and form the only nitrate rich soil in India.