Téra is one of the few places where the Songhoyboro Ciine dialect is still spoken, although the people are more likely to call themselves (and their language) "Songhay" or "Zarma".

In the northern section of the department, the Niger forms a broad channel, where hippopotamus and other wildlife are still common.

[3] The Departmental seat, a town of almost 20,000, lies on a tributary of the Niger, dammed to provide a small lake.

Its main tarred road—the RN4—passes south from Tera to Diagourou (a Fula town 15 km away), Dargol and Gotheye, crossing the Niger at Bac Farie by ferry.

The area contains a major road connecting Niger with Dori Burkina Faso, making Tera a transport and trade hub.

Strips of striped, dyed handloomed fabric are sewn into larger blankets and are used in traditional marriage ceremonies and exported abroad.

Upper Volta was reconstituted in 1946, but the Tera Cercle's boundary remained a source of dispute until the Niger-Upper Volta protocol of agreement on their common boundary was signed at Niamey on June 23, 1964, fixing the present western border of the Tera administrative entity.