Nepal Geography

Nepal is 800km from west to east and is 90km to 230km wide. Its area is 147,181 sq km. It has the greatest range in altitude on earth going from 100m in the Terai to Mt Everest at 8848m.

Nepal has lowlands in the south, four mountains ranges, and has beautiful valleys.

The Terai
The Terai is flat lowland at around 100m above sea level. It is only 40km at it widest point and goes from one end of Nepal west to east. The land is rice fields, palm tree, mango fields and forest. Between the Terai and the first foothills is a strip of land known as the Bhabar, which has stoney soils that is not good for cultivation.

Chure Hills
This is the southern most of four mountain ranges in the Nepal. In India they are known as the Siwalik Hills. They range in height from 900m to 1400m. It separates the Terai from the Inner Terai. It is made up of large area of tropical forest. Most of the area is not cultivable.

Inner Terai
Between the Chure Hills and Mahabharat Range is flat land at around 150m elevation. Before malaria was highly reduced in the 1950s the people to live in the Terai were the Tharus, who had a partial resistance from malaria. After malaria was eradicated many hill people came to settle in the Terai. Over 50% of the forest was cleared to make way for cultivatable land. The Royal Chitwan National Park was established here in 1973 to protect the royal Bengal tiger and the one-horned rhinoceros.

Mahabharat Range
This area, known as the middle hills, ranges from 1500m to 2800m. Three river flow through this area: the Narayani, the Sapt Kosi and the Karnali. At the lower elevations there is a touch of subtropical forest and the higher elevations are uncultivable. Throughout this area are terraced cultivable lands.

Midlands
This area, known as the Pahar zone, is between the Himalaya and Mahabharat Range. This area is made up of fertile valleys such as Kathmandu, Pokhara and Banepa. Half the population of the country is found in this area. The midlands are predominantly between 1000m and 2000m and has subtropical and lower temperate forests. Most of this area has limited rain, except for the Pokhara area valley. In the Humla-Jumla area in the west this is a high wall of 4000m mountain which block any rain, which gives the area a dry effect.

The Himalayas
Ten of the world’s 14 highest mountains are found with Nepal. Around one-third of the Himalaya Mountains are within Nepal. There Himalayas has 10 of the 14 highest mountain peaks in the world.
There broad beautiful valley in between the mountain peaks. They often have a partial rain screen, which leads to different vegetation.

Trans-Himalaya
North of the Himalaya Mountains is a high-plateau desert area like Tibet. It is a rain shadow area and does not receive much rain. It has a stark dry landscape.

Mustang, Dolpo and Manang are all within this area.

Copyright ©2001 John Howley and Spiritual Guides