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.
