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Geography
Nepal is a landlocked country between India in the south, east and west
and Tibetan Autonomous Region of China on the North, 550 mile/880km long
and 150miles/240km wide . The country is rectangular in shape stretching
from east to west. Her 56826 sq. Miles/148000. Km. is devided lengthwise
into three strips. the northernmost strips the Himalaya, meaning "abode
of snow ".It includes eight of ten highest mountain peaks in the world.
The southernmost region, which is the narrowest of the three strips, is
called the Terai. It is an extension of the Gangetic plain of northern
India, a jungle with elephants, rhinoceroses and tigers. Between the two
outer strips lies an interface region of mountains, hills and valleys.
Nepal lies between 80 degree 4' and 88 degree 12' East longitude and
26 degree 22' and 30 degree 27' North latitude is bounded on the North
by the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, the East-South and West by India.
The length of the Kingdom is 885 kilometers east-west, and it's breadth
varies from 145 to 241 kilometers north-south. The country can be devided
into three main geographical regions:
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Himalayan Region: The altitude of this region ranges between 4877m - 8848m.
It includes 8 of the 14 highest summits in the world which exceed altitude
of 8000 meters including, Annapurna, Dhaulagiri and others.
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Mountain Region: This region accounts for about 64 percent of total land
area. It is formed by the Mahabharat range that soars upto 4877 meter and
lower Churia range. The land then drops to the "Midlands valleys", typified
by the Kathmandu Valley at a height of around 1300 meters. These Midland
valleys extend across most of Nepal and are followed by lengths of some
of the great rivers - the Seti, Karnali, Bheri, Kali Gandaki, Sun Kosi
and Tamur. Most of the population used to live in these valleys and historically
these were the cultural heartlands of Nepal.
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Terai Region: The low-land Terai occupies about 17 percent of the total
land area of the country. This used to be a mosquito-ridden wilderness
and a natural boundary zone, but malaria control programs since 1950's
have seen massive forest clearance and population settlement in this zone.
This is the development zone of Nepal.
These different cross section zones also mark the transitional zones for
vegetation and wildlife - few areas of the world can show such a marked
transition from high arid plateau to lowland jungle.
The Himalayas are young, active and still growing in height by up to
1 cm a year. The Himalaya is also an earthquake zone and hot springs may
be found on the upper reaches of many rivers where the valley cuts through
the river gorges; rock stata, faults and synclines clearly exposed in the
water-carved cliffs.
The Himalayas were pushed up after the river systems had established
themselves - this explains the strange way that many of the main rivers
have headwaters on the North (wrong) side of the Himalaya. The rivers maintained
their courses, established a system of antecedent drainage and eroded deeper
and deeper gorges as the mountain kept growing: the upper valleys of the
Arun and Kali Gandaki are some of the deepest land gorges on Earth.
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