Nepal is a small, landlocked country, 800km long and 200km wide. It covers the area of 147,181 square kilometers. It is situated between China in the north and India in the south. Most of the rivers flow southward from the glaciers of Nepal to join the Ganges in India; several rivers flow from Tibet through deep gorges in the main Himalayan range. Nepal supports a vast diversity of forests, animals and people. Geographically Nepal is divided into five development regions:
- Eastern Development Region
- Western Development Region
- Central Development Region
- Mid-Western Development Region
- Far-Western Development Region.
In the east the climate is damp and in the far west the climate is quite dry even during the monsoon season. The influence of the monsoon is less in the west and in the central region the climate is moderate.
Geographers divide Nepal into three main physiographic regions:
- The Terai Region
- The Hilly Region
- The mountain Region.
The Terai region supports about 48.4% of Nepal’s population and a lot of the country’s cultivable land and covers 17% of the total area of Nepal. The Terai includes the big cities: Nepalgunj, Birgunj, Janakpur, Bhairawa, and Biratnagar.
The hilly region covers 68% of the total area of the country and 44.3% of the populations it supports. This region includes Kathmandu, Pokhara, Patan, Gorkha and Jumla.
The mountain region covers 15% area of the country. This region supports 7.3% of the populations. This region includes some of the world’s most famous mountains such as Mt. Everest, Annapurna, Gaurisankar, and Machapuchara.
