DESERTED AREA OF NEPAL.

                    This area is  situated in the north of the Great Himalayans which consist of  Kanjiroba , Dhaulagiri, Annapurna Ι, ΙΙ, ΙΙΙ & ΙV , Lamjung, Himalchuli and Manaslu Himals. It comprises the area of Dolpa , Mustang  Manang and  even the upper part ot the Budi Gandaki river of the Gorkha district . In  a simple word , it  can be said that this area is the post –Himalayan one . as the Great Himalayas are situated on the  south of this  area , in the form  of  an obstacle to the flow of the monsoon from the south –east , this area is more or less completely rain –shaded and gets very little amount of  precipitation. Because most of the  monsoon precipitates to the  south of the Himalayas , only  the escaped- away part precipitates through some passes there. That is why, the rainfall in this part is corporately  very low. For instance, Jomsom,the gateway of  the Mustang district, though situated  nearly on the border of  the Himalayas and the deserted  land of Mustang, still has and  annual rainfall  of about 324.2mm.which is , compared to other places in the southern  part of the Great Himalayas, quite low . Jajarkot, situated on the south of Mt. Dhaulagiri, has an annual rainfall of about 1888.2mm. where as  Jomsom has only 324.2mm. the further interior  parts , Mustang, Manang and some parts of Dolpa, have still lower precipitation.

         Suffering from this  complete rain-shadow and very speedy winds of desiccating nature, the vegetation, here , is a sot of dry alpine  deserted type. Nowhere are found trees , there are only shrubs and  scrubs found as greeneries . It is otherwise a naked  land suffering from very bad erosion problems . there are two types of erosion in this area.  One is the splash erosion cased by the splashing  effect of the rain drops on the naked ground, and the  other is the wind erosion caused by strong winds blowing continuously for 14-15 hour every day. The latter is splashes down . the greenery of this deserted land contains mostly the Caragana species, Berberis angulasa, Sophora moorcraftiane. Egeardiana and Artemisia species .this desertded land possesses alpine type of climate the alpine here is further grouped into Humid alpine and Arid alpine . Humid alpine consists of more or less a luzruntly developed vegetation. In this the ground is covered with different  types of grasses , herbs , shrubs and scrubs such as Juniperus squamata , Rhododendron setosum which are found near Jomsom and neighboring areas but it is replaced by the Caragana in the further north. But the arid alpine consists of  a very poor flora. In this area no Rhododendron and Juniperus are found . it there is any vegetation , that is Caragana, which is also  in a position to be vanished . So in this deserted  land , due to the creation of more open  land by the  clearance of the existing vegetation by the local people, the environment has become too hot and too cold. and transition from the humid zone  that is Rhododendron and Juniperus type , to the arid alpine zone that is  Caragana type is more or less continuous .Beyond the arid alpine zone , that is beyond the limit of  vascular plants , there is another alpine  zone called Alpine Barren which is  just below the permanent snow line . It contains mostly rocks, boulders and sands stretching towards the snow line.

The Desert and Semi-Desert Region .

                     Nepal comprises the  semi-desert and some desert lands which are  created by the  influence of rain shadow . this unlucky part of the country is situated  mostly on the north of the Great Himalayan range. The biggest shaded part of this country is found in the west mainly behind Mt. Makalu , Mt Annapurna, Mt. Dhaulagiri and Mt.Kanjiroba. Though  this desert land  extends right  from Mt.. Manasalu to the west up to Mt. Kanjiroba , yet the places like Mustang, Dolpo and Manang (may be due to less precipitation and very windy situation) possess very low temperature. The wind begins to blow here right from 7 hours to 21 hours. The velocity of the wind dreaches up to 120km.per hour . Due to the very speedy wind , in addition to the altitudinal and latitudinal  effects, these places  are very cold. The speedy wind makes every thing dry  within a short  period. Nobody in this locality keeps open the doors and the windows  of his house .So, these places are very windy, dusty and cold , due to these  adverse climate there occurs wind erosion, which is more dangerous than the water erosion. Here the drainage pattern is of dendritic type having many torrents and big rivers which have originated  mostly from the southern watersheds of the Great Himalayas . only a few like Krnali (Humla) , Bhotekoshi (Rasuwa),Bhotekoshi(Sindhu palchok ) and  Arun  (Bhojpur) have  originated from Tibet, the autonomous region of the People’s Republic of china. The rivers with their tributaries flow southwards , crossing different  ranges . they are , then , deflected towards east and west until they pass with force  south-wards, finally breaking  through the Siwaliks and  Terai into  the Indian plain where they join the Ganges . Of  the biggest rivers, the Mechi and the Saptakoshi lie in the east, the Bagmati and the Gandaki in the centre, and the Karnali and the Mahakali in the west , with their tributaries making  the three main river basins in the country.

              Though there  are found many different types of deposits like gold copper, mica, iron,lead, cobalt, ickle, zinc in different areas of the country, yet there are only few minerals like iron in Phulchouki to the south of Kathmandu valley , zinc and lead oxide at the foot of the  Ganesh Himal in Rasuwa district, magnasite in the Sindhu Palchok disdtrict , sulphate in the Jhapa district, and mica in Haibung, which lies in Sindhu Palchok district. As to  the gasoline  resources, there had been a preliminary survey through FAO and  a report was prepared too. The report shows the  possibility of petroleum being available  in many places, but due to  some reasons the  feasibility survey  could  not be carried out. Nepal  is  also home of wide  variety of wild  animals and birds . In the Himalayas there are very few wild animals and birds but in the Sub-Himalayan region there are found  many varieties  of wild animals like  barking deer, musk deer, sambar (Cervus unifolor), wild sheep and goats (local name  jharal and Ghoral  repectively), leopards , panthers , different  varieties of  bears. Jackals, wild dogs, red pandas , foxes, and reptiles like snakes, wild lizards, otters, pangolins, etc. and birds like pheasants,  doves, vultures and other common birds . among  pheasants hanfay , monal, and kalige are famous. Danfay is the national  bird. In the Mahabharat region all the wild animals and birds found in the Sub-Himalayan region are abailable , except panda, ghoral , jharal , musk deer, danfay and munal.

The Himalayan Region .

              It includes mostly the rocky, barren and permanently snow-covered land, This is  a tree-less part of the country where there are some bushy and scrabby type of  vegetation in the depressions. As the higher mountains , that is , the Himalayas , really start from the altitude of 4015m. above the sea level , the tree-limit of this country , apparently there is ho human  settlement . In this part there are some wild animals and so-called Yeti, the wild man, whose existence is yet controversial . The Himalayan region is full of snow-clad Dhaulagiri lying to the north of the sub-Himalayan region.

The Sub-Himalayan Region.

            It covers T. Hagen’s Midland and inner Himalayan  . It lies between the Mhabharat in the south and the Himalayas in the north. This broad  belt also spreads continuously all through the length of the country. The climate  and the soil of this belt is quite suitable to the human settlement. The people have been living in this  belt since antiquity . that’s why, there is  a thick population in this belt. Thick population causes extensive agricultural  practices,  which in turn, devastate forests.

this is a traditional zone of Nepalese settlement. So , this region has more agricultural and les forest land, especially in the east.May be due to the influence of Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong of India, the capital of Nepal in nearer to the  east and  the industrial centre of the country is also located in the east , the population is also excessively thick in the east, considering the acreage of country. There should be about two third of the total population in the west, but nearly half of the total population if found in the east including Kathmandu valley, ,though  it covers only about one third of the total area. The soil of this region covers more than half of the soil found in the international soil classification chart .the main deposited soils are soil, loam, sandy loam,  clay , sandy clay, sandy clay loam, loamy sand ,glay , glayees sand and sand. Among the soils found in this region there is peculiar type of silt found in the  valleys, especially in the Kthamandu valley. It is a kind of black soil, a sort of completely decomposed  humus , a pure loam, which is quite fertile and quite lustrous too. The people of the Kathmandu valley use it for plastering  their house walls  as well. And there is another kind of black soil which seems like coal and the local name is “Matti Koila” meaning clay-coat. It is not coal . the people of Kathmandu valley use this soil in kitchens and also in brick factories to bake the bricks. This soil geves very gook calorie of heat with the combination of the paddy husks and the mustard cake made from seeds after the oil has been pressed out. this  Matti Koila is nothing a half  decomposed pith or humus. It gives a good service when there is no supply of coal from outside . compared to the rocks of China , Russia, Alps. Etc, the rocks of this region are quite young as is evident from the fresh boulders and pebbles found in the fringes of the rivers . the main rocks found here are quartz, quartzite , granite, gneiss, micaschist, slates, phyllite, limestone , talc stones , soapstone , rock-salt and sandstone. In this belt there are less forest lands and more agricultural lands , except in far-west, especially in Jumla and Humla districts , where some virgin forests are still found.

Mahabharat Region.

                  It is situated in between the  Sub-Himalayan region, T. Hagen’s Miklands, and Siwaliks, spreading in the form of continuous belt right from the east to western  border of the country.Its maximum height is about 2901 meters above the sea level , which  possesses by Thulo Pakho (Nagidanda) situated just south of the Kathmandu  valley below  Phulchouki danda. The writer observed that this is the only Danda which contains the Tingray Sallow(Tsuga dumosa) among the Mahabharat hills, because this range contains a bit mature soils and rocks as compared to the Siwaliks. Bhabar and Terai areas. The soil of this range is mainly loam, sandy loam, sandy clay loam, clay, sandy clay, loamy sand and sand. As to rocks, it covers almost all varieties  like quartzite, granite, micaschist, limestone  including marble , soap-stone , slate, phyllite, talc stones and sandstone. The soil possesses less porosity within it and, therefore , conserves more percentage of water than Siwalik. So, the fertility is also good. That is why, the pressure of cultivation is high here.

The Siwalik Region

                It is called “Churay Range” in the east and central Nepal , and in the west,”Someshore Range”. It is also a sort  of  debris of Mahabharat range carried by the rivers in the past and deposited in the form of small hills lying in between the Mahabharat and Bhabar zones. The average height of these hills is about 1000 meters in the east and central part, and in the west it exceeds even 1500 meters above the sea level. It comprises almost dry hills , consisting of mainly big  boulders, gravels and  conglomerates with sandy clay loam, loamy sand and sandy soil. These hills are found a bit scattered in some places, forming valleys with Mahabharat range, such as Rapti Dun, Dang, Deokhuri  and Durkhet valleys, which are situated in between the Mahabharat range and the Siwalik range. But in some places it seems to have  vanished with no apparent shape seen outwardly. It remains in the form of fringes of the Mhabharat itself . In some places, specially to the east of Kali Gandaki river and to  the south of the Deukhuri valley, the arms of the Siwaliks extended up to the border of Nepal and India. Because of the great6 porosity in the soil, there is always scarcity of water, and due to that the soil is less fertile, which discourages the cultivation and encourages the forest production, but the trees in the forest of this range are not of high quality.

The Terai Region .

                 The country comprises different types of terrains , running parallel to each other from east to west with various heights. Terai lies in the southern part of the country , which joins the Indian frontier . It contains a part of alluvial plain of the Ganges. Previously it was the famous swampy and malarious lowlands with rich deposition of alluvial soil. That is why, the people  from Pahad (Mahabharat and Sub-Himalayan regions ) did not venture to come down to Terai .But due to nature’s dynamic role the swampiness  slowly vanished and dryness came up and now it has become valuable  land as well for the forest as for agriculture . As the dangerous malarial effect was eradicated by the continuous  efforts of the Government, now , due to availability of  valuable soil and favorable conditions . the land has become more vulnerable to agricultural practices and many more people from the hills and mountainous regions have come down and settled there.

    The average width of this belt is about 25 kms.and the average height is about 100 meters above the sea-level except the dun valleys which posses an average  elevation of 312 meters . This belt runs almost all the length o f the country except in the east of the Kali Gandaki. Where the length is about 65 kms and in the south of Deokhuri valley, where it is  about 100kms the Indian border joins directly to Siwalik. The agricultural practices in the cultivated land of this area confined to cereals, paddy millets, wheats and jutes.

                The Bhabar is the adjoining  area of Terai which starts right from the foot of the Siwalik hills and merges into Terai  in the south . Thought it also contains the same type of vegetation as Terai , there is a vast  difference in the composition  of soil and slopes . Bhabar  is a gently sloped area where as Terai is a flat plain . Terai contains alluvial soil with rich deposition of loam ,sandy  loam,silt,but there are no boulders and  gravels . whereas  Bhabar contains alluvaial soil with  many boulders . pebbles and vonglomerates whch are left as debris of the Siwaliks. And due to high porosity found in the soil the water percolates quickly down .That  is why,this area is found very dry, including the ricers and torrendts , with an exception of a few big rivers which have perennial water . But in rainy season these dry revers and torrents are also in floods. The pressure of  cultivaton in this area is bit less than in Terai. The average width of it is about 10 kms.

TOPOGRAPHY OF NEPAL.

                                 The topography of the country is quite amusing and side by side it is surprising  too. The general elevation difference is right from 86 ,meters in Terai to 8848 meters (Mt. Everest ) about the sea-level in the Himalayas .Within a short distance one can notice  quite sharp elevation difference. As we go north, elevation difference is quite  sharp but towards the south it is not so much . and ultimately Terai is a flat plain . Specially  in the Mahabharat and Sub-Himalayan terrains altitude variation is such that within one kilometer of horizontal distance the vertical rise is found 200 meters and so. But , in the Himalayas many terrains and the cliffs are so sharp that the slopes are found more than a hundred per cent or too steep to climb up . Due to the sharp change in the elevation, the micro climate and the vegetation of those parts are also found changing  accordingly.

LOCATION AN D AREA OF NEPAL.

      The beautiful Nepalese garden is situated in between Tibet, the autonomous region of  the People’s  Republic  of China ,and India. The eastern , western and southern border adjoins India. In the north there is Tibet. In the map of earth Nepal lies in between 80˚-4’’ east to 88˚-12’’ east longitude and 26˚-22’’ north to 30˚-27’’ north  latitude with an average length of about 885 Kms,  And average width of about 193 Kms, which makes a total area of  about 147,181.0 Sq.Kms.