Himal · Pahad · Terai
Nepal's three ecological belts run east to west like stripes: the Himal to the north, the Pahad in the middle and the Terai along the Indian border.
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Quick answers
- What are Himal, Pahad and Terai?
- They are the three ecological belts of Nepal, running east to west: the Himal (mountains) in the north, the Pahad (hills, including the Kathmandu and Pokhara valleys) in the middle, and the Terai (flat plains) along the Indian border.
- How many districts are in each belt?
- Officially 16 districts are Himal, 40 are Pahad and 21 are Terai — 77 in all.
- How much of Nepal is Himal, Pahad and Terai?
- Roughly 35% of the land is Himal, 42% Pahad and 23% Terai, though about half of all Nepalis live in the Terai.
- What is the difference between Terai and inner Terai?
- The outer Terai is the strip of plains on the Indian border; the inner Terai (bhitri madhes) are valleys such as Chitwan, Dang and Udayapur lying between the Chure and Mahabharat hills.
Himal — the mountains
The Himal (mountain) belt covers the northern third of Nepal, above roughly 3,000 m in its inhabited valleys and rising to the highest peaks on earth. Eight of the fourteen 8,000 m mountains stand on or inside Nepal's border, including Everest, Kanchenjunga, Lhotse, Makalu, Cho Oyu, Dhaulagiri, Manaslu and Annapurna.
16 districts · 59 places →Pahad — the hills
The Pahad (hill) belt is the middle of Nepal, roughly 600 to 3,000 m: terraced ridges, river valleys, rhododendron forest and the Kathmandu and Pokhara valleys. Forty districts are classed as hill districts, and this is where most of Nepal's history was made — the Licchavi and Malla kingdoms, the Chaubise and Baise principalities and the Gorkha unification.
40 districts · 113 places →Terai — the plains
The Terai is the flat, fertile strip along the Indian border, mostly below 300 m, together with the inner-Terai valleys such as Chitwan and Dang behind the Chure (Siwalik) hills. Twenty-one districts are classed as Terai. Once malarial jungle, it is now Nepal's breadbasket and home to about half its people.
21 districts · 49 places →