Nepal is a small landlocked country in South Asia, home to eight of the ten tallest mountains in the world, including Mount Everest – 8848m, the tallest mountain in the world. In fact, the Himalayan Region features 202 mountains rising over 6000m. While mountains and rugged hills cover approximately 75% of the country, Nepal’s Terai region (south) is a low-lying stretch of land, falling as low as 70m at Kanchan Kalan. It is surrounded by People’s Republic of China in the North and India in the East, South, and west respectively and stretches from east to west over 885 km while its width varies from 145 to 241 km from north to south. This extreme variation in altitude and latitude where it is located makes this country one of the most diverse in the world. Nepal is a multicultural country deeply rooted in its traditions. The fertile and humid south is heavily urbanized.

Natural Resources

Nepal is rich in Natural resources like Forest, Water, Soil/Land, and Minerals.  Forest is one of the major natural resources of Nepal, about 25.4% of Nepal’s land is covered by forest. Water is one of the major natural resources of Nepal. In fact, it is the second richest country in water resources after Brazil. There are many sources of water, especially like mountains, glaciers, and snow.  There are many large rivers like Karnali, Seti, Koshi, Gandaki, Bhotekoshi, Sunkoshi and many small ponds, waterfalls and small streams. There are also many lakes like Rara, Phewa, Tilicho, Shey phoksundo lakes which are also the sources of water. Nepal occupies only 0.1 percentage of the total land of the world. Its total area is 147,181 sq. Km. It is divided into three parts – Terai, Hilly, and Himalayan. The soil is one of the most important parts of Nepal as most of the Nepalese still are depended on agriculture and farming.Terai region is more fertile so, agriculture is more productive in Terai, It is also called the green belt of Nepal since most of the agricultural products are cultivated in Terai and exported to Hilly and Himalayas. More than 80% of the land in Nepal is Mountainous. It has been researched that there are various minerals resources like metallic, non-metallic, decorative stones, fuel metals in the mountainous region. Similarly, minerals like gold, mica, limestone, and iron ore, copper are found in various parts of Nepal. It is even researched that Nepal has petroleum resources at Nepalgunj, Pyuthan, Dailekh. Limestone found in Hetauda, Argakhanchi, Chovar, Surkhet has been used for the cement production by the major cement factories.

People And Religion

• Nepali people are divided into two distinct, groups the Indo-Aryans and the Mongolian.
• Hinduism is practiced by a greater majority of people in Nepal than in any other nation. As of the 2011 census, 81.3 of the Nepalese population is Hindu, 9.0% is Buddhist, 4.4% is Muslim, 3.0% is Kirant/Yumaist, 1.4% is Christian, and 0.9% follow other religions or none religion.
• Nepal is birthplace of Lord Buddha, the light of Asia. Hindus and Buddhists live together with harmony in Nepal. Muslims, Christians and other nature worshippers too exist.
• There is unity in diversity in religion & culture in Nepal.

Climate
Nepal’s climate is best described as Sub-Tropical Monsoon general predictable and pleasant. The monsoon is approximately from the end of June to the middle of September. 80 percent of rainfall is by this durations and remaining of the year is dry. Climate is diverse because of the topography which ranges from sea-level 75m to 8,848m the Highest Peak of the World Mt. Everest. The southern belts of Nepal Terai remain hot most of the year and temperature decreases gradually towards North as the altitude increases.

Time Zone
Nepal time is 5 hours 45 minutes ahead of GMT and 15 minutes ahead of India standard time. (GMT: +5:45)

Language
Nepalese speaks over fifty languages and dialects. Nepali, the official language of Nepal, is spoken by all Nepalese as it is also an official language. Many people in Nepal can understand and speak English and Hindi as well.

Population

• Present population of Nepal is 29164578 as of 2018.
• Nepal population is equivalent to 0.39% of the total world population.
• Nepal ranks number 48 in the list of countries (and dependencies) by population.
• The population density in Nepal is 207 per Km2 (535 people per mi2).
• 19.6 % of the population is urban (5,811,187 people in 2018)
• The median age in Nepal is 23.6 years.

Nepal has four major seasons:

Winter: December-February
Spring: March-May
Summers: June-August
Autumn:September-November

Area

Total: 147,181 km2 (56,827 sq mi)

Land: 143,181 km2 (55,282 sq mi)

Water: 4,000 km2 (1,544 sq mi)