Montane ecosystems
Montane ecosystems refers to any ecosystem found in mountains. These ecosystems are affected by climate, which gets colder as elevation increases, they are stratified according to elevation. Dense forests are common at moderate elevations. However, as the elevation increases, the climate becomes harsher, the plant community transitions to grasslands or tundra; as elevation increases, the climate becomes cooler, due to a decrease in atmospheric pressure and the adiabatic cooling of airmasses. The change in climate by moving up 100 meters on a mountain is equivalent to moving 80 kilometers towards the nearest pole; the characteristic flora and fauna in the mountains tend to depend on elevation, because of the change in climate. This dependency causes life zones to form: bands of similar ecosystems at similar altitude. One of the typical life zones on mountains is the montane forest: at moderate elevations, the rainfall and temperate climate encourages dense forests to grow. Holdridge defines the climate of montane forest as having a biotemperature of between 6 and 12 °C, where biotemperature is the mean temperature considering temperatures below 0 °C to be 0 °C.
Above the elevation of the montane forest, the trees thin out in the subalpine zone, become twisted krummholz, fail to grow. Therefore, montane forests contain trees with twisted trunks; this phenomenon is observed due to the increase in the wind strength with the elevation. The elevation where trees fail to grow is called the tree line; the biotemperature of the subalpine zone is between 3 and 6 °C. Above the tree line the ecosystem is called the alpine zone or alpine tundra, dominated by grasses and low-growing shrubs; the biotemperature of the alpine zone is between 1.5 and 3 °C. Many different plant species live in the alpine environment, including perennial grasses, forbs, cushion plants and lichens. Alpine plants must adapt to the harsh conditions of the alpine environment, which include low temperatures, ultraviolet radiation, a short growing season. Alpine plants display adaptations such as rosette structures, waxy surfaces, hairy leaves; because of the common characteristics of these zones, the World Wildlife Fund groups a set of related ecoregions into the "montane grassland and shrubland" biome.
Climates with biotemperatures below 1.5 °C tend to consist purely of ice. Montane forests occur between the subalpine zone; the elevation at which one habitat changes to another varies across the globe by latitude. The upper limit of montane forests, the forest line or timberline, is marked by a change to hardier species that occur in less dense stands. For example, in the Sierra Nevada of California, the montane forest has dense stands of lodgepole pine and red fir, while the Sierra Nevada subalpine zone contains sparse stands of whitebark pine; the lower bound of the montane zone may be a "lower timberline" that separates the montane forest from drier steppe or desert region. Montane forests differ from lowland forests in the same area; the climate of montane forests is colder than lowland climate at the same latitude, so the montane forests have species typical of higher-latitude lowland forests. Humans can disturb montane forests through agriculture. On isolated mountains, montane forests surrounded by treeless dry regions are typical "sky island" ecosystems.
Montane forests in temperate climate are one of temperate coniferous forest or temperate broadleaf and mixed forest, forest types that are well known from northern Europe, northern United States, southern Canada. The trees are, however not identical to those found further north: geology and climate causes different related species to occur in montane forests. Montane forests around the world tend to be more species-rich than those in Europe, because major mountain chains in Europe are oriented east-west. Montane forests in temperate climate occur in Europe, in North America, south-western South America, New Zealand and Himalaya. Montane forests in Mediterranean climate are warm and dry except in winter, when they are wet and mild; these forests are mixed conifer and broadleaf forests, with only a few conifer species. Pine and Juniper are typical trees found in Mediterranean montane forests; the broadleaf trees show more variety and are evergreen, e.g. evergreen Oak. This type of forest is found in the Mediterranean Basin, North Africa and the southwestern US, Iran and Afghanistan.
In the tropics, montane forests can consist of broadleaf forest in addition to coniferous forest. One example of a tropical montane forest is a cloud forest, which gains its moisture from clouds and fog. Cloud forests exhibit an abundance of mosses covering the ground and vegetation, in which case they are referred to as mossy forests. Mossy forests develop on the saddles of mountains, where moisture introduced by settling clouds is more retained. Depending on latitude, the lower limit of montane rainforests on large mountains is between 1,500 and 2,500 metres while the upper limit is from 2,400 to 3,300 metres; the subalpine zone is the biotic zone below the tree line around the world. In tropical regions of Southeast Asia the tree line may be above 4,000 m, whereas in Scotland it may be as low as 450 m. Species that occur in this zone depend on the location of the zone on the Earth, for example, snow gum in Australia, or subalpine larch, mountain h
Kumbhakarna Mountain
Kumbhakarna or Jannu is the 32nd highest mountain in the world. It is an important western outlier of the world's third highest peak. Kumbhakarna is a large and steep peak in its own right, has numerous challenging climbing routes; the official name of this peak is Kumbhakarna. It is called Phoktanglungma "mountain with shoulders", in the Limbu language, is sacred in the Kirant religion. Kumbhakarna is the highest peak of the Kumbhakarna Section of the Kangchenjunga Himal, which straddles the border between Nepal and Sikkim, lies within Nepal. A long ridge connects it with Kangchenjunga to the east. Kumbhakarna is the 32nd highest mountain in the world, it is more notable for its climbing challenge, is one of the hardest peaks in the world in terms of technical difficulty because of its complex structure, its vertical relief, the steep climbing near the summit. The north face, in particular, has been the scene of some of the most technical climbing achieved at altitudes over 7000m. Kumbhakarna Jannu was first reconnoitered in 1957 by Guido Magnone, first attempted in 1959 by a French team led by Jean Franco.
It was first climbed in 1962 by a team led by the French alpinist Lionel Terray. Those reaching the summit were René Desmaison, Paul Keller, Robert Paragot and Gyalzen Mitchung Sherpa and Lionel Terray, André Bertraud, Jean Bouvier, Pierre Leroux, Yves Pollet-Villard, Jean Ravier and Wangdi Sherpa, their route started from the Yamatari Glacier south of the peak and followed a circuitous route to the large plateau known as the Throne, continuing to the summit via the southeast ridge. The Huge, steep north face was first climbed in 1976 by a Japanese team led by Masatsugu Konishi, by a route that starts on the left side of the face and meets the east ridge, avoiding the steep headwall at the top of the face. A Slovenian climber, Tomo Česen, claimed a solo ascent of a more direct route on the face in 1989, but this claim is considered suspect by many in the climbing community. In 2004, after a failed attempt the previous year, a Russian team led by Alexander Odintsov succeeded in climbing the direct north face route through the headwall.
This required big-wall aid techniques in a sustained, committing setting at over 7500m, a major achievement. However some in the climbing community were upset to learn that the Russians left a good deal of equipment on the wall, provoking a debate over what constitutes appropriate modern style on such a route. Despite the controversy, the team won the Piolet d'Or for the ascent; the Himalayan Index lists over a dozen ascents of Jannu. Himalayan Index DEM files for the Himalaya
Kangchenjunga
Kangchenjunga spelled Kanchenjunga, is the third highest mountain in the world. It lies between Nepal and Sikkim, with three of the five peaks directly on the border, the remaining two in Nepal's Taplejung District, it rises with an elevation of 8,586 m in a section of the Himalayas called Kangchenjunga Himal delimited in the west by the Tamur River, in the north by the Lhonak Chu and Jongsang La, in the east by the Teesta River. Until 1852, Kangchenjunga was assumed to be the highest mountain in the world, but calculations based on various readings and measurements made by the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India in 1849 came to the conclusion that Mount Everest, known as Peak XV at the time, was the highest. Allowing for further verification of all calculations, it was announced in 1856 that Kangchenjunga is the third highest mountain in the world. Kangchenjunga was first climbed on 25 May 1955 by Joe Brown and George Band, who were part of a British expedition, they stopped short of the summit in accordance with the promise given to the Chogyal that the top of the mountain would remain intact.
Every climber or climbing group that has reached the summit has followed this tradition. Other members of this expedition included Tom Mackinon. Kangchenjunga is the official spelling adopted by Douglas Freshfield, Alexander Mitchell Kellas, the Royal Geographical Society that gives the best indication of the Tibetan pronunciation. Freshfield referred to the spelling used by the Indian Government since the late 19th century. There are a number of alternative spellings including Kangchendzönga and Kanchenjunga; the brothers Hermann and Robert Schlagintweit explained the local name Kanchinjínga, meaning "the five treasures of the high snow" referring to its five peaks. Sikkimese pronunciation originates from the Tibetan word combining gangs /k̀ʱɐŋ/ meaning "snow, ice". Local Lhopo people believe that the treasures are hidden but reveal to the devout when the world is in peril. Kangchenjunga's name in the Limbu language is Senjelungma or Seseylungma, is believed to be an abode of the omnipotent goddess Yuma Sammang.
Its name in Chinese is 干城章嘉峰. The Kangchenjunga landscape is a complex of three distinct ecoregions: the eastern Himalayan broad-leaved and coniferous forests, the Eastern Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows and the Terai-Duar savanna and grasslands; the Kangchenjunga transboundary landscape is shared by Bhutan, China and Nepal, comprises 14 protected areas with a total of 6,032 km2: Nepal: Kanchenjunga Conservation Area. Sikkim, India: Khangchendzonga National Park, Barsey Rhododendron Sanctuary, Fambong Lho Wildlife Sanctuary, Kyongnosla Alpine Sanctuary, Maenam Wildlife Sanctuary, Shingba Rhododendron Sanctuary, Pangolakha Wildlife Sanctuary Darjeeling, India: Jore Pokhri Wildlife Sanctuary, Singalila National Park, Senchal Wildlife Sanctuary, Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary, Neora Valley National Park. Bhutan: Torsa Strict Nature ReserveThese protected areas are habitats for many globally significant plant species such as rhododendrons and orchids and many endangered flagship species such as snow leopard, Asian black bear, red panda, white-bellied musk deer, blood pheasant and chestnut-breasted partridge.
The Kangchenjunga Himal section of the Himalayas lies both in Nepal and India, encompasses 16 peaks over 7,000 m. In the north, it is limited by the Lhonak Chu, Goma Chu and Jongsang La, in the east by the Teesta River; the western limit runs from the Jongsang La down the Gingsang and Kangchenjunga glaciers and the rivers of Ghunsa and Tamur. Kanchenjunga rises about 20 km south of the general alignment of the Great Himalayan range about 125 km east-south-east of Mount Everest as the crow flies. South of the southern face of Kanchenjunga runs the 3,000–3,500 m high Singalila Ridge that separates Sikkim from Nepal and northern West Bengal. Kangchenjunga and its satellite peaks form a huge mountain massif; the massif's five highest peaks are listed in the following table. The main ridge of the massif runs from north-north-east to south-south-west and forms a watershed to several rivers. Together with ridges running from east to west they form a giant cross; these ridges contain a host of peaks between 8,586 m.
The northern section includes Yalung Kang, Kangchenjunga Central and South, Kirat Chuli and Gimmigela Chuli, runs up to the Jongsang La. The eastern ridge in Sikkim includes Siniolchu; the southern section runs along the Nepal-Sikkim border and includes Kabru I to III. This ridge extends southwards to the Singalila Ridge; the western ridge culminates in the Kumbhakarna known as Jannu. Four main glaciers radiate from the peak, pointing to the north-east, south-east, north-west and south-west; the Zemu glacier in the north-east and the Talung glacier in the south-east drain to the Teesta River. The glaciers spread over the area above 5,000 m, the glacialized area covers about 314 km2 in total. There are 120 glaciers in the Kanchenjunga Himal. Between 1958 and 1992, more than half of 57 examined glaciers had retreated due
Province No. 1
Province No. 1 is one of the seven provinces established by the new constitution of Nepal, adopted on 20 September 2015. As per a CDC report, Province No. 1 has 28 parliamentary seats and 56 provincial seats under the first-past-the-post voting system. As per a 17 January 2018 cabinet meeting, the city of Biratnagar has been declared the interim capital of Province No. 1. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China to the north, the Indian states of Sikkim and West Bengal to the east, Province No. 3 and Province No. 2 to the west, Bihar of India to the south. According to the 2011 census, there are around 4.5 million people in the province, with a population density of 175.6 per square kilometer. The Kiratas were the aborigines of the north-eastern Himalayas. According to Baburam Acharya, they ruled over it, they were short and had robust bodies, broad cheeks, flat noses, thin whiskers, dark eyes. They were well trained in the art of warfare, were skillful archers, they were the ancestors of the present day Kiratas.
Yalamber the king of the Kiratas defeated Bhuvan Singh, the last king of the Ahir dynasty and established Kirat rule in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal. He extended his kingdom as far as the Trishuli River in the west. Kirata's Kingdom was divided into many principalities and chiefs ruled in eastern Nepal. Limbuwan, Morang Kingdom belonged to them. King of Gorkha unified all the kirati kingdoms or Principalities in Nepal from 1771 to 1789. Before establishment of new constitution on 20 September 2015, the area of Province No. 1 was one of the five Development Regions of Nepal, named Eastern Development Region. It had 16 districts, 14 existing districts of Province No. 1 and 2 districts Siraha and Saptari of Province No. 2. The Eastern Development Region was divided into 3 zones; the zones were: Kosi Zone and Sagarmatha Zone. Mechi included 4 districts, Kosi included Sagarmatha included 6 districts; the total area of The region was 28,456 km². Province No. 1 covers an area of 25,905 km2. The Province has three-fold geographical division: Himalayan in the north, Hilly in the middle and Terai in the southern part of Nepal, varying between an altitude of 60 m and 8,848 m.
Terai, extended from east to west, is made up of alluvial soil. To the west of Koshi River, in between Mahabharat Range and Churia Range, there elongates a valley called Inner Terai. Churai Range, Mahabharat Range and other hills of various height, basins and valleys form the hilly region; some parts of this region are favorable for agriculture but some other parts are not. Himalayan region, in the north, consists of many mountains ranges. Mahalangur, Umvek, Lumba Sumba and Janak being some of them; the highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest. Nepal's lowest point, Kechana Kawal at 58 m, is located in Jhapa district of this Province. There are gentle slopes as well. Chure, many basins and valleys form the Terai region. Between the Churia and Mahabharat a low land of inner Terai exists; the Koshi river flows through the region with its seven tributaries. Tundra vegetables, coniferous forest, deciduous monsoon forests and sub-tropical evergreen woods are vegetations found here. Sub-tropical, sub-temperate, alpine and tundra types of climates are found here.
Province No. 1 includes the snow fall capped peaks including Mt. Everest, Makalu with Solukhumbu and Taplejung districts towards the north, the jungle clad hill tracts of Okhaldhunga, Bhojpur, Tehrathum and Panchthar in the middle and the alluvial fertile plains of Udayapur, Sunsari and Jhapa. Province 1 includes places like Haleshi Mahadev Temple, Pathivara Temple and Barahachhetra, which are the famous religious shrines for Hindus. Climatic conditions of Nepal vary from one place to another in accordance with their geographical features. Province no. 1 has three geographical folds: The low-land of Terai, the hilly region and the highlands of the Himalayas. The low land altitude is 59 m. Whereas the highest point is 8848 m. In the north summers are cool and winters severe, while in the south summers are tropical and winters are mild. Climatically, the southern belt of Province, the Terai, experiences warm and humid climate. Eastern Nepal receives 2,500 millimeters of rain annually. Province no. 1 has five seasons: spring, monsoon and winter.
Northern part of Province No. 1 has the highest mountain of the world and there are many peaks that are higher. Here is a list of mountains in Province No. 1. There are many rivers in the region which flow towards south from the Himalayas which are tributaries of other large rivers which joins Ganga River. Sapt Koshi or the Koshi is the main river of the region. Seven tributaries join the Koshi; the major rivers in the province are: Mechi River Kankai River Koshi River Below given names are tributaries: Tamor Arun River Sun Koshi Dudh Koshi Likhu Khola Bhote Koshi Indrawati River Sagarmatha National Park – 1,148 km2 Makalu Barun National Park – 1,500 km2 Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve – 175 km2 Kanchenjunga Conservation Area – 2,035 km2 Gokyo Lake Complex – 7,770 ha Kosi
Sikkim
Sikkim is a state in northeastern India. It borders Tibet in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Nepal in the west, West Bengal in the south. Sikkim is located close to India's Siliguri Corridor near Bangladesh. Sikkim is the least second smallest among the Indian states. A part of the Eastern Himalaya, Sikkim is notable for its biodiversity, including alpine and subtropical climates, as well as being a host to Kangchenjunga, the highest peak in India and third highest on Earth. Sikkim's capital and largest city is Gangtok. 35% of the state is covered by the Khangchendzonga National Park. The Kingdom of Sikkim was founded by the Namgyal dynasty in the 17th century, it was ruled by a Buddhist priest-king known as the Chogyal. It became a princely state of British India in 1890. After 1947, Sikkim continued its protectorate status with the Republic of India, it enjoyed per capita income among Himalayan states. In 1973, anti-royalist riots took place in front of the Chogyal's palace. In 1975, the monarchy was deposed by the people.
A referendum in 1975 led to Sikkim joining India as its 22nd state. Modern Sikkim is a multilingual Indian state. Sikkim has 11 official languages: Nepali, Lepcha, Limbu, Rai, Magar and English. English is used in government documents; the predominant religions are Vajrayana Buddhism. Sikkim's economy is dependent on agriculture and tourism, as of 2014 the state had the third-smallest GDP among Indian states, although it is among the fastest-growing. Sikkim accounts for the largest share of cardamom production in India, is the world's second largest producer of the spice after Guatemala. Sikkim achieved its ambition to convert its agriculture to organic over the interval 2003 to 2016, the first state in India to achieve this distinction, it is among India's most environmentally conscious states, having banned plastic water bottles and styrofoam products. The origin theory of the name Sikkim is that it is a combination of two Limbu words: su, which means "new", khyim, which means "palace" or "house".
The Tibetan name for Sikkim is Drenjong, which means "valley of rice", while the Bhutias call it Beyul Demazong, which means'"the hidden valley of rice". According to the folklore, after establishing Rabdentse as his new capital Bhutia king Tensung Namgyal built a palace and asked his Limbu Queen to name it; the Lepcha people, the original inhabitants of Sikkim, called it Nye-mae-el, meaning "paradise". In historical Indian literature, Sikkim is known as the garden of the war god Indra; the Lepchas are considered to be the earliest inhabitants of Sikkim. However the Limbus and the Magars lived in the inaccessible parts of West and South districts as early as the Lepchas lived in the East and North districts; the Buddhist saint Padmasambhava known as Guru Rinpoche, is said to have passed through the land in the 8th century. The Guru is reported to have blessed the land, introduced Buddhism, foretold the era of monarchy that would arrive in Sikkim centuries later. According to legend, Khye Bumsa, a 14th-century prince from the Minyak House in Kham in eastern Tibet, received a divine revelation instructing him to travel south to seek his fortunes.
A fifth-generation descendant of Khye Bumsa, Phuntsog Namgyal, became the founder of Sikkim's monarchy in 1642, when he was consecrated as the first Chogyal, or priest-king, of Sikkim by the three venerated lamas at Yuksom. Phuntsog Namgyal was succeeded in 1670 by his son, Tensung Namgyal, who moved the capital from Yuksom to Rabdentse. In 1700, Sikkim was invaded by the Bhutanese with the help of the half-sister of the Chogyal, denied the throne; the Bhutanese were driven away by the Tibetans, who restored the throne to the Chogyal ten years later. Between 1717 and 1733, the kingdom faced many raids by the Nepalese in the west and Bhutanese in the east, culminating with the destruction of the capital Rabdentse by the Nepalese. In 1791, China sent troops to defend Tibet against the Gorkha Kingdom. Following the subsequent defeat of Gorkha, the Chinese Qing dynasty established control over Sikkim. Following the beginning of British rule in neighbouring India, Sikkim allied with Britain against their common adversary, Nepal.
The Nepalese attacked Sikkim. This prompted the British East India Company to attack Nepal, resulting in the Gurkha War of 1814. Treaties signed between Sikkim and Nepal resulted in the return of the territory annexed by the Nepalese in 1817. However, ties between Sikkim and the British weakened when the latter began taxation of the Morang region. In 1849, two British physicians, Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker and Dr. Archibald Campbell, the latter being in charge of relations between the British and Sikkimese governments, ventured into the mountains of Sikkim unannounced and unauthorised; the doctors were detained by the Sikkimese government, leading to a punitive British expedition against the kingdom, after which the Darjeeling district and Morang were annexed to British India in 1853. The invasion led to the Chogyal of Sikkim becoming a titular ruler under the directive of the British governor. Sikkim became a British protectorate in the decades of the 19th century, formalised by a convention signed with China in 1890.
Sikkim was granted more sovereignty over the next three decades, became a member of the Chamber of Princes, the assembly representing the rulers of the Indian princely states, in 1922. Prior to the Indian independence, Jawaharlal Nehru, as the Vice President of the Executive Council, pushed through a resolu
Orders of magnitude (area)
This page is a progressive and labelled list of the SI area orders of magnitude, with certain examples appended to some list objects. Orders of magnitude
Geography of Nepal
Nepal measures about 800 kilometers along its Himalayan axis by 150 to 250 kilometers across. Nepal has an area of 147,181 square kilometers. Nepal is landlocked by China's Tibet Autonomous Region to the north. West Bengal's narrow Siliguri Corridor or Chicken's Neck separate Bangladesh. To the east are India and Bhutan. Nepal depends on India for goods transport facilities and access to the sea for most goods imported from China. For a small country, Nepal has tremendous geographic diversity, it rises from as low as 59 metres elevation in the tropical Terai—the northern rim of the Gangetic Plain, beyond the perpetual snow line to some 90 peaks over 7,000 metres including Earth's highest 8,848 metres Mount Everest or Sagarmatha. In addition to the continuum from tropical warmth to cold comparable to polar regions, average annual precipitation varies from as little as 160 millimetres in the rainshadow north of the Himalaya to as much as 5,500 millimetres on windward slopes. Along a south-to-north transect, Nepal can be divided into three belts: Terai and Himal.
In the other direction, it is divided into three major river systems, from east to west: Koshi, Gandaki/Narayani and Karnali, all tributaries of the Ganges. The Ganges-Yarlung Zangbo/Brahmaputra watershed coincides with the Nepal-Tibet border, however several Ganges tributaries rise inside Tibet. Terai is a low land region containing some hill ranges; the Terai region begins at the Indian border and includes the southernmost part of the flat, intensively farmed Gangetic Plain called the Outer Terai. By the 19th century and other resources were being exported to India. Industrialization based on agricultural products such as jute began in the 1930s and infrastructure such roadways and electricity were extended across the border before it reached Nepal's pahad; the Outer Terai is culturally more similar to adjacent parts of India's Bihar and Uttar Pradesh than to the Pahad of Nepal. Nepali is taught in schools and spoken in government offices, however the local population uses Maithali and Tharu languages.
The Outer Terai ends at the base of the first range of foothills called the Siwaliks or Churia. This range has a densely forested skirt of coarse alluvium called the bhabhar. Below the bhabhar, less permeable sediments force groundwater to the surface in a zone of springs and marshes. In Persian, terai refers to marshy ground. Before the use of DDT this was dangerously malarial. Nepal's rulers used. Above the bhabhar belt, the Siwaliks rise to about 700 metres with peaks as high as 1,000 metres, steeper on their southern flanks because of faults known as the Main Frontal Thrust; this range is composed of poorly consolidated, coarse sediments that do not retain water or support soil development so there is no agricultural potential and sparse population. In several places beyond the Siwaliks there are dūn valleys called Inner Terai; these valleys have productive soil but were dangerously malarial except to indigenous Tharu people who had genetic resistance. In the mid-1950s DDT came into use to suppress mosquitos and the way was open to settlement from the land-poor hills, to the detriment of the Tharu.
The terai ends and the Pahad begin at a higher range of foothills called the Mahabharat Range. Hilly is a mountain region which doesn't contain snow, it is situated south of the Himal, the hilly is betw altitude. This region begins at the Mahabharat Range where a fault system called the Main Boundary Thrust creates an escarpment 1,000 to 1,500 metres high, to a crest between 1,500 and 2,700 metres; these steep southern slopes are nearly uninhabited, thus an effective buffer between languages and culture in the Terai and hilly. Hindu Paharis populate river and stream bottoms that enable rice cultivation and are warm enough for winter/spring crops of wheat and potato; the urbanized Kathmandu and Pokhara valleys fall within the Hill region. Newars are an indigenous ethnic group with their own Tibeto-Burman language; the Newar were indigenous to the Kathmandu valley but have spread into Pokhara and other towns alongside urbanized Pahari. Other indigenous janajati ethnic groups -— natively speaking localized Tibeto-Burman languages and dialects -— populate hillsides up to about 2,500 metres.
This group includes Magar and Kham Magar west of Pokhara, Gurung south of the Annapurnas, Tamang around the periphery of Kathmandu Valley and Rai, Koinch Sunuwar and Limbu further east. Temperate and subtropical fruits are grown as cash crops. Marijuana was grown and processed into Charas until international pressure persuaded the government to outlaw it in 1976. There is increasing reliance on animal husbandry with elevation, using land above 2,000 metres for summer grazing and moving herds to lower elevations in winter. Grain production has not kept pace with population growth at elevations above 1,000 metres where colder temperatures inhibit double cropping. Food deficits drive emigration out of the pahad in search of employment; the Hilly ends where ridges begin rising out of the temperate climate zone into subalpine zone above 3,000 metres. Himal is a mountain region containing snow; the Mountain Region or Parbat begins where high ridges begin rising above 3,000 metres into the subalpi
Nepal
Listen (help·info) is the Mountain district out of 14 districts of Province No. 1 of eastern Nepal. The district covers 3,646 km2 (1,408 sq mi); the 2011 census counted 127,461 population. Taplejung is the district headquarters.
Taplejung
