Rapti Zone

Rapti Anchal(Nepali: राप्ती अञ्चल), is an anchal or zone (first-order administrative district) in the Mid-Western Development Region of Nepal. It is named after the West Rapti River which drains Rolpa, Pyuthan and part of Dang district. The remainder of Dang and part of Salyan are drained by the Babai. The remainder of Salyan and all of Rukum are drained by the Bheri.

The headquarters of Rapti is Tulsipur and the largest city is Tribhuvannagar (Ghorahi). Other main cities and towns of Rapti zone are Pyuthan, Bijuwar, Liwang, Lamahi, Musikot, Rukumkot (Shova) and Chaurajhari.

Districts

Rapti is divided into 5 jilla (districts):

    * Dang Deukhuri District

    * Pyuthan District

    * Rolpa District

    * Rukum District

    * Salyan District

Geography

Dang district begins at the border with India. Since the border follows the southern edge of the Dudhwa Range -- a subrange of the Siwaliks, here there is no Nepalese Outer Terai extending onto the main Indo-Gangetic Plain. Dang has two Inner Terai Valleys. Deukhuri lies beyond the Dudhwas, then a second low subrange -- the Dang Range -- separates Deukhuri from Dang Valley. Beyond Dang Valley the district extends to the crest of the higher Mahabharat Range.

The two valleys have abundant level and gently-sloping land with fair to good soil development, and abundant groundwater. Malaria made them nearly uninhabitable except to the Tharu ethnic group that had evolved resistance. In the 1960s DDT came into use to suppress the mosquito vectors and the way was open to settlers from the hills who used debt and lawsuits to displace and even enslave Tharus.

Dang is the most developed and most rapidly developing of the zone's five districts. Mahendra Highway -- Nepal's main east-west route -— follows Deukhuri Valley. Dang Valley has two important towns, Tribuvannagar and Tulsipur, and an all-weather airport.

Pyuthan, Rolpa and Salyan districts are in the Middle Hills extending north from the crest of the Mahabharat Range. Pyuthan has a rice-growing alluvial plain along Jhimruk Khola, surrounded by villages of rice-growing Bahun and Chhetri farmers served by bazaar towns of Newar merchants. Rolpa district mainly lies along Mardi Khola, the other large Rapti tributary that is more eroded into an inner gorge and less suited to traditional irrigation projects.

Pyuthan and Rolpa extend north to a rugged 3-4,000 meter ridgeline marking the limits of the Rapti basin. Kham Magar live in small villages throughout these highlands up to about 2,500 meters. They herd sheep, goats and cattle in high summer pastures as far north as the western Dhaulagiri Himalaya in Rukum district, moving south to the Mahabharat Range in winter. Kham also cultivate subtropical and temperate fruit trees such as mulberry, citrus and Asian pear as cash crops. Until it was outlawed in the 1970s they cultivated hemp and made hashish bought by government agents to be sold in monopoly stores. Termination of these arrangements increased Kham outmigration in search of employment and contributed to discontent with the Shah regime.

Salyan resembles Pyuthan in having a mix of rice-growing lowlands inhabited by caste Hindus, and uplands inhabited by Kham peoples. It is drained by the Babai and Bheri Rivers.

Rukum is Rapti Zone's northernmost, most mountainous district including the western part of Dhaulagiri Himalaya drained by the Bheri River. At lower elevations it is populated by Hindu Khas people said to be ancestral to most of Nepal's Bahuns and Chhetris living further east. Kham Magars live higher up. A notable valley called Rukumkot lies near the district's geographical center.

Rapti Zone has a history of radical politics since the mid-20th century and in the 1990s became a center of the Maoist (maobadi) rebellion against the royal government and the fragile democracy that the late King Birendra eventually supported.

From : www.wikipedia.org