RIVER NETWORK

   Nepal is known as the second largest country after Brazil for water resourses potential. There are thousands of rivers in the country . Most of these rivers originated in the mountain , middle hill(mahabharat lekh) and in the churia hill. The rivers origination from the mountainous are the snow fed rivers. The flow of water is the river originating from the middle hills decreases during the winter . the rivers originating from the churia are non-perannial. Most of these rivers dry in winter season.

  

    These are three most important river system in Nepal . they are Koshi ,Gandaki and karnali . koshi is the longest river in Nepal . it has seven tributaries namely Arun , sunkoshi ,Tamakoshi, Dudhakoshi , Indrawati , Likhu and Tamor.Gandaki that flows in the central part also has seven main tributaries namely kali-Gandaki ,Bodhi-Gandaki , Marsyandhi , Trishuli , Seti, Mdhi and Daravdi.Similarly ,Karnali flows in the western part of the country . its main tributaries includes Humla Karnali, Mugu karnali ,Bheri , Tila and Seti .

  

   Beside these main rivers there are many other important rivers of second and third order. Some of these are Mechi, kankai, kamala, Bagamati , Tinau , Rapti , Babai, Mahakali, Ratu ,Lal –Bakaiya, Mohana, etc.

PEAK, PASS AND MOUNTAIN RIDGE

    Nepal is a mountainous country where there are hundreds of mountainous peaks and ranges . The churiya range lies at the lower elevation in the terai .The Mahabharat range lies above the churiya . The himal lies in the northern most part of the country .These mountain ranges have horizontal distribution from south to north respectively.

    There are different mountain ranges in the Himal where the most hotable peaks are elevated. Some of the major mountain ranges are Mahalagur , Kumbhakarna,Singhalila, Rolwaling,Lantang-Lirung, Ganesh-larkehimal,Annapurna, Dhawalagiri,Api-saipal,etc. there are many passes in these mountain ranges.

Mount Everest (8848m),Choyou(8153m)Lhosthe(8501m)lies in the singhalila, Makalu(8475m)lies in the kumbhakarna , Machhapuchhare(6993m) and Annapurna (8091m) lie in Annapurna range and Dhaulagiri (8137m)lies in the Dhaulagiri range .

DISTRIBUTION OF MINERALS

  The mountainous , hill and tarai regions have varied geological structure . Thus , various type s of minerals are found in Nepal . The above map shows the distribution of about 30 different types of minerals .Most of the minerals are concerntrated in the hills areas of the central and western development regions . Among various minerals, copper ,magnesita,iron, lead and mica are comman minerals found in different parts of the country .Beside , these  gold is found in llam and in kathmandu .Similarly, coal is found in the western and estern terai. There are several other prospective areas  where different types of minerals coold be found .

   

    These minerals are of limited use for industrial purpose so far. Limestone and marble are  explored to some extent for industries. But there is very limited survey , research and studies and it has still not been able to explore the condition of those minerals.

FOREST

  Out of the total area in Nepal, forest covered only 29 percent area in 1994. Forest coverage is rapidly decreasing in our country. There was 38 percent forest in 1978/79 that was decreased to 35.9 percent in 1984. Not only has the coverage, the quality of the forest also been degrading. There is about 11 percent shrub area that was only about 5 percent in 1985/86.

Most of the forest of Nepal has been concentrated more of less along the East- West Highway. The forest of mild hill and mountain are massively degraded. There is 25.9 percent forest out of the total area in the EDR. Similarly, CDR, WDR, MWDR and FWDR have 33.5, 25.0, 28.2 and 35.2 percent forest area out of total land area of these development regions respectively. During the period of 1978 to 1994, the decreasing rate of forest was 1.7 percent in the national level.

PROTECTED AREAS

  Nepal has given high priority to conserving and preserving the nature. There are eight national parks, five wildlife reserves and four conservation areNepal. The national parks, wildlife reserves and conservation areas have occupied 10144, 2398 and 17742 sq km area respectively. Altogether, the protected areas have covered 16.49percent (24284 sq km) area of the country.  

  Among the national parks, shey-phoksundo national parks are the largest (3555 aq km) and Rara National park is the smallest (106 sq km). The Royal chit wan National park is oldest national park of the country that is including in the world heritage site also. Similarly, out of the five wildlife reserves, Dolpatan Hunting reserve is the largest (1325 sq km) and shivapuri watershed wildlife reserve (144 sq km) is the smallest. Out of conservation areas, Annapurna conservation Area (7629 sq km) is the largest and Makalu Barun conservation Area (800 sq km) is the smallest in Nepal.

   These protected areas of different ecological regions have conserved different valuable flora and fauna.