Nepal is situated in Asia, in the north-east part of the Indian subcontinent. It borders on two countries – China in north-east and India in south-west. It occupies an area of 147 181sq.km. and has population of around 28 300 000 people. The capital of the country is Kathmandu. This is the largest city in the country with population of around 1 600 000 people (metropolitan area). The city is situated in mountain valley with approximately altitude of 1400m. The most interesting of this small Asian country is undoubtedly its specific occupation. Nepal is world famous as “The roof of the world”.
This is the most alpine state on the planet. On the border with China you can find the highest peak on the planet Earth – Mount Everest. This work of the nature, rise to an altitude of 8848m.
A lot of people have lost their lives while they try to climb the peak. Except Everest, in Nepal you can find many other peaks more than 7 – 8 000 m. Some of them are Kangchenjunga (8586m) (on the border by India), Dhaulagiri (8167m), Annapurna (8091m), Api (7132m) and so on.
The Himalayas have been formed because of the collision of the Indian subcontinent and Asia. In the collision of the two continental plates, one of them is sticking under the other and because of this reason here you can find peaks that are more than 8000m high. Himalayas are undoubtedly the most impressive mountain range on the planet Earth.
The climate of Nepal. Nepal is situated in the tropical climate zone. This means that there should be all year-around warm climate. But in this case the relief is decisive factor.
In reality, in the southern, lower parts of the country, near by the border of India, you can find typical tropical climate, with high temperatures and humidity, as well as significant precipitations.
In the capital Kathmandu, the climate has tropical mountainous. The daily temperatures vary from 18 °C in January to 30 °C in May.
Only in December, January and February the temperatures are lower than 20 °C. At the expense of this fact the night temperatures can be very low.
They can reach 20 °C in July and August, but also can drop to 2 °C in the cloudless winter nights. The biggest part of the precipitations fall in the summer months, especially in July and August.
In the highest part of the mountains there is polar climate, the temperatures are negative all year around. The snow cover is permanent. The snowstorms are sudden and unpredictable.
Nepal’s natural wealth is protected in many national parks and other preserved areas. The country offer incredible opportunities for practising of Eco-tourism. The National Parks on the territory of this country are:
-National Park Langtang
-National Park Sagarmatha
-National Park Makalu-Barun
-National Park Khaptad
-National Park Royal Bardia
-National Park Rara
-National Park Shey-Phoksundo
-National Park Royal Chitwan
Royal Chitwan is the oldest and it is the biggest touristic attraction. It occupies an area of 932sq.km. One of the most amazing landmarks on the territory of Nepal is with certainly the valley of river Kaly Gandak.
The river passes through this area long time before the appearance of the Himalayas. In the course of millions years, the young mountain range gradually has reach its height of more than 8000m.
For millions of years the mountain range has risen to this great altitude and the river has engraved deeper and deeper and today this is the deepest canyon on the planet – its approximate dept is 4400m!
The nature of Nepal is very beautiful and magnetic. In this reason the country strongly relay to the developing of tourism. Interesting for the tourists are not only the high mountain ranges but also the tropical rain forests in the southern part of the country.
These jungles are home to exceptionally rare species as tigers, Asian elephants, Asian rhinoceroses, leopards, bears, does, deer and so on.
The warm evergreen rain forests, posses huge diversity of tropical birds, amphibian, reptiles and insects. There is incredible diversity of plant species. Here you can find more than 6500 kinds of trees, flowers, herbs, bushes and so on.
Because of the great differences of the altitude there are incredible diversity if climate zones. Because of this reason here you can find significant diversity of species. From the foot to the top of the mountain you can find five climate zones – tropical, subtropical, temperate, subarctic and arctic.
Economy. Nepal is developing country with a low life standard. More than 30% of the population of the country goes hungry. 90% of the population work in the agriculture.
Leading in the stock – breeding is the bringing up of yaks and in the plant-growing – sugar cane, potatoes and herbs. Except the agriculture, the textile industry is also very important.
The country produce carpets that export in all over the world. For its future economic developing Nepal strongly rely to the tourism. Every year more than half million people visit this country and the tendency is promising.