Namaste Nepal!
Nepal is a country with fascinating beauty. The hills, mountains, valleys, rivers, rock formations, forests, Nepal is blessed with diverse form of nature. Similarly, the geographical and topographical variation in the landscape makes Nepal more appealing and has a lot of scope for tourism. The major attraction of Nepal that makes it known to the world is the world’s highest mountain – Mt. Everest. Nepal is a mountainous country that sits in the lap of Himalayas in between two big nations like India and China. Nepal has eight out of fourteen highest mountains in the world amongst with Mt. Everest, the almighty peak amongst all. The geographical variation ranges from mountains, hills to flat plains as you move from mountainous region to the Terai. The same variation can be seen in climate as well. The mountainous region is cold, hilly regions are mild and the Terai plains and hot. Owning to this geographical and climatic variation, Nepal possesses a diversity of flora and faunas in each geographical and climatic region. No wonder there are many national parks and wildlife reserves that protects some unique species of floras and faunas. Talking about the altitudinal variation, Nepal is probably the only country whose altitudinal variation ranges from 70 meters to 8,848 meters.
Know more about Nepal!
Nepal is also known as an Amazon of Asia, Nepal is a country rich in bio diversity though many of its places are still unexplored. Nepal constitutes of many rare species of floras and faunas. Highlighting the facts, Nepal is a home to more than 360 species of Orchid which constitutes over 2% of the world’s orchids. Similarly, Nepal has 8 % of the total species of birds found in the world. The national flower of Nepal – rhododendron comprises 6% of the world’s rhododendron species. Nepal possesses over 5980 species of flowering plants which covers 2.4% of the world’s total. Amongst this, 250 species of the flowering plants are very rare and found only in Nepal. Highlighting on wildlife, Nepal has one of the largest number of Royal Bengal Tiger in the world after India and Bangladesh. Largest moth and largest honey fees are found in the jungles of Nepal. The only natural breeding ground of the Long Snouted Gharial crocodile is found Nepalese river. Besides, Nepal has nearly 870 species of birds and 4.2% of the world’s butterfly species which is over 650 species of butterflies. The one horned rhino and snow leopards are the charm of Nepal found in jungles and mountainous region of Nepal respectively. Swamp deer and the beautiful creatures found in Shukla Phanta wildlife reserve of Nepal.
Nepal takes a pride of having 10 world heritage sites enlisted by UNESCO in its list of world heritage sites. Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal itself has seven world heritage sites that includes Kathmandu durbar square, Patan durbar square, Bhaktapur durbar square, Changunarayan temple, Pashupatinath temple, Swayambhunath temple, Boudhanath stupa. Besides, Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha, the light of Asia, Chitwan National Park and Sagarmatha National Park are other heritages listed in world heritage sites list of UNESCO.
The cultural and religious aspect of Nepal is even more appealing. Nepal was once a Hindu kingdom which has now turned in to a secular state. However, the major population of Nepal is Hindus. Buddhism is another major religion prevalent in the mountainous region of Nepal. Nepal is diversified when it comes to religion, culture and tradition as people. People of different caste, culture and creed live here together rejoicing their own religion, culture and practices.
Some major info of Nepal is as follows:
Country: Nepal
Capital: Kathmandu
Largest Touristic City: Pokhara
Official language: Nepali
Demonym: Nepalese
Government: Federal Parliamentary Republic
Legislature: Parliament
Area: 147,181 sq. kms
Population: 28,982,771 (as per 2016 estimate)
Calling Code: +977
ISO 3166 Code: NP
Internet TLD: np
National Animal: Cow
National Flower: Rhododendron
National Bird: Lophophorus
Time Zone: UTC+5:45
Currency: Nepalese rupees (NPR)
