bardiya: BARDIYA DISTRICT

Bardiya District, one of the seventy-five districts of Nepal, is part of Bheri Zone and is headquartered at the city of Gularia. The district covers an area of 2,025 km² and according to the 2001 census the population was 382,649.

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[edit] Geography

Bardiya lies in Bheri zone in the mid western region of Nepal. It covers 2025 square kilometers and lies west of Banke district, south of Surkhet district, east of Kailali district. To the south lies Uttar Pradesh in India.
Bardiya is mostly a fertile plain land covered with agricultural land and forest. However, lower hilly range of Nepal also known as Churiya range lies on the north. Bardiya National Park occupies northern part of the district. The national park covers 968 km² and it is mostly located in Bardiya district. The park is the largest undisturbed wilderness area of Nepal's plain land. It provides excellent habitat for the engendered species of wild life such as Rhinoceros , Wild elephant , Tiger , Swamp deer , Black buck , Gharial crocodile , Marsh mugger crocodile , Gangetic dolphin, Bengal florican , Sliver-eared mesia , Sarus crane , Lesser florican. More than 30 species of mammals and more than 250 species of birds and many snakes, lizards and fish have been recorded in the park's forests, grasslands and river habitats.
The majority of the people living in this district are farmers. The district headquarters, Gularia lies on the Babai River. The Karnali, one of the largest rivers of Nepal, divides into many branches when it reaches the plain and flows through Bardiya. The western branch of the Karnali forms the boundary between Bardiya and Kailali districts. The eastern branch of the Karnali is called the Geruwa. The endangered Gangetic dolphin was often seen in its waters but dolphin population in the rivers of Bardiya have dwindled sharply in recent years.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] History

Bardiya was part of Nepal before the Sugauli Treaty with the British East India Company, through which Nepal lost the territory. It was returned to Nepal along with Banke, Kailali and Kanchanpur at the time of Jang Bahadur Rana. In the early twentieth century, Bardiya was covered with forest and was sparsely populated with Indigenoustribal people called Tharus. Dang and Deukhuri valleys of Dang district had very large Tharu population at that time. However, as the Nepali-speaking peoples from the hills started migrating towards Dang valley, Tharus were displaced and moved westward into Banke, Bardiya, Kailali and Kanchanpur. Later on, Nepali-speaking hill people also migrated into Bardiya. At present, thr majority of people living in Bardiya are Dangora Tharus. They have their own language. Sonaha, also tribals of Bardiya, who live near by the Karnali River, live by extracting gold from the sands of the river.