Chitwan Valley

The Chitwan Valley (Nepali: चितवन उपत्यका) is an Inner Terai valley in the south of Nepal, encompassing the districts of Makwanpur, Chitwan and Nawalparasi. The valley is part of the Terai-Duar savanna and grasslands ecoregion of about 150 km (93 mi) length and 30–48 km (19–30 mi) width.

Major cities are Hetauda and Ratnanagar in the easternmost part of the valley, Narayanghar and Bharatpur in its central part.

The Chitwan Valley is drained by the East Rapti River, which flows from the eastern Mahabharat Range into the valley near Hetauda, where it turns west and flows along the axis of the valley. About 20 km west of Hetauda the Rapti meets the eastern border of Chitwan National Park. For the next 70 km it forms a natural boundary between human settlements on its right-hand side and protected area on its left-hand side. West of Meghauli it joins the Narayani River, a Ganges tributary called Gandaki River in India.

Today, Chitwan Valley is administratively divided into three districts:

Chitwan Valley was an independent kingdom before Nepal was unified in the late 18th century, its historic capital having been Upardanggadhi. Until the beginning of the 20th century, the main part of the Chitwan Valley was under forest and sparsely populated by ethnic groups, such as the Tharu, Danuwar, Darai and Majhi people who had acquired some resistance against the infectious malaria raging the region. When in the beginning of the 1950s poor farmers from Nepal's mid-hill areas emigrated to the south in search of arable land, the Chitwan Valley was opened for settlement. A malaria-eradication and deforestation scheme using DDT was started in the 1960s with support of the United States. Subsequently, more than 60,000 people of Chepang, Gurung, Magar, Chetri and Bahun ethnic groups, formerly resident only in the mid-hills, have settled here. By 1980 the human population had increased to more than 260,000 people living in some 320 settlements.

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