Note/Material

Our Development Regions Pictures required: Globe showing Nepal, Map of the world showing Nepal, Map of Nepal with a complete division of development regions. Objective: – To find out how the country is divided into development regions and the importance and justification of this division Introduction:- Nepal is a small country in the lap of Himalayas. It has an area of 1,47,181 sq. km. which covers about 0.03% of the total land of the world, 0.3% of the total land of Asia and 3% of the total land of South Asia. Nepal is a land-locked country and shares the border with China in the North, India in the East, West and South. The nearest sea to Nepal is the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean which is 500 km. from Nepal.             In order to run the administrative work smoothly, Nepal has been divided into Village Development Committees (VDC), Municipalities, Districts, Zones and Development Regions. The country has new system called Federalism now in which the Constituent Assembly elected second time has been working to materialize the state re-structuring, power sharing and balanced development. The development regions are the biggest division so far. These administrative units are created to all g about equal and balanced development in all parts of Nepal. Nepal was divided in to 4 development regions in the year 2029 B.S. They were Eastern, Central, Western and Far-Western Development Regions. Since Far-Western Development Region appeared to be the biggest, it was further divided into 2 creating Mid-Western Development Region in the year 2037 B.S. Thus we have 5 development regions existing at present. The following table shows the development regions and their centers:-  
Development Regions Zones under Development Regions Headquarters of Development Regions
Eastern Development Region Mechi, Koshi and Sagarmatha Dhankuta
Central Development Region Janakpur, Bagmati and Narayani Kathmandu
Western Development Region Gandaki, Lumbini and Dhaulagiri Pokhara
Mid-Western Development Region Karnali, Rapti and Bheri Birendranagar
Far-Western Development Region Seti and Mahakali Dipayal
  Each development region has been further divided into districts and zones. Nepal has 14 zones and 75 districts which were created in the year 2018 B.S. by Late King Mahendra. The headquarter of each development region monitors, supervises, coordinates, inspects and controls administrative work of the development region. The biggest development region is MWDR with an area of 42,378 sq. km. and the smallest development region is FWDR with an area of 19,539 sq. km. The WDR has an area of 29,398 sq. km., EDR has 28,456 sq. km. and CDR has 27,410 sq. km. Population density varies from one region to another due to its accessibility, climate, physical structure and other facilities. The following table shows the population percentage in 5 development regions:-
Development Regions Population Percentage
EDR 24%
CDR 33.5%
WDR 20.4%
MWDR 13%
FWDR 9.1%
  The development regions are very important to bring about overall development of the country. The following points will help us to find the importance of these political and administrative units:-
  1. To make the daily and administrative work of the government easy
  2. To make local people participate in development activities
  3. To utilize local means and resources
  4. To provide job opportunities to local people
  5. To reduce migration
  6. To decentralize the power
  7. To achieve balanced development
  8. To capitalize the potentiality of the region for the benefit of majority
  9. To have healthy competition
  10. To foster the national unity