Karnali Province ( ne, कर्णाली प्रदेश) is one of the seven federal provinces of

Nepal Nepal (; ne, :ne:नेपाल, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in S ...

formed by the new constitution which was adopted on 20 September 2015. The total area of the province is covering 18.97% of the country, making it the largest province in Nepal. According to the 2011 Nepal census, the population of the province was 1,570,418, making it the least populous province in Nepal. It borders the

Tibet Autonomous Region The Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, often shortened to Tibet or Xizang, is a province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China in Southwest China. It was overlayed on the traditional Tibetan regions of � ...

of China to the north,

Gandaki Province Gandaki Province ( ne, गण्डकी प्रदेश ) ), is one of the seven federal provinces established by the current constitution of Nepal which was promulgated on 20 September 2015. Pokhara is the province's capital city. It borde ...

to the east, Sudurpashchim Province to the west, and

Lumbini Province Lumbini Province ( ne, लुम्बिनी प्रदेश, Lumbinī pradēśa) is a province in western Nepal. It borders Gandaki Province and Karnali Province to the north, Sudurpashchim Province to the west, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar o ...

to the south. Birendranagar with a population of 154,886 is both the province's capital and largest city.

Etymology

The province's name is derived from the

Karnali River Karnali may refer to: Places in Nepal * Karnali Bridge, a bridge over the Karnali River in Nepal * Karnali Highway, a vital transport link in Nepal * Karnali Province, a federal province in Nepal * Karnali River, a river in Nepal and India origin ...

, which flows through the province. A meeting of the

provincial assembly Provincial may refer to: Government & Administration * Provincial capitals, an administrative sub-national capital of a country * Provincial city (disambiguation) * Provincial minister (disambiguation) * Provincial Secretary, a position in Can ...

on 25 February 2018 adopted the name Karnali for the province.

History

Karnali is an old civilization in Nepal and is connected with the

Archaeological sites found in Jumla, Surkhet and Dailekh infer that the area was part of the old Khasa kingdom which was established during the 11th century. The capital of the Khas Kingdom was

Sinja The Sinja Valley is located in the Jumla District in Karnali Province, of Nepal. The valley was the ancient capital city of the Khasa Kingdom and is considered a historically significant place. The valley is also considered as the birthplace of ...

in present-day

Jumla District Jumla District ( ne, जुम्ला जिल्ला), is one of the ten districts of the Karnali province of Nepal. This district has Jumla as its headquarters, an area of ; it had populations of 89,427 and 108,921, respectively, in th ...

. The kingdom expanded to a great extent in the 13th and 14th century; expanding to Garhwal in the west, Mansarowar and Guge regions of Tibet in the north,

Gorkha The Gurkhas or Gorkhas (), with endonym Gorkhali ), are soldiers native to the Indian Subcontinent, chiefly residing within Nepal and some parts of Northeast India. The Gurkha units are composed of Nepalis and Indian Gorkhas and are recruit ...

- Nuwakot regions in the east and Kapilvastu with large areas of Terai in the south. After the late 14th century, the Khas empire collapsed and was divided into the Baise Rajya (22 principalities) in Karnali- Bheri region. Before the unification of modern Nepal, a part of Karnali (from

Bheri River The Bheri River is a major tributary of the ''Karnali River'' draining the western Dhaulagiri range in western Nepal. It has three important upper tributaries. Sani Bheri River drains southern slopes of this range while Thuli Bheri River drain ...

) was in the Sanghiya Baise Rajya (22 principality confederacy). The principalities were sovereign but intermittently allied among themselves until they were annexed during the unification of modern Nepal from 1744 to 1810.

Geography

Karnali is the largest province of

with an area of . The province is surrounded by

in east,

in south-east and south, Sudurpashchim Province in the west and

of China in north. The province has occupied higher mountains land of north and mid-hills of

. It contains

Kubi Gangri Kubi Gangri is a mountain in the Himalayas of Asia. It has a summit elevation of 6,859 meters above sea level and is located on the international border between Nepal and Tibet, China. See also * List of mountains in China * List of mountains in ...

, Changla and Kanjiroba mountains in north. The Shey Phoksundo National Park with Phoksundo lake is the largest national park of Nepal and

Rara lake Rara Lake also known as Mahendra Lake is the largest fresh water lake in the Nepalese Himalayas. It is the main feature of Rara National Park, located in Jumla and Mugu Districts of Karnali Province. Rara National Park stretches over . History ...

is the largest lake of Nepal which are located in Karnali Province.

is the biggest river of the province which is thought to be the longest river in Nepal.

Seti River The Seti River is an important tributary of the Karnali system that drains western Nepal. Course The Seti originates from the snow fields and glaciers around the twin peaks of Api and Nampa in the south facing slopes of the main Himalayas ...

and

are tributaries of Karnali, and Kupinde Daha is a lake of Karnali.

Demographics

According to the 2011 Census of Nepal, Karnali Province has a population of 1,570,418 comprising 802,495 females and 767,923 males. The province has the lowest population in the country, having 5.93% of the population on 19.74% of the land. The population density of the province is 56 people per square kilometer.

Ethnic groups

Khas Arya is the largest

ethno-linguistic Ethnolinguistics (sometimes called cultural linguistics) is an area of anthropological linguistics that studies the relationship between a language and the nonlinguistic cultural behavior of the people who speak that language. __NOTOC__ Examples ...

indigenous group in the province, with Chhetri, Kami, Thakuri and Bahun dominating the population. The largest non-Khas Arya group are the

Magars The Magar, also spelled as Mangar, and Mongar, are the third largest ethnolinguistic groups of Nepal, indigenous to Western Nepal and representing 7.1% of Nepal's total population according to the 2011 Nepal census. The original home of the Magar ...

who make up 170,797 (10.88%) of the population.

Tamang The Tamang (; Devanagari: तामाङ; ''tāmāṅ'') are an Tibeto-Burmese ethnic group of Nepal. In Nepal Tamang/Moormi people constitute 5.6% of the Nepalese population at over 1.3 million in 2001, increasing to 1,539,830 as of the 2011 ...

(0.88%) and

Gurung Gurung (exonym; ) or Tamu (endonym; Gurung: ) are an ethnic group indigenous to the hills and mountains of Gandaki Province of Nepal. Gurung people predominantly live around the Annapurna region in Manang, Mustang, Dolpo, Kaski, Lamjung, Go ...

(0.70%) are other Janajati groups in the province with a significant population.

Languages

95.55% of the population in the province speak Nepali as their native language. Other languages spoken in the region are Magar (2.07%) and

(0.72%). The Language Commission of Nepal has recommended Magar as an additional official language in the province. The most spoken language is Nepali, which is known with its original name ''Khas Bhasha'' in the province.

Religion

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...

is the most followed religion in the province with 95.34% of the people identifying as Hindus. Buddhists are the largest minority religion being followed by 3.09% and

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

is the second-largest minority religion being followed by 1.30% of the population. Karnal is the only province in Nepal with having no Muslim population.

Government and administration

The Governor acts as the head of the province while the Chief Minister is the head of the provincial government. The Chief Judge of the Surkhet High Court is the head of the judiciary. The present Governor, Chief Minister and Chief Judge are Govindra Prasad Kaulani, Jeevan Bahadur Shahi and Hari Kumar Pokharel respectively. The province has 40 provincial assembly constituencies, 12 House of Representative constituencies and eight National Assembly seats. Karnali has a

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multi ...

legislature, like all of the other provinces in Nepal. The term length of the provincial assembly is five years. The Provincial Assembly of Karnali Province is temporarily housed at the Irrigation Division Office in Birendranagar.

Administrative subdivisions

Karnali is divided into ten districts. A district is administrated by the head of the

District Coordination Committee District administration makes up the third level of government division in Nepal. The provision for a District Assembly, which acts as the legislature at the district-level, is mentioned in Part 17 of the Constitution of Nepal. The 77 districts of ...

and the District Administration Officer. The districts are further dived to municipalities or rural municipalities which are further divided into wards. There are 25 municipalities and 54 rural municipalities in the province. The capital and largest city of the province is Birendranagar. It is only city in the province with a population of over 50,000.

Economy

Karnali Province has the lowest growth rate in the country with an annual economic growth rate of 5.7% and is also contributes the least to the GDP at 4.1%. The province is among the poorest in Nepal with an estimated 28.9% of people living under absolute poverty (second highest in the country) and 51.7% of the people are multidimensionally poor (highest in the country). The unemployment rate in the province stands at 9.7% which is the third-lowest in the country.

Agriculture

Karnali is the largest producer of barley in the country and accounted for 43% of the country's total share of barley production in 2018/19.

References

{{coord, 29, 30, N, 82, 25, E, display=title, region:NP_type:adm1st_source:GNS-enwiki Provinces of Nepal 2015 establishments in Nepal States and territories established in 2015