Bara District ( ) is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal, located in the western part of the

Madhesh Province Madhesh Province () is a Provinces of Nepal, province of Nepal in the Terai region with an area of covering about 6.5% of the country's total area. It has a population of 6,126,288 as per the 2021 Nepal census, making it Nepal's most densely po ...

. The district is third richest district in Nepal after Kathmandu and Morang with 3.3% share of total GDP of Nepal and highest per capita income in Madhesh province.

Kalaiya Kalaiya is a sub-metropolitan city and serves as the headquarters of Bara District in Madhesh Province, Nepal. At the time of the 2021 Nepal census The 2021 Nepal Census was the twelfth nationwide census of Nepal conducted by the Central B ...

serves as the district's headquarter. Bakaiya, Jamuniya, Pasaha, Dudhaura and Bangari are the main rivers of Bara. The main languages spoken in the district are Tharu,

Bhojpuri Bhojpuri may refer to: * Bhojpuri language, an Indo-Aryan language of India and Nepal * Bhojpuri grammar, grammatical rules of the language * Bhojpuri nouns, nouns of the language * Bhojpuri people, people who speak the language * Bhojpuri region ...

Bajjika Bajjika is an Indo-Aryan language variety spoken in parts of Bihar, India and in Nepal. It is also classified as a dialect of Maithili language and is known as Western Maithili. Territory and speakers Bajjika language is spoken in the north-w ...

, and Nepali.

History

Simraungadh Simraungadh, Simraongarh or Simroungarh (, Devanagari: सिम्रौनगढ) is a municipality situated in Bara district of Nepal. The municipality was created in 2014 by agglomerating the Village development committee (Nepal), Village Dev ...

is major part of Bara district. It is a historical place in Nepal and famous for agricultural products. Here people grow

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

, and various

green vegetables Leaf vegetables, also called leafy greens, vegetable greens, or simply greens, are plant leaves eaten as a vegetable, sometimes accompanied by their petioles and shoots, if tender. Leaf vegetables eaten raw in a salad can be called salad gre ...

(

cauliflower Cauliflower is one of several vegetables cultivated from the species '' Brassica oleracea'' in the genus '' Brassica'', which is in the Brassicaceae (or mustard) family. Cauliflower usually grows with one main stem that carries a large, rou ...

tomato The tomato (, ), ''Solanum lycopersicum'', is a plant whose fruit is an edible Berry (botany), berry that is eaten as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originate ...

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...

(raw),

beetroot The beetroot (British English) or beet (North American English) is the taproot portion of a ''Beta vulgaris'' subsp. ''vulgaris'' plant in the Conditiva Group. The plant is a root vegetable also known as the table beet, garden beet, dinner bee ...

bitter gourd ''Momordica charantia'' (commonly called bitter melon, cerassee, goya, bitter apple, bitter gourd, bitter squash, balsam-pear, karela, karavila and many more names listed below) is a tropical and subtropical vine of the family Cucurbitaceae, w ...

bottle gourd Calabash (; ''Lagenaria siceraria''), also known as bottle gourd, white-flowered gourd, long melon, birdhouse gourd, New Guinea bean, New Guinea butter bean, Tasmania bean, and opo squash, is a vine grown for its fruit. It can be either harvest ...

brinjal Eggplant ( US, CA, AU, PH), aubergine ( UK, IE, NZ), brinjal ( IN, SG, MY, ZA, SLE), or baigan ( IN, GY) is a plant species in the nightshade family Solanaceae. ''Solanum melongena'' is grown worldwide for its edible fruit, typic ...

cabbage Cabbage, comprising several cultivars of '' Brassica oleracea'', is a leafy green, red (purple), or white (pale green) biennial plant grown as an annual vegetable crop for its dense-leaved heads. It is descended from the wild cabbage ( ''B.& ...

carrot The carrot ('' Daucus carota'' subsp. ''sativus'') is a root vegetable, typically orange in colour, though heirloom variants including purple, black, red, white, and yellow cultivars exist, all of which are domesticated forms of the wild ...

, chilli (green), chilli (dry red),

coriander leaves Coriander (), whose leaves are known as cilantro () in the U.S. and parts of Canada, and dhania in parts of South Asia and Africa, is an annual herb (''Coriandrum sativum'') in the family Apiaceae. Most people perceive the leaves as hav ...

cucumber The cucumber (''Cucumis sativus'') is a widely-cultivated creeping vine plant in the family Cucurbitaceae that bears cylindrical to spherical fruits, which are used as culinary vegetables.potato The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...

and so on). Bara district is famous for the

Gadhimai Temple Gadhimai Temple () is a Hindu temple of Gadhimai Devi, an aspect of Kali, the Hindu goddess of power. The temple is situated in Mahagadhimai Municipality in Bara District of south central Nepal, though the term usually refers to Gadhimai festival ...

, particularly as every five years it celebrates the '' Gadhimai Mela''. This festival has historically been celebrated every 5 years by sacrificing animals. In the future animal sacrifice will no longer occur, as temple authorities have decided to convert the festival into a "momentous celebration of life."

Geography and climate

The district is surrounded by

Parsa district Parsa District (), a part of Madhesh Province in Terai plain, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The district, with Birgunj as its district headquarters, covers an area of and has a population (2001) of 497,219. According to the lo ...

in the west,

Rautahat district Rautahat District (), a part of Madhesh Province, is one of the List of districts of Nepal, seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The district headquarter is Gaur, Nepal, Gaur, including municipalities like Katahariya, Garuda, Nepal, Garuda, Chandrapur ...

in the east,

Makwanpur district Makwanpur District (; ), in Bagmati Province, earlier a part of Narayani Zone, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The city of Hetauda serves as the district headquarters and also as the provincial headquarters. The district covers a ...

Bagmati province Bagmati Province (, ''Bāgmatī pradēśa'') is one of the seven Provinces of Nepal, provinces of Nepal established by the constitution of Nepal. Bagmati is Nepal's second-most populous province and fifth largest province by area. It is bordered ...

in the north and Indian state of

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

in the south. It covers an area of .

Demographics

At the time of the

2021 Nepal census The 2021 Nepal Census was the twelfth nationwide census of Nepal conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics. The census was originally scheduled from 8 June to 22 June 2021, but was postponed to November 2021 due to a surge in COVID-19 case ...

, Bara District had a population of 763,137. 10.17% of the population is under 5 years of age. It has a literacy rate of 64.54% and a sex ratio of 958 females per 1000 males. 507,224 (66.47%) lived in municipalities. Ethnicity/caste: Madheshi are the largest group, making up over 61% of the population. Muslims are the largest single community, making up over 14% of the population. Tharus are 10% of the population. There are small minorities of Khas and Hill Janjatis. Religion: 80.9% were

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

, 14.7%

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

, 4.1%

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

, 0.3%

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

, 0.04%

Kirati The Kirati people, also spelled as Kirat or Kirant or Kiranti, are Tibeto-Burman ethnolinguistic groups living in the Himalayas, mostly the Eastern Himalaya extending eastward from Nepal to North East India (predominantly in the Indian state ...

, 0.01%

Prakriti Prakriti ( ) is "the original or natural form or condition of anything, original or primary substance". It is a key concept in Hinduism, formulated by the ''Samkhya'' school, where it does not refer merely to matter or nature, but includes all cog ...

and 0.3% others. Literacy: 51.8% could read and write, 3.0% could only read and 45.1% could neither read nor write. According to the preliminary 2021 census, Bara district has a total population of 743,975. The population according to 2011 census was 687,708. Between 2011 and 2021, the population growth rate was 0.75%, the 32nd highest in the country. There are 112,329 households in the districts and 134,390 families in this district. The population density is 625 people per sq. kilometers and the average family size is 5.54. The gender ratio of the district is 104.51 with 380,192 males and 363,783 females.

is the largest language. Tharu is the second-largest language. Nepali is spoken by 9% of the population. Tamang,

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

and

are spoken by a small minority.

Administration

The district consists of two sub– metropolitan cities five urban municipalities and nine

rural municipalities A rural municipality is a classification of municipality, a type of local government, found in several countries. These include: * Rural municipalities in Canada, a type of municipal status in the Canadian provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, a ...

. These are as follows: * Kalaiya Sub– Metropolitan City * Jeetpur Simara Sub– Metropolitan City * Kolhabi Municipality * Nijgadh Municipality *

Mahagadhimai Municipality Mahagadhimai (Nepali: महागढीमाई) is a new municipality in Bara District, named after the temple of goddess Gadhimai.Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. ...

* Simraungadh Municipality * Pacharauta Municipality * Pheta Rural Municipality * Bishrampur Rural Municipality * Prasauni Rural Municipality * Adarsh Kotwal Rural Municipality * Karaiyamai Rural Municipality * Devtal Rural Municipality * Parwanipur Rural Municipality * Baragadhi Rural Municipality * Suwarna Rural Municipality

Former municipalities and village development committees

Prior to the restructuring of the district, Bara consisted of the following municipalities and village development committees: * Amarpatti *

Amlekhganj Amlekhganj (''also'' Amlekhgunj) ( Nepali:अमलेखगंज) is a town and Village Development Committee (now Sub Metropolitan City) in Bara District in the Narayani Zone of south-eastern Nepal. At the time of the 2011 Nepal census it had ...

* Amritganj * Avab * Gadhimai * Babuain * Bachhanpurwa * Badaki Fulbariya * Bagadi * Bahuari * Balirampur * Baghwan * Banjariya * Barainiya *

Barawa Barawa ( ''Barāwe'', , ''Baraawe'', ''Barāwa'', Italian language, Italian: ''Brava''), also known as Barawe and Brava, is the capital city, capital of the South West State of Somalia, South West State of Somalia.Pelizzari, Elisa. "Guerre civ ...

* Bariyarpur * Basantpur * Batara * Beldari *

Benauli Benauli is a town and Village Development Committee in Bara District in the Narayani Zone of south-eastern Nepal. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census The 1991 Nepal census was a widespread national census conducted by the Nepal Central Burea ...

* Bhagwanpur * Bhaluwai Arwaliya * Bhatauda * Bhaudaha * Bhuluhi Marwaliya * Bishnupur * Bishnupurwa * Bishrampur * Biswambharpur * Brahmapuri * Buniyad * Chhata Pipra * Chhatawa * Dahiyar * Dewapur * Dharma Nagar * Dohari * Dumbarwana * Gadhahal * Ganj Bhawanipur *

Golaganj Golaganj is a village and Village Development Committee in Bara District in the Narayani Zone of south-eastern Nepal. At the time of the 2011 Nepal census Nepal conducted a widespread national census in 2011 by the Nepal Central Bureau of Stat ...

* Haraiya * Hardiya * Hariharpur *

Inarwamal Inarwamal is a town and Village Development Committee in Bara District in the Narayani Zone of south-eastern Nepal. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census The 1991 Nepal census was a widespread national census conducted by the Nepal Central Burea ...

* Inarwasira * Itiyahi * Jhitakaiya * Jitpur Bhawanipur * Kabahigoth * Kabahijabdi *

Kachorwa Kachorwa is a town and Village Development Committee in Bara District in the Narayani Zone of south-eastern Nepal. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census The 1991 Nepal census was a widespread national census conducted by the Nepal Central Bureau ...

* Kakadi *

* Karahiya * Khopawa * Khutwajabdi *

Kolhabi Kolhabi (Nepali: कोल्हवि ) is a municipality in Bara District in the Madhesh Province of Nepal. It was formed in 2016, occupying current 11 sections (wards) from previous 11 former VDCs. It occupies an area of 157.4 km2 with a t ...

* Kudawa * Lakshmipur Kotwali * Lipanimal * Madhurijabdi *

Mahendra Adarsha Mahendra Adarsha is a town and Village Development Committee in Bara District in the Narayani Zone of south-eastern Nepal. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census it had a population of 3,563 persons living in 655 individual households. The municipa ...

* Maheshpur *

Maini Maini (locally known as ''Menai'', and ) is the name of a village (now a town) and a union council as well as a lush green physiographic valley with natural streams and fertile agricultural land which resides in Topi Tehsil in the eastern part o ...

* Majhariya * Manaharwa * Matiarwa *

Motisar Motisar is a village and Village Development Committee (Nepal), Village Development Committee in Bara District in the Narayani Zone of south-eastern Nepal. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census it had a population of 2,633 persons living in 399 ind ...

* Naktuwa * Narahi *

Nijgadh Nijgadh (, officially Nijgadh Municipality), is a town and municipality in Nepal, located in Bara District of the Madhesh Province (previously Narayani Zone of Central Development Region, Nepal, Central Development Region). The total area of the mu ...

* Pakadiya Chikani * Parsurampur * Paterwa * Patharhati * Pathlaiya * Pathara * Phattepur *

Pheta Pheta (), is a traditional turban worn in Maharashtra, India. It is most common to find phetas at ceremonies such as weddings, as well as other festive, cultural, and religious celebrations, though it is not specifically in tradition to do so. ...

* Piparpati Ek * Piparpati Dui * Piparpati Jabdi * Piparpati Pacharauta * Pipra Basantapur * Piprabirta * Pipradhi Goth * Prasauni * Prasona * Prastoka * Purainiya * Raghunathpur *

Rampur Tokani Rampur Tokani is a town and Village Development Committee in Bara District in the Narayani Zone of south-eastern Nepal. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census The 1991 Nepal census was a widespread national census conducted by the Nepal Central B ...

* Rampurwa * Rauwahi * Sapahi * Srinagar Bairiya * Sihorwa * Sinhasani * Sisahaniya * Tedhakatti * Telkuwa * Terariya * Uchidiha * Umarjan

Villages

* Khajani

Education

Symbiosis Institute of Management (SIM) is situated in district headquarter, Kalaiya which is committed for quality education in Commerce and Education.

Notable people

Jyotirishwar Thakur Jyotirishwar Thakur or (1260–1340) was a Maithili poet, playwright, musician and an early Maithili and Sanskrit writer, known for the '' Varṇa Ratnākara'', his encyclopedic work in Maithili. Life Jyotirishwar was son of Rāmeśvara and ...

Abahattha Abahaṭ‌ṭha, Abahatta or Avahaṭṭha (Sanskrit ''apabhraṣṭa'' 'corrupted', related to apabhraṃśa) is a stage in the evolution of the Eastern group of the Indo-Aryan languages. This group consists of languages such as Assamese, ...

language poet from Simroungarh Kingdom * Nanyadev - First King of

Karnata Karnata was an ancient kingdom, mentioned in the great epic ''Mahabharata'', It gave the name to the South Indian state of Karnataka. References in Mahabharata Sahadeva's Military Campaign to the South of India *Mahabharata, Book 2, Chapter ...

Dynasty * Harisinghdev - Last King of

Dynasty * Chandeshwar Thakur - Prime minister, commander & author of Sapta Ratnakara under King Harisinghdev. * Umakanta Chaudhary – Deputy General Secretary of

Nepali Congress The Nepali Congress ( ; Abbreviation, abbr. NC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a Social democracy, social democratic List of political parties in Nepal, political party in Nepal and the largest party in the country ...

and former Minister for Labour and Employment * Mukunda Neupane – Senior leader of

CPN (Unified Socialist) The Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Socialist) (), abbreviated as CPN (Unified Socialist) is a political party in Nepal led by former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal. As of July 2023, the party leads Socialist Front and is an important ally ...

and Member of

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

* Farmullah Mansoor – Deputy General Secretary of

and former Minister for Labour and Employment

References

External links

{{Authority control Districts of Nepal established during Rana regime or before Districts of Madhesh Province