Dang District

Dang district comprises parallel inner Terai valleys Deukhuri and Dang plus parts of surrounding hills. The district begins where the international border with India follows the southern edge of the Siwaliks, so there is no Outer Terai of Nepalese territory extending onto the plains. Deukhuri Valley lies beyond the first range of hills, then a second range separates Deukhuri and Dang Valleys. Beyond Dang Valley the district extends to the crest of the higher Mahabharat Range.

The two valleys have abundant level and gently-sloping land with fair to good soil development and abundant groundwater supplies, however malaria made them nearly uninhabitable except to the Tharu ethnic group who had evolved resistance. In the 1960s DDT came into use to suppress the mosquito vectors and the way was open to settlers from the hills who used debt and lawsuits to displace and even enslave Tharus.

Dang is the most developed and most rapidly developing of Rapti Zone's districts. Mahendra Highway -- Nepal's main east-west route—follows Deukhuri Valley. Dang Valley has two important towns, Tribuvannagar and Tulsipur and an all-weather airport.

Pyuthan, Rolpa and Salyan districts are situated in the Middle Hills, extending north from the crest of the Mahabharat Range. Pyuthan has an irrigated alluvial plain along Jhimruk Khola. This plain is surrounded by villages of rice-growing Brahman and Chhetri farmers catered to by bazaar towns of Newar merchants. Rolpa district mainly lies along Mardi Khola, the other large Rapti tributary that is more eroded into an inner gorge and less suited to traditional irrigation projects.

Pyuthan and Rolpa extend north to rugged 3-4,000 meter ranges marking the limits of the Rapti basin. Kham Magar live in small villages throughout these highlands up to about 2,500 meters. They herd sheep, goats and cattle in higher subalpine and alpine summer pastures, migrating down to fallow fields in Dang and Deukhuri in winter. Kham also cultivate subtropical and temperate fruit trees such as mulberry, citrus and Asian pear as cash crops. Until it was outlawed in the 1970s they cultivated hemp and made hashish bought by government agents to be sold in monopoly stores. Termination of these arrangements increased Kham outmigration in search of employment and contributed to discontent with the Shah regime.

Salyan resembles Pyuthan in having a mix of rice-growing lowlands inhabited by caste Hindus, and uplands inhabited by Kham peoples.

Rukum is the northernmost district of Rapti Zone. It lies north of the Rapti basin, in the Bheri basin draining the western part of DhaulagiriHimalaya and joining the Karnali. This district is sparsely populated but used by Kham herdsmen in summer.There is abeautiful Valley called Rukumkot central of the Rukum district.

Rapti Zone has a history of radical politics since the mid-20th century and in the 1990s became a center of the Maoist (maobadi) rebellion against the royal government and the fragile democracy that the late King Birendra eventually supported.