Rapti Zone

Rapti is a mid-western region of Nepal. It contains five districts: Dang, Rolpa, Rukum, Salyan and Pyuthan.

Dang district comprises the inner Terai valleys Deukhuri and Dang plus parts of adjacent mountain rainges. The Deukhuri valley is separated from the Gangeatic Plains that begin at the Indian border by one branch of the low Siwalak range, and on the north by the other branch of the Siwalaks. The (West)Rapti River flows the length of Deukhuri after emerging from a gorge through the Mahabharat Range, eventually joining the Karnali River near Gorakhpur, India.

The Dang valley lies between the more northern branch of the Siwalaks and the much higher Mahabharat Range that is generally over 2,000 meters high, occasionally reaching 3,000 meters. Dang Valley is drained by the Babai river, another Karnali tributary.

Until a few decades ago both valleys were extremely malarial and virtually uninhabitable except to the Tharu ethnic group who seem to have evolved a degree of resistance. The government began using DDT to suppress the mosquito vectors, thus this relatively level, fertile and well-watered land became useful to settlers from the hills who dispossessed and enslaved the Tharu by various stratagems.

Pyuthan, Rolpa and Salyan districts are situated in and north of the Mahabharat Range, in the so-called middle hills. Pyuthan district has extensive irrigated rice growing areas inhabited by Brahman-Chetri and Newar castes along Jimruk Khola, an upper tributary of the Rapti. Rolpa district mainly lies along Madi Khola, another upper Rapti tributary that is more eroded into an inner gorge and less useful for irrigation.

Pyuthan and Rolpa districts both extend north to the 3-4,000 meter ranges where Madi Khola and Jimruk Khola rise. Kham Magars live in small villages throughout these highlands up to about 2,500 meters. Since agriculture is difficult away from lowland streams, they also herd sheep, goats and cattle and sell butter, grow subtropical and temperate fruit such as citrus and asian pear, and migrate in search of employment. They also made hashish from hemp that grows wild in cloud forests at about 3,000 meters until the government got out of this business in the 1970s.

Salyan district is similar to 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, from the easternmost tributaries of the Bheri up to the southern slopes of Dhaulagiri Himal. It is sparsely populated but used by Kham herdsmen in summer. There is a settlement of Tibetan Refugees at Dhorpatan in the valley of the so-called Uttar Ganga, a Bheri tributary.

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. Tharus from Dang-Deukhuri and Kham Magars from the hills have disproportionately served as footsoldiers, while the executive leadership is upper caste Hindu.