Provinces of Nepal: Capitals, Districts and Key Facts

🎬 Video explanationनेपालका प्रदेशहरू

⏱ 4:02 · Free for everyone

The Constitution of Nepal 2072 (2015 AD) turned Nepal into a federal democratic republic. Power is now shared between three levels of government, and the country is divided into seven provinces. Questions on province names, capitals and districts appear in almost every Lok Sewa general knowledge paper, so this note puts all the key facts in one place.

1. Federal structure under the Constitution

The constitution came into force on 3 Asoj 2072 BS (20 September 2015 AD). Under Article 56, the structure of the state has three main levels:

1. Federal (Sangh) level, with its centre in Kathmandu.
2. Province (Pradesh) level, with seven provinces.
3. Local (Sthaniya) level, made up of rural municipalities and municipalities.

Each level has its own list of powers in the schedules of the constitution:

• Schedule 5: powers of the federation
• Schedule 6: powers of the provinces
• Schedule 8: powers of the local levels
• Other schedules list concurrent powers that are shared between levels.

Schedule 4 lists the seven provinces and the districts that fall in each one. At first the provinces had only numbers (Province No. 1 to Province No. 7). Each province was to choose its permanent name (under Article 295(2)) and its capital (under Article 288(2)) through its own Provincial Assembly, by a two-thirds majority vote.

2. The seven provinces at a glance

Add the district column and you get 77 districts in total. Koshi has the most districts (14) and Madhesh has the fewest (8).

By area, the order from largest to smallest is roughly:

• Karnali (about 27,984 sq km) is the largest province.
• Koshi, Lumbini, Gandaki, Bagmati and Sudurpashchim come next.
• Madhesh (about 9,661 sq km) is the smallest province.

3. How the provinces got their names

The naming happened at different times because each assembly needed a two-thirds vote. The order of naming is a favourite exam question:

So Karnali was the first province to get a permanent name and Koshi was the last. Before permanent capitals were fixed, some provinces used temporary headquarters. For example, Butwal was declared the temporary capital of Province No. 5 in 2074 BS (2018 AD) until the assembly chose Deukhuri in Dang, and Dhangadhi served Province No. 7 until Godawari was chosen.

4. Eastern provinces: Koshi and Madhesh

Koshi Province

• Capital Biratnagar; 14 districts, the highest number of any province.
• Districts include Taplejung, Panchthar, Ilam, Jhapa, Morang, Sunsari, Dhankuta, Tehrathum, Sankhuwasabha, Bhojpur, Solukhumbu, Okhaldhunga, Khotang and Udayapur.
• Home to Mount Everest (Sagarmatha) in Solukhumbu and Kanchenjunga in Taplejung.
• The eastern border river Mechi flows along this province, and the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve lies partly in it (Sunsari and Udayapur).
• Second largest province by area.

Madhesh Province

• Capital Janakpur, also called Janakpurdham, known for the Janaki temple.
• 8 districts, all in the Tarai: Saptari, Siraha, Dhanusha, Mahottari, Sarlahi, Rautahat, Bara and Parsa.
• Smallest province by area and the one with the fewest districts.
• It has no mountain or hill districts; the whole province is flat Tarai land.
• Birgunj in Parsa is a major trade point on the Indian border.

5. Central provinces: Bagmati and Gandaki

Bagmati Province

• Capital Hetauda in Makwanpur district; 13 districts.
• Includes Kathmandu, the federal capital, along with Lalitpur and Bhaktapur. Bhaktapur is the smallest district of Nepal by area.
• Other districts: Sindhuli, Ramechhap, Dolakha, Sindhupalchok, Kavrepalanchok, Nuwakot, Rasuwa, Dhading, Makwanpur and Chitwan.
• Chitwan National Park, Langtang National Park and the holy lake Gosaikunda lie here.

Gandaki Province

• Capital Pokhara; 11 districts.
• Districts: Gorkha, Lamjung, Tanahun, Kaski, Syangja, Parbat, Baglung, Myagdi, Mustang, Manang and Nawalparasi (Bardaghat Susta East), also called Nawalpur.
• Famous peaks Annapurna, Dhaulagiri and Manaslu, the lakes Phewa and Tilicho, and the temple of Muktinath in Mustang.
• Manang and Mustang lie north of the main Himalayan range.

6. Western provinces: Lumbini, Karnali and Sudurpashchim

Lumbini Province

• Capital Deukhuri in Dang district; 12 districts.
• Districts: Nawalparasi (Bardaghat Susta West), Rupandehi, Kapilvastu, Palpa, Arghakhanchi, Gulmi, Pyuthan, Rolpa, Rukum (East), Dang, Banke and Bardiya.
• Lumbini in Rupandehi, the birthplace of Gautam Buddha, gives the province its name.
• Bardiya National Park and Banke National Park are here.

Karnali Province

• Capital Birendranagar in Surkhet district; 10 districts.
• Districts: Dolpa, Mugu, Humla, Jumla, Kalikot, Dailekh, Jajarkot, Rukum (West), Salyan and Surkhet.
• Largest province by area. Dolpa, the largest district of Nepal, is in Karnali.
• Rara Lake (Mugu), the largest lake of Nepal, and Shey Phoksundo (Dolpa) are here.

Sudurpashchim Province

• Capital Godawari in Kailali district; 9 districts.
• Districts: Kailali, Kanchanpur, Dadeldhura, Baitadi, Darchula, Bajhang, Bajura, Achham and Doti.
• The Mahakali river forms its western border with India.
• Khaptad National Park, Shuklaphanta National Park (Kanchanpur) and the peaks Api and Saipal are here.

Why 77 districts? Before federalism Nepal had 75 districts. Two old districts were each split between two provinces: Nawalparasi (East part in Gandaki, West part in Lumbini) and Rukum (East part in Lumbini, West part in Karnali). This raised the total to 77.

7. Local levels

Below the provinces, Nepal has 753 local levels:

The six metropolitan cities are Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Bharatpur, Pokhara, Biratnagar and Birgunj. The local levels together are divided into 6,743 wards, the smallest unit of local government. Each district also has a District Assembly that coordinates the local levels within it.

8. Provincial government in brief

• Provincial Assembly: the law-making body of each province. Members serve a five-year term unless the assembly is dissolved earlier. About 60 percent of members are elected by first-past-the-post and about 40 percent by proportional representation. Across all seven provinces there are 550 seats (330 plus 220). At least one-third of the members of each party in the assembly must be women.
• Province Head (Pradesh Pramukh): appointed by the President as the formal head of the province.
• Chief Minister (Mukhya Mantri): appointed by the Province Head. The Chief Minister is usually the leader of the party or coalition with a majority in the Provincial Assembly, and heads the Council of Ministers of the province, which runs day-to-day provincial government.