Karnali Province

The province's name is derived from the Karnali River, which flows through the province. A meeting of the provincial assembly on 25 February 2018 adopted the name Karnali for the province.[4][5]

Karnali is an old civilization in Nepal and is connected with the Karnali River [6] 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 in present day Jumla District. 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-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.[7]

Before the unification of modern Nepal, a part of Karnali (from Karnali River to Bheri River) 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.

Karnali is the largest province of Nepal with an area of 27,984 km² (10,805 sq mi). The province is surrounded by Gandaki Pradesh in east, Lumbini Pradesh in south-east and south, Sudurpashchim Pradesh in the west and Tibet Autonomous Region of China in north.

The province has occupied higher mountains land of north and mid-hills of Nepal. It contains Kubi Gangri, Changla and Kanjiroba mountains in north. The Shey Phoksundo National Park with Phoksundo lake is the largest national park of Nepal and Rara lake is the largest lake of Nepal which are located in Karnali Pradesh. Karnali River is the biggest river of the province which is thought to be longest river of Nepal. Seti River and Bheri River are tributaries of Karnali.

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 kilometre.[9]

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.[11] The present Governor, Chief Minister and Chief Judge are Govindra Prasad Kaulani, Mahendra Bahadur Shahi and Hari Kumar Pokharel respectively.[12][13] The province has 40 provincial assembly constituencies,12 House of Representative constituencies and eight National Assembly seats.[14]

Karnali has a unicameral legislature, like all of the other provinces in Nepal. The term length of provincial assembly is five years. The Provincial Assembly of Karnali Pradesh is temporarily housed at the Irrigation Division Office in Birendranagar.[15]

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% 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.[18]

• List of provinces of Nepal
• List of districts of Nepal