Population pressure and land resources in Nepal: a revisit, twenty years later
Shrestha, N.R.; Conway, D.; Bhattarai, K.
Journal of Developing Areas 33(2): 245-268
1999
ISSN/ISBN: 0022-037X PMID: 12295539 Document Number: 524225
This study analyzes the changes in the relationship between population and land resources in Nepal from 1971 to 1991. During this period, the country's total population increased by 7 million people while it's national per capita holding of cultivated land dropped significantly from 0.17 to 0.13 hectares. However, it was noted that there is a greater balance in the regional distribution of population and land resources in 1991 as compared to 1971. A shift in the redistribution of population can be accounted to the migration of the people from the Hills to Tarai. The large agricultural area in Tarai contributes to its underpopulated status compared with the Hills in relation to the total agricultural production. The increase in rural population is the direct result of poverty, and the inability of the Nepal government to grant lands to the Hill migrants resulted to land encroachment. The problem of Nepal is not simply the number of people living in an area nor the interregional migration, but the number of people who have and who have no access to land and forest resources.