Khotang District

Khotang District (खोटाङ जिल्ला) is one of 14 districts of Koshi Province of eastern Nepal. The district, with Diktel as its district headquarters, covers an area of and has a population (2021) of 206,312. The district has been bordered by Bhojpur District in the east, Udayapur District in the south, Okhaldhunga District in the west and Solukhumbu District in the North. In this district there are 2 municipalities and 8 rural/urban municipalities. Before the unification of Nepal, Khotang District was a part of Majha Kirat or Khambuwan. The land area between two rivers from Dudh Koshi to Arun was Majha Kirat and it was under suzerainty of Sen King of Chaudandigadhi. During Rana rule, Nepal had 32 districts and the current Khotang District was divided between two other districts. Half of the north part of the current Khotang District was part of East No. 3 (Okhaldhunga) and half of southern part of current Khotang was part of East No. 4 (Bhojpur). In 1962 the traditional 32 districts were divided into 75 districts thus Khotang county of East No. 4 and some counties from East No. 3 were merged to become the current Khotang District. Geographically, Khotang is a hilly district of Eastern Nepal. It lies on the coordinates of 260° 50" N to 270° 28" N latitude and 860° 26" E to 860° 58" E longitude. Coordinates of the center is 27° 11' 60.00" N and 86° 46' 59.99" E. Total area of the district is . The elevations of the district is 152 m to 3620 m from the sea level. Sunkoshi River and Dudh Koshi river makes natural borders in the North, West and South and a series of hills and small river makes border separating it from Bhojpur District in East. Approximately 56% of the district area is covered with forest, and about 42% is under cultivation. At the time of the 2011 Nepal census, Khotang District had a population of 206,312. As their first language, 49.9% spoke Nepali, 16.6% Chamling, 4.4% Magar, 4.0% Tamang, 3.8% Bantawa, 3.5% Sampang, 2.7% Newar, 2.5% Dumi, 2.2% Puma, 1.9% Thulung, 1.5% Wambule, 1.3% Nachhiring, 0.