Banke District


Banke District (;, a part of Lumbini Province, is one of the 77 districts of Nepal. The district, located in midwestern Nepal with Nepalganj as its district headquarters, covers an area of and had a population of 385,840 in 2001 and 491,313 in 2011. There are three main cities in the Banke District: Nepalganj, Kohalpur and Khajura Bajaar.

Geography and Climate

Banke is bordered on the west by Bardiya district. Rapti zone's ''Salyan and Dang Deukhuri Districts border to the north and east. To the south lies Uttar Pradesh, India, a country in Asia; specifically Shravasti and Bahraich districts of Awadh. East of Nepalganj the international border follows the southern edge of the Dudhwa Range of the Siwaliks.
Most of the district is drained by the Rapti, except the district's western edge is drained by the Babai. Rapti and Babai cross into Uttar Pradesh, a state in India, Nepal's neighboring country and eventually join the Karnali, whose name has changed to Ghaghara''.
Climate ZoneElevation Range% of Area
Lower Tropicalbelow 300 meters 79.1%
Upper Tropical300 to 1,000 meters
1,000 to 3,300 ft.		20.6%
Subtropical1,000 to 2,000 meters
3,300 to 6,600 ft.		 0.3%

Demographics

At the time of the 2021 Nepal census, Banke District had a population of 603,194. 9.01% of the population is under 5 years of age. It has a literacy rate of 73.40% and a sex ratio of 1033 females per 1000 males. 266,111 lived in municipalities.
Khas people are the largest group, making up 34% of the population. Khas Dalits make up 7% of the population. Madheshi people are the second-largest group, being 24% of the population, of which Madheshi Dalits were 7% of the population.
At the time of the 2021 census, 41.76% of the population spoke Nepali, 37.16% Awadhi, 13.38% Tharu, 3.14% Urdu, 2.13% Hindi and 1.04% Magar as their first language. In 2011, 37.6% of the population spoke Nepali as their first language.

Sub- Metropolitan City, Municipality and Rural Municipalities

There are one Sub-metropolitan city, one Municipality and six Rural Municipalities in Banke District.