POPULATION GROWTH
Early, nearly universal marriage particularly among HINDUS drives Nepal's annual population growth rate in excess of two percent, causing population to double about every 30 years. This severely strains the country's underdeveloped economy and finite natural resources. Deforestation is widespread as ever-more marginal land is cleared for agriculture, trees are cut down for firewood and leaves are harvested for fodder. Deforestation promotes erosion in the hills, in turn causing alluvial buildup down on the gangetic plain that interferes with flood control structures.
Population in the hills greatly exceeds agricultural productivity so chronic food deficits drive resettlement into the inner terai to the detriment of indigenous tharu people and eastward into sikkam and Bhutan where traditional practices of delayed marriage and diversion of significant population into monasteries and nunniriesotherwise checked population growth. Seeing the demographic writing on the wall after a population census in 1988, Bhutan expelled some 100,000 ethnic Nepalese who became refug in camps in southeastern Nepal. Overpopulation also drives export of manpower to India, the Middle East, Europe,Australia and North America in search of employment, the so-called Nepalese diaspora.
Early, nearly universal marriage particularly among HINDUS drives Nepal's annual population growth rate in excess of two percent, causing population to double about every 30 years. This severely strains the country's underdeveloped economy and finite natural resources. Deforestation is widespread as ever-more marginal land is cleared for agriculture, trees are cut down for firewood and leaves are harvested for fodder. Deforestation promotes erosion in the hills, in turn causing alluvial buildup down on the gangetic plain that interferes with flood control structures.
Population in the hills greatly exceeds agricultural productivity so chronic food deficits drive resettlement into the inner terai to the detriment of indigenous tharu people and eastward into sikkam and Bhutan where traditional practices of delayed marriage and diversion of significant population into monasteries and nunniriesotherwise checked population growth. Seeing the demographic writing on the wall after a population census in 1988, Bhutan expelled some 100,000 ethnic Nepalese who became refug in camps in southeastern Nepal. Overpopulation also drives export of manpower to India, the Middle East, Europe,Australia and North America in search of employment, the so-called Nepalese diaspora.
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