Nepal: a Himalayan kingdom in transition/ Pradyumna P. Karan, Hiroshi Ishii.

Includes bibliographical references.

1. Introduction to a landlocked kingdom -- A least developed country --The landlocked situation and least developed status -- Political economy and history prior to 1950 -- Development policy during the past 44 years, 1951-1995

2. Environment and natural resource base -- Environmental factors in the development context -- Geoecological zones -- Climatic configurations -- Water resources -- Mineral resources -- Forest and scenic resources -- Natural resource management issues in Nepal

3. Land use, forest cover, and environmental problems -- Land use pattern -- Forest cover -- Forest typologies -- Deforestation and degradation -- Principal factors leading to deforestation -- Forest management in Nepal -- Forestry institutions -- Strategies for forest development

4. Agriculture: Patterns and problems -- Cropping patterns and agricultural productivity -- Food production trends and requirements -- Foodgrain production potential and constraints -- Farm size, land scarcity, and landlessness -- Social and economic conditions of the landless -- Assessment of Nepal's efforts to reduce landlessness -- Policies for reducing the incidence of landlessness -- Development theory and agricultural policy

5. Human resources ICQ -- Population growth, distribution, and density -- Migration pattern -- Internal migration -- Circular migration -- Indian and foreign migrants -- Taranagar Village: A case study of population mobility in the Middle Mountain region -- Fertility, mortality, and demographic transition -- Population policy and family planning -- Health care, literacy, and human development

6. Cultural patterns -- Language groups -- Society, culture, and the economy of ethnic groups -- Environmental attitudes of cultural groups -- Historical context of ethnic interaction and change -- Interaction between cultural groups -- Parbate Hindu dominance and influence -- Mutual interaction between cultural groups --Transformation of a Newar village -- Recent sociocultural changes -- Urbanism, caste, and ethnic groups -- Universalism, education, language, and foreign influences

7. Settlement patterns and urbanization -- Urban settlements and urbanization trends -- Patterns of urban growth -- Spatial organization of urban centres -- Kathmandu Valley towns: A cross-section of Nepal's cultural history -- Kathmandu: The primate city -- City sizes, primacy, and rank-size relationship -- Medium and small towns, and balanced regional development -- Aspects of urbanization and the environment

8. Industrial development -- Industrial growth since 1950 -- Geographical distribution of industries -- Major industries -- Potential for industrial development -- Recent industrial policy -- Cottage industry and handicrafts

9. Transport, trade, and communication patterns -- Role of trails and porters -- Motorable roads -- Railways -- Ropeway -- Air transport -- Direction of trade and location of markets -- Foreign trade and transit routes -- Transport strategy for landlocked Nepal -- Communication pattern

10. The development of tourism -- Historical overview -- Touristic resources -- Types of tourism -- Tourism frontiers -- Mountain trekking regions -- Tarai wildlife parks -- River rafting -- Economic development potential of tourism -- Social impacts of tourism -- Environmental impacts of tourism -- Tourism prospects

11. Development challenges -- Sustainable development and conservation -- Integration of poverty alleviation programmes -- with development strategies -- Integration of population and development planning -- References -- Tables