![Nepal topo en](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Nepal_topo_en.jpg)
Malangwa (Nepali: मलंगवा) is a town, a
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
, and the headquarters of
Sarlahi District
Sarlahi ( ne, सर्लाही ; Maithili: सर्लाही), a part of Madhesh Province, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. According to new laws, a combination of more than two or four villages makes a municipality, whic ...
in
Province No. 2
Madhesh Province ( Nepali/ mai, मधेश प्रदेश) is a province of Nepal that was formed after the adoption of the Constitution of Nepal. It is Nepal's most populous province, and smallest province by area. It borders Province N ...
of
Nepal
Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...
. The district's oldest municipality, it is in parliamentary constituency 2. From the
Mahendra Highway
Mahendra Highway (), also called East-West Highway () runs across the Terai geographical region of Nepal, from Mechinagar in the east to Bhim Datta in the west, cutting across the entire width of the country. It is the longest highway in Nepal a ...
south of Nawalpur, a small highway side town. Situated at an altitude of , Malangwa is near the
Indian
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
border at
Sonbarsa
Sonbarsa is a village development committee in Parsa District in the Narayani Zone of southern Nepal.
Demographics
At the time of the 2011 Nepal census
Nepal conducted a widespread national census in 2011 by the Nepal Central Bureau of Stat ...
. There is a
customs checkpoint at the border crossing.
Etymology
Its name is derived from Malang Baba, a saint who is worshiped by both Hindu and Muslim. An annual
fair
A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks.
Types
Variations of fairs incl ...
is held in his honor during the month of
Chaitra
Chaitra (Hindi: चैत्र) is a month of the Hindu calendar.
In the standard Hindu calendar and India's national civil calendar, Chaitra is the first month of the year. It is the last month in the Bengali calendar, where it is called Cho ...
Malangbaba puja at which people offer ''chadar'' and pray for their well-being.
Demographics
According to the municipality, Malangwa had a 2012 population of 46,516 people in about 7,500 households. Most had
Madhesi( Bhraman, Kayastha, sahuji/sah, koeri and yadav),
Newari and
Marwadi backgrounds.
Climate
Malangwa has a humid
tropic
The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in
the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...
al climate, with a mean annual rainfall of between 1995 and 2006. More than 80 percent of the total annual rainfall occurs during the
monsoon
A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...
season, from June to September. Average temperatures range from in January to in June.
In the past, the inner and outer Terai were a formidable barrier between Nepal and potential invaders from India. The Terai's marshes and forests were infested with
anopheline mosquitos which carried virulent strains of
malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...
, especially during the hot spring and rainy summer monsoon.
There are several climatic differences in climate among the eastern edge of the
Terai
The Terai or Tarai is a lowland region in northern India and southern Nepal that lies south of the outer foothills of the Himalayas, the Sivalik Hills, and north of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. This lowland belt is characterised by tall grasslands, scr ...
(
Biratnagar
Biratnagar () is a metropolitan city in Nepal, which serves as the capital of Province No. 1. With a population of 242,548 as per the 2011 census, it is the largest city in the province and also the headquarters of Morang district. As per the p ...
), the western edge (Nepaljung) and Malangwa, although all are on the same plain. The climate is more
continental
Continental may refer to:
Places
* Continent, the major landmasses of Earth
* Continental, Arizona, a small community in Pima County, Arizona, US
* Continental, Ohio, a small town in Putnam County, US
Arts and entertainment
* ''Continental'' ( ...
inland (away from
Bay of Bengal
The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line between ...
monsoon sources), with a greater difference between summer and winter. In the far western Terai (five degrees of latitude further north), the coldest months average cooler. Total rainfall diminishes from east to west. The
monsoon
A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...
arrives later, is less intense and ends sooner. However, winters are wetter in the west.
Location
Malangwa is bordered on the north by
kabilasi Municipality; on the south and southeast by
Sonbarsha,
Sitamarhi district
Sitamarhi is one of the districts in the Mithila region of the Indian state of Bihar, India. Dumra is the administrative headquarters of this district. The district is a part of the Tirhut Division and is located along the border of Nepal.
H ...
,
Bihar
Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
; on the east by
Brahampuri Rural Municipality on the west by
Kaudena Rural Municipality.
Malangwa shares a border crossing with India. No documents are required to cross the border, but many edible and electronics products are restricted. A customs office tracks vehicles entering Malangwa with an Indian vehicle registration number, and taxes are imposed on heavy items entering Nepal.
Media and telecommunications
![Water Supply in Malangwa](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Water_Supply_in_Malangwa.jpg)
To promote local culture, Malangwa has four FM
community radio
Community radio is a radio service offering a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial and public broadcasting. Community stations serve geographic communities and communities of interest. They broadcast content that is popular ...
stations: Radio Madhesh (89.3 MHz), Radio Malangwa (93.6), Swarnim FM (96.3) and My FM (107.4). Major daily newspapers are the ''Madhesh Post'', ''Loktantrik'', the ''Sarlahi Times'' and the ''Sapthaik Times''.
Nepal Telecom
Nepal Doorsanchar Company Ltd. ( ne, नेपाल दूरसञ्चार कम्पनी लिमिटेड), popularly known as Nepal Telecom ( ne, नेपाल टेलिकम) or NTC, is a state-owned telecommunications se ...
have 4G network coverage with better speed and
Ncell
Ncell Axiata Limited (previously Ncell Private Limited) ( ne, एनसेल आजियाटा) is a mobile service provider from Nepal. Ncell is Nepal's second largest telecommunications company, after Nepal Telecom. The company was found ...
have 3G network coverage; UTL Nepal and
Smart Cell
Smart Cells are radio access nodes that provide wireless connectivity across multiple spectrum ranges and technologies. As of January 2014, Macrocells, Small Cells
Small cells are low-powered cellular radio access nodes that operate in licen ...
are other available cellular networks. ADSL, Nepal Telecom, NCELL and a private internet service are Internet service providers in the town.
Cinemas
Malangwa has two movie theaters, which attract cross-border audiences. These are Raj Shree Cinema and Pushpa Talkies. The theaters show Nepali,
Bollywood
Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...
,
South indian hindi dubbed and
Movies.
Attacks
Two attacks have occurred in Malangwa, the first at the end of the
Nepalese Civil War
The Nepalese Civil War was a protracted armed conflict that took place in the former Kingdom of Nepal from 1996 to 2006. It saw fighting between the Nepalese royal government and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) throughout the country. ...
. The town was attacked by
Maoists
Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Chi ...
on April 5, 2006, at 8:00 pm. The insurgents fired at soldiers guarding government offices and security posts and attacked a jail, freeing more than 100 inmates (including some of their comrades) before fleeing. The Russian-built, night-vision-equipped
MI-17
The Mil Mi-17 (NATO reporting name: Hip) is a Soviet-designed Russian military helicopter family introduced in 1975 (Mi-8M), continuing in production at two factories, in Kazan and Ulan-Ude. It is known as the Mi-8M series in Russian service. ...
helicopter with the
call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...
RAN-37 took off from
Kathmandu
, pushpin_map = Nepal Bagmati Province#Nepal#Asia
, coordinates =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name =
, subdivision_type1 = Province
, subdivision_name1 = Bagmati Prov ...
at 10 pm to counter the attack. Eyewitnesses reported that the helicopter hovered for an hour, returned after refueling in Simra and exploded in mid-air at about 1:30 am; eight of the 10 soldiers aboard were killed. Five police personnel, four Maoists and two civilians were reported killed in clashes. Security personnel, including Chief District Officer Bhojraj Adhikari, were abducted and later released. A high alert was sounded along the Indo-Nepal border immediately after the incident. Across the border in India, a joint
Sashastra Seema Bal
Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB; ) is a border guarding force of India deployed along its borders with Nepal and Bhutan. It is one of the seven Central Armed Police Forces under the administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
The fo ...
and
CRPF
The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) is a federal police organisation in India under the authority of the Ministry of Home Affairs (India), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) of the Government of India. It is one among the Central Armed Police F ...
team maintained surveillance on the border to thwart any further attacks.
On September 13, 2013, 10 people were injured (three critically) when a bomb exploded in a district office at about 11:45 am. Office records were destroyed in the ensuing fire.
Earthquakes
Although Malangwa experienced severe tremors from the
April 2015 Nepal earthquake
The April 2015 Nepal earthquake (also known as the Gorkha earthquake) killed 8,964 people and injured 21,952 more. It occurred at on Saturday, 25 April 2015, with a magnitude of 7.8 Mw or 8.1 Ms and a maximum Mercalli Intensity of X (''Extreme ...
, it had no significant damage. However, the town was destroyed by the
1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake
Events
January–February
* January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established.
* January 15 – The 8.0 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake, Nepal–Bihar earthquake strik ...
.
Sports
The most popular sports in Malangwa are
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
and
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
. For sports, Two playgrounds are used mostly for sports: Covered Hall & DDC Field.
Transport
Malangwa, by road from
Kathmandu
, pushpin_map = Nepal Bagmati Province#Nepal#Asia
, coordinates =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name =
, subdivision_type1 = Province
, subdivision_name1 = Bagmati Prov ...
, is connected to other parts of the country by bus. Bus service runs to Kathmandu,
Birgunj
Birgunj ( ne, वीरगञ्ज) is a metropolitan city in Parsa District in Madhesh Province of southern Nepal. It lies south of the capital Kathmandu, attached in the north to Raxaul in the border of the Indian state of Bihar. As an entr ...
,
Janakpurdham
Janakpurdham or Janakpur ( ne, जनकपुर, ) is a sub-metropolitan city in Dhanusha District, Madhesh Province, Nepal. The city is a hub for religious and cultural tourism. A headquarter of Dhanusha district, ''Janakpur'' is also the capi ...
,
Pokhara
Pokhara ( ne, पोखरा, ) is a metropolis, metropolitan city in Nepal, which serves as the capital of Gandaki Province. It is the List of cities in Nepal, second most populous city of Nepal after Kathmandu, with 518,452 inhabitants living ...
,
Biratnagar
Biratnagar () is a metropolitan city in Nepal, which serves as the capital of Province No. 1. With a population of 242,548 as per the 2011 census, it is the largest city in the province and also the headquarters of Morang district. As per the p ...
,
Dharan
Dharan ( ne, धरान) a sub-metropolitan city in Sunsari District of Province No. 1, Nepal, which was established as a fourth municipality in the Kingdom in 1958. It is the third most populous city in Eastern Nepal after Biratnagar and It ...
,
Gaur
The gaur (''Bos gaurus''; ), also known as the Indian bison, is a bovine native to South Asia and Southeast Asia, and has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1986. The global population was estimated at a maximum of 21,000 m ...
, and
Bharatpur, and the town has one of Nepal's largest bus stations. The Malangwa-Nawalpur Highway (MG Highway) joins the
East-West Highway at
Nawalpur
Nawalpur (, ne, नवलपुर, ) or (Nawalparasi east of Bardaghat Susta) is a district located in Gandaki Province of Nepal. It is 1 out of 11 districts of Gandaki Province. The headquarter of the district is Kawasoti.
Formally Nawalpur ...
, connecting Malangwa to all major Nepalese cities.
The nearest domestic airport,
Janakpur Airport, is in
Dhanusha District
Dhanusha District, (; ), a part of Madhesh Province, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. It is situated in the Outer Terai. The district, with Janakpurdham as its district headquarter, covers an area of and has a population (2021 ...
;
Nijgadh International Airport is under construction in
Nijgadh
Nijgadh (, officially Nijgadh Municipality), is a town and municipality in Nepal, located in Bara District of the Madhesh Province (previously Narayani Zone of Central Development Region). The total area of the municipality is 289.4 sq. km. The m ...
.
International passengers use Kathmandu's
Tribhuvan International Airport
Tribhuvan International Airport ( Nepali: त्रिभुवन अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय विमानस्थल) (, colloquially referred to as TIA) is an international airport located in Kathmandu, Bagmati, Nepal. I ...
for international flight.
All major cities of India may be reached on
Indian Railways
Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tot ...
, and the
government of India
The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...
has built a four-lane highway from Sonbarsha to
Patna
Patna (
), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...
. The
Sitamarhi Junction railway station
Sitamarhi Junction railway station is a main railway station in Sitamarhi district, Bihar. Its code is SMI. It serves Sitamarhi City. The station consists of five platforms. It is an A category railway station of the Samastipur railway division. ...
is about from Malangwa, and
tanga and
rickshaw
A rickshaw originally denoted a two- or three-wheeled passenger cart, now known as a pulled rickshaw, which is generally pulled by one person carrying one passenger. The first known use of the term was in 1879. Over time, cycle rickshaws (also ...
service is available to go across the border.
Cycles, rickshaws and taxis serve the city center, and
auto rickshaw
An auto rickshaw is a motorized version of the pulled rickshaw or cycle rickshaw. Most have three wheels and do not tilt. They are known by many terms in various countries including auto, auto rickshaw, baby taxi, mototaxi, pigeon, jonnybee, bajaj ...
s are available for longer distances.
Electric rickshaw
Electric rickshaws (also known as electric tuk-tuks or e-rickshaws or toto or e-tricycles) are small 3-wheeled vehicles powered by an electric motor and battery ranging from 650 to 1400 Watts. They save on fuel costs compared to auto rickshaws ...
s are popular.
Tourism
![Durga Devi Mandir](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Durga_Devi_Mandir.jpg)
A number of tourists access the border connection with India and visit temples in Malangwa like Malangbaba, Durga Devi Temple, Rajdevi Temple, etc.
Notable residents
*
Bishwonath Upadhyaya
*
Rajendra Mahato
Rajendra Mahato (; born 19 November 1958) is a Nepalese politician, who was serving as the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Urban Development since 4 June 2021 but was removed from the post by Supreme Court on 22 June 2021 making the ten ...
*
Abdur Rahim Mikrani
References
{{Sarlahi District
Municipalities in Madhesh Province
Nepal municipalities established in 1986
Populated places in Sarlahi District
Transit and customs posts along the India–Nepal border