Nilkantha or Neelkantha is one of two

Municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the

Dhading District Dhading District ( ), a part of Bagmati Province, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The district, with Dhading Besi as its district headquarters, covers an area of , had a population of 338,658 in 2001 and 336,067 in 2011. Geogr ...

of the Bagmati Province of central

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

. The municipality is located around the center of the district and holds the majority of the population and facilities of the entire district. The municipality was established on 18 May 2014, merging with the existing places such as Nilkantha (Dhading Besi), Dhuwakot, Sunaula Bazar, Murali Bhanjyang, and Sangkosh VDC Nilkantha municipality is the most developed place of the dhading district as the economic and social conditions are greater than other parts of the district.

Demographics

At the time of the 2021 Nepal census, Nilkantha Municipality had a population of 58,828. Of these, 81.9% spoke Nepali, 6.5% Tamang, 6.2%

Gurung Gurung (exonym; ) or Tamu (endonym; Gurung language, Gurung: ) are a Tibetan people, Tibetan ethnic group living in the hills and mountains of Gandaki Province of Nepal. Gurungs speak Tamu kyi which is a Sino-Tibetan language derived from the ...

, 1.7% Magar, 1.5%

Newar Newar (; , endonym: Newa; , Pracalit script: ), or Nepami, are primarily inhabitants in Kathmandu Valley of Nepal and its surrounding areas, and the creators of its historic heritage and civilisation. Page 15. Newars are a distinct linguisti ...

, 1.4% Kumhali, 0.3% Bhojpuri, 0.1% Ghale, 0.1%

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

, 0.1% Maithili, 0.1%

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

and 0.1% other languages as their first language. In terms of ethnicity/caste, 17.6% were

, 16.4% Hill Brahmin, 16.4%

, 12.0%

Chhetri Chhetri (Kshetri, Kshettri, Kshetry or Chhettri), ( ; IAST: ''Kṣetrī'') historically called Kshettriya or Kshetriya or Khas are Nepali language, Nepali speaking people historically associated with the warrior class and administration, some of ...

, 10.6% Magar, 7.7% Tamang, 6.5% Sarki, 4.1%

Kami are the Deity, deities, Divinity, divinities, Spirit (supernatural entity), spirits, mythological, spiritual, or natural phenomena that are venerated in the traditional Shinto religion of Japan. ''Kami'' can be elements of the landscape, forc ...

, 2.7% Damai/Dholi, 2.2% Kumal, 1.4% Thakuri, 0.5% Ghale, 0.5% Sanyasi/Dasnami, 0.3% Musalman, 0.2% Brahmu/Baramo, 0.2% Gharti/ Bhujel, 0.1% Kalwar, 0.1% Rai, 0.1% Teli and 0.2% others. In terms of religion, 79.3% were

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

, 17.4%

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

, 2.9%

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

, 0.3%

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

, 0.1% Baháʼí and 0.1% others. In terms of literacy, 65.7% could read and write, 2.2% could read but not write and 31.9% could neither read nor write. NepalMap Literac

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Media

To promote local culture, Nilkantha municipality has decided to establish three

community radio Community radio is a radio service offering a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial broadcasting, commercial and public broadcasting. Community broadcasting, Community stations serve geographic communities and communities o ...

stations, They are:
Radio Dhading
(106 MHz)
Radio Bihani
(97.6 MHz) * Radio Loktantra (89.4 MHz)

References

Populated places in Dhading District Nepal municipalities established in 2014 {{Dhading-geo-stub