Nepal a country of amazing extremes is the home of the world's highest mountains, historic cities and the forested plains where the lordly tigers and the great one-horned rhinoceros trundled at ease.
Situated in South Asia and bounded by the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China in the North and by India in the South, East and West, the Sovereign Independent Kingdom of Nepal covers an area of 147,181 sq. km (between 80°4' and 88°12' East longitude and 26°22' and 30°27' North latitude). The length of the Kingdom is 885 kilometers east west, and its breadth varies from 145-241 kilometers north south. 
It represents a transitional zone of two bio-geographical realms - the Paratactic and the Indo-Himalayan. It is also at the crossroads of the Southeast Asian, northeast Asian (Chinese) and Mediterranean tracts. Nepal can be divided broadly into three ecological zones: the lowland, the midland and the highland.
The altitude of the Himalayan Region (the highland) ranges between 4877m. - 8848m. It includes 8 of the highest 14 summits in the world, which exceed altitude of 8000 meters including Mount Everest.
The mountain region accounts for about 64 percent of total land area, which is formed by the Mahabharat range that soars up to 4877 meter and the lower Churia range. The lowland Terai occupies about 17 percent of the total land area of the country. 
Similarly, the climatic condition ranges from the sweltering heat of the Terai in the lowland to the freezing cold of the Himalayas in the highland. As a result of extreme variations in altitude and climate, the flora and fauna of Nepal shows a wide range of diversity.
Competing for space within 1,000-km. east west and 200 km. north south, this small rectangle of topographical and hydrological extremes host over 6,500 flowering plant, 1,500 fungi, 350 lichen, 175 mammal, 850 bird, 180 fish and 640 butterfly species. It is also home to more than 20 million people. Although Nepal occupies only 0.09% of the total land surface of the earth, it has nearly 5% of mammalian species of the world total.
