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Rāptī Anchal राप्ती अञ्चल
—  Zone  —
Country	Nepal
Region
Time zone	Nepal Time (UTC+5:45)
Main language(s)

Rapti Anchal(Nepali: राप्ती अञ्चल Listen (help·info), is an anchal or zone (first-order administrative district) in the Mid-Western Development Region of Nepal. It is named after the West Rapti River which drains Rolpa, Pyuthan and part of Dang district. The remainder of Dang and part of Salyan are drained by the Babai. The remainder of Salyan and all of Rukum are drained by the Bheri.

The headquarters of Rapti is Tulsipur and the largest city is Tribhuvannagar (Ghorahi). Other main cities and towns of Rapti zone are Pyuthan, Bijuwar, Liwang, Lamahi, Musikot, Rukumkot (Shova) and Chaurajhari.

Districts[link]

Rapti is divided into 5 jilla (districts):

• Dang Deukhuri District
• Pyuthan District
• Rolpa District
• Rukum District
• Salyan District

Geography[link]

Dang district begins at the border with India. Since the border follows the southern edge of the Dudhwa Range -- a subrange of the Siwaliks, here there is no Nepalese Outer Terai extending onto the main Indo-Gangetic Plain. Dang has two Inner Terai Valleys. Deukhuri lies beyond the Dudhwas, then a second low subrange -- the Dang Range -- separates Deukhuri from Dang Valley. Beyond Dang Valley the district extends to the crest of the higher Mahabharat Range.

The two valleys have abundant level and gently-sloping land with fair to good soil development, and abundant groundwater. Malaria made them nearly uninhabitable except to the Tharu ethnic group that had evolved resistance. In the 1960s DDT came into use to suppress the mosquito vectors and the way was open to settlers from the hills who used debt and lawsuits to displace and even enslave Tharus.

Dang is the most developed and most rapidly developing of the zone's five districts. Mahendra Highway -- Nepal's main east-west route -— follows Deukhuri Valley. Dang Valley has two important towns, Tribuvannagar and Tulsipur, and an all-weather airport.

Pyuthan, Rolpa and Salyan districts are in the Middle Hills extending north from the crest of the Mahabharat Range. Pyuthan has a rice-growing alluvial plain along Jhimruk Khola, surrounded by villages of rice-growing Bahun and Chhetri farmers served by bazaar towns of Newar merchants. Rolpa district mainly lies along Mardi Khola, the other large Rapti tributary that is more eroded into an inner gorge and less suited to traditional irrigation projects.

Pyuthan and Rolpa extend north to a rugged 3-4,000 meter ridgeline marking the limits of the Rapti basin. Kham Magar live in small villages throughout these highlands up to about 2,500 meters. They herd sheep, goats and cattle in high summer pastures as far north as the western Dhaulagiri Himalaya in Rukum district, moving south to the Mahabharat Range in winter. Kham also cultivate subtropical and temperate fruit trees such as mulberry, citrus and Asian pear as cash crops. Until it was outlawed in the 1970s they cultivated hemp and made hashish bought by government agents to be sold in monopoly stores. Termination of these arrangements increased Kham outmigration in search of employment and contributed to discontent with the Shah regime.

Salyan resembles Pyuthan in having a mix of rice-growing lowlands inhabited by caste Hindus, and uplands inhabited by Kham peoples. It is drained by the Babai and Bheri Rivers.

Rukum is Rapi Zone's northernmost, most mountainous district including the western part of Dhaulagiri Himalaya drained by the Bheri River. At lower elevations it is populated by Hindu Khas people said to be ancestral to most of Nepal's Bahuns and Chhetris living further east. Kham Magars live higher up. A notable valley called Rukumkot lies near the district's geographical center.

Rapti Zone has a history of radical politics since the mid-20th century and in the 1990s became a center of the Maoist (maobadi) rebellion against the royal government and the fragile democracy that the late King Birendra eventually supported.

See also[link]

• Regions of Nepal
• Districts of Nepal
• Zones of Nepal

v t e Regions and Zones of Nepal Eastern Region (Purwanchal) Kosi Mechi Sagarmatha Central Region (Madhyamanchal) Bagmati Janakpur Narayani Western Region (Pashchimanchal) Dhawalagiri Gandaki Lumbini Mid-Western Region (Madhya Pashchimanchal) Bheri Karnali Rapti Far-Western Region (Sudur Pashchimanchal) Mahakali Seti

Coordinates: 28°20′N 82°30′E / 28.333°N 82.5°E / 28.333; 82.5

Sir Ganga Ram, KCSI
Born	April 1851 Mangtanwala, British India (now Pakistan)
Died	10 July 1927 London
Known for	philanthropy, agriculture
Religion	Hinduism

Sir Ganga Ram KCSI (April 1851 – July 10, 1927) was an eminent civil engineer born in Mangtanwala, a small village of Punjab Province in British India now in Punjab, Pakistan and educated at the Thomason College of Civil Engineering (now IIT Roorkee) 1873 batch. He was a leading philanthropist and agriculturist of his times, who established the Renala Hydral Power Station in Renala Khurd, Punjab in 1925.

Early life[link]

Ganga Ram was born in 1851 in Mangtanwala, about 64 km from Lahore. His father, Doulat Ram was a junior Sub inspector at a Police Station in Mangtanwala. Later, he shifted to Amritsar and became a copy-writer of the Court. Here, Ganga Ram passed his matriculation examination from the Government High School and joined the Government College, Lahore in 1869. In 1871, he obtained a scholarship to the Thomason Civil Engineering College at Roorkee. He passed the final lower subbordinate examination with the gold medal in 1873. He was appointed Assistant Engineer and called to Delhi to help in the building of the Imperial Assemblage.

Career[link]

Engineer[link]

In 1873, after a brief Service in Punjab P.W.D devoted himself to practical farming. He obtained on lease from Government 50,000 acres (200 km²) of barren, unirrigated land in Montgomery District, and within three years converted that vast desert into smiling fields, irrigated by water lifted by a hydroelectric plant and running through a thousand miles of irrigation channels, all constructed at his own cost. This was the biggest private enterprise of the kind, unknown and unthought-of in the country before. Sir Ganga Ram earned millions most of which he gave to charity.

In the words of Sir Malcolm Hailey, the Governor of Punjab, "he won like a hero and gave like a Saint". He was a great engineer and a great philanthropist.

In 1900, Ganga Ram was selected by Lord Curzon to act as superintendent of works in the Imperial Durbar to be held in connection with the accession of King Edward VII. He finished the work at the Darbar managing its manifold problems and challenges but his name was not included in the New Year Honors list. Consequently, he retired prematurely from service in 1903.

He designed and built General Post Office, Lahore, Lahore Museum, Aitchison College, Mayo School of Arts (now the National College of Arts), Ganga Ram Hospital, Lady Mclagan Girls High School, the chemistry department of the Government College University, the Albert Victor wing of Mayo Hospital, Sir Ganga Ram High School ( now Lahore College for Women), the Hailey College of CommerceNow "[(Hailey College of Banking & Finance)]", Ravi Road House for the Disabled, the Ganga Ram Trust Building on The Mall and Lady Maynard Industrial School.^[1] He also constructed Model Town, once the best locality of Lahore, the powerhouse at Renala Khurd as well as the railway track between Pathankot and Amritsar ^[1]

He built Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Lahore (1921), Lady Mclagan School and Renala Khurd Power House with his own money. Another hospital Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Delhi was built in 1951.

Service in Patiala State[link]

He became Superintending Engineer in Patiala State for the capital's reconstruction project after his retirement. Amongst his works were Moti Bagh Palace, Secretariat Building, New Delhi, Victoria Girls School, the law courts and police station.

In district Faisalabad(then Lyalpur) Tehsil Jaranwala, Ganga Ram built a unique travelling facility, it was Gora Train(horse pulled train). It was a railway line from Buchiana Railway station (on Lahore Jaranwala railway line) to the his village Gangapur. It remained in use for decades even after Independence. It became useless for need of repair in 80s. It was unique of its kind. It was two simple trollies pulled on a narrow rail track with horse instead of railway engine. The same was resumed in 2010 by the Faisal Abad District Authorities giving it a status of cultural heritage.

Agriculturalist[link]

He was a promising agriculturist, too. He purchased thousands acres of barren land in Lyallpur (now Faisalabad) on lease and by using engineering skills and modern irrigation methods, turned the arid lands into fertile fields.

Death[link]

He died in London on July 10, 1927. His body was cremated and his ashes were brought back to India. A portion of the ashes were consigned to Ganges River and the rest buried in Lahore on the bank of the Ravi.

Sir Ganga Ram in literature[link]

A statue of Sir Ganga Ram once stood on Mall Road in Lahore. Saadat Hasan Manto, the famous Urdu writer, in one of his stories on the frenzy of religious riots of 1947 writes that an inflamed mob in Lahore, after attacking a residential area, ‘turned to attacking the statue of Sir Ganga Ram, the Hindu philanthropist. They first pelted the statue with stones; then smothered its face with coal tar. Then a man made a garland of old shoes climbed up to put it round the neck of the statue. The police arrived and opened fire. Among the injured were the fellow with the garland of old shoes. As he fell, the mob shouted: “Let us rush him to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.” .^[2]

Legacy[link]

A student hostel, Ganga Bhawan was established at IIT Roorkee (erstwhile University of Roorkee and Thomason college of civil engineering) on Nov 26, 1957 in his honour. ^[3] The Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Lahore, Pakistan was partially damaged in the blasts that destroyed a nearby Police Station on May 27, 2009.^[4]

Today, his great-grandson, Dr. Ashwin Ram is an Associate Professor in the School of Interactive Computing in the College of Computing of the Georgia Institute of Technology, while his greatgranddaughter, Shreela Flather, Baroness Flather, is a teacher and British politician.

Tomb[link]

His Samadhi was built after his death in 1927, the tomb is now in need of repair.^[5]

Named after Ganga Ram[link]

Institutes[link]

• Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (Pakistan)
• Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (India)

Places[link]

• Gangapur, Punjab, Pakistan

Further reading[link]

• Bedi, Baba Pyare Lal, Harvest from the desert. The life and work of Sir Ganga Ram, NCA, Lahore 2003 ISBD 969-8623-07-8 (reprint version)

References[link]

One thing is more famous thing in History ,Once peoples are protesting against Sir Ganga Ram in Lahore one man made a Necklist of shoes and ready to wear that to his statue at that time It's fired at that place and that man get injured and took to Ganga Ram Hospital,Lahore.

See also[link]

• Agrawal