Dailekh District

Dailekh District ( ) a part of Karnali Province, is one of the 77 districts of Nepal. The district, with Dailekh as its district headquarters, covers an area of and had a population of 225,201 in 2001 and 261,770 in 2011.
Etymology.
It is said that the name Dailekh is derived from Dadhi Lekh. Dadhi stands for Dadhichi. Dadhichi was a sage in ancient time and Lekh mean hill. Etymologically ‘Dadhi Lekh’ means the hill where sage Dadhichi meditated. There is also another story about name that, in ancient time it was a place of Devatas, so it called "Daibalok" which later became 'Dailekh'.
History.
Dailekh District was a part of Khasa kingdom during 12th to 14th century. Sinja Valley was the ancient capital city and powerful town of the Khasa Kingdom After the fall down of the Khasa Kingdom it divided into many small kingdoms. Before the unification of modern Nepal, the area of the Karnali region had a united kingdom named Baise Rajya (Twenty two principalities). Dailekh principality was one in twenty two principalities.
Geography and climate.
Dailekh is a high, hilly district out of ten districts of Karnali Province. It is situated at coordinates of 28° 35' 00" N to 29° 08' 00" N Latitudes and 81° 25' 00" E to 81° 53' 00" E of Longitudes. The lowest elevation is 544m and the highest elevation is 4,168m. The headquarter is situated at an elevation of 1448m. The district has covered 80% of mid-hill land and 21% of high-hill land. The total area of the district is .
On the basis of altitude,this district can be classified into 4 different sub-categories:
Transportation.
Dailekh is connected with Birendranagar (the capital city of Karnali Province) with a road called Dailekh road (F-48). Dailekh road meets to Ratna Highway (NH-12) at Birendranagar (Surkhet). Ratna Highway is connected with Mahendra Highway (NH-1) at Kohalpur. Through Mahendra Highway one can get access to Kathmandu, Pokhara and other cities of Nepal.
There is another road connecting Dailekh to Karnali Highway (NH-13) via Dullu.
The national capital Kathmandu is at distance of from Dailekh.
The nearest airport for Dailekh is Surkhet Airport which is about at distance from Dailekh.
Demographics.
At the time of the 2011 Nepal census, Dailekh District had a population of 261,770. Of these, 97.9% spoke Nepali/Jumli khas and 1.5% Magar as their first language. According to 2011 Nepal census, Dailekh district had a population of The largest ethnic group is Khas/Chhetri make 68% of total population, Khas/Thakuri makes 7% of population. Bahun and sanyasi/giri makes 18% of total population and khas dalit makes 5% of total population. Magars, makes 2% of total province population.
Constituency.
Dailekh comprises 2 parliamentary seats and 4 provincial seats:
Divisions of Dailekh.
As per the new constitution of Nepal 2015, the district is divided into 4 urban municipalities and 7 rural municipality;