Thirdly, the present trend of urbanization in Nepal is characterized by a pattern of dispersion, i.e., it is not dominated by the capital city of Katmandu. Although the population of Katmandu is increasing rapidly, its share in total population is very low. It has remained at 2 percent for a long time and increased slightly to 2.3 percent in 1991 . Its share in total urban population indicates a declining trend from 36 percent in 1961 to 25 percent in l991 . The total urban population of Nepal increased five times during the 3O years from 1961 to 1991 while that of Katmandu increased only 3.5 times.

The urbanization trend in Nepal seems to be characterized by a pattern of dispersion, not by a primary city oriented pattern like Thailand.

Lastly, Let us examine the urbanization trends in Nepal from the migration streams among the three major regions: the mountains, the hills and the Terai. (Lowlands). Table 3 shows the migration streams based on place of birth statistics obtained from the census results of l981 and 1991. The continuous trends of migration streams are characterized by dominant streams from the mountains and the hills to the Terai region. The net in-migrants in the Terai amounted to about 700,000 in 1981 and 920,000 in 1991. On the other hand, both the mountains and the hills show net out-migrants in 1981 and 1 991. In particular, the results for the hills indicate that a large number of people born in the hills have moved to the Terai region.

Urbanization in Nepal is very unique. In spite of low level of urbanization, the increase rate of urban population is very high. It is expected that Nepal will catch up with the neighboring countries in terms of urbanization level in the near future.

The city of Katmandu is growing quickly and turning into the Katmandu Metropolitan Area. As far as the current situation is concerned, however, it is doubtful whether Katmandu is truly Nepal's primary city. Firstly, the size of population of Katmandu is not large enough to be called a primary city; and secondly, the recent rapid urbanization in Nepal is to a great extent attributed to urbanization in the Terai region due to tremendous inflow of population from the hills and the mountains. It will be very interesting for social scientists to examine whether the current local urbanization is a "stepping migration", a process where this population that moved to small and medium urban centers in the Terai region will eventually settle in Katmandu and result in establishment of Katmandu as the primary city.

The so-called urban problems coupled with environmental deterioration are already be-coming serious. There is much evidence demonstrating that heavy concentration of industries and population will inevitably bring about serious social and environmental prob-lems. In the case of Nepal, we can see a huge wave of people coming down to the Terai region, the lowlands, from the mountains and hills. Topographically, this kind of trend of migration is very much favorable or unfavorable -- how to define it, how to understand it -- and so also any policy to intervene in this kind of trend of migration and also distribution of population in the Terai.

Again, I am thinking, it might be my personal opinion -- if that's correct or not, I don't know -- but anyway, maybe Honorable Madam Meena Pandey may be asked to make a