Rukum West Districtपश्चिमी रूकुम जिल्ला

Rukum West is one of Nepal's two youngest districts, created when the 2015 constitution split the old Rukum district: the western half (1,217 km²) went to Karnali Province while Rukum East joined Lumbini, a division implemented in the 2017 restructuring. It borders Rukum East and Rolpa to the east, Salyan to the south, Jajarkot to the west and Dolpa to the north, with the Sani Bheri river draining its hills. The headquarters is Musikot, and six local levels — three municipalities (Musikot, Chaurjahari, Aathbiskot) and three rural municipalities (Banphikot, Sani Bheri, Tribeni) — make up the district, served by airstrips at Chaurjahari and Salle.

Undivided Rukum holds a heavy place in recent Nepali history: together with neighbouring Rolpa it was where the CPN (Maoist) launched the 'People's War' on 13 February 1996, and the two districts remained the insurgency's base area through a conflict that killed more than 12,000 people nationally before the 2006 peace accord. Disaster returned on 3 November 2023, when the Jajarkot earthquake killed 52 people in Rukum West — a third of its 153 victims — and destroyed houses here more severely than anywhere else, part of the roughly 26,550 homes that collapsed across the affected districts.

The 2021 census counted 166,740 people, up 0.68% a year on the 2011 figure of 155,383 (NSO's recalculation to the post-split boundary). Chhetris are 53.1% of the population and Khas communities about 85% overall; 98.4% speak Nepali as their first language and 97.5% are Hindu. Literacy is 75.7% and the sex ratio 94.7 men per 100 women. The economy is built on hill farming in the Sani Bheri and Bheri valleys and remittances, with the Chaurjahari bazaar and airstrip as its western gateway and road links improving along the Mid-Hill Highway and Rapti Highway corridors.