Ilam district, a part of Mechi Zone, is one of the seventy-five districts of Nepal, a landlocked country of South Asia. The district, with the town of Ilam as its district headquarters, covers an area of 1,703 km² and has a population (2001) of 282,806. It is about 600 km from Kathmandu. The highest point is Sandakpur with an elevation of 3000m. Ilam attracts many researchers who come to study rare birds and the Red Panda. Ilam stretches from the Terai belt to the upper hilly belt of this Himalayan nation.