Chukha|Bhutan Festivals

Coordinates: 27°0′N 89°30′E / 27.000°N 89.500°E / 27.000; 89.500

View of Chukha (Mepetsa), Chukha District

View of Phuntsholing, Chukha District

Chukha District (Dzongkhag: ཆུ་ཁ་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: Chu-kha rdzong-khag; also spelled "Chhukha") is one of the 20 dzongkhag (districts) comprising Bhutan. The major town is Phuentsholing which is the gateway city along the sole road which connects India to western Bhutan (cf. Lateral Road). Chukha is the commercial and the financial capital of Bhutan. With Bhutan's oldest hydropower plant, Chukha hydel (completed in 1986-88), and Tala Hydroelectricity Project, the country's largest power plant, Chukha is the dzongkhag which contributes the most to the GDP of the country. Also located in Chukha district are some of the country's oldest industrial companies like the Bhutan Carbide Chemical Limited (BCCL) and the Bhutan Boards Products Limited (BBPL).

##Languages

In Chukha, the main native languages are Dzongkha, the national language spoken by Ngalop people in the north, and Nepali in the south. The Bhutanese Lhokpu language, spoken by the Lhop minority, is also present in the southwest along the border with Samtse District.

##Administrative divisions

Chukha District is divided into eleven villages blocks (or gewogs):

##Environment

Unlike most other districts, Chukha, along with Samtse, contain no protected areas of Bhutan. Although much of southern Bhutan contained protected areas in the 1960s, park-level environmental protection became untenable.