The News Group has published a bilingual edition of the Mail in Nepali to reach the largest minority living in the newspaper series' circulation area.

As well as news, the paper boasts business, education, food and drink and fashion pages and community features printed in both English and Nepali.

The paper, which has a circulation of 9,900, has already received hundreds of extra orders for the Nepali edition.

The Nepalese community is a large and growing part of our towns and villages, with significant numbers living in Farnborough, Aldershot, Ash, Fleet, Camberley and Sandhurst. Nepalese community groups and individuals helped with translations and proof reading.

This area now has one of the largest concentrations of people from Nepal outside of London. Our area’s historic ties with the Brigade of Gurkhas, an integral part of the British Army for nearly 200 years, stem from the Gurkhas’ base at the Queen Elizabeth Barracks in Church Crookham.

Although the barracks is now closed, with the Gurkhas’ main UK base now in Kent, the Gurkha links with the Army in this area remain. The Queen’s Own Gurkha Logistics Regiment is at Aldershot and there are Gurkhas at the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst.

The huge growth of the Nepalese civilian community stems from a 2004 decision by the government to allow Gurkhas who retired from the Army after 1997, with at least four years’ service, to settle in the UK with their families.

Editor Elaine Cole said: "This paper has always striven to serve all of its communities. This has traditionally included people who struggle to make their voices heard — such as young people, the homeless, and those with disabilities. With this edition we hope to do the same for our significant Nepalese population.

"There are concerns about friction between the Nepalese and white communities including reports of gangs of young people fighting and bullying in schools. Hopefully, this edition will go some way to helping healing those rifts and building greater understanding."

Reporter Pete Castle, news editor of the edition, said: "We wanted to do this to engage a large section of the community.
"We wanted to fulfil our remit as a paper that serves the community as well as educate and inform parts of it about each other - in an effort to ease tension between the Nepali and white population.

"And we wanted to attract new readers to the paper."

Elaine added: "We will do this in some format again. We believe this will attract advertising and improve circulation. But it is not just about revenue - it's about reaching people and building understanding between people."

For the Nepalese version of this story click here.