Kumaon is one of the two administrative and ethnic regions of the State of Uttarakhand, the other being Garhwal. Kumaon includes the Districts of Nainital, Almora, Bageshwar, Champawat, Pithoragarh and Udham Singh Nagar. It is bounded in the North by Tibet, on the East by Nepal, on the South by the State of Uttar Pradesh, and on the West by the Garhwal region.
Kumaon was originally a Rajput principality, which became extinct in the early 19th century, and later came to be ruled briefly by the Gorkhas of Nepal, till the region came under the control of the British in 1815.
The administrative headquarters of Kumaon Division is Nainital, centre of the “Lake District” of India. Nainital has historical and mythological significance, being mentioned in the Manas Khand of the Skanda Purana and also as one of the 64 Shakti Peeths. Nainital as we know it today came into being between 1839-1841 as a ‘European Colony’ established on the shores of a lake by an English businessman by the name of Barron. By 1847 it was a popular hill resort, and by 1862 it had become the summer seat of the North Western Provinces of British India.