Shanta Pokhrel, Sakshi Paudel, Nisha Shrestha, Bishnu Prasad Kandel, Krishna Aryal and Keshab Raj Pokhrel Zea mays, drought, stress, non-stress, genotypes 45-52 3 (3) 2019 July , 2019 The research entitled screening at early seedling stage for identification of drought tolerant genotypes in maize was carried in agronomy lab of Prithu Technical College, Lamahi, Dang during 2018. The trial was conducted in completely randomized design (CRD), with three replication and ten treatments under two different environments. Ten different drought tolerant genotypes named as viz: Arun-2, BGBYPOP, Rampur Composite, Arun-6, ZM-401, TLBRSO7F16, Rampur-4, Arun-4, Farmer’s Local and HG-AB were tested in 30 clay pots at irrigated condition, maintaining proper soil moisture throughout the critical growth states, while 30 other clay pots with same genotypes were tested under drought environment. Data were collected at 25 DAS and 50 DAS. All genotypes showed non-significant difference for all traits in non-stress condition. There was no significant difference among the genotypes for various traits under the study in irrigated condition, while significant difference was observed for the same traits under the drought condition indicating that these genotypes had variation in drought tolerant ability. Arun- 4 and Arun- 6 had higher mean for root moisture content, shoot moisture content, number of root and number of dried leaves traits. Correlation study showed that root moisture content and shoot moisture content traits have highly positive significant association and can be used as drought tolerant traits. The identified stress tolerant genotypes need to be evaluated in open environment for confirmation of the results.