Every year in the first month of the Tibetan calendar, devotees observe the ritual of Lo Monlam Chenmo within the holy month of Saga Dawa to mark the birth, enlightenment, and parinirvana of the Buddha. Lo Monlam Chenmo literally translates into the Great Prayer Festival of Mustang and earlier this month was observed for a week during which devotees chanted mantras over a million times for the long life and wellbeing of all sentient beings, for the continuation, survival and spread of Dharma, and for world peace.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250612090640_4d20d5af25d55ea83e6ee9784a53e689b683172433678fc9cdf1566f53a08013.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20250612090640_4d20d5af25d55ea83e6ee9784a53e689b683172433678fc9cdf1566f53a08013" data-rendition-name="original" width="2222" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="A million mantras in Mustang NT"></figure>  The annual prayer vigil drew 578 monks and nuns and hundreds of local people to the monastery town of Jharkot near Muktinath. The festival has been observed for over 600 years, but saw a decline in the second half of the 20th century when Monlam Chenmo was used to pray for the long life of the Dalai Lama. “Lo Monlam Chenmo was revived in Nepal seven years ago with much donation from the locals, many of whom have migrated overseas,” says Kunjon Thakuri of the Norbusum Foundation in Jharkot supporting traditional culture, local education, and the preservation of Mustangi heritage. “The festival will be held in Upper Mustang next year and again in Lower Mustang the year after, as the two regions take turns every other year.”  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250612090640_d71a82b0d6f523a482d329177d8c477ec41ead13b23fab9fa96d558a85a0b003.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20250612090640_d71a82b0d6f523a482d329177d8c477ec41ead13b23fab9fa96d558a85a0b003" data-rendition-name="original" width="2222" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="A million mantras in Mustang NT"></figure>  The festival is also celebrated in Tibet, parts of Nepal including Kathmandu, Ladakh and Sikkim in India as well as Bhutan. The Monlam Chenmo festival was first conducted for two weeks at the start of the new year in Tibet in 1409 by Lama Tsongkhapa to commemorate the miracles performed by Shakyamuni Buddha. The final day is the full moon which was on 11 June this week, is also called the Day of Miracles when several festivals and rituals are held.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250612090640_f46dd6637308bec26b0d9416defe9173d40b2580734b1a9b76421715d19a48bd.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20250612090640_f46dd6637308bec26b0d9416defe9173d40b2580734b1a9b76421715d19a48bd" data-rendition-name="original" width="2222" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="A million mantras in Mustang NT"></figure>   <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250612090640_c96c61cd0bd46b66f28eb1f436dcee2cd95a6b368b35c3ea1a44cb131e3e17bd.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20250612090640_c96c61cd0bd46b66f28eb1f436dcee2cd95a6b368b35c3ea1a44cb131e3e17bd" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="1607" loading="lazy" alt="A million mantras in Mustang NT"></figure>  “The grande finale is considered an auspicious day for prayer and practice, and good deeds on this day are multiplied exponentially,” adds Thakuri. “As such, all major Buddhist shrines including Swayambhu and Boudhanath see prayers gather from midnight on the last day. Many attempt a 21 kora clockwise circumambulation of Swayambhu on the very day, a gruelling 30km on foot. Others do a 108 circumambulation of a sacred site during the month of Saga Dawa as a way of purifying one's karma and gaining spiritual merit.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250612090640_a8f518e680714a0a2f7227ffed1c321cfa4e424a150c09c1a9ed7ec90c2ef486.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20250612090640_a8f518e680714a0a2f7227ffed1c321cfa4e424a150c09c1a9ed7ec90c2ef486" data-rendition-name="original" width="1600" height="720" loading="lazy" alt="A million mantras in Mustang NT"></figure>  Throughout the festival, devotees can also choose to perform their own puja including श्राद्ध, a Hindu ritual to honour deceased ancestors. Jharkot’s proximity to Muktinath also means that the festival is observed by Hindus and Buddhists alike. Devotees also abstain from killing and harming living creatures as well as practice vegetarianism for the whole month of Saga Dawa, in line with the Buddhist principle of non-violence (अहिंसा). People can also choose to make donations (दान) including drinks and food to participating monks and monasteries in acts of compassion.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250612090640_db8325c332b9f794fa84748bbfac0b59a5061f042ab6eac592f74ae6074b9835.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20250612090640_db8325c332b9f794fa84748bbfac0b59a5061f042ab6eac592f74ae6074b9835" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="2217" loading="lazy" alt="A million mantras in Mustang NT"></figure>  In many ways, the festival bears similarities to another month-long celebration observed by Newar Buddhists, primarily in Kathmandu. Gunla, which translates into the month of merits, is the tenth month in the Nepal Sambat calendar which typically falls during the monsoon. Gunla is a time for spiritual reflection on the Dharma by reciting the scriptures, fasting, playing devotional music, going on pilgrimages and attaining the five moral precepts known as the (पञ्चशील) -- abstaining from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and taking intoxicants.

A million mantras in Mustang

Bottom

Soaltee Hotels &amp; Resorts is expanding into Pokhara with a new hotel under its Westend brand. The upcoming Soaltee Westend Lakeside, Pokhara is being developed in partnership with Hotel Peninsula and will be managed by Stream Peak International. Located in the vibrant tourist area of Lakeside, the hotel is just steps away from the Phewa Lake and close to the city’s best cafés and adventure activities - perfect for domestic and international travelers looking for a blend of nature, culture, and comfort. Set to open for booking in September, Soaltee Westend Lakeside will have 77 premium rooms, along with six junior suites and a presidential suite. A rooftop bar will offer panoramic views of the Annapurna range. There will also be a diverse selection of dining options.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025072810078_485740a9c0b0aa581cbb73e01205a5fc46f0d763f9b05ebd19e3fdbc629ad020.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2025072810078_485740a9c0b0aa581cbb73e01205a5fc46f0d763f9b05ebd19e3fdbc629ad020" data-rendition-name="original" width="1280" height="720" loading="lazy" alt="soaltee westend in Pokhara"> </figure>  The hotel also features an event hall for up to 250 people, along with meeting spaces for business or social gatherings. The property also boasts a swimming pool, a health club, a spa, and souvenir shops. Soaltee Westend Lakeside is designed to be a stylish retreat that caters to the needs of today’s travelers across all age groups: a family vacation, a romantic escape, a business trip, or an extended stay for digital nomads. “Soaltee Westend Lakeside, Pokhara will blend modern design, warm service, and an immersive local experience—all hallmarks of the Soaltee name,” says Sudarshan Chapagain, Vice President of Soaltee Hotel Limited.&nbsp;

Soaltee Westend now in Pokhara

TikTok is the 'Powered By' partner of Himalmedia for this year's Media Mela on 25 July that will focus on mobile-first content creation and the increasing relevance of digital platforms in journalism.&nbsp;
TikTok will conduct exclusive sessions on mobile journalism and video storytelling. Manisha Pande of Newslaundry, Anup Kaphle of Rest of World and Sundeep Narwani of Narrative Research Lab are among presenters.

TikTok powers Himal Media Mela

The Kathmandu Kora mountain biking championship around Kathmandu Valley was held on Saturday 19 July with 6,200 participants in various categories. For the first time there was also a 160km circuit. The carrier also sponsored a photography competition of the rally of which winners will be announced next week and can win roundtrip tickets to Istanbul.
Meanwhile, the Turkish Airlines flight code ‘TK’ will now be on Airlink flights on domestic and regional routes in and around South Africa, which will make for smoother connections and more efficient ticket bookings. 
 “As Turkish Airlines, we give importance to this cooperation with Airlink so as to enhance our connectivity in South Africa and the region. We aim to improve our partnership to maximize the travel opportunities offered to our guests” said Turkish Airlines Chief Investment &amp; Strategy Officer Levent Konukcu.

Turkish Kora, Airlink

The past, the present, and the future are really one: they are today. -Harriet Beecher Stowe  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024122609120_5c63a3201a7231b9334f98a3a1af867acfc1264e29fc3081810a565a270bde6f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2024122609120_5c63a3201a7231b9334f98a3a1af867acfc1264e29fc3081810a565a270bde6f" data-rendition-name="original" width="2700" height="2700" loading="lazy" alt="Miss Moti #1241"> </figure>

The past, the present, and the future are really one

People who were 25 in 2000 when Nepali Times was launched are now 50.
Nepal has gone from monarchy to republic, from war to peace, but a lot has remained the same — same politicians in the same politics.
Our 25th anniversary Rewind Supplement (page A-L) in this edition shows that the more things change in this country, the more they remain the same. Nepal languishes and muddles along despite its enormous human capital and natural resources.
Nepali Times content has adapted to new English reading habits: it is less text-heavy, more visual, with better graphics. But issue #1271 does not look much different from #1: the same masthead and design, the same comprehensive coverage, and high quality printing and production values have been maintained for 25 years.
An entire generation has grown older reading this paper, joined now by a new cohort of younger readers. They are assured of consistently high quality journalism on Fridays and online to explain, interpret and analyse what is happening and what to expect. It is content with context.
<div class="embed-block"><iframe width="750" height="450" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7QCo5X_fTyA?si=k4G-OlT_loIG1exG" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
Journalism is history in a hurry, and this is even more true in the age of social media, the great amplifier. Marshall McLuhan's 'the medium is the message' has never been truer.&nbsp;
Social media is an important tool for dissemination, significantly increasing access to information for everyone. But it is also a breeding ground for disinformation, online bullying, and hate speech.
In countries around the world, populist leaders have weaponised social media to silence critics to the point where the truth is drowned out by lies, disempowering people and paralysing democracy. We are better informed than ever before, but this has not resulted in knowledge and wisdom, &nbsp;tolerance and understanding.&nbsp;
In the midst of all this, there is growing public distrust of the media itself as it is slandered on the social web, pressured by political and corporate interests. You would expect this in authoritarian states, but it is now happening in democracies with elected rulers.
When journalists should be the vanguard to protect freedom, the media industry itself is in crisis with falling revenue and distraction from devices. The independence of a financially fragile media is being further compromised, its public service mandate undermined.
There is no choice but for newsrooms to reinvent ourselves: experiment with new revenue models, reorient content to engage and involve the new generation. This does not mean leaving it up to the algorithm to give them only what they like and agree with, but equip citizens with the information they need to make informed choices.
We journalists are creatures of habit. We like our facts, but we like our routine more. Journalists, mainstream or otherwise, need to be constantly updating themselves, not only on matters of the state but adapt to the new tools and technologies. We have to be on the platforms where our readers are, and learn to use the same tools that they are using.&nbsp;
Instead of fearing for our jobs because of AI, we have to learn to harness its ability to do repetitive or time-saving newsroom chores. AI is not and should not be about content generation, but finding ways to reach our target audience.
This frees up time for journalists to do journalism: investigate, hold power to account, call out malpractice and wrongdoing, while commending good work. This will help us maintain credibility and trust, our most valuable assets. Fact-checking should not be a fad, it is part and parcel of journalism.
For us at Nepali Times, this 25th anniversary is a milestone and a time to plan for the decades ahead. It is time to look back at the last 25 years, and to look ahead at where Nepal could be (or should be) in the next 25.&nbsp;
As we report on page 1 and 4-5, the prognosis for 2050 is not very good unless governance, accountability and transparency are improved. There is no silver bullet for this, it will come from the political will of a new generation of young leaders with the vision to overhaul the way this country is ruled. And that will depend most importantly on electoral reform — informed citizens electing representatives who show integrity and vision.
It has been a turbulent journey in Nepal for the last 25 years, and Nepali Times has tried to chronicle the highs and lows with honesty and fairness.&nbsp;
As the current Editor, I would like to thank all my predecessors and current colleagues for bringing us to this point.
Sonia Awale

Moving with the times

25 years of journalism

Sagar Tamang first met Laxmi Tamang in video calls between Malaysia and Pokhara. He was working as a security guard in Malaysia, and had sent her a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/facebook-nation">Facebook </a>request. Before long, between messages and calls, they were in love and planning a future together. Laxmi could see it clearly: after six years Sagar would <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/diaspora-diaries/migrant-worker-returns-to-create-work-at-home">return home</a> to Sankuwasabha, they would get married and have children, live in the home that Sagar had built, and she would open up her tailoring shop with Sagar’s savings from abroad. But Sagar revealed that he was experiencing shortness of breath and his legs had begun to swell. She pleaded with him to come back, but he would only return after his roadside property back home was built. Sagar’s parents had already built a new house with his income and were planning another nearby. The symptoms worsened over time, prompting Sagar to eventually consult a doctor. Both his <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/A-mysterious-rash-of-kidney-failures,3639">kidneys had completely failed</a>. A seemingly healthy, energetic 28-year-old suddenly turned into a dialysis patient. Sagar lived with his mother, father, five sisters and four brothers in Sankuwasabha, and the family depended entirely on a piece of land they farmed. An older brother left home to seek work elsewhere but that was not enough. So, after just finishing Grade 10 Sagar decided on an <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/overseas-job-seeker-now-creates-jobs-in-nepal">overseas job</a>. He arrived <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-malaysia-nepal-migrant-scam-nexus">in Malaysia</a> at just 20, saddled with loans, and an immense pressure to raise the economic status of his family. But upon arrival, he found that he would be working in agriculture, not as a security guard as per his contract. Toiling for 11 hours in the sun every day, he felt worn down and disillusioned with the<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/push-factors-driving-nepalis-out?fbclid=IwAR0Og_Lv1SMmn69MAkgqu1Ywu8IoLuB_v9KpnjG2F8PR-OAOCDvL6kLoKlk_aem_AX_Vm0Bo8vLUzR_RAr8GpJ8dDX53u8v0zPMP1GzR590UiMfz5jHkg7k14WF5cAQOHwY"> promise of life abroad</a>. His living situation, made up of a tightly regulated, crowded compound with other migrant workers, was no better. Only when he heard the distorted voice of his mother through his flip phone did Sagar find a sense of solace. Over the next two years, Sagar developed friendships with other Nepalis working with him, and eventually accepted that his life abroad was nearly permanent. He planned to stay aboard at least 10 years. And after writing a letter to his company, he was able to successfully switch to security guard work. Although the hours were longer, it beat the difficult manual labour Sagar was previously forced to complete for a meagre salary. Sagar fell into a routine he thought he would follow for the next eight years: get ready, go to work, return to the compound, and call Laxmi before going to sleep. But two years ago, his health reached a breaking point, and he had to return to Nepal for dialysis. Upon his arrival, he was rushed to Bir Hospital for immediate treatment. To this day, Sagar has never stepped foot inside the houses his family built with his overseas earnings. Read also:<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/dirty-dangerous-difficult-and-dehydrating"> Dirty, Dangerous, Difficult ... and Dehydrating</a>, Pinki Sris Rana <h2>Dialectics of dialysis</h2>  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025051509054_5b8972cf42e1d1ae531b7d32c0492380964f065432a8dd0a7e41674b7160b266.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="2025051509054_5b8972cf42e1d1ae531b7d32c0492380964f065432a8dd0a7e41674b7160b266" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Dying to work overseas NT"><figcaption>HARD LABOUR: Sagar Tamang in a dialysis session at the National Kidney Centre in Kathmandu (right) after both his kidneys failed while working abroad in harsh conditions.</figcaption></figure>  It is estimated that <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/dirty-dangerous-difficult-and-dehydrating" target="_blank">one in four </a>Nepali kidney patients is a returnee migrant. <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/A-mysterious-rash-of-kidney-failures,3639" target="_blank">Factors </a>such as excessive heat, dehydration, and unhealthy diets can lead to chronic kidney disease, including kidney failure. Many returnees head straight to a dialysis bed in Kathmandu instead of taking the first bus home. In dialysis wards across the country, scores of young men under 40 sit in hospital beds, unable to work or earn for their families anymore. Many remain in debt for treatment, or have had to relocate to seek care. For patients with no source of reliable income, even finding a willing landlord to rent out a room in the capital can be almost impossible without the right connections. However, Sagar’s cousin, who had also developed chronic kidney disease while working abroad and had moved to Kathmandu from Sankhuwasaba for dialysis, took him in. Laxmi finally met Sagar two months later. She found it hard to hold back tears whenever she saw his face. She was able to stay with her brother in Bhaktapur for some time, but eventually the couple decided to marry. Laxmi’s mother and sisters urged her to put off the marriage until Sagar had completed a kidney transplant. The couple eloped. Two days after their marriage, Laxmi’s family called them to come to their home in Nagarkot to celebrate. Now, the couple lives in a rented house near the National Kidney Centre with other dialysis patients and their families. Sagar walks to his dialysis session three times a week. In this house, there is a sense of solidarity among patients, and Laxmi especially feels a comfort knowing that her neighbours understand her position as the wife and caretaker of a dialysis patient. Members of the house cook for each other, help with transport to the hospital, and sometimes even <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/when-disaster-strikes-home">lend money</a>. So far, Sagar has used his savings from abroad to pay for the direct and indirect costs of his treatment. However, the money is running out as the couple grapples with the city’s <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/is-free-health-care-possible-in-nepal?fb_comment_id=3363039693768713_5667191770020149">cost of living and medical bills</a>. The government offers free lifetime haemodialysis for patients, but the Rs5,000 monthly allowance does not come consistently, in full, or just never comes at all despite repeated requests to the patient’s municipal office. Those receiving treatment in the Kathmandu Valley also access medicine through Bhaktapur’s Shahid Dharmabhakta National Transplant Centre (SDNTC), but under the hospital’s insurance are required to pay for 10% of the cost.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025051509058_2001d2b6d07ca8406575bd1c89f714b5b224d64bf25437b55bda0e21475fdbc4.jpg" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="2025051509058_2001d2b6d07ca8406575bd1c89f714b5b224d64bf25437b55bda0e21475fdbc4" data-rendition-name="original" width="2773" height="4160" loading="lazy" alt="Dying to work overseas"><figcaption>Sagar with his wife Laxmi in Pokhara.</figcaption></figure>  Once his family’s primary earner, Sagar can no longer make or send money due to his condition. His family runs a goat and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/are-you-sick-of-chicken">poultry farm</a>, but has been forced to take loans to stay afloat and cannot send money for Sagar’s treatment. Until recently, Laxmi worked 12 hours a day as a tailor and house cleaner. Sagar, his mother and Laxmi, have been making trips to SDNTC in preparation for his transplant. In Nepal, only relatives or the spouse of the patient are allowed to be donors for their <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/saving-kidneys-to-save-nepal">kidney transplant</a>. This can be debilitating for patients whose families are unwilling or unable to donate due to pre-existing health issues such as hypertension or diabetes. Wives and mothers are the most likely demographic to donate to a male patient. Due to Sagar’s inability to come home and officiate his marriage it is yet to be recognised by the municipality, making Laxmi an ineligible donor. After finding out his father’s blood type did not match and refusing his younger sister’s offer to give her kidney, he and his mother decided that they could start the transplant process together. Even Nepal’s prime minister K P Oli has had a double kidney transplant, but for those who cannot find a donor within the family, the remaining years of life is measured by the humming and erratic beeps of a dialysis machine three times a week. It is going to be a lengthy and expensive process, but it is the only hope for Sagar. And what are his immediate plans after a successful transplant? To return home, to finally see his siblings, father, neighbours and friends, he tells us. He has seen his father once since his <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/searching-for-a-homeland-away-from-home">return to Nepal</a>, but has not seen his siblings since he left for Malaysia. They have not visited him in Kathmandu yet, but he hopes that they will before his transplant. The couple believes that after his transplant, anything is possible: finally getting their marriage recognised, opening up a tailoring shop, having children, building a life in Sankuwashaba. Laxmi strongly objects to Sagar ever leaving Nepal again, but he remains open to the idea.

Dying to work overseas

Featured videos

The<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/rasuwa-flood-likely-a-glof"> flood on the Bhote Kosi</a> on Tuesday morning was a timely reminder about the risks Himalayan communities face from melting permafrost and glaciers, as well as the need for transboundary early warning. In the spring of 2024, I visited the Kanchenjunga Conservation Area (KCA) again. While in the village of Kampuchen (4,145) I visited Nupu Sherpa, friend and owner of the Kampuchen White House Lodge, to share <a href="https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/18/711/2024/">a new paper we had just published</a> about a massive ice-debris avalanche that had occurred in 2022 in the upper Nupchu valley. Although Nupu was interested in the results and implications of the avalanche, he was even more concerned about the recent and rapid development of several large, pro-glacial lakes upon the terminus of the Kanchenjunga glacier, an hour walk north of Kampuchen and across the seasonal yak pasture of Ramdang Kharka (4,375m).&nbsp; Like many high altitude, low gradient glaciers in the Himalaya, those in the Kanchenjunga region had shrunk to mere shadows of their former selves during the previous 125 years, leaving behind debris-covered remnant ice and small meltwater ponds.&nbsp; Nupu’s fear was that the lakes might soon coalesce to form a large and potentially dangerous glacial lake. Given a large enough trigger, such as a massive landslide or avalanche, a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) could result that could damage Kampuchen, Ghunsa, Phale, the Kangchenjunga Base Camp trail, and even beyond to the lower Tamor into India.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025071204070_31e28d1fd0f5a976ad96fc5597cc386586d7de5b7d9714835d5b479104209fed.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="2025071204070_31e28d1fd0f5a976ad96fc5597cc386586d7de5b7d9714835d5b479104209fed" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1635" loading="lazy" alt="Meltpools in the Himalaya"> <figcaption>The Kanchenjunga Conservation Area (KCA), eastern Nepal.</figcaption> </figure>  Since I was on my way to the village of Lhonak (4,792m) I stopped to take a look at the new lakes. Sure enough, from a lookout point on the lateral moraine of the Kanchenjunga Glacier I could see as many as ten newly formed and growing meltwater ponds upon the terminal moraine region of the glacier.&nbsp; The prospect was reminiscent of early satellite images taken of Imja Glacier in 1962 by the French, showing a number of meltwater ponds that within 15 years had grown and merged into a glacial lake half a square kilometer in size and containing 45 million cubic meters of water. Ten years after that Imja had grown to more than a square kilometer in size, was at least 120 m deep, and contained an estimated, and growing, 90 million cubic meters of water. Would the same scenario play out for the lower Kanchenjunga Glacier? To try and understand the situation better, glaciologist Sonam Wangchuk of ICIMOD put together a time series composite of lake development over time, from 2016 to 2024, where it was clear that the majority of the new lakes had only formed since 2019.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025071204078_c65a5ec574a251489c502f3efdf842033e0d238fd57947f7eee2c5793aac2a29.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="2025071204078_c65a5ec574a251489c502f3efdf842033e0d238fd57947f7eee2c5793aac2a29" data-rendition-name="original" width="602" height="686" loading="lazy" alt="Meltpools in the Himalaya"> <figcaption>Time-lapse satellite images of glacial lake development from 2016 to present. Animation of the process can be seen at https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/w17101457/s1.</figcaption> </figure>  Sonam Rinzin of Newcastle University estimated the potential depth and volume of the future glacier lake using standard procedures based upon the surface slope of the Kanchenjunga Glacier combined with volume-area curves for similar glacial lakes, estimating that the future lake would have a volume of approximately 33 million cubic meters of water and depth of more than 116 m. Other modeling methods enabled the mapping of probable ice, debris, and/or rock avalanches into the lake that could trigger a GLOF.&nbsp; A third model was then used to simulate four different avalanche scenarios that could trigger a GLOF: from small (debris avalanche of 3 million cubic meters) to the worst case (15 million cubic meters) of fast-moving debris. Even under the small magnitude scenario, avalanche-triggered outburst floods would travel distances of almost 120km downstream, and under the worst-case scenario the floods would reach the Indo-Gangetic Plain and cross the border into India, damaging or destroying up to 90 buildings and 44 bridges. The prospective triggers of a future GLOF, however, are not limited to a nearby rock avalanche. A <a href="https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/11/443/2017/tc-11-443-2017.html">sudden release of water</a> from water-filled caves further up the glacier could trigger a surge wave capable of breaching the terminal moraine complex holding in the lake water.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250712040716_20ed87368a9ac416b5d0232cf8e02211195ca6bc9fff960a1f7e43a95bdfbbf9.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20250712040716_20ed87368a9ac416b5d0232cf8e02211195ca6bc9fff960a1f7e43a95bdfbbf9" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1621" loading="lazy" alt="Meltpools"> <figcaption>Theoretical Kangchenjunga glacial lake of the future (blue) contained by a front moraine (purple) with a flood possibly triggered by a massive rock avalanche (red).</figcaption> </figure>  <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/the-not-so-permanent-frost">Weakening permafrost</a> at the highest altitudes could result in massive ice-debris avalanches, such as those believed to have triggered recent and catastrophic floods in the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/remembering-the-seti-disaster">Seti River</a>, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-mountains-are-melting">Barun Khola</a>, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/non-climate-cause-of-nanda-devi-flood">Chamoli</a>, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/sikkim-flood-is-warning-to-nepal">South Lhonak lake</a>, and Tuesday’s Bhote Kosi flood in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/rasuwa-flood-likely-a-glof">Rasuwa</a>. Weakening and eventual collapse of the terminal moraine complex through sub-surface piping could also result in an outburst flood. And a range of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-mountains-are-melting">cascading processes</a> currently unknown to scientists could trigger a flood as well.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250712040712_76336a4597c08dd735e57b09ae9840b6bd3d89c85907bb39424d9e6f3163581e.jpg" data-media-id="editor_13" data-image-id="20250712040712_76336a4597c08dd735e57b09ae9840b6bd3d89c85907bb39424d9e6f3163581e" data-rendition-name="original" width="740" height="565" loading="lazy" alt="Meltpools in the Himalaya"> <figcaption>Jannu glacier in 1899. Note how the level of the debris-covered glacier reached the top of the lateral moraines over a hundred years ago. Photo: V. SELLA</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250712040712_707dd365923a002e889c64a88796b445695ea9ca692ec639179bc70217ed63c5.jpg" data-media-id="editor_14" data-image-id="20250712040712_707dd365923a002e889c64a88796b445695ea9ca692ec639179bc70217ed63c5" data-rendition-name="original" width="5184" height="3888" loading="lazy" alt="Meltpools in the Himalaya"> <figcaption>Jannu glacier in 2022. The remaining debris-covered glacier is now several hundred meters below the crests of the lateral moraines. Photo: E. BYERS</figcaption> </figure>  But will a large and potentially dangerous glacial actually form at the Kanchenjunga glacier? There’s really no way to tell at this point, although the rapid development of lakes since 2016 is a strong indicator that a large lake is in the process of forming. And rather than wait and see, our current uncertainty does not diminish the need for a more proactive approach to the development of a large glacial lake at some point in the near future. For example, the lower Kanchenjunga Glacier clearly needs to be regularly monitored over the coming years to keep track of glacial lake growth and potential hazards. This could be done by the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM), ICIMOD, or Kathmandu University with results regularly shared with local people and local governments.&nbsp; In fact, such a service could be developed into a program that is offered to other communities throughout highland Nepal who experience similar situations of glacial lake development, growth, and prospective danger, especially since most communities presently feel that they have no one to turn to for similar information. Inexpensive, locally appropriate, user-friendly early warning systems (EWS) need to be developed for the Kanchenjunga region now, instead of waiting for a tragedy to happen. While the different options and costs are being assessed, the installation of new cell towers in the upper Ghunsa Khola would assure that local residents have access to one of the most effective and proven EWS systems available: cell phones, combined with a lake level monitoring device that broadcasts data and connects to cell phone alarm systems.&nbsp; For example, hundreds of lives were saved when upstream witnesses called their family and friends downstream to warn them of the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Anatom-of-a-Himalayan-tsunami,1330">Seti River flood</a> near Pokhara in 2014. New zoning policies that prohibit the construction of lodges and other infrastructure in high-risk floodplain regions need to be developed now. Where the infrastructure already exists, villages should be encouraged to install gabion rock-filled wire cages along susceptible river channel or river interfaces to divert the flow of water during a flood event, a method used successfully in both highland and riverine Nepal. Local and national hazard training and response programs need to be developed now. Several examples of excellent programs developed by different organisations in the upper Khumbu region exist that provide excellent models, such as those tested by the US Agency for International Development <a href="https://www.hillarymedal.com/Khumbu-Nepal-Local-Adaptation-Plan-of-Action-%20report.pdf">(USAID) and ICIMOD</a> between 2011 and 2015. Glacial lake reduction&nbsp; Nepal was recently awarded a $36.1 million award by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to directly confront many of hazards from glacial lake outburst floods jointly implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the DHM building on past successes at Tso Rolpa and Imja Lakes. There are some lessons learned over the past decades of field work based in Nepal and Peru: 1. The DHM wants to use the project to reduce GLOF risks in Kosi and Gandaki basins and glacial lake reduction programs are planned for Thulagi, Lower Barun, Lumding Tsho, and Hongu 2 glacial lakes.&nbsp; However, the planned lowering depth for Tso Rolpa in 2000 was 20m, with the project ending once 3m lowering was achieved due to lack of funds. Imja lake, which scientists also determined needed to be lowered by at least 20m, was in fact lowered by 3m in 2016 ‘because that’s what they did at Tso Rolpa’.&nbsp; If glacial lake reduction programs are to be implemented under the GCF program they should be based upon good science, and lowered to an effective depth, otherwise the activity will be a waste of funds. <a href="https://sinia.minam.gob.pe/sites/default/files/siar-%20ancash/archivos/public/docs/usaid_glacial_lake_handbookrfs_0-ilovepdf-%20compressed_0.pdf">Peru offers experience</a> for glacial lake lowering. 2. Although large glacial lakes (more than 1sq km) will always command the most media and even scientific attention, it has become abundantly clear in recent years that even small glacial lakes can be just as deadly, given the correct sequence of cascading events, rainfall, snowmelt, and/or other triggers.&nbsp; The 2017 <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10346-018-1079-9">Barun flood</a> and September 2024 <a href="https://www.stimson.org/event/the-%20thame-glof-disaster-climate-related-disaster-risk-management-in-the-high-himalayas/">Thame flood</a> are two excellent examples. Methods for assessing the flood risk of glacial lakes will need to be revised accordingly to include many of these smaller glacial lakes as well, in addition to the 21 large lakes already considered to be dangerous. 3. Existing and expensive EWS might benefit by some consideration of cheaper, more local, and possibly more effective alternatives. In 2015, for example, <a href="https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya/vol37/iss2/7/">villagers</a> living below Tso Rolpa complained that they had no idea how the recently installed EWS worked, what it sounded like, and what to do in the event that it went off. With improved cell service and real-time lake level monitoring apps, local people could check on the lake whenever they wished, as opposed to waiting for some kind of communication from Kathmandu. 4. The GCF grant has the opportunity to become the ‘go to’ place for communities throughout highland Nepal to report any of their concerns related to glacial lakes and/or other observed cryospheric processes. This service could facilitate local people’s ability to adapt to, mitigate, or prevent a range of climate change-related hazards largely unknown to previous generations. Alton C Byers is a faculty research scientist at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) University of Colorado at Boulder and has visited the KCA including a six-month residency in Ghunsa supported by the Fulbright Nepal Scholar Program. This article is largely based on Evolution of a Potentially Dangerous Glacial Lake on the Kanchenjunga Glacier, Nepal, Predictive Flood Models, and Prospective Community Response. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/w17101457">Water</a>, 2025. (Byers AC, Rinzin S, Byers E, Wangchuk S.)

Meltpools in the Himalaya

In 2023, northern India suffered record-breaking heat. In 2024, it broke its own record. In 2025, the Indo-Gangetic plains and the Nepal Tarai suffered a prolonged pre-monsoon heat wave and humidity, forcing closure of schools and workplaces. This week, <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/europe-heat-wave-intensifies-as-fresh-warnings-issued/live-73108302">southern Europe is suffering the worst heat wave</a> since temperature records began. Football matches, tennis tournaments have been affected, and tourist sites have been closed off. Qatar has ordered a midday work curfew for Nepali and other migrant workers are the maximum temperature this week touched 45°C.&nbsp; Kathmandu Valley experienced its highest temperature in 25 years in May 2024 at 35.3°C. This year, the maximum temperature exceeded 30°C on many days — heat that till a decade ago would be considered unusual. Rains in early June also meant that towns in the mountains sweltered under high heat plus humidity.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250703090748_6975cfc2ad573f3a09ca301a299a9e92a420da7f1c5c90b8e4d061a2053dcd3e.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20250703090748_6975cfc2ad573f3a09ca301a299a9e92a420da7f1c5c90b8e4d061a2053dcd3e" data-rendition-name="original" width="1935" height="801" loading="lazy" alt="maximum average temperature in Kathmandu"> <figcaption>Source: DHM</figcaption> </figure>  Measuring just temperature does not give a true picture of how hot it is. When humidity is factored in, the heat index this summer has been much higher in northern India and Nepal. Also, the hotter the air temperature the higher the concentration of water vapour in it. “We feel it is getting hotter, and our statistics back that up,” says Shanti Kandel at the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, which issued two heat wave warnings this year, compared to 11 last year. “We need more research to analyse how humidity is make this situation worse.” <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/india-faces-alarming-30-rise-in-moist-heat-stress-over-40-years-affecting-wide-swath-of-country-imd-study/articleshow/109376863.cms?from=mdr">A recent analysis</a> by the Indian Meteorological Department has found that heat stress in that country has increased by nearly 30% over the past 40 years. Similarly, India’s Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) noted that cities like Delhi, Chandigarh, Jaipur, and Lucknow have experienced a 6-9% rise in relative humidity in the last decade.&nbsp; It also states that <a href="https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/majority-indian-districts-face-high-heatwave-risk-study-shows-2025-05-20/#:~:text=%22About%2057%20per%20cent%20of,usual%20number%20of%20heatwave%20days.">60% of Indian districts</a>, home to three-quarters of the country’s 1.3 billion people face a high to very high risk from extreme heat, with rising night-time temperatures and humidity. The heat index is also called ‘<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/north-indian-heat-wave-hits-nepal">wet-bulb temperature</a>’ and is a measure of how hot the human body feels when humidity levels are also high — usually much hotter than the recorded temperature. For example, a wet-bulb temperature of 35°C is considered the maximum limit of heat and humidity that humans can handle, beyond which the body cannot cool by perspiration, leading to death. One indicator of increasing humidity is a rise in average minimum temperature, and Nepal recorded the highest figure since 1981 last year, with a peak of 15.8°C. Higher minimum temperature denotes warmer nights, which in turn is an indication of heat stress caused by increasing humidity, which in turn is a result of global warming. Aside from higher average temperatures worldwide this year, what makes heat and humidity more unbearable is that cities are always hotter than their surroundings. This is due to the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/preparing-for-kathmandu-s-heat-waves">urban heat island (UHI) effect</a> – for example the temperature inside Kathmandu’s Ring Road can be hotter by <a href="https://www.epa.gov/heatislands/what-are-heat-islands">up to 4°C during the daytime and by 1 to 3°C in the evening</a> compared to the outskirts. “Climate change is one reason for rising temperature, but there are other factors like increased heat in urban spaces due to concrete buildings and infrastructure, emissions from vehicles, industries, and home appliances,” explains urban planner Bhushan Tuladhar. He adds: “Much of this comes down to how we have developed our cities, not just our roads and buildings but also our water system, waste management, culture and customs as well as economy.” There is a feedback loop at work: as it gets hotter, more energy is used for fans, coolers, and air-conditioners which in turn add to the urban heat bubble. The way to reduce the UHI effect is to have more parks, tree-lined streets and water bodies to cool cities down.&nbsp; <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2212095525002093">A recent study published in the journal Urban Climate</a> by Nepali researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Tribhuvan University, University of Groningen, etc showed that even within Kathmandu, urban forests cooled neighbourhoods by as much as 1.2°C while ponds reduced the temperature by up to 0.85°C compared to nearby houses.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250703090748_e4de75dbdfb5fcfdeb0935eda364dc16b5dca8857ba335ab0f4586ebdc5093a9.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20250703090748_e4de75dbdfb5fcfdeb0935eda364dc16b5dca8857ba335ab0f4586ebdc5093a9" data-rendition-name="original" width="2580" height="1038" loading="lazy" alt="urban heat island in Kathmandu"> <figcaption>Source: URBAN CLIMATE et al.</figcaption> </figure>  ‘Our results demonstrate that blue-green spaces provide significant cooling benefits across the Kathmandu Valley, with distinct patterns by type, size, design, and urban context,’ concluded the paper, whose lead author is Saurav Bhattarai at Jackson State University in the United States. The old towns in Kathmandu Valley with traditional brick and tile architecture, ponds and trees managed hot summers better. Compact houses around a courtyard gave people just the right amount of sunlight, and use of clay mortar and bricks insulated houses in winter while cooling them in summer. There were open spaces, fertile land along the floodplains for farming, and brick pavements that allowed for seepage. “Our cities were planned taking nature into account,” says Sangeeta Singh, a professor of urban planning at the Institute of Engineering. “Kathmandu Valley is now built up, but we can still reintegrate blue-blue spaces into town planning with vertical gardening, urban forestry, using local material and harvesting rainwater.”&nbsp; Kathmandu’s municipalities have by-laws controlling building design and structure, but strict enforcement of land use and zoning are missing. Extreme heat disproportionately affects the urban poor who may not have access to fans or air-conditioners, exacerbating poverty.&nbsp; Cities in the plains have it even worse. As heat and humidity rise simultaneously, it could <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/garmi-se-behal-chalo-nepal">reverse the current mass migration</a> of people from the mountains to the Tarai, where 53% of Nepal’s population lives. <a href="https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/92fbbbc6180238e18e7b239fad83e38a-0280032024/original/12-DHNT-Temperature-poverty-inequality-September-2024.pdf">A World Bank study</a> put the cost of a 1°C rise in temperature at 17.1% increase in poverty globally. Estimates put the total number of urban poor in developing countries exposed to the worst heat extremes at 26 million presently, this number is bound to grow to 215 million by mid-century, an over eight-fold increase. Meanwhile, 489,000 health-related deaths occur each year, 45% of them in Asia alone. “Heat has to be seen from a class perspective,” says Singh. “Those with money can afford gadgets and appliances to keep their homes and offices cool, but not day labourers or poor families living in cramped housing with poor ventilation.” Climate breakdown is going to widen the class divide in cities, as <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/unthinkable-in-the-current-climate">summers become unliveable</a>. Says Singh: “We need policy intervention to address this class injustice. Our building by-laws and new town development must urgently integrate climate and energy efficiency elements.”

In the heat of the moment

On the afternoon of 28 May, a massive glacier avalanche destroyed the idyllic village of Blatten in the Valais region of Switzerland. Footage of the disaster rapidly circulated around the world, sparking renewed conversation about the increasing instability of the mountain cryosphere and climate-related risks. The population of nearly 300 people had been evacuated a week prior due to concerns that unstable slopes above the glacier could trigger a catastrophic event. This is remarkable, and a testament to the value of hazard monitoring and anticipatory action. Shocked by the intensity of avalanche impacts and devastating loss, people struggled to comprehend the alternative: what if the village had been full? In Nepal, the people of the Langtang Valley, survivors of a massive glacier avalanche that killed over 300 people in April 2015, know exactly what it feels like for an entire village to be <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/17/nepal-earthquake-langtang-village-everyone-was-dead">‘wiped off the map’</a> in a little more than a minute. The avalanche that buried the village of Langtang was similarly catastrophic, as the avalanche fell over 3,000m and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/19/world/asia/nepal-avalanche-langtang.html">carried nearly as much force as the Hiroshima atomic bomb</a>. Unfortunately, the people of Langtang had no warning. While these two disasters are quite different, there are some important connections between them. As the world contemplates the threat of increasing climate-related glacier hazards and wonders if and how Blatten will rebuild, I would like to draw attention to the ever-present risk of similar disasters in the Himalayas, where the scale of the problem is (arguably) larger and resources are (inarguably) more limited. As events like these become increasingly common, we need to build monitoring and <a href="https://www.undrr.org/implementing-sendai-framework/sendai-framework-action/early-warnings-for-all">early warning systems for all</a> at-risk communities. We also need more comparative analysis of the ways mountain people make sense of climate-related risks, particularly around wicked questions like hazard zoning and resettlement or relocation. How do institutions determine where to invest in hazard monitoring and early warning systems? Who gets to decide where people can rebuild, what kind of risks are ‘acceptable’, or whose uncertainties matter? As a survivor of the Langtang disaster and an applied anthropologist, this is not a thought exercise for me. I spent more than two years working with the Langtangpa community as a volunteer, and the last ten years conducting research focused on the aftermath of the Langtang avalanche and the ways people cope with disaster and climate risk in the Himalayan region. Since late 2022, I have been <a href="https://www.stimson.org/project/early-warning-systems-for-cascading-disasters-in-nepal/">working with the Stimson Center </a>to consider how we might build systems to assess and monitor the changing risks of cascading hazards in the Himalayan region. As the Swiss and a range of international organizations consider how they might provide warning for other Alpine villages living beneath glaciers, we need to expand the conversation to consider the many Himalayan villages that are similarly at-risk. The question of climate causality currently haunts the Blatten disaster -- just as it has for other similar events in recent years, including the Langtang avalanche. While attribution is incredibly complicated, many scientists have already highlighted the ways that melting permafrost and loss of seasonal snowcover and glacial mass created instability in the overall system above the Birch Glacier on Kleines Nesthorn. Not all glaciers are receding. In Blatten, recurring slope failures had also been piling debris on the glacier slowly over the years, pushing the ‘glacier tongue’ forward and weakening its integrity – and this acceleration attracted attention and focused monitoring. <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7334623807573278721/">A recent post from Christian Huggel, a leading cryosphere scientist based at University of Zurich</a> examined these details and clearly stated: “Considering all these processes it would be absurd, ignorant or dishonest to state that anthropogenic warming has not played any role in the ice-rock avalanche disaster in <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/all/?keywords=%23blatten&amp;origin=HASH_TAG_FROM_FEED">Blatten</a>. Interestingly, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jun/01/this-is-ground-zero-for-blatten-the-tiny-swiss-village-engulfed-by-a-mountain">other scientists have indicated that “exact attribution is almost beside the point.”</a> Tellingly, it took almost ten years for formal scientific recognition (see <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-024-01624-z">this Nature paper published in 2024</a>) in part because it was seismically triggered, overshadowing the climate-related signal.That said, many Langtangpa highlighted these connections immediately after the disaster, as many are doing in Blatten right now. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/the-courage-and-endurance-of-the-langtangpa">My friends in Langtang have spent the last ten years rebuilding their lives</a> while wondering if another event of this magnitude might be possible.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250607140612_5ccfd4786416a151e1c2d44f79add3c196da34e1c30af9188de10982b45d72f8.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20250607140612_5ccfd4786416a151e1c2d44f79add3c196da34e1c30af9188de10982b45d72f8" data-rendition-name="original" width="1250" height="885" loading="lazy" alt="Blatten NT"> <figcaption>Copernicus statellite image of the avalanche that buried the village Blatten in Switzerland on 28 May, 2025.</figcaption> </figure>  &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250607140616_306112d2eb5330d0a5117bae3fc372861afce5137b52f793285e6b1cf89ca31a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="20250607140616_306112d2eb5330d0a5117bae3fc372861afce5137b52f793285e6b1cf89ca31a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1733" height="1053" loading="lazy" alt="Langtang NT"> <figcaption>The deadly earthquake-triggered avalance that destroyed Langtang village in Nepal on 25 April, 2015.</figcaption> </figure>  Like the people of the Swiss Alps, the Langtangpa have been living with avalanches for centuries, and they have used both situated knowledge and practical systems to adapt to changing risks. But, in Langtang as in Blatten, the scale and impact of this singular tragedy was both unprecedented and unforeseen. Tellingly, Langtang was not a scientific hinterland: groups from a dozen different countries were conducting glaciological, hydrological, and climatological research there prior to the disaster. Blatten is a case where the scientists knew where to look. But even in relatively well-studied places like Langtang, disasters can emerge in our blind spots.&nbsp; <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/lives-on-the-line-in-the-himalaya">Last year’s Thame glacial lake outburst flood</a> (GLOF) also began in an overlooked and understudied area – <a href="https://www.stimson.org/2024/rethinking-himalayan-cryosphere-risk-assessment-in-the-wake-of-nepals-thame-disaster/">prompting scientists to rethink the ways we assess glacial lakes</a>. Issues related to <a href="https://www.icimod.org/mountain/permafrost/">melting permafrost</a>, which seems to have been a factor for both the Blatten disaster and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tashi-lhazom-5a433b22b_rebuildtil-limifloodrelief-fromtearstohope-activity-7332420946013691904-N0sH?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop&amp;rcm=ACoAAADxlvsBK3zQKg0X2xPLPS94HyMEettoSU4">the cascading ‘thermokarst lake outburst flood’ that recently occurred in the Limi Valley</a>, are increasingly recognised as a pervasive risk but it is difficult to monitor and the science is young. A multitude of different cryosphere-related disasters are possible across the Himalaya, and background risk is increasing. How do we triage between these different kinds of hazards? How do we know where to look? While it might not have been possible to monitor the glaciers and cryosphere features that contributed to the Langtang disaster, we need to be actively looking for other places where monitoring systems and early warning is possible in Nepal and the broader Himalayan region. Of course, we do need to be precise in our analysis and communication around climate attribution, but consensus does exist on some general trends: climate change is driving new hazard interactions that can generate extreme flows. Therefore, we also need to recognise the undeniable: that background risk is undeniably rising, that lives are at risk, and that we need to invest in building systems that can help anticipate events like Blatten (which takes time, time that others don’t have) immediately. The fact that Langtang has been fully rebuilt and community leaders were effective in determining the shape of their own future and ‘building back better’ their way (as complicated as that may be), demonstrates that a future can be possible, amid uncertainty. But the future of many other communities in the Himalaya, who should never have to go through what the Langtangpa went through if we can avoid it, still remains at-risk without more scientific attention and investment. Meanwhile, the monsoon is arriving in Nepal and another disaster could happen any day now. Coverage of the Blatten disaster has been rightfully robust. Praise for the scientists and authorities who identified these risks and correctly analyzed the situation is also deserved, for that is difficult work. A wider call to learn from this event and use insights to inform policy on climate risk assessment or questions of managed retreat is also exceedingly necessary and urgent. As many scientists are saying: events like this will happen again. This is a scary time in the mountains, in the Alps, in the Himalaya, and many other regions. That said, not all places are equally exposed or vulnerable. To reiterate a core question that I have been asking for years: <a href="https://dialogue.earth/en/climate/opinion-climate-disasters-integrate-local-knowledge/">Whose uncertainties matter</a>? When and why? We know that climate-related loss and damage will not be equally or equitably distributed, and that is one of the core reasons for the UN’s Early Warnings for All program. Blatten is being talked about this week <a href="https://globalplatform.undrr.org/2025/preparatory-days/global-ew4all-multi-stakeholder-forum">while the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction is going in Geneva</a>, from where some of my Nepali colleagues posted photos of them posing with a sign that speaks to the justice issue: ‘Early warnings work. They must work for everyone.” Working toward this noble goal will require a concerted and committed global effort. -- Austin Lord, PhD is a Senior Fellow at the Stimson Center and an environmental anthropologist who has been conducting research in Nepal for the past 13 years on disaster and climate risk management, water and energy policy, infrastructure development, and environmental governance.

Blatten, Langtang, and Disasters Yet to Come?

Frontpage topic

The dramatic story of Israel’s birth in 1948 following the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/holocaust-memorial-sara-atzmon,1986">Nazi Holocaust </a>captured the wonder and admiration of the world. Its founders claimed that Israel would be a light to the nations. But the Jewish state’s identity has now gone from being the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-loss-of-an-identity">victim of genocide</a> to perpetrator in less than two generations. Israel’s Likud government stands accused of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/crime-against-humanity-in-gaza">genocide in Gaza </a>by a UN Special Committee, the World Court’s admission that the accusation is plausible, and recently by 28 nations acting in concert to declare Israel in violation of International Humanitarian Law. What happened? Rather than face the truth of 75 years of injustice to Palestinians that led to the terrible slaughter and hostage-taking by Hamas in 2023, most Israelis support the daily overkill in Gaza, now nearly two years long. After <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/mortality-in-the-gaza-israel-war">more than 100,000 casualties</a> under constant bombing of the civilian population with no one shooting back, famine has begun. Israel as a society and government have performed exactly the opposite of what David Ben Gurion declared: The State of Israel will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace … Israel lost its soul by becoming racist, then racialist, with the doctrinaire view that Jews are by nature and divine right superior to other races. This has led to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-world-s-moral-failure-in-gaza">suppression of the Palestinians</a>, and, if given the opportunity, to their extermination, as is now evident in Gaza. Why under its decades-long military occupation of Palestine, have Arabs been killed, imprisoned, wounded, neighbourhoods bombed, houses destroyed, streets ploughed up, families imprisoned behind concrete walls, and an entire population denied the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/history-of-female-im-mobility-in-nepal">right to travel</a>?&nbsp; The Zionist’s answer to these questions may be that the Palestinians under decades of military rule are not actually citizens of Israel. That is a distinction without a difference, because the occupying authority has legal responsibility for the population under occupation, including the West Bank and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/saving-what-is-left-of-gaza">Gaza</a>. True, there are areas declared to be administered by the Palestinians alone, but no one pretends that the Palestinian territory is truly free and independent. The occupied territory and its people remain wards of the Israeli state. Even though the UN created Israel, its various governments have long denied any right of the UN to curtail its expansionist aims and war-making powers.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250730090744_f0e965da3702f8d2cea081e607d40a09249dceedf4e6fd725f9fd139c2132ecf.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20250730090744_f0e965da3702f8d2cea081e607d40a09249dceedf4e6fd725f9fd139c2132ecf" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="805" loading="lazy" alt="How Israel lost its soul"> </figure>  Jewish Holocaust survivor Raphael Lemkin coined the word ‘genocide’ and made it his lifelong task to see it implemented in international law. The Genocide Convention was ratified by the United Nations in 1948, but is being deliberately flaunted by Israel in Gaza. Genocide is a serious charge, but its terms in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/un-faults-nepal-s-war-crimes-bill">international law</a> are clear: no killing or setting up conditions for the destruction of a people group just because they are members of that group, no forced expulsion or transfers of that group, and no public advocacy to do so, which is a key provision already violated by Messrs Netanyahu, Trump, Galant, and others. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/guest-editorial/the-international-order-is-dying-in-gaza">The International Order Is Dying in Gaza</a>, Mohamed ElBaradei In January 2024 the International Court of Justice (ICJ), joined by an Israeli ad hoc Judge, Aharon Barak, voted to urge punishment of those advocating expulsion or transfer of the population of Gaza. The citizens of Israel bear collective responsibility for the actions of their government, but not as individuals unless they specifically vote for or advocate genocidal actions. Israeli opposition figures, of which there are very few, are courageous and deserve praise. What about the citizens of the United States where both Democrats and Republicans have long aided and abetted Israel’s violence toward those under its protection? Governments and citizens everywhere must join forces to prevent famine from claiming more children in Gaza.&nbsp; Citizens must raise our voices now or be forever classed with those who allowed and abetted today’s Genocide. (Inter Press Service) James E Jennings PhD is President of <a href="http://www.conscienceinternational.org/index.php" target="_blank">Conscience International</a>, and Leader of US Academics for Peace delegations to Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sudan, and other countries. He taught Middle East History, Archaeology, and Religion at US universities. <h2>Bearing Witness</h2> The Associated Press, AFP, BBC News and Reuters this week issued this joint statement:&nbsp; We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families. For many months, these independent journalists have been the world’s eyes and ears on the ground in Gaza. They are now facing the same dire circumstances as those they are covering. &nbsp;&nbsp; Journalists endure many deprivations and hardships in war zones. We are deeply alarmed that the threat of starvation is now one of them. It is essential that adequate food supplies reach the people of Gaza.

How Israel lost its soul

Every year, up to 15 people are killed by tigers in and around Nepal’s Chitwan National Park, famous for its <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/is-wildlife-conservation-a-victim-of-its-own-success-in-nepal">conservation success story</a>.&nbsp; But this was not always the case — elders say there used to be many more tigers but fewer deaths. What changed? Long before <a href="https://chitwannationalpark.gov.np/index.php">Chitwan National Park</a> was established in 1972, the indigenous Tharu people and tigers coexisted, fostering a centuries-old relationship based on an understanding of each other’s behaviour. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-tarai-s-shrinking-forests">the Tarai </a>plains, especially Chitwan, gained fame for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-tarai-s-shrinking-forests">tiger hunting</a> and proved useful as Nepal’s rulers employed hunting diplomacy by inviting British royals to extravagant hunting parties. Hunting expeditions would descend from Kathmandu in winter months to avoid malarial summers. The Tharu supplied rice, vegetables, goats, and constructed access roads.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250729160752_c9998ffdaa27ff3c251556bd472945bf6e648fdb4016d3b152cbef86f321c7f7.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20250729160752_c9998ffdaa27ff3c251556bd472945bf6e648fdb4016d3b152cbef86f321c7f7" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1146" loading="lazy" alt="Tharu people"> <figcaption>A US-supported DDT spraying campaign against malaria in Chitwan in the 1950s that opened the valley to trans-migration of farmers from the hills. The Tharu people were partially immune to malaria. Photo: USOM RECORDS, US NATIONAL ARCHIVES, COLLEGE PARK, MARYLAND</figcaption> </figure>  Rana rulers also relied upon Tharu mahout expertise in handling elephants, navigating the jungle, and tracking wildlife for hunting. The Ranas and their guests killed an astonishing number of tigers. During a hunting expedition in 1850, Rana Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana personally shot dead 31 tigers. In 1876, during two weeks, British King Albert Edward VII shot 23 tigers.&nbsp; In 1911 King George V killed four bears, eight one-horned rhinoceroses, and 39 tigers. Rana Prime Minister Juddha Shumsher is said to have killed 433 tigers from all across the Tarai between 1930 to 1940. At the time, 90% of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/chitwan-s-bote-people-in-a-changing-world">Chitwan’s population </a>were indigenous Tharu, Bote, Musahar, with the Kumal making up the rest. While people were worried about their crops and food sources, they were also mindful of tigers, rhinos, and other forms of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/human-animal-interface-in-nepal-wildlife-corridor?%2F">wildlife</a>.&nbsp; The Tharu trapped tiger prey such as wild boar and deer for their survival, also understood that predators like tigers sometimes hunted their buffalos, goats, and cows — especially when they grazed in or near the jungle. To Tharu, this seemed only fair. “In 1973, just before the establishment of the<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/on-the-tri-junction-of-wildlife-conservation-conflict-and-co-existence"> Chitwan National Park</a>, my family owned between 200 and 300 cows, oxen, and buffaloes,” says Keval Chaudhary, 95. “Tigers killed four to five of my cattle each year, but we never hated tigers and never felt like killing them. It was coexistence — we shared the same land.”&nbsp; Shukhlal Chaudhary of Bachauli once told us there used to be significantly more tigers before malaria eradication in the 1950s, but that did not mean there was more conflict with humans. “We used to go into the forest every day, and were familiar with the routines of the animals that lived there,” he used to say. “The tigers rarely ventured into our village or killed anyone who lived there.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250729160756_e39f7bdb451f752b753b1d8fc4e590196afd5cd21e2456443557c2eafb6c5c82.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20250729160756_e39f7bdb451f752b753b1d8fc4e590196afd5cd21e2456443557c2eafb6c5c82" data-rendition-name="original" width="1915" height="1443" loading="lazy" alt="Tigers in Nepal"> </figure>  In the days before the National Park, the tiger population in Chitwan was probably bigger. The Ranas had laws against hurting rhinos and tigers, but more importantly, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/unsung-heroes-of-nepal-s-tiger-recovery">the Tharu also cared for the animals </a>and the jungle. This respect for nature runs deep in our tradition. The Tharu worship through the Gurau spiritual healer and honour the forest deity known as Bandevi. Says Aasha Ram Mahato, an 85-year-old resident of Madi: “हमरा पुजा करइ खुनिय जम्मा देवी देउता जससनेकी सोमेसोरबाणि, कल्की माइ, बिक्रम बाबा सब थारु देवी देउता क नाउ लेके हमरा सन्सारी बर्ना कर्साहु इय जेठवा नत एसार्ह महिनावमा हमरा इअ बाली बिर्ही बचावके, बनवका चिजुवा बिजुवा बचावके कहके हमरा बरसमा ३ चोटी पुजा कर्साहु एसार्ही बर्ना, लेरुवा पैठ हसे चैत पैठ बर्ना।” <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/5-myths-about-the-tharu">The Tharu </a>take the names of all the gods they worship — such as Somesor Baani, Kalki Maai, and Bikram Baba, and perform Sansaari Puja, a traditional ritual to protect crops, wild and domestic animals, insects, and everything in nature. This ritual reflects the community’s deep respect and spiritual bond with the natural world and is performed three times a year. Bikram Mahato, 65, recalls an incident six years ago when 10 people entered Chitwan National Park to cut fodder grass. A tiger was 50m away, silently watching them and preparing to attack. The group quickly decided not to run or scatter. Instead, they stayed close together.&nbsp; This smart and immediate decision prevented a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/close-encounters-with-tigers-in-nepal">tiger attack</a>. It also depicts the Tharu indigenous community’s understanding of nature and wildlife, as well as their choice of coexistence and protection. The Nepal government and foreign aid organisations have mostly forgotten the history of Tharu–tiger coexistence and the community’s silent but c<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/conservation-at-the-crossroads">rucial role in tiger conservation</a>. Nevertheless, let us hope that the state will eventually acknowledge and pay tribute to the contributions of the Indigenous Tharu in protecting the forests and wildlife, especially the tigers, that currently make up Chitwan National Park. Birendra Mahato is an elected member of the Ratnanagar Municipality Ward 6 and Founder Chair of the Tharu Culture Museum Research Centre in Sauraha.

Nepal’s Tharu are tiger protectors

Year 2000. The world was gripped by the Y2K panic, The Millennium Bug that many feared would wreck global computer networks. The US waged punitive wars following 9/11. Google was launched in 1998, and its search engine and Gmail soon overtook AOL, Hotmail and Yahoo! The EU floated the Euro, and China was asserting itself on the world stage. Nepal was still a monarchy. The country’s population was only 23 million. Most people got their news on community radio. Evening news bulletins on tv channels had higher ratings than entertainment. Amidst political turmoil, readers bought national daily broadsheets at news-stands. Content was politically top-heavy. The Maoist conflict was entering its fifth year, and there was sporadic news of the government’s Kilo Sierra 2 operation which killed more civilians than guerrillas, adding fuel to the insurgency. The Nepali Congress (NC) and the UML were at each other’s throats, calling for national shutdowns and squandering the hopes of renewal from a democracy their leaders fought to restore in the 1990 People’s Movement. Hardliners in the royal family were getting restless. Scientific proof about global warming, erratic weather and media coverage spread public awareness about climate breakdown. Dire predictions about what was going to happen during the course of the century proved to be optimistic -- we are already seeing today what climatologists said would happen in 2100. Back then, facts still mattered, the mainstream press swayed opinion, investigative journalism exposed wrongdoing and held power to account. In Nepal, editors and foreign correspondents were opinion-makers, some as well-known as political figures, and sometimes as powerful. <h2>Nepali Times</h2>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250724110720_468fead795119919172c5f87adedc9524d3d1c687c481beb0c67136be80ff801.png" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20250724110720_468fead795119919172c5f87adedc9524d3d1c687c481beb0c67136be80ff801" data-rendition-name="original" width="457" height="666" loading="lazy" alt="NT #1"> </figure>  Himalmedia Pvt Ltd was launched in 1998 with the flagship fortnightly Himal Khabarpatrika, and Nepali Times started in April 2000 with online content hosted on nepalnews.com. A practice issue was printed in May, and the #1 edition debuted in the week 19-25 July 2000 at the dawn of a new century and new millennium. We chose the ‘midi’ size between broadsheet and tabloid, also called the Berliner format. Indian graphic artist Rustam Vania did the design of a paper convenient to hold and read, an easy and visually rich digest of happenings around the country in lively, stylish English. But why English? We explained in the very first Editorial: ‘In the heyday of the Panchayat in the early 1980s, we were often asked why we worked for The Rising Nepal. Our stock reply: “Because His Majesty reads it.” Those were the days when few outside the charmed circle of Kathmandu expatriates and local elite read English. So what changed? First, the number of people who read English has grown … English is a global lingua franca. There is a class of Nepalis who want more than just make-do English, they want to be fluent in it. English has another advantage: it is easier to be rational in it. One is expressive and effusive in one’s mother tongue, feelings are stronger in the colloquial … In a language that is learnt formally and among readers of an international language, there is less tolerance of intolerance.’ Today in the age of trolling and hate speech, maybe English is not so ‘rational’ after all. The social web has changed so much: readers are drawn to entertainment on digital platforms that mine their personal data and preferences, the political views of users are entrenched and radicalised by algorithms, there is less space for coherent give-and-take to find the middle ground in disputes. The media’s business model has failed under the predatory onslaught of Big Tech. At a time when a free and independent press is needed more than ever to counter populism, resolve wars, or find solutions to the climate crisis, the media is on mute. There is overt political and corporate control of content, and intolerance of tolerance is increasing. Journalism has had to reinvent itself to balance disinformation and falsehoods in cybersphere. At the moment Nepal is a relatively open society, with one of the freest environments in Asia for media. There are efforts to curb that freedom by the other three branches of the state, but solidarity among journalists is strong. <div class="embed-block"><iframe width="750" height="450" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LJX9JHqgMdU?si=2ZSlPWN6YqPSbOY9" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></div> Nepali Times itself survived the digital transition with an agile strategy that straddles both print and online for content dissemination and revenue. Those who started reading Nepali Times straight out of university when they were 25, are now 50 years old. We have kept a loyal readership, while welcoming a new generation of users – some of them, surprisingly, preferring the print edition. We have emphasised multimedia content, preferring to show rather than tell through interactive digital infographics and a well-visited YouTube channel. The hardcopy and online editions complement each other.&nbsp; Nepali Times has 150,000 unique visitors per month on its website, and over 38% of you come in through the front door in organic searches, 39% through search engines, and the rest click links to stories on our social media posts. The average duration a reader spends on a Nepali Times article is relatively high compared to other media: 2 minutes. Despite the perception that the content is read by older people, it is still mostly popular in the 25-40 age group. Readers of the online pages are divided roughly 30:70 between Nepal and the rest of the world. &nbsp; In an age of mobile phone saturation, &nbsp;endless scrolling on a small screen, there is still something to be said about the impact of high quality photographs on a 30 inch spread in the centerfold on this paper.&nbsp; Which may be why despite print media worldwide either shutting down or in crisis, the number of subscribers buying the print edition delivered to their homes or offices every Friday morning in Kathmandu has been constant over the past 25 years. Nepali Times is also available as an e-paper on www.nepalitimes.com as well as a weekly newsletter emailed to about 4,000 subscribers through Substack every Sunday. Himalmedia has now been repurposed as a non-profit company. Its Himal Khabar magazine and Nepali Times will remain dedicated to fostering a national conversation of issues before they become problems.&nbsp; Media consumption is shifting, readers are fragmented by algorithm and devices, but it is good, old-fashioned reporting that keeps society informed of trends affecting their lives. Journalism that is fair and balanced provides perspective to make sense of the cacophony.&nbsp; We thank all readers, partners and well-wishers in Nepal and the rest of the world for being with us for the last 25 years. We look forward to the next 25 with a fresh and youthful newsroom team.&nbsp; Kunda Dixit Former Editor, now Publisher

Publisher's Note

Droughts are not uncommon in Nepal. In 1983, the monsoon failed and international food aid had to be parachuted into western Nepal to avert famine. The Tarai has long suffered from too much water or too little. This year it is too little. The monsoon arrived ahead of schedule on 1 June, but since then there has been only 20% of the normal precipitation in the eastern Tarai, and only one-third of paddy fields have been planted. On Wednesday, the Cabinet decided to declare Madhes Province a ‘disaster-hit zone’, and Prime Minister K P Oli told Parliament that the Nepal Army could be deployed if necessary to alleviate the water shortage. But government response could be limited since this is a crisis that took years to build up. Politicians have blamed climate breakdown, but the reality is more complicated. Denudation of the fragile Chure Hills, river-bed mining for boulders and sand, and over-extraction of ground water on both sides of the border, are more important factors. Climate change has just made the human-induced causes worse. The farmers of the Madhes are used to “gambling with the monsoon”. Precious paddy seedlings are transplanted, but since so much of the agriculture is rain-fed, failure of the monsoon does not just mean no harvest, but also the loss of seeds that could have been eaten. &nbsp;&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250724040752_bd7bb70c2eda9b421809d178610461f94aee645076cf3bc49900357b6f654d23.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20250724040752_bd7bb70c2eda9b421809d178610461f94aee645076cf3bc49900357b6f654d23" data-rendition-name="original" width="1600" height="1204" loading="lazy" alt="Tarai districts gasp for water NT"> </figure>  Monsoons used to be like clockwork, vegetation in the highlands to the north controlled floods and recharged groundwater, population density and intensive agriculture in India and Nepal had not yet happened. The rains were something to celebrate. Although farmers here remember monsoon failures before, this year’s drought is happening after many years. And it is not just no rain, ponds and water pumps have gone dry, even deep tubewells provide limited water. Cities like Birganj and Janakpur are badly hit. The eight Madhes districts have the highest outmigration rates in Nepal, crop failure and lack of water is surely going to add to the push factor this year. If this is the situation during the monsoon, many wonder what will it be like in the dry season. It is said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Politicians do not have a magic wand to solve this crisis – it is the result of past mistakes and poor planning. The Prime Minister said on Wednesday that deep tube wells would be drilled to pump water, but this could exacerbate the problem by lowering the groundwater table even further. In the past month, the people of the borderlands are wondering what went wrong. There is not much they can do about global climate breakdown, but a responsive federal or provincial government could take measures to address the immediate crisis and launch mid- and long-term mitigation plans. The Madhes water crisis has exposed the historical inattention and neglect of the federal government. That is nothing new, Kathmandu has always disregarded the plains. Wards, municipalities and cities of the Tarai have had to deal with it on their own, in many places fire brigade tankers have been deployed to ferry drinking water.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250724040752_5894923ae3375fb07caec431fcb5458a49fa92fdfe3b2694c00c2662ce3161e4.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20250724040752_5894923ae3375fb07caec431fcb5458a49fa92fdfe3b2694c00c2662ce3161e4" data-rendition-name="original" width="960" height="720" loading="lazy" alt="Tarai districts gasp for water NT"> </figure>  Some of the reasons for the water emergency here is what has been allowed to happen in the upper catchment in the Mahabharat and Chure. Wells are going dry not just because of farms in Nepal over-pumping – groundwater does not respect national boundaries. Geographically, the plains, hills and mountains may look different but they are part of the same ecosystem, the same river basins. The Himalayan eco-biological domain is not only mountains, it includes the plains. There are also interventions that can be done at the local level. Wetlands, marshes and ponds that used to store monsoon water and recharge the aquifers have been built over in the past decades due to urban expansion.&nbsp; Traditional water conservation practices have been abandoned. Some of these were carried over since 1990 with Village Development Committees, but urban pressure, settlements along the highways &nbsp;and the almost complete disappearance of the dense jungle that used to cover the northern edges of the eight districts. The Tarai now has 53% of Nepal’s population, with Madhes Province alone having 6.5 million people. Private water tanker companies are doing a roaring business. But the water they distribute is neither clean nor cheap. It is enough only for household use, not for agriculture.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250724040752_d068f249d0abd7e2766218de4ae4cb9e953d34fc920bcca1b0902b3abb4d695b.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20250724040752_d068f249d0abd7e2766218de4ae4cb9e953d34fc920bcca1b0902b3abb4d695b" data-rendition-name="original" width="960" height="720" loading="lazy" alt="Tarai districts gasp for water NT"> </figure>  The Tarai used to be Nepal's rice bowl producing surplus grain to feed the whole country. The soil has been poisoned by chemical fertiliser and pesticides, and now there is no water. Loss of forest in the Chure slopes has also brought down sand and reduced the fertility of the soil. There is no reason the Tarai should suffer such a severe water shortage just because the rains fail. There is plenty of water flowing down snowfed Himalayan rivers that can be channeled for agriculture with schemes like the Marin-Kamala Diversion.&nbsp; What has to be understood is that this severe drought in the Madhes is not just the problem of Madhes Province, it is a problem for Nepal. It is an opportunity for Kathmandu to show that it cares for the people of the Tarai, and take steps to address the crisis before public outrage in the plains boils over again.&nbsp; Unless this crisis is tackled on an emergency footing, there is a danger of mass out migration due to the lack of water. Let’s set aside climate breakdown for now, let us tackle the man made causes first. The federal government declaring Madhes Province a disaster zone is a glimmer of home, but the people sweltering in the desiccated plains are waiting for that pronouncement to be followed by action. Chandrakishore is a Birganj-based political commentator who writes this monthly column BORDERLINES in Nepali Times. @kishore_chandra

Tarai districts gasp for water

In 2015, the landmark <a href="https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/english_paris_agreement.pdf">Paris climate agreement</a> set the ambitious but necessary goal of limiting global warming to 1.5° Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and ensuring that the increase stays “well below” 2°C. With the average global surface temperature having <a href="https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/global-climate-202505">already reached</a> 1.1°C (1.98°F) above the twentieth-century baseline, time is running out to reach this goal. Yet governments have so far failed to agree on a strategy for doing so.
At last month’s 62nd session of the United Nations Climate Change Subsidiary Bodies (SB62) in Bonn – the mid-year negotiations intended to lay the groundwork for November’s UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belém – countries got so <a href="https://www.climatechangenews.com/2025/06/16/bonn-bulletin-climate-talks-delayed-by-agenda-fight/">hung up</a> on the details of the agenda that little progress was made. Such delays have long characterised the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, but they are at odds with scientific reality, which demands rapid and unified action.
Building consensus is thus a key challenge facing Brazil’s COP30 presidency. The task ahead is formidable – not only because of the challenges inherent in the UNFCCC process, but also because four interconnected global developments are undermining trust and impeding multilateral cooperation.
First, the global-governance architecture, with the UN at its core, is showing signs of <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/06/25/united-nations-80-year-birthday-war-peace/">disarray</a>. Institutions that were designed to nurture and facilitate cooperation are increasingly hamstrung by bureaucratic inertia and outdated organisational structures. With <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/01/lets-summon-the-courage-for-un-reform">reform efforts gridlocked</a>, the UN system risks losing its relevance, and multilateralism its credibility.
Second, the rise of <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/01/07/trump-transactional-global-system-us-allies-markets-tariffs/">transactional</a> diplomacy has meant countries prioritise their own short-term interests over collective long-term needs. This approach – based on a <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/05/27/us-values-based-foreign-policy-trump-ideology/">narrow conception</a> of national interest – effectively precludes broad-based cooperation, as it erodes the norms that have traditionally underpinned international engagement.
Third, compromise is increasingly being rejected in favor of “<a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/05/29/realism-rules-trump-order-institutions/">realism</a>,” leading to extreme polarisation and entrenched negotiating positions. Multilateral negotiations regularly come <a href="https://www.climatechangenews.com/2025/06/27/countries-reach-hard-fought-compromise-on-climate-adaptation-metrics-in-bonn/">down to the wire</a>, and the results are often disappointing, further encouraging transactional engagement at the expense of cooperation and compromise.
Finally, climate change is increasingly taking a back seat to other challenges, with <a href="https://acleddata.com/conflict-index/">armed conflicts</a>, a global <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/voices/global-trade-has-remained-resilient-so-far-but-a-harp-slowdown-is-underway">trade slowdown</a>, intensifying <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2025/06/10/global-economic-prospects-june-2025-press-release">growth headwinds</a>, and record <a href="https://unctad.org/news/debt-crisis-developing-countries-external-debt-hits-record-114-trillion">debt levels</a> consuming countries’ political attention, diplomatic space, and financial resources.
Brazil clearly has its work cut out for it. Above all, it must resist the tendency for COP presidencies to emphasise fresh agreements and ambitious commitments – the kind that grab headlines and make the negotiations look like a smashing success but often fall short when the hard work of implementation begins. Brazil’s COP30 presidency must eschew flashy results in favour of pragmatic pathways to deliver on past commitments.
Fortunately, Brazil recognises this. Its <a href="https://cop30.br/en/brazilian-presidency/letters-from-the-presidency/fourth-letter-from-the-presidency">Fourth Letter to the International Community</a> outlines an Action Agenda aimed at making progress on what the world has “already collectively agreed” during previous COPs and in the Paris climate agreement. Specifically, the Agenda seeks to leverage existing initiatives to complete the implementation of the first “<a href="https://unfccc.int/topics/global-stocktake/about-the-global-stocktake/outcome-of-the-first-global-stocktake">global stocktake</a>” under the Paris agreement, which was <a href="https://unfccc.int/topics/global-stocktake">concluded</a> at COP28.
This focus on previously agreed outcomes is well-suited to the current geopolitical context, in which any agreement can be difficult to reach. Representatives at the SB62 in Bonn did not achieve a consensus, and last month’s G7 summit <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/what-did-not-happen-at-the-g7-summit-in-canada-and-why-it-matters/">failed</a> to deliver a joint communiqué. Rather than perpetuating stalemates, the Action Agenda invites stakeholders to make progress where agreement already exists.
The Agenda also charts the way forward. It is organised into six thematic “axes,” including stewarding forests, oceans, and biodiversity; transforming agriculture and food systems; and building resilience for cities, infrastructure, and water. “Unleashing enablers and accelerators” in finance, technology, and capacity-building – the final, cross-cutting axis – will accelerate implementation at scale.
Since responsibility for the implementation and governance of climate policy is distributed among many actors – which must have some level of trust that others are doing their part – the Agenda also establishes “transparency, monitoring, and accountability” as top priorities. To this end, Brazil’s COP30 presidency should seek to deliver a set of shared principles and supportive mechanisms.
As COP30 Special Envoys, we extend our full support to the Action Agenda. By emphasising consolidation, rather than spectacle, Brazil is <a href="https://www.climatechangenews.com/2025/06/20/brazil-lets-deliver-on-our-old-climate-promises-before-making-new-ones/">setting the stage</a> for a highly productive COP30 – one focused on bridging divides, building trust, and delivering genuine progress. The task ahead is daunting, but the chance to rebuild momentum is real.
This commentary is signed by Adnan Amin, CEO of COP28; Arunabha Ghosh, CEO of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water; Carlos Lopes, Chair of the African Climate Foundation; Jacinda Ardern, former Prime Minister of New Zealand; Jonathan Pershing, former US Special Envoy for Climate Change; Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation; and Patricia Espinosa, former Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC. The authors are <a href="https://cop30.br/en/brazilian-presidency/special-envoys">COP30 Brazilian Presidency Special Envoys for Strategic Regions</a>.
Jacinda Ardern is a former prime minister of New Zealand.
Carlos Lopes, a former UN under-secretary-general and former executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, is an honorary professor at the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town, a visiting professor at Sciences Po, and the African Union’s High Representative for Relations with Europe. He is the author of <a href="https://www.selfdeceptiontrap.info/">The Self-Deception Trap: Exploring the Economic Dimensions of Charity Dependency within Africa-Europe Relations</a> (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024).
Laurence Tubiana, a former French ambassador to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, is CEO of the European Climate Foundation and a professor at the École Normale Supérieure.

No copout at Belém

Local residents of Mustang, including a sitting MP and several politicians, submitted a petition to Prime Minister KP Oli in Kathmandu this week urging the government to lift the region’s ‘restricted’ status. This is not the first time such a demand has been raised, and as infrastructure the region’s accessibility improved over the years, calls to remove the long-standing restriction have grown louder.&nbsp; Upper Mustang is no longer weeks away <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/postcards-from-kathmandu">from Kathmandu.</a> Nearly 85% of the road from Beni to Kagbeni has been blacktopped, and one can drive from Kathmandu to Lo Manthang with an overnight stop in Pokhara. Between April 2024 and April 2025, Lower Mustang received 144,745 international tourists, a near 50% increase compared to the previous year. Most of these were <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/borderlines/nepal-india-trans-boundary-bonds">Indian pilgrims </a>travelling to Muktinath. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/comings-and-goings-in-mustang">Mustang</a> is also gaining popularity among Nepali visitors, with 700,000 visiting the region in 2024. A hotel operator in Kagbeni estimated that about 20% of Nepali visitors to Muktinath also travel to Korala, the trade and transit checkpoint on the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/latest/north-of-the-border">China border</a>. That would mean that nearly 100,000 domestic tourists visit Upper Mustang annually. In stark contrast, international tourist numbers to Upper Mustang (north of Kagbeni) have remained stagnant, hovering around 4,000 visitors per year. The primary reason is the continued enforcement of the region’s restricted status. Foreign visitors must pay a steep permit fee: a minimum of $500 for 10 days, with an additional $50 per day thereafter. Tourism some entrepreneurs, politicians, and residents want these fees to be abolished so Upper Mustang can attract a broader range of international travellers. The success of Lower Mustang, where relaxed restrictions have led to a<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/boom-time-in-central-tarai"> tourism boom</a>, is often cited as proof of what lifting restrictions could achieve. Upper Mustang is not the only region in Nepal with a restricted status. Several northern areas prefixed with ‘Upper’ (Upper Manaslu, Upper Dolpo, Upper Kanchenjunga, and Upper Arun) also need similar permits and fees. Although no clear official explanation exists, these areas were primarily restricted due to historical inaccessibility, ecological and cultural fragility and security concerns. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/upper-mustang-opposes-prohibited-areas">Call to scrap Upper Mustang tourist fee</a> In the 1960s and 1970s, these remote regions served as shelters for Khampa guerrilla fighters who launched cross border ambushes on the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-last-days-of-the-khampa">Chinese military </a>across the border.&nbsp; Though the Khampa have long gone, security concerns rooted in that era seem to persist. The government in Kathmandu is seemingly unaware of the changed political and security landscape. If concerns do remain, they are not made public. One of the main reasons for maintaining the restricted designation is to limit visitor numbers. But with <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-road-out-of-nepal">improved road access and services</a>, as Upper Mustang has seen, this justification no longer holds. When Upper Mustang first opened to international tourists in 1992, it had no formal lodges or hotels, and it took four to five days of trekking from Jomsom to Lo Manthang.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250716120744_4e4405cf10e6f127f90a1cd40feda0b9d8d69efd13093a2563530ca31489ba9f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20250716120744_4e4405cf10e6f127f90a1cd40feda0b9d8d69efd13093a2563530ca31489ba9f" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="509" loading="lazy" alt="Lift restrictions on Upper Mustang"> <figcaption>Photo: DINESH SHRESTHA</figcaption> </figure>  Without a nechyang (a household with traditional friendship), it was difficult to find a place to stay or get a proper meal. Only a few elite households offered accommodation. Today, there are now more than 80 lodges and hotels above Kagbeni, spread across nearly every village. Several upmarket hotels now struggle to stay afloat during the off-season, relying on low-spending domestic visitors to survive. Lo Manthang, once a remote destination, is now just a few hours’ drive from Jomsom, easily reachable by lunchtime for early starters. Once the remaining road sections are blacktopped, travel time will be further reduced. Yet, the government still charges a flat $500 fee for a 10-day permit based on outdated &nbsp;assumptions from a bygone era. There has been no serious review of the permit structure to align with current realities, nor any response to local aspirations to attract more international tourists and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/peak-tourism-in-2023-9ukoi8iz">harness tourism for economic development</a>. Concerns about over tourism are valid. There is a risk that increasing visitor numbers could erode Upper Mustang’s <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/a-million-mantras-in-mustang">cultural heritage</a>, social fabric, and fragile natural environment, precisely the features that make it special. However, the region’s 33 years of tourism experience have been largely positive.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250716120744_5c7e5e05097cd0e5a1027b51c7e3db3be0bd67e0f7cbaea6d2c447b1dacafc8a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_11" data-image-id="20250716120744_5c7e5e05097cd0e5a1027b51c7e3db3be0bd67e0f7cbaea6d2c447b1dacafc8a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1400" height="1050" loading="lazy" alt="Lift restrictions on Upper Mustang"> <figcaption>Photo: MUKESH POKHREL / NT ARCHIVE</figcaption> </figure>  Tourism has contributed significantly to the restoration and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-history-of-heritage?%2F">preservation of religious and historical sites</a> like the Thubchen and Jampa monasteries in Lo Manthang, the ongoing conversion of the old palace in Ghami into a premium hotel, and the rehabilitation of many monasteries and chortens.&nbsp; These efforts, supported by international donors and heritage experts, demonstrate that tourism—when well managed—can be a powerful driver of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/shrinking-tourism-s-ecological-footprint">conservation</a>. The high permit fees have been somewhat effective in limiting international visitors, but they have no influence on the growing number of domestic tourists, particularly during the Dasain and Tihar holidays. The most pressing need now is for all levels of government—federal, provincial, and local—to<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/why-invest-in-nepal"> invest in </a>managing tourist flows and maintaining tourist sites. These efforts are essential not only to enhance visitor experience but also to build long-term resilience and sustainability for the destination. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/greening-nepal-s-tourism">Greening Nepal’s tourism</a>, Hanna Wells Visitor numbers are central to any tourism development strategy that aims to balance economic, social, and environmental goals. Clinging to obsolete policies and concerns to justify Upper Mustang’s restricted status is not only unfair, it also suggests an undemocratic and discriminatory attitude toward a remote district.&nbsp; Shailendra Thakali, PhD, is from Jomsom and is a freelance consultant on protected areas, tourism, conservation, and sustainable livelihoods.

Lift restrictions on Upper Mustang

Nepali Times #1271

Duthik: Stories from Dolpo at The Kala Salon is Chering Gyaoo Gurung’s ode to his homeland of Dolpo using its native textiles and jewelry. It is also an urgent call to preserve the region’s culture, eroded by encroaching modernity, migration, and a changing climate. ‘I have always loved the textiles of my home, and these, along with the lapis, coral and other minerals used in our jewelry, have inspired my art,’ writes Gurung in his artist’s statement. The famous Dolpo blankets, weighty, richly coloured with linear patterns, hang alongside his paintings in the Salon, on the top floor of the Chhaya Center in Thamel. One of the blankets is his grandmother’s. “It almost still smells smoky, since we only use firewood,” says the soft-spoken 25-year-old. Dolpo in the trans-Himalaya is to the north of the Dhaulagiri range. Most people, incluyding the artist’s family are pastoralists, herding 100 yaks, goats and sheep. Many families also collect yarsagumba, and at one point that would make enough money to last the year, but not anymore. “From Dolpo, it is pretty unheard of to pursue art,” says Gurung, who is not traditionally trained in thangka like other Himalayan artists like Tsherin Sherpa or Dorjee Karmarong. But his passion for art showed early, when he came to Kathmandu at five to study.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250723080712_be467c0e9b9f2fd01148efb464a1c785b8c9ba66f09dd8308c311859a3682a9d.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20250723080712_be467c0e9b9f2fd01148efb464a1c785b8c9ba66f09dd8308c311859a3682a9d" data-rendition-name="original" width="667" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="The fabric of society"> </figure>  “In Dolpo, we used to go to school for six months and work with our parents for six months. An aunt suggested that I might as well get some tuition during this time off. Once I came to Kathmandu, we found French sponsors and I stayed here to study,” recounts Gurung. Gurung lived in a hostel and studied under that sponsorship until grade ten. He got support from home for further studies until a bachelor’s in art, which he only finished two years ago. In the meantime, for him, art was a hobby he was good at, he would often win at competitions that this school took him to. Following graduation, many of Gurung’s peers did a lot of commission work and got burned out, while he received residencies, allowing him to stick to his own process and ideas, subsequently developing a style and a voice of his own. Gurung was the first of his family to move to Kathmandu like he did, and while that has led to a blossoming art career, he is wistful about the life he left behind. “The people I left behind lived sort of a perfect life in the village,” he says, even as it is clear herding yaks would not have been enough for his independent spirit. And migration is a big theme in his work, six of the paintings at the exhibition are named as much. Two of them show a mother walking with a baby on her back, and one depicts a snow leopard on the move with its cub.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250723080720_a916959c5a945e9d8c147219a094a548d9a08c8eb93d554a5e62105551a86592.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20250723080720_a916959c5a945e9d8c147219a094a548d9a08c8eb93d554a5e62105551a86592" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="667" loading="lazy" alt="The fabric of society"> </figure>  “People migrate in generations, and because of this, they lose culture,” notes Gurung. Three others under the theme are spirals of clothes and masks, seemingly saying that migration causes deep changes in, and confusions about, one’s identity. The fabric of Dolpo and the outfits are prominently featured in almost every painting. “The women, in particular, are complete in how they dress up,” says Gurung. His women wear bhakkus and belts, and blankets and a complete set of necklaces and jewelry. An important detail is the vajra, traditionally a powerful Buddhist and Hindu mythical object and weapon, that the women use as a clip to hold the hems of their shawl together. “Note how the colours of the fabric are dull,” points out Gurung, explaining that these cloths are dyed naturally with ‘stone’ colours but fade quickly in the sun and the dust storms of Dolpo. To Gurung, the fabrics signify the Dolpo culture that he is so fond of, but disappearing. He laments that people would rather buy similar but cheaper blankets from Kathmandu or Tibet, and are abandoning traditional occupations, instead running hotels. “His feeling for Dolpo really shines through, and makes the paintings feel very warm,” says curator Sophia Pande. “I think the exhibition shows the unique style Chering has developed, and his range.” Another Dolpo detail that features heavily is bhoj patra, or birch bark paper which is used to write on as well as roofing material, given that it is waterproof. The sap of the birch tree is so sweet that it is also tapped and boiled for sugar. “People also carry it on yarchagumba trips, to use as light plates or cups. They can be washed and reused too,” adds Gurung.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250723080716_84ceef8066260cbe271158790e77bfc867dbab9cbaf23d13dc39202ef2a949f1.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20250723080716_84ceef8066260cbe271158790e77bfc867dbab9cbaf23d13dc39202ef2a949f1" data-rendition-name="original" width="667" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="The fabric of society"> </figure>  Like the Dolpo blankets, reams of this bhoj patra and a bowlful of yarcha are also displayed and give a nuanced understanding of the Dolpo way of life. Gurung also has a series of paintings on the bark paper, the first of which is a sky blue ‘DHARMA MASK’ or ‘MUKUT’. &nbsp;“I mixed acrylic paint with glue and diluted it to use like watercolour on the bhoj patra, and I was very happy with how it turned out,” he explains of the piece. Gurung works out of White Yak studio in Lalitpur, a name he chose for the rare and revered version of the animal. “I plan to carry on with this subject matter as I haven’t exhausted all my ideas,” he says, “and I can still get better with my colouring.” Duthik: Stories from Dolpo By Chering Gyaoo Gurung The Kala Salon Chhaya Centre, Thamel 11am-8pm Until 1 August

The fabric of society

Georgia O’Keefe, a foundational modernist painter most known for her floral and landscape paintings once said: “One can’t paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt.” O'Keefe's residency in the city occurred during its extreme architectural expansion. Her lesser known body of work is entitled ‘My New Yorks’ and the series of paintings are a bird's eye perspective of New York City. The ongoing exhibition ‘Under the Same Roof’ at Siddhartha Art Gallery by Subodh Bhandari and Sambridhi Ratna Shakya resembles O’Keefe’s ‘love letters to New York’.&nbsp; Bhandari, a Patan newcomer and Shakya, a Patan native, work together to honour their architectural surroundings using mixed media. ‘A Walk Through the City’ is a conglomeration of miniature window replicas.&nbsp; The duo took snapshots of rapidly changing communities, and both styles are similar in their directness. The two artists reconstruct observations through stylistic fabrication, and capture the sensation of traversing a street, suddenly making ordinary objects artistic.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025072210078_3297b124286d188c641120c0742ced23ea15d75906d4454135f758dde501b0fe.png" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2025072210078_3297b124286d188c641120c0742ced23ea15d75906d4454135f758dde501b0fe" data-rendition-name="original" width="2150" height="1438" loading="lazy" alt="From the outside looking in"> </figure>  ‘Under the Same Roof’ centres around Patan’s doors, powerlines, and most notably windows. The two artists roam alleyways looking for features that pique their interest, committing them to memory with photography.&nbsp; Bhandari and Shakya do not allow the objects to go unnoticed, forever examining details which others frequently overlook. For the artists, rendering everyday entities creates unification through relatability. Their overall message focuses on coexistence and interconnectedness. Specifically how easily accessible, recurring items, visible to all, establish familiarity and speak volumes via silence.&nbsp; The artists inject bits of lived experiences into their reproductions, concealing personal artefacts such as bed sheets or posters within windows. They place humanity upon inanimate objects, allowing for exploration of a unified history.&nbsp; Each window represents a personal memory rather than something imagined, as they are constructed from photographs the artists themselves took. Walking into the gallery feels as if you are entering a collective memory. The approximately 500 wooden windows, with photo transfer and acrylic details, engulf the first floor.&nbsp; The incredible amount of small windows establish an immersive experience, prompting the viewer to question, whose homes are attached, what type of people have lived there and for how long? The diversity of each piece astounds the eye. With so much repetition, how can the individual elements be entirely unique?&nbsp; Windows are a common occurrence, present in any building. Viewing this commonality clustered together reveals the personal rather than architectural elements which make them individualistic.&nbsp; Their quaint Patan studio is on the second floor of a residential building with a blindingly mint green room, slightly dusty from the drills and grinders used for constructing and polishing sculptures.&nbsp; Bhandari says he has always yearned for an artistic lifestyle, whereas Shakya picked up a knack for it after a classroom quarrel regarding his artistic abilities at Kathmandu University where both had the same motivation to capture their surroundings.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250722100712_b1d54221ed9e3806a48a98943e9fd4c80c535957144ce6d94b20e788f4a9a4b7.png" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20250722100712_b1d54221ed9e3806a48a98943e9fd4c80c535957144ce6d94b20e788f4a9a4b7" data-rendition-name="original" width="1078" height="1430" loading="lazy" alt="From the outside looking in"> </figure>  The two differ in being native and new to the Patan area. So, is this exhibition about new vs native? Bhandari replied: “The idea of new vs native is no more about new vs native, it’s more about new and native, both the things coexisting together.” This is a metaphorical representation of their windows: what can you know about someone from outside appearances? Each window represents a specific period in time, whether it was constructed yesterday or 20 years ago, whether it houses a young family or one which has lived there for generations. The message is to understand how these elements help us coexist, by placing these varying periods of life centimetres apart from each other. It creates a space in which being surrounded by others is inevitable regardless of differences.&nbsp; Star Ross is an undergraduate at Princeton University studying Medical Anthropology alongside Visual Arts and Climate Science.

From the outside looking in

Seldom do we see the smaller things, read between the lines, and realise that the little, fleeting moments are what shape our realities. As we trace the light &amp; dust, Haru Art Collective’s first group exhibition at Dalai-la Art Space revisits the value of these moments. Through the works of ten artists, the exhibition <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/between-the-sacred-and-everyday">details our everyday</a>, ordinary lives, making viewers relate, reflect, and bask in nostalgia. One such piece is Moulik Limbu’s यादहरु सपना जस्तो लाग्छ, a dreamy blue landscape rendered in watercolor and gouache where <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/where-wild-things-are">birds and animals</a> emerge subtly through still, royal-azure leaves. As children, Limbu would stay up late with his brother, imagining fantastical creatures from the shadows outside their window, but at dawn, they would discover they were just leaves. Those quiet nights formed lasting memories that continue to tug at Limbu’s heart which he now preserves in his art. Nischal Gurung’s Familiar Echoes captures the soft emotions of togetherness. Whether it is a person or familiar <a href="about:blank">household objects</a> we often overlook, they stay with us. In काक्रा र करेन्ट, the warmth of huddling together for a meal is carefully portrayed, highlighting how closeness often unfolds in the most mundane of moments.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250721130756_b567c9b5559a81bec03ba5417b6967c1f5849b7ddf7f33b4282e8e9479d40b82.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20250721130756_b567c9b5559a81bec03ba5417b6967c1f5849b7ddf7f33b4282e8e9479d40b82" data-rendition-name="original" width="776" height="476" loading="lazy" alt="An ode to the ordinary"> <figcaption>Familiar Echoes by Nischal Gurung</figcaption> </figure>  In another piece, Anil Nepali’s work explores the haziness of distant memories. What seems like a normal painting from afar becomes increasingly blurred up close, much like how traffic lights lose clarity when seen through misty eyes. This visual metaphor mirrors Nepali’s own experience of fading recollections from home which he reconstructs through pixelated squares and muted monochrome tones. The result is a powerful reflection on the fragile, fading <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/etched-in-our-memory">nature of memory</a>. Viewers will see the attempt to reconnect with ancestral roots and traditional practices. The Arrival of Bun-Dyo by Kabir Kayastha, depicts the rain god Bunga Dyo during the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-reign-of-the-god-of-rain">Rato Maytsendranath Jatra</a>. Meanwhile, Shrayam Shakya explores his lineage's deep connection with land and water in his piece, From the Ground. “The oral traditions and stories of my ancestors become the remnants of the land and the knowledge that existed,” he tells us. At the centre of his exploration is the Yaksha – a nature spirit that embodies land and governs the essence of water. For Shakya, the Yaksha is not just a mythological being but also a symbol of ancestry.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250721130728_4c1c4fb646df20bb7f72bc77dc2e71383468e0dc0a187c69e84a82f67ab49288.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20250721130728_4c1c4fb646df20bb7f72bc77dc2e71383468e0dc0a187c69e84a82f67ab49288" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="667" loading="lazy" alt="An ode to the ordinary"> <figcaption>From the Ground by Shrayam Shakya</figcaption> </figure>  Terracotta, the material he uses, reinforces this rootedness. “It is used in the architecture of hitis and is connected to the land, so it carries the essence of the theme.” As <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/morals-in-murals">oral histories</a> and traditions continue to fade, Shakya believes art becomes a vital archive. Jyotsna Udas explores themes of femininity in her work. She says, “In my work, I embroider objects <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/of-women-for-women-by-women">tied to femininity</a> – those that adorn, restrain, and define.” Using delicate strands of her own and her family’s hair, she weaves silent but powerful stories of inherited expectations, unspoken rules, and the confined spaces women are told to occupy -- a quiet testament to the strength and complexity of feminine energy. “I cut my hair short every once in a while. It makes me feel free, free from all the burdens, but I get scolded by people at home when I do, or when I dye it,” she tells us. “Long hair is still seen as the beauty standard. Hair colour is taboo. People stare. Women become self-conscious. And when people can judge just based on something as personal as hair, it makes me wonder – how much more do we have to hear in life?”&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250721130736_05107d9661e5d210a6c522ed2909b1a93c6dc3f6eb46bb425737e9ce15163e79.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20250721130736_05107d9661e5d210a6c522ed2909b1a93c6dc3f6eb46bb425737e9ce15163e79" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="667" loading="lazy" alt="An ode to the ordinary"> <figcaption>Not Just Hair by Jyotsna Udas</figcaption> </figure>  Sadishree Thapa’s A Room that Waits explores the subtle yet profound difference in a house that comes with the presence and absence of a person. When the person is there, it feels like home, otherwise, it is hollow. ‘A room waits, for the warmth of a presence, for the sound that you said were home,’ reads the artist's profound accompanying note. Places Where Dust Settles by Preeti Duwal captures the quiet beauty of everyday household objects, how they gather dust and the silent stories. Rojan Ghimire explores offerings and the subtle traces of life and birth, while Raunak Karanjit’s cyanotype work reflects on memory, identity, and the fading presence of a once-familiar marigold. The artists weave together objects, places, life, and memory, into layered <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/the-reading-compass">stories</a> shaped by our daily rhythms and reflections, and transform the familiar into the extraordinary. As we trace the light &amp; dust Till July 30 11am-7pm Dalai-la Art Space, Thamel

An ode to the ordinary

The Golden Gate in Bhaktapur Darbar Square is dedicated to Taleju, the ancestral goddess of the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/nation-bhaktapur,597">Malla kings</a>. The temple was built 271 years ago during the reign of Ranjit Malla, and serves as the entryway to the inner courtyard of the palace. The frame of the gilded copper pagoda-style gateway carries intricately carved deities that glint in the sunlight as thousands of visitors run their hands through the structure on their way into the World Heritage Site.&nbsp; Among them are the much-revered statues of goddess Bhagwati on the right and Bhairab on the left of the gate. But where their foreheads should be are two gaping holes, corroded by abrasion and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/un-holi-colours">chemical dyes</a> devotees have smeared on the statues over the centuries.&nbsp; Whereas previously, most offerings were vegetable-based dyes, these are being replaced with brightly coloured chemicals that corrode the stone and bronze of the idols.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250729130716_e2fe90b1cc6e7d056fcb8ace2b52d7e011952eb9fcd853984c782137d772b571.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20250729130716_e2fe90b1cc6e7d056fcb8ace2b52d7e011952eb9fcd853984c782137d772b571" data-rendition-name="original" width="1400" height="782" loading="lazy" alt="Offerings corrode Kathmandu’s gods"> </figure>  Chemical dyes have also eroded idols in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/painted-walls-and-pieces-of-history?%2F=">Bhaktapur Darbar,</a> and damaged stone inscriptions at their pedestals. Historian Purushottam Lochan Shrestha says: “It is interesting that idols and statues that are not worshipped as much have remained intact.”&nbsp; Examples are the Hanuman Bhairav and Narasimha stone idols that flank the entrance to Bhaktapur’s National Art Museum. The inscriptions at their base say both statues were commissioned by King Bhupatindra Malla in 1689 and placed at the entry in the belief that they would ward off disease and disaster, and grant victory in battles with enemy states.&nbsp; Today, the inscription on the lesser-worshipped Hanuman Bhairav retains much of its original form. But the etchings on the Narasimha — revered as the god who protects people from calamity and epidemics — have crumbled because of continuous contact over the decades.&nbsp; “The idols we have are sacred and rare, we will never create statues like these again. So, it is crucial that we stop touching and using chemical offerings in ways that damage them,” adds Shrestha. “We need to change our behaviour and express our faith with our hearts, not with our hands. What good does it do to light lamps that burn the faces of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-s-diaspora-helps-return-stolen-gods?trk=public_post_comment-text">our gods</a>?” While much of the focus in Nepal has rightly been on the repatriation of<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/bringing-our-gods-home"> stolen artefacts, &nbsp;images and idols</a> being worshipped at home face rapid deterioration in other ways. It is not just idols, historians are also finding it difficult to decipher inscriptions on stones which contain vital cultural, socio-economic and linguistic documentation because they have been smeared with offerings for so long. &nbsp; An 11th century stone engraving in Bhaktapur Darbar Square that dates back to the Nirbhaya Dev has worn away because it was used as a stepping stone to draw water from a nearby well. The historically significant inscription documents the king gifting Aradhya Dev some land, and identifies Bhaktapur as श्री खोप्पु.&nbsp; In <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/a-thousand-sadhus-and-a-hanuman">Pashupati</a>, one of the four holiest sites in Hinduism, near the temple’s western gate is a Shivalinga of Bishwamitreswor holding a rudraksha necklace in one hand and a kamandalu on the other which have been completely eroded by daily worship, while more inaccessible idols are intact. &nbsp; Sushil Kumar Gautam, archaeological officer at the Pashupati Area Development Trust, told us that the statue’s features were clearly distinguishable until 50 years ago, but the accoutrements in Bishwamitreshwar’s hands are now just bare stumps.&nbsp; “The deterioration of the shivalinga is quite recent, perhaps due to the increasing use of chemical-laden dyes and incense lamps,” Gautam told us.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250729130724_7bd719ce070efc1137c1819bfa08b7ab06dfbdecfe0659e5ccc20dc1bd74ca81.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20250729130724_7bd719ce070efc1137c1819bfa08b7ab06dfbdecfe0659e5ccc20dc1bd74ca81" data-rendition-name="original" width="1280" height="720" loading="lazy" alt="Offerings corrode Kathmandu’s gods"> </figure>  Another sixth-century statue of a bull located in the courtyard of Pashupati remains intact because the public has been prohibited from touching the antiquity for the past 20 years. The nearby Bankali temple houses a Lichchhavi-era statue of the goddess, armed with a sword and dancing over the prone form of the deity Betal. The stone idol is painted in hues of yellows and purples, and the inscription on the base of the idol has faded, rendering the words unreadable. Luckily, the original text and translation of the valuable inscription was recorded in 1973 by historian Dhana Bajra Bajracharya in his book Licchavi Kaal ka Abhilekh. Other religious artefacts around the Chabahil and Jayabageshwari area are similarly buried underneath the weight of daily religious offerings of vermilion, flowers, fruits, sweets.&nbsp; “We have been called anti-religion when we pointed out that the dyes and offerings have damaged our idols,” says Gautam. &nbsp;“Devotees should be made more aware of the damage they inflict on the gods and goddesses they worship.”&nbsp; Many artefacts have been damaged so badly that they have had to be replaced multiple times, like the 16th century copper idol of a prone Betal on the main gate of the Maitidevi temple. The idol was replaced with a new one six months ago after constant contact with offerings corroded its mouth, forehead, and feet, says temple priest Tirtha Jyoti Bajracharya.&nbsp; Burning of incense inside the temple was banned as the statues were coated in thick layers of corrosive soot. He says: “We cannot tell people not to worship, but we have to do what we can to preserve our gods. Some devotees understand us, others do not.”&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250729130720_f27539197496569ec143be8c758abffe9263c9f5a0deaafe5c1591319cd7e587.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20250729130720_f27539197496569ec143be8c758abffe9263c9f5a0deaafe5c1591319cd7e587" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="750" loading="lazy" alt="Offerings corrode Kathmandu’s gods"> </figure>  Chemist Rajesh Prasad Singh of the Department of Archaeology confirms that offerings are the primary reason for the deterioration of religious artefacts. Vermilion is made from a mineral called cinnabar (mercury sulphide) and synthetic saffron corrodes stone and metal. Chemicals in processed milk and sweets offered to deities also damage the faces of idols, while oil from lamps contributes to discolouration.&nbsp; “There is also natural weathering at work, but most of the damage is from touching or materials used for worship,” adds Singh.&nbsp; Cultural expert Govinda Tandon agrees that deterioration of Nepal’s religious artefacts has accelerated in recent years because traditional organic dyes have been replaced with chemicals. Vermilion used to be made by mixing dried red sandalwood with pomegranate, rose, and rhododendron flowers, while henna, pine leaves or spinach were combined to make green dyes. Yellow was extracted from dried turmeric, and purple from beetroot. Coloured powders available in the market, which are used for festivals like Tihar and Holi, are also toxic to humans because they contain compounds of lead (Pb), chromium (Cr), cadmium (Cd) and even mercury (Hg). The Nepal government in 2015 set the maximum amount of lead allowed in colours and paints at 90 ppm (parts per million). But a 2021 study into 62 enamel paints currently sold in Nepal found that at least 30 contained more than the prescribed amount of lead.&nbsp; Distance Worship Meanwhile, the application of chemical-based paints and enamels on centuries-old woodcarvings across the city’s temples have also caused many to splinter.&nbsp; “Most wood carvings are so damaged that we can no longer restore them,” says Singh. In India authorities have designated alternative places of worship, only allowing visitors to observe the world heritage sites from a distance.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250729130724_f2b20062f421ced307323f0f08a4739ede71ce98f3116adfbd66a10d99c47c30.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20250729130724_f2b20062f421ced307323f0f08a4739ede71ce98f3116adfbd66a10d99c47c30" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="750" loading="lazy" alt="Offerings corrode Kathmandu’s gods"> </figure>  Saubhagya Pradhananga, Director General of the Department of Archaeology, worships regularly at the feet of the reclining Vishnu at Budhanilkantha. Vermilion powder is no longer allowed on the main statue, and devotees have to worship from afar. &nbsp; “What we can do is ban chemical-based worship material, and create separate spaces for religious offerings,” she says. “For this we need extensive public awareness efforts. Besides temples and idols we also have the intangible heritage of ritual worship linked to our faith, so completely stopping this practice is neither possible, nor the appropriate solution.” &nbsp;

Offerings corrode Kathmandu’s gods

Phewa Lake in Pokhara used to be much bigger, but it has been shrinking because of the sediment brought down from the surrounding mountains as well as human encroachment. The slopes above the lake used to be heavily denuded, and there was severe soil erosion because Pokhara Valley gets one of the highest annual rainfall in Nepal. To trap the silt, small dams were constructed across streams that flowed into the lake, but the Community Forestry Program restored the catchment’s lush vegetation reducing sedimentation. However, there is now a new danger: extreme weather caused by climate breakdown. And it was here exactly 10 years ago on 28 July 2015 that torrential rain over two days killed over 30 people in Kaski district. Thirteen of them were swept away in a flashflood on the Harpan Khola. But a month later, there was such heavy rain that even the thickly forested mountain above could not prevent a landslide that killed more people. Teacher at the local school, Arjun BK, lost several of his students in that disaster. The tragedy was so traumatic that it left a deep emotional wound that he carries to this day, a decade later. Returning to the classroom to see the empty desks became too unbearable. “That’s why I quit my job as a teacher”, BK told us as he showed us around the village which still bears scars of that landslide and flood ten years ago. Teaching, once a source of joy, became a source of anxiety, grief and frustration. BK showed signs of post-traumatic stress: he would find himself angry, would be cross with his students. Aware of his declining mental health, BK made the difficult decision to leave his job. BK’s struggle also exposed an aspect of climate breakdown that has not got as much attention: how climate change induced disasters are affecting the mental health of survivors. He then founded Koshish Kaski, an organisation working on mental health awareness and care. Koshish Kaski is a satellite organisation of Koshish Nepal, which is the country’s first mental health organization. BK’s symptoms aligned with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): negative thoughts, irritability, difficulty in emotion regulation and avoidance of places that reminded him of the trauma.&nbsp; “I realised these symptoms were not only affecting my mental well-being, but also compromised my ability to teach effectively, so I quit on time,” says BK, while admitting that not everyone has the wisdom to recognise the wounds, nor the privilege to quit their jobs.&nbsp; Many continue teaching while silently struggling, and this can profoundly impact the student’s growth in the process. Arjun BK’s neice Devi Sunar survived the disaster ten years ago, and recalls how her farming community along the Haadi Khola struggled with trauma, fear and sleepless nights. Sunar herself has noticed that the once-predictable weather pattern in the mountains has changed, the monsoons are erratic, springs have dried up, and it is hotter than before. This has led to a decline in harvests – adding to crop loss due to raids by monkeys and wild boar. All this have placed psychological and economic strain on farmers like Devi Sunar.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250728110724_c61b3f30d270385f2def34c7a41ef1e7b049b520038a45c90b77c209c4f75265.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20250728110724_c61b3f30d270385f2def34c7a41ef1e7b049b520038a45c90b77c209c4f75265" data-rendition-name="original" width="1420" height="716" loading="lazy" alt="climate disasters in Nepal"> <figcaption>The site of the flashflood 10 yeas later. Photo: KAREN SUDMEIRE</figcaption> </figure>  Studies have found that women are more susceptible to anxiety and depression, and this is corroborated by Arjun BK’s own findings at Koshish Kaski. Climate-related disasters and crop loss add to gender discrimination at home and work. The stress, he found, can disrupt hormonal balance leading to irregular menstrual cycles and poor general health.&nbsp; Along with women, ethnic and ‘lower’ caste groups are more affected by climate-related disasters. Indeed, most of the lives lost in the 2015 disaster were from marginalised groups. In Nepal, these communities are more vulnerable because they live in riskier terrain, have limited access to resources, and heavy dependence on the natural environment for subsistence agriculture. To the north of Pokhara in the Trans-Himalayan Mustang district, farmers say winter rain and snow have failed for the past three years. This is critical since the region’s apple orchards need snow to moisten the soil in spring, as well as control pests.&nbsp; In Kagbeni at the confluence of the Kali Gandaki and Jhong Khola, there are still signs of the devastating debris flow that came down in August 2023, washing away 35 homes, a monastery, livestock and infrastructure.&nbsp; “Luckily, no human lives were lost because there was warning from upstream communities,” recalls Kagbeni Mayor Phenchok Tseptan.&nbsp; Although that flood was likely caused by a landslide lake outbrust upstream, local people suffer anxiety and spend sleepless nights even if there is a light drizzle as it brings back memories of that terrifying day.&nbsp; Because of the lack of awareness and societal taboo about mental health, few in Nepal link climate-related disasters like the ones in Kaski and Mustang to post-traumatic stress or generalised anxiety disorder. And as the Harpan Khola tragedy shows, the impact can be felt even a decade or more later. Arjun BK is a rare survivor of a disaster who not only spoke up about his condition, but also chose to do something about it and help others suffering silently. In recent years, mental health awareness has reached many communities across Nepal and the government has announced plans to establish outpatient mental health units in hospitals.&nbsp; Teachers in schools are also being trained to recognise and care for those who struggle silently with mental health issues – especially after climate-induced disasters. Better early-warning systems to reduce the impact would be a way to prevent trauma, anxiety and stress in the first place.&nbsp; Anek Rajbhandari is a graduate of New York University in Abu Dhabi and has a background in Psychology. The article is a part of author's involvement in Lumbini to LoManthang project by Duke University (Planetlab), IHRR, HUC, FEED and Karmaflight.

The unseen wounds of climate disasters

Described by its founding king 260 years ago as a “yam between two boulders” pressed on both sides by the Chinese Empire and British India, the metaphor has metamorphosed in the new geopolitical reality that Nepal faces. The gradual withdrawal of a distracted West, the rise of India and China, and emerging power of the Gulf states is also changing Nepal’s foreign policy outlook, and forcing it to reimagine its place in a multilateral world. After Donald Trump became president for the second time this year, geopolitics is going through a tectonic shift. Washington’s relations with New Delhi have recently become strained after Trump took credit for the ceasefire between India and Pakistan in May, and Trump dining with Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir at the White House. Then, Trump threatened to impose an extra tariff on 10 members of the BRICS bloc, which includes India. “Recent developments between India and the US are a result of President Trump’s reactive approach that did not meet Indian prime minister Modi’s expectations,” explains international relations expert Prakash Bhandari. If this pushes India closer to China, it may tip Kathmandu’s precarious balancing act between Beijing and New Delhi. Although Nepal has not suffered punitive US trade tariffs like other Asian countries, the closure of USAID projects and imminent mass deportation of Nepali TPS migrants will have far-reaching consequences. “There are multiple global crises happening at the same time. Any attempt to change Nepal’s non-aligned principle during this complicated phase of world politics will push us into a deep quagmire,” warns foreign policy expert Nishchal Nath Pandey. Shifting geopolitics could force Nepal to review its policy of neutrality and equidistance between its two giant neighbours to pursue a more pragmatic economic diplomacy that focuses on foreign investment, trade, tourism, and labour export. Experts have often joked that Nepal is not “landlocked but India-locked” since trans-Himalayan connectivity is much more difficult than the open border to the south. This has historically made Nepal more economically and politically dependent on India. “Whether like it or not, we are likely to lean more towards India,” says Santosh Sharma Poudel from Nepal Institute for Policy Research. “Even Chinese leaders have told Nepal’s rulers to maintain friendly relations with India.” This may therefore be the time for Nepal to look beyond the ‘two boulders’ to promote foreign direct investment from countries like Japan, Korea, the Gulf states and Europe. Besides serving as a destination for Nepali migrants, countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Oman have untapped investment and tourism opportunities. “Sectors such as hydropower and trade have immense investment potential from countries beyond our neighbours,” says Poudel. Even so, the geopolitical reality is that India and China will always loom large. India has barely tolerated increased Chinese presence in Nepal’s hydropower and infrastructure, refusing to buy electricity and allow flights from projects with Chinese involvement. Nepal has felt squeezed by the two neighbours both when their relations are strained after border skirmishes, or when their relations are good.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025072809074_febdc8038cb5d4bca3d6fe5abafd2d0aa79ab6b9cafec54b8b58037514908220.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2025072809074_febdc8038cb5d4bca3d6fe5abafd2d0aa79ab6b9cafec54b8b58037514908220" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1365" loading="lazy" alt="Looking beyond two boulders"><figcaption>Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Nepal, the first by a Chinese head of state in 23 years. Photo: NEPALI TIMES ARCHIVE</figcaption></figure>  India’s post-earthquake blockade in 2015 still rankles. Nepalis remember that China did not support their claim to the Limpiyadhura region, and that Beijing retroactively announced that Pokhara airport was under its Belt Road Initiative (BRI) even though Nepal took a hefty loan for it. The Sino-US Cold War has also affected Nepal with the orchestrated opposition in 2021 to the $500 million Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) project to upgrade transmission lines and highways. After Trump, the MCC faced uncertainty but it has been continued possibly because it is seen in Washington as a counter to China’s BRI in Nepal. The lesson is that Nepal cannot expect magnanimity or charity from its big neighbours, or the United States. Every country is looking out for its own national interest, and so should Nepal by asserting its independence and improving its governance to develop the economy. “India has its own place and China has its own place in terms of their relations with Nepal,” says Indra Adhikari from Policy Research Institute. “But it is true that Nepal has not been able to leverage its relations with both neighbours.” This does not mean playing New Delhi off against Beijing, but to get both powers to be twin locomotives pulling Nepal’s economy in the same direction. What Nepal definitely cannot afford is to have the two engines tugging the country in opposite directions. Adhikari adds, “It is natural that each country sees its own interest while investing in Nepal. We should be able to establish an environment of trust for countries which want to invest.” With Nepal on the pathway to transitioning from a Least Developed Country to a developing country by November 2026, it will have to plan for loss of foreign aid and higher interest rates on loans from international agencies. This means greater emphasis on improving the foreign investment climate to create domestic jobs and boost the economy. This requires a change in the mindset of Nepal’s politicians to understand the transformed geopolitical reality, and strategise accordingly. But, says Nischal Nath Pandey: “We have changed our political system often, but our geography has not changed.”

Looking beyond two boulders

There is less than two years to go till elections to all three levels of government, and Nepal’s major political parties are gearing up to engage voters. The governing UML has launched its ‘Mission 2084’ campaign, but the party is being rocked by former president Bidhya Devi Bhandari's effort to join the electoral fray. The UML’s coalition partner, the Nepali Congress (NC) is wracked by rival contenders arguing over whether to hold its general convention before or after the next polls.&nbsp; The opposition Maoist Centre is on a nationwide grassroots tour to rebuild its support base after it was ousted from the UML-Maoist coalition last year. The leaders of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) in a strategic move are mobilising the diaspora to vote for the party symbol, bell, or influence family members back home.&nbsp; RSP lawmaker Sumana Shrestha recently addressed Nepalis living overseas, urging them to participate in the next election.&nbsp; ‘Save your time off, save your money, and come back home in 2027 — either to run for one of the 36,000 elected positions, or support those who are running for office,’ Shrestha said. ‘But whatever the case, you must come back to vote. Let’s ring the bell in 2027.’ Overseas Nepalis emerged as an important bloc during the 2022 election because they convinced families back home to vote for new independent candidates, not established party nominees. RSP hopes to cash in on this anti-incumbent protest vote again.&nbsp; The census put the country’s absentee population at 2.1 million, but experts say it is at least double that. Most are in the 20-35 age group, and disillusioned with Nepal’s serial leaders. Social media platforms allow them to be apprised of goings-on in Nepal, which means those living and working overseas are actively engaged in politics back home. This week, the judiciary’s judgement implementation directorate, in response to an application from lawyers associated with the RSP, sent a reminder to the Election Commission to act on the Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling to guarantee Nepalis overseas their constitutional right to vote.&nbsp; The Election Commission itself in 2023 registered the Bill to Amend and Consolidate the Election Law proposing various amendments including out of country voting, but the Bill has been idling at the Home Ministry for two years because of lack of support from the three main parties. “The state and the Election Commission have been lethargic in taking action to ensure rights for out of country voting,” former Chief Election Commissioner Bhoj Raj Pokharel told us. Ensuring out of country voting rights is not a new idea. During the 1980 referendum on the Panchayat system, some embassy staff and officials abroad were allowed to vote. And the Election Commission floated the idea in 2008, but that did not go anywhere.&nbsp; It is not just opposition from mainstream parties that has prevented voting by mail. There are also legal, financial, and technical challenges. “In principle, we expect that our political leadership wants as many people as possible to exercise their franchise and participate in the political process,” says Radhika Regmi Pokharel of The International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES).&nbsp; But, she adds, “In reality, if the leadership thinks absentee voting might jeopardise their chances of winning, they will be less keen on carrying out electoral reforms.” Nepali students, migrant workers, and people holding long-term residency permits are scattered across the world. It will be a challenge to set up voting booths at multiple points beyond embassies and consulates during elections, especially without bilateral agreements in place to designate spaces for polls.&nbsp; Nepal’s mixed first-past-the-post (FPTP) and Proportional Representation (PR) electoral system also means that conducting elections at a Nepali Embassy for example in Qatar where there are hundreds of thousands of Nepalis will be complicated, Pokharel explains. There are Nepalis from multiple constituencies in a host country, and FPTP ballots are different for each constituency, while PR voting only requires a single ballot.&nbsp; “We can at least conduct PR elections overseas, but that does not ensure complete electoral justice,” adds Pokharel. “The problem lies in implementing electoral laws in a way that ensures overseas voters can exercise their franchise.”&nbsp; Experts say some pilot schemes for overseas voters can be started in select embassies where feasible.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025072411078_31edf240cc052692f0ba33d364bbf8981a584a4ab590691cf1b1388a646cd49c.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2025072411078_31edf240cc052692f0ba33d364bbf8981a584a4ab590691cf1b1388a646cd49c" data-rendition-name="original" width="900" height="592" loading="lazy" alt="Nepalis overseas"> </figure>  “Even if we are not ready, the least we can do is to make sure that Nepalis abroad, in particular overseas migrant workers, are registered to vote, be it through Nepali embassies of the countries they are based in, or when they leave Kathmandu airport, or at points along the Nepal-India border,” says Gopal Krishna Siwakoti at the Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL). Whether or not they are able to vote, overseas Nepalis will nonetheless be influential in upcoming elections. “Nepali diaspora, especially those who are settled permanently abroad will influence voters here in Nepal to some extent even if they are loyal to a particular party,” adds Siwakoti. But it is not about guaranteeing voting rights just for those abroad, all eligible voters within Nepal must also be allowed to vote in the place of their domicile and not make a journey back to their districts.&nbsp; “There is a lot of talk about out of country voting, but how about in country voting?” asks Regmi. &nbsp; At present, Nepalis cannot vote from their current place of residence. Only election officials and security personnel can cast at least their PR ballots from where they are stationed.&nbsp; Internal migration and inability to leave work means many cannot travel to their constituencies for election day. Some candidates therefore spend money to bus voters to their constituencies to vote.&nbsp; While Nepalis have historically shown great enthusiasm at election time, the need to travel to vote combined with increasing apathy towards traditional parties, means turnout declined from 78% in 2017 to 62% in 2022. Early voting, mail-in ballots, fixed election dates, and facilitating electronic voting would make it easier for people both within and outside the country to vote. But mail-in voting will depend on the postal system, which is not reliable, and online voting may also have security challenges, both domestic and geopolitical.&nbsp; Most of all, facilitating all these different methods of voting will require significant costs. “Ultimately, democracy does not come cheap, and we have to invest in it,” says Regmi.&nbsp; Meanwhile, the governing UML-NC coalition has been debating constitutional amendments to reform the mixed election mechanism, an agenda they had hinged their partnership on when they formed their alliance last year.&nbsp; Nepal’s political leadership has long maintained that the country’s mixed electoral system does not allow for one party to form a majority, only coalition governments, which has made governance and politics in Nepal unstable.&nbsp; Coalition leaders say they want to amend the Constitution to ensure political stability by ensuring members of the House of Representatives are elected through the FPTP system, and members of the National Assembly are chosen through the PR method.&nbsp; However, experts say it is not so much the electoral system but governance and political leadership that are responsible for high government turnover and instability. They point to countries like Japan, Switzerland, and Germany which have stable politics despite having a similar mixed electoral scheme.&nbsp; Inclusive, Diverse “Every electoral system has its unique characteristic, there is no one perfect system," says Pokharel. “An electoral system does not &nbsp;guarantee stability, that is up to the drivers of our state mechanism.” &nbsp; The proposed amendments risk rolling back the quotas and reservation that currently guarantee the representation of women and Nepalis from underserved communities in national politics. “FPTP has become costly, and women and minority communities simply do not have the resources and network to compete with other candidates in more privileged positions,” says Regmi. “Currently proposed amendments will deal a heavy blow to inclusivity and diversity in governance.”&nbsp; Promises of electoral reforms have not materialised into concrete plans of action. And with just two years to go for 2027, it will be difficult to organise out of country voting or modify the mixed electoral system — even if Parliament passes relevant laws.&nbsp; “It is too late now to successfully set up the relevant infrastructure and systems overseas in time for 2027,” says Regmi. Pokharel concurs: “They need a two-third majority in Parliament to successfully amend the Constitution. Barring a miracle, I don’t see a possibility of election reform before 2027.” &nbsp;

Looking ahead to Nepal’s 2027 elections

The fourth Himal Media Mela on Friday, 25 July coincided with the 25th anniversary of Nepali Times, and workshops throughout the day focused on how the media can increase its reach and revenue in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. In his <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/journalism-reboot">opening remarks</a>, Nepali Times publisher Kunda Dixit spoke about the accelerated changes in the media sphere, and how legacy media exists in the digital space. “Big Tech has gradually dismantled the structures of content moderation,” said Dixit. “Algorithmic authoritarianism has polarised society, fuelling conflict and intolerance.” “The forces undermining democracy and freedom of expression through disinformation and fake news are the same people who are also vaccine and climate deniers, warmongers who cheer genocide, fan flames of ultra-nationalism and sectarianism,” Dixit continued.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250725050756_cf765c9e446e9a9b325ba8562b57446112e8751b8cf8d546b5d75031a46554f3.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20250725050756_cf765c9e446e9a9b325ba8562b57446112e8751b8cf8d546b5d75031a46554f3" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1385" loading="lazy" alt="Himal Media Mela 2025"> <figcaption>Welcome address by Nepali Times publisher Kunda Dixit. All photos: SUMAN NEPALI</figcaption> </figure>  However, even as operators of social media platforms are increasingly controlling how and to what degree the audience is able to connect with news and journalists, digital networks can also be a means of uniting against oppression and promoting public interest journalism. So controlling the internet because it has become violent is not the solution. Rather, Nepal should seek strict guidelines and their compliance, not by punishing journalists using irrelevant laws, as has been the case lately. “When we block platforms — along with the untruth, the truth also disappears,” noted Dixit. In her keynote, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/journalism-will-never-be-out-of-fashion">Manisha Pande</a> of digital portal Newslaundry in India underscored the increased significance of journalism in the age of social media and AI. “In a democracy, journalism and access to clear, credible information is like access to clean water,” said Pande. “It is what allows people to make sensible electoral choices and it makes all the difference between a democracy and an autocracy.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250726160732_57f331e6fe568fa0b114412e69793a182e10f9f1a526ca5325fa0be2ed9f1b01.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20250726160732_57f331e6fe568fa0b114412e69793a182e10f9f1a526ca5325fa0be2ed9f1b01" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1365" loading="lazy" alt="Himal Media Mela 2025 NT"> <figcaption>Keynote speaker Manisha Pande of Newslaundry. </figcaption> </figure>  But the media industry finds itself in a financial crisis today, brought on by social media as well as economic collapse since before the Covid-19 pandemic. Interestingly, Newslaundry which was launched in 2012, is a 100% ad-free: no Google ads, no corporate ads, no political funding, and fully sustained by subscribers, allowing them greater independence. In an age when facts do not matter, journalism needs to be more proactive and go where the audience is. Said Pande: “We need to use the internet and social media tools we have to repackage traditional journalism in a way that is interesting to the audience.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250726160748_2041be8704d2347b2dedac87a4814dfa26b686808889f5b70371bf98d9a9842f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20250726160748_2041be8704d2347b2dedac87a4814dfa26b686808889f5b70371bf98d9a9842f" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1365" loading="lazy" alt="Himal Media Mela 2025"> <figcaption>Networking during the Himal Media Mela 2025.</figcaption> </figure>  Designing a new digital space for journalism Echoing her sentiment was Anup Kaphle of Rest of World as he led the first session, Designing a New Digital Space for Journalism. “You have to meet your audience where they are, which is on their phones and social media,” said Kaphle, also noting that social media can be a “double-edged sword that is excellent for distribution but also vulnerable to misinformation.” Kaphle was previously Chief Editor of The Kathmandu Post, and has held Editorial positions at Buzzfeed, and The Washington Post. His talk focused on how newsrooms can evolve to thrive in the new digital media environment, and the need to accept that fact that how people consume text has fundamentally changed.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250726160744_f332b61bdf6dc7317dd960a2682f91f3aa594347c3aec2b484b5a8654207c74e.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20250726160744_f332b61bdf6dc7317dd960a2682f91f3aa594347c3aec2b484b5a8654207c74e" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1365" loading="lazy" alt="HImal Media Nepal 2025"> <figcaption>Himalkhabar editor Santa Gaha Magar with speaker Anup Kaphle of Rest of World. </figcaption> </figure>  The attention economy was a big focus of the talk. Most people are watching short form content on their phones - think TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts. “Every journalist should be able to go on camera and summarise their story in 30 seconds,” said Kaphle, also pointing out that building a loyal community of readers comes from consistency, quality, and trust Kaphle also emphasised the need to think about revenue, beyond the obsolete model of relying only on ads, and instead build diverse income streams, such as user generated revenue. He gave examples of the New York Times' metered paywall, where users get a certain number of free articles a month, and then The Guardian, which does not have a paywell but make convincing appeals for voluntary support from readers. There are also others that put most, or all of their content behind a hard paywall. An adjacent model is memberships, where paying members get access to events, behind-the-scenes, newsletters, or early access to content.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250726160744_a0d0029a1584fbd5367b3dc03776c16c54dd97f3a7a8164f8f0e23a1eef2ac1e.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20250726160744_a0d0029a1584fbd5367b3dc03776c16c54dd97f3a7a8164f8f0e23a1eef2ac1e" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1365" loading="lazy" alt="HImal Media Nepal 2025"> </figure>  “More and more newsrooms are opening up to their audience, talking to them about what kind of problems they would like to be solved,” said Kaphle, adding that publications with particularly loyal audiences may also think about merchandising —— think The New Yorker totes. In the meantime, there are a few fundamental things that make a story worth paying attention to. Can stories help readers understand complex information? Do stories add unique value? Are there news needs that are not being met? Are you tracking if, and when, your audience is reading? Do you have a journalistic mission that you are transparent about? TikTok and Journalism Meanwhile, Emad Zafar, head of communication from TikTok South Asia, said that while advertising models have put pressure on journalism, TikTok has emerged as a platform that promotes more democratised content.&nbsp; That has meant that even nations that call themselves democratic have put a blanket ban on the platform, citing concerns of privacy, national security, and safety. Nepal also banned the platform in November 2023, saying the social media platform is spreading social discord, but lifted it last year.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250726160748_a21a30928e26e5f4f63f6f89f4fa7fc47cbbdeb1e94b3b31a57d720ae7ead08a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20250726160748_a21a30928e26e5f4f63f6f89f4fa7fc47cbbdeb1e94b3b31a57d720ae7ead08a" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1365" loading="lazy" alt="HImal Media Nepal 2025"> <figcaption>Karan Parihar of TikTok South Asia.</figcaption> </figure>  Despite being banned in numerous nations, including the most populous country in the world, the numbers that represent the platform are staggering. One in eight people across the world are on TikTok, creating 66,000 videos every minute. One billion people are on the platform every month.&nbsp; These figures make it clear why the platform is so important for journalists to get their content out to a much larger audience, said Karan Parihar of TikTok South Asia.&nbsp; Mamta Siwakoti, TikTok’s Trust and Safety Program Manager, explained the platform’s community guidelines and how journalists can use the platform, even as misinformation has become a major concern for users. TikTok has 21 fact-checking partners, which provide the platform with verified and real time information.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250726160732_407aeb7d1f657b6aac8451795da0353aad8baa9b6839930aa1cc9087395e29ae.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20250726160732_407aeb7d1f657b6aac8451795da0353aad8baa9b6839930aa1cc9087395e29ae" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1367" loading="lazy" alt="Himal Media Mela 2025 NT"> <figcaption>TikTok’s Trust and Safety Program Manager Mamta Siwakoti.</figcaption> </figure>  “Freedom of expression needs to be balanced with human rights,” said Siwakoti. “We consult experts while creating community guidelines, so that it serves our wider purpose of safety and security of our users.” Design and niche content Swarup Nhasiju Shrestha’s Design Sense for Journalists focused on shooting high quality video stories. Nhasiju is the creative head at V-Chitra advertising agency, and has done design and layout for many Nepali newspapers. “Your objective is to stop the scroll - nobody has the time to read anymore,” said Shrestha. He listed out the main types of shots and what they do for the story. A closeup of the face shows the subject’s emotions, a wide shot gives context to what is happening, and an unusual shot can show the subject in a different perspective. Cut every second that doesn’t move the story forward.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250726160736_b44d99be23087ee79eac0bc0fff39a75e000263a4bedc80c44eb32295bf4089a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20250726160736_b44d99be23087ee79eac0bc0fff39a75e000263a4bedc80c44eb32295bf4089a" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1365" loading="lazy" alt="Himal Media Mela 2025 NT"> <figcaption>Designer Swarup Nhasiju Shrestha of V-Chitra advertising agency during his session.</figcaption> </figure>  Shrestha also emphasised the importance of audio. “The audience may forgive shaky video, but not bad audio.” As for text on videos, short sentences, in sans serif font, in black and white, is the easiest to read. Thumbnails are the new front page of a newspaper should have faces, action, and high contrast. In the meantime, a main piece of content can be split up into 3-4 minute ‘mini’ pieces that are less than a minute long. These get the most views, and can funnel viewers to the longer videos. And counterintuitively, release trailers after the main video. This way, anyone who sees a trailer and is interested, can go watch the main video right after. Also talking about high-impact video content was Sojan Prajapati of Kathmandu ko katha who started out with an aim to inform the public about culture and heritage.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250726160736_822c94baf230a97d92d3dad3f77c2db47d0d987aedac5ee62c2a4dba47479f91.jpg" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="20250726160736_822c94baf230a97d92d3dad3f77c2db47d0d987aedac5ee62c2a4dba47479f91" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1365" loading="lazy" alt="Himal Media Mela 2025 NT"> <figcaption>Sojan Prajapati of Kathmandu ko katha.</figcaption> </figure>  In his session, Niche Content Creation, Prajapati told the audience how he has also used his platform ‘Speak up Nepal’ on Instagram for social issues, went on to push 21 petitions to the House of Representatives, 11 of which are yet to be discussed, while four have been resolved. The main purpose of journalism should lie in reinstating hope and faith in citizens in a world which is constantly consumed by negative rather than positive news, he said. “Virality and vulnerability have a connection. There should be positive reinforcement for something good. You just have to be genuine for content creation, genuineness pays off well.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250726160748_8671ccafef079346e3fb3ae3a06129089e38be807be28d4ff63b1caec65dfada.jpg" data-media-id="editor_11" data-image-id="20250726160748_8671ccafef079346e3fb3ae3a06129089e38be807be28d4ff63b1caec65dfada" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1365" loading="lazy" alt="HImal Media Nepal 2025"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250726160748_9d0f6bfeda6cfc73ed16aa2cf6308a67d2e58b239ac81c4cda144fa9e0cd6e62.jpg" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20250726160748_9d0f6bfeda6cfc73ed16aa2cf6308a67d2e58b239ac81c4cda144fa9e0cd6e62" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1365" loading="lazy" alt="HImal Media Nepal 2025"> </figure>  Future of the news In the last session of the day, The Future of News, Sundeep Narwani spoke about how AI and journalism intersect, and that AI can help journalists in copyrighting, social media captions, editing and translation that help reduce the cost of human resources. Generative AI, in turn, is getting more refined as we feed it with more data. Perplexity and Gemini in particular are competing to become real time search engines.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250726160748_74c59cba8159f704dadf6fe8f53532c8cbe1ccb15387da6c0788d7d2abc51085.jpg" data-media-id="editor_13" data-image-id="20250726160748_74c59cba8159f704dadf6fe8f53532c8cbe1ccb15387da6c0788d7d2abc51085" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1365" loading="lazy" alt="HImal Media Nepal 2025"> <figcaption>Sundeep Narwani spoke about AI and the future of journalism.</figcaption> </figure>  “Agents are beyond bots. A lot of things will become automated, making things serious and sensitive, even leading to loss of jobs,” said Narwani while also urging users to be careful of biases. Even search engines such as Google have been found to favour certain subjects while powerful figures have had the platform remove or clean their names. This was in line with a session earlier in the day where Naresh Newar showcased a fake video demonstrating the power of AI, and how it could be misused, urging media institutions to come up with guidelines, to not rely overly on these tools.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250726160736_9270a6f0c5b70d6ce5dccb78bc1d24682b28cf0008ea4aadea689eb3ecececa3.jpg" data-media-id="editor_14" data-image-id="20250726160736_9270a6f0c5b70d6ce5dccb78bc1d24682b28cf0008ea4aadea689eb3ecececa3" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1365" loading="lazy" alt="Himal Media Mela 2025 NT"> <figcaption>Tech writer Naresh Newar.</figcaption> </figure>  Pollster Madhu Acharya of Sharecase Data Initiative had sobering but optimistic insights. Comparing Nepal Media Survey results of the past year, Acharya deduced that tv had the most viewership in Nepal, but 20% of its revenue was coming from YouTube, while radio was the most trusted, even though it is seeing a rapid decline in audience, and those who remain are mostly older men. Newspapers, on the other hand, was still one of the most trusted sources, however, it is the source of news for only a little over 5% people. More surprisingly, it is the younger crowd between 18-24 who are reading newspapers the most. On the other hand, online outlets are the new mainstream with most readers between 35-59. Social media has the largest engagement with YouTube, Facebook and TikTok leading the race. In fact, 11.1 million Nepalis are watching YouTube daily, but these platforms have the lowest level of trust.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250726160736_c08e5abacdf87f66f21bd4f1ff05567d9dcd63271e34adce04b121dbeafdcc4b.jpg" data-media-id="editor_15" data-image-id="20250726160736_c08e5abacdf87f66f21bd4f1ff05567d9dcd63271e34adce04b121dbeafdcc4b" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1365" loading="lazy" alt="Himal Media Mela 2025 NT"> <figcaption>Madhu Acharya of Sharecase Data Initiative presenting the latest findings of the Nepal Media Survey.</figcaption> </figure>

The present and future of news

Where will Nepal be in 2050? It is only 25 years away. The country’s population will be peaking at 36 million, the poverty rate will drop to near zero. Maternal and child mortality rates will fall further. Nepal will be generating up to 40,000MW of hydro and solar power, more than half of that for export. Upgraded highways will improve connectivity, railways will make transport cheaper. Pokhara and Birganj will only be two hours away from Kathmandu. Nijgad airport could be Nepal’s new aviation hub, reducing Kathmandu’s congestion. Nepal will hitch its wagon to the engines of economic growth in India and China. Investment and job creation will reduce outmigration, Nepal's data centres will be powered with surplus electricity. Remote areas will prosper with high-value tourists. That is if all goes well. But if Nepal’s politics remains dysfunctional with incompetent leadership, then the country will muddle along as it is doing now. Society will be more unequal, public discontent may boil over as politicians resort to faith to hide failures, the exodus abroad of youth will continue. Climate breakdown will exacerbate these crises. Global average temperature will have risen to 2.7°C above pre-industrial levels (it is 1.1°C now). The remaining Himalayan icecap will shrink by half, glacial lakes will threaten valleys. The hydrology of rivers will change, reducing dry season flow. Severe and prolonged heat waves in the Tarai will force people to migrate back to the mountains. In the final analysis, it all boils down to a political system that is more accountable, and displays more integrity and efficiency. <h2>Mission 2050</h2> · Melamchi Water Supply Project · Pokhrara International Airport · Bhairawa International Airport · Upper Tama Kosi Hydroelectric Project . Kathmandu-Tarai Expressway What do these biggest infrastructure projects in Nepal have in common? All ended up being more expensive than they should, all have been delayed and are not fully operational, two were badly damaged in climate-related disasters that should have been foreseen. The $800 million Melamchi is Nepal’s most expensive infrastructure project to date. It took 30 years to build, but was nearly destroyed by a glacial debris flow in June 2021. The headworks need major repairs. The 456MW Upper Tama Kosi was severely damaged by a rockfall and floods in last September’s floods. It is still not operating at full capacity, and other hydropower plants were damaged in recent glacial floods. Pokhara and Bhairawa airports were supposed to be the new aviation gateways to Nepal to take the pressure off Kathmandu, and become game changers for tourism and pilgrimage. Nearly three years later, both handle domestic flights. Poor and inadequate design, kickbacks on contracts, cost overruns, failure of diplomacy to get India’s nod on air routes, and lack of planning and marketing have made the airports a pair of white elephants. Some of these setbacks can be blamed on natural calamities, but mostly it is political incompetence and greed, lack of accountability and poor implementation. That is no surprise, since these are the hallmarks of doing business in Nepal, often delaying projects, adding to the cost, and even when completed they are already outdated. That is the story of the last 25 years, are the next 25 going to be any different? Not if governance does not improve. “What we really need for the future is vision, idea, and understanding, and then the domestic capacity to implement them,” says infrastructure expert Surya Raj Acharya, who laments the total absence of technical and planning expertise. “None of our national highways meet technical standards, our cities are unplanned. The priority was never on quality. Politicians sold us short-term infrastructure that have now become a barrier to prosperity,” he adds. One silver lining has been private sector involvement in hydropower, and the energy strategy aims to generate 11,769MW by 2030. But hydropower is high-investment, high-risk due to climate breakdown, and ecologically damaging. “Hydropower is a good example of how government incentives and public-private partnership can work wonders, although we now have to take climate change into account,” explains economist Kalpana Khanal of the Policy Research Institute. She adds, “We now have to identify other key infrastructure areas that also enhance the growth of other sectors.” The National Planning Commission’s periodic plans guide overall social and economic strategy for the country into the coming decade. Nepal’s current five-year plan (2024-2029) has set a target of 7.3% annual economic growth against the current 3.9%, $2,351 per capita income up from $1,456 at present, and poverty reduction to 12%. The plan aims to export nearly half the hydropower generated by 2030, earning the country Rs41 billion annually. But there is no real coordination between line agencies, and bureaucratic lethargy leads to constant delays, says former member of the National Planning Commission (NPC) Min Bahadur Shahi. “Development in Nepal is still very much synonymous with building roads and bridges, and infrastructure is rudimentary,” he says. “Elsewhere in the world, digital infrastructure and governance go hand in hand, we are far behind.” The frustration of a man who served in the National Planning Commission is an indication where the problem lies: in actually executing plans and implementing strategies. “We need to prioritise projects based on our geography, climate, societal needs,” Shahi continues. “We want to push Nijgad airport when we can’t even operate Pokhara and Bhairawa. Have we even studied potential air routes and needs of international carriers?”  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250726070744_0547e5a7fd4424b5de8c279cab637ee7ebd9e65f2673b15e6dbd4eb2aa2524f2.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20250726070744_0547e5a7fd4424b5de8c279cab637ee7ebd9e65f2673b15e6dbd4eb2aa2524f2" data-rendition-name="original" width="3600" height="2400" loading="lazy" alt="Pokhara airport"><figcaption>NO FLY ZONE: Pokhara airport was supposed to be the new aviation gateway to Nepal but nearly three years after its inaguration, it mostly handles domestic flights. Photo: RADHIKA KANDEL </figcaption></figure>  TARGET PRACTICE Export of hydropower, manpower and lately information technology are the mainstays of Nepal’s economy, and will carry the country to its graduation from Least Developed Country status to a developing country in November 2026, and hopefully to middle-income by 2030. Nepal has an installed capacity of about 3,800MW, most of it from hydropower, and increased adoption of electric cars has reduced the import of petroleum products, decreasing the trade deficit with India. Meanwhile, Nepalis abroad sent home $11 billion in remittances last year, and at least $900 million in backend IT exports. But demographer Yogendra B Gurung is not impressed: “Despite the reduction in the poverty rate, and our improving income status, life expectancy, income, even maternal and infant mortality are not on par with countries with similar economic status.” He says relying on remittances is an unsustainable economic model, vulnerable to external factors and remittances are mostly spent on day-to-day needs, and not invested in productive sectors. Remittance is credited with reducing poverty in Nepal which is down to 20.27% from 42% in 1990. Money sent home by workers abroad has allowed families to afford basic healthcare and education, in turn helping to reduce childhood malnutrition and maternal mortality while improving female literacy. But the progress has stalled in recent years, and many doubt Nepal will meet its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets. The National Planning Commission has said Nepal is likely to achieve just 60% of the targets by 2030. Sex ratio at birth, which is 112 boys to 100 girls in Nepal in particular, is worrying, as it is much higher than the biological ratio of 105 to 100. This is much more pronounced in Karnali, Sudurpaschim and Madhes Provinces which suffer from historical neglect. Despite a rise in female literacy, patriarchy is still deeply entrenched and the provinces are behind the rest of the country for gender equality, education, healthcare, nutrition and economic opportunities. “Karnali is resource-rich, especially hydropower and the recent discovery of the methane gas, but inequality is much greater,” says Shahi, who is with the Karnali Integrated Rural Development and Research Centre (KIRDARC). “Federalism in Nepal is only on paper, we need a total structural reform to devolve political power to really bring about change.”  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250726070744_fd4a218656e1fbf6f13f5f87a47bfe624516c6a0232481b6be77875ae866deb9.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20250726070744_fd4a218656e1fbf6f13f5f87a47bfe624516c6a0232481b6be77875ae866deb9" data-rendition-name="original" width="3600" height="2400" loading="lazy" alt="Butwal-Narayangadh "><figcaption>The Daunne section of the Butwal-Narayangadh road notorious for traffic jams and accidents, it has been in never-ending construction for three years. Photo: BISHNU PRASAD GAUDEL / RSS </figcaption></figure>  Despite limited resources, Nepal also suffers from wasteful investment as a result of politically (mis)guided decision-making, instead of people-centric plans and policies, says demographer Gurung. “People are overwhelmingly moving to the cities but our leaders are hell bent on building roads to every village and now there are empty schools in the mountains,” he adds. Nepal needs data-driven planning but its long-term economic vision 2020-44 seems more of a wish-list than realistic goals, including average annual GDP growth of 10.5%, $12,000 per capita income and population under the absolute poverty line at 0. Other goals include raising electricity generation capacity to 40,000MW, access to motor transport to 99%, life expectancy at birth to 80, maternal mortality down to 20% and literacy to 99% and 100% access to the internet, among others. Meanwhile, Nepal is committed to net-zero by 2045 and 100% renewable energy by 2050. “Our planners have no idea what kind of infrastructure we need 20, 30 years down the line to sustain and accelerate growth. We need a big structural change in the political leadership, in technocratic planning, and for policy implementation,” says infrastructure expert Surya Raj Acharya. Meeting such targets would require large investment, and it would be unwise to rely on remittances for the longer run, especially as Nepal’s demographic dividend will diminish as it turns into an aged society by 2065. Reversing out migration requires a favourable investment climate so jobs are created. Good governance marked by accountability and transparency are the basic prerequisite for ease of doing business. But lack of rule of law and illicit funds put Nepal in the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global money-laundering watchdog. “Everything comes down to a political will. The established parties must realise that if they don’t perform, they will be replaced by alternatives,” says Kalpana Khanal. “In the meantime, we must engage the youth and find ways to retain them as well as attract the diaspora to invest in Nepal.”

Nepal in 2050

हिमालमिडियाले हरेक वर्ष मनाउँदै आएको हिमाल मिडिया मेलाको यो चौथो संस्करणमा उपस्थित सबैलाई स्वागत ।&nbsp; महिनै पिछे विश्वव्यापी सूचना र सञ्चार प्रणालीले अर्को फड्को मारेको हुन्छ। विगत २ महिनामा नै एआई-संचालित उपकरणहरू अचम्मसंग फैलिएका छन।&nbsp; सामाजिक सञ्जालका प्लाटफर्महरुले पाठकहरूलाई परम्परागत समाचार प्रदायकहरूसंग जोडिदिने क्रम जानिजानि घटाउँदै छन।&nbsp; बिग टेकले कन्टे्ट मोडरेसनको संरचना एक पछि अर्को गर्दै हटाएका छन ।&nbsp; यो एल्गोरिथ्म-मय अधिनायकबादले समाजलाई ध्रुवीकृत गर्दै, द्वन्द्व र असहनसिलतालाई बढावा दिएको छ। कलम चलाउने बितिक्कै झम्टी हाल्ने, बोल्योकि क्रोध र ईर्ष्या बर्षिहाल्ने। &nbsp;पत्रकारहरुलाई शत्रु ठान्ने, “१२ भाई” भनेर चिढ्याउने, “डलरबादी” भन्दै धम्क्याउने, “पत्रुकार”को बिल्ला लगाएर ट्रोल गर्ने क्रम बढ्दै छ । तर त्यही नै डिजीटल संजालहरु फेरि उत्पीडनसँग लड्न एक्यबद्यता जुटाउने, र सार्वजनिक हितको पत्रकारिता फैलाउने माध्यम पनि हुन। त्यसैले, अब इन्टरनेट उग्र भयो भनेर त्सलाई नियन्त्रण गर्दा, प्लाटफोर्महरु ब्लक गर्दा — असत्यसंगै सत्यपनि गुम्छ ।&nbsp; कसरी डिजीटल माध्यमहरुमा उपलब्ध अवसरलाई रक्षा गर्दै सामजिक संजालमा हुने उपध्रोलाई नियमन गर्ने। नेपालमा कडा गाइडलाइन र त्यसको पालना खोजिनुपर्छ, बिद्युतिय कारोबार एन प्रयोग गरेर पत्रकारलाई सजाय दिएर होइन। अंग्रेजीमा भन्ने गरिन्छ, अहिलेको नेपालमा सान्दर्भिक होला: “The exercise of my freedom should not violate yours”. Welcome everyone to this fourth edition of Himal Media Mela. The fact that most of you have paid to be here is proof that you value these interactions at a time of accelerated change in the media sphere.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250725060748_949591d168fbf38f0e1d39b377b1cba0daeabd526ec387e64cc7eb7820ac9802.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20250725060748_949591d168fbf38f0e1d39b377b1cba0daeabd526ec387e64cc7eb7820ac9802" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1365" loading="lazy" alt="Himal Media Mela 2025"> </figure>  On World Press Freedom Day this year, Reporters without Borders published a map of the world in which each country was colour coded in varying shades of red to match the degree of press freedom there. Most of Asia was a sea of red. Only Japan, Korea — and Nepal — stood out as lonely white islands. Even so, we in Nepal cannot take our freedoms for granted. The forces undermining democracy and freedom of expression through disinformation and fake news are the same people who are also vaccine and climate deniers, warmongers who cheer genocide, fan flames of ultra-nationalism and sectarianism. Swimming against this tide, and fighting the good fight through brave, independent journalism is Manisha Pande of Newslaundry from a neighbouring country to our south with a name that begins with the letter ‘I’.&nbsp; Manisha, we are honoured to have you here, eager to listen to you, and be inspired by your journalism. Welcome.&nbsp; This year’s Media Mela will not dwell too much on the challenges faced by journalism. We all know what they are. So, instead of talkshops, we will have workshops. How can we cover the most important stories that affect the daily lives of Nepalis in such a way that it is watched and read to build public opinion and spur policy reform?&nbsp; In an age when facts do not matter, journalism has to be more proactive and go where the audience is. यसै अवसरको उपयोग गर्दै हिमालमिडिया र यसले लिने नयाँ बाटोको विषयमा अलिकति कुरा पनि राखि हाल्छु। हिमालमिडिया अब मुनाफा वितरण नगर्ने कम्पनीको रूपमा परिणत भएको छ। यसले अझ धेरै &nbsp;व्यक्ति, संस्थाहरूसँग जोडिन र सहकार्य गर्न सहज हुन्छ भन्ने विश्वास लिएका छौँ। यो नयाँ non-profit company मार्फत् हाम्रो पत्रकारिता अझै फराकिलो हुनेछ। समावेशी बन्नेछ। An advance thank you to all the workshop speakers for your time, thank you everyone for participating, and thank you to TikTok for powering this year’s Himal Media Mela. There was a social media post the other day in which someone said (and I quote): “Himal Media Mela powered by TikTok? TikTok requires no attention span, while Himal articles require substantial attention span. This is a bit like a Diabetic Convention powered by Lumbini Chini Karkhana.” जे भएपनि, अन्तमा: आजको कार्यशालाहरुले हामी मिडियाकर्मीहरूलाई एउटा नौलो मौका दिने अपेक्षा राखेका छौँ – कसरी डिजिटल औजारले पत्रकारलाई दिएको उपायहरु सिक्न । धैर्य गरेर सुनिदिनु भएकोमा धन्यबाद। एक पटक फेरि सबै सहभागीहरूमा हार्दिक नमन र स्वागत।&nbsp;

Journalism Reboot

Top news

Twenty years ago this week, we reported about how malnutrition was indirectly responsible for 70% of all child mortality in Nepal, and how inadequate food increased susceptibility to diarrhoea, measles and acute respiratory infection.
In 2025, malnutrition is still one of the biggest causes of child mortality, except now it is not simply a lack of food but also too much junk food in the diet. Purchasing power has increased, but we are eating more of what we should not be eating.
Excerpt of a <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=570">report </a>published in <a href="https://d1i1jdw69xsqx0.cloudfront.net/digitalhimalaya/collections/journals/nepalitimes/pdf/Nepali_Times_256.pdf">issue #256 15 – 21 July 2005</a>:
Despite recent official statements about rising average living standards, grinding poverty and the conflict, the effects of junk food in cities have made undernourishment and malnutrition a serious national epidemic.
Protein-energy malnutrition affects 63 percent of Nepali children which means they don't get enough food to ensure normal physical and mental development. More than half of Nepali children are therefore physically stunted, and although this is reversible if the child starts eating enough after age two, they may suffer learning disabilities as well if undernourishment persists .
Hunger increases their susceptibility to diarrhoea, measles and acute respiratory infection. Diarrhoeal dehydration alone causes an estimated 30,000 child deaths every year as undernourished children are weaker and more likely to be brought down by the vicious spiral of disease and malnutrition. Combined with worms, undernourishment is seen by many as Nepal's primary health concern for children.
Malnutrition hits many Nepali children even before they are born because their mothers don't have adequate food while pregnant. Between 30-50 percent of Nepali children are born underweight, below 2.5 kg.
For archived material of Nepali Times of the past 20 years, site search: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/">nepalitimes.com</a>

Malnutrition

Many of us former Nepal Peace Corps volunteers (PCVs) would agree that our time in Nepal changed in significant but very different ways our perspectives on life if not the future paths we chose to follow. Of no one was this truer than Dorothy Mierow. Dorothy was born in 1920, in Colorado Springs. Her father Charles C Mierow was a classics scholar and Latin professor, who served for ten years as president of Colorado College.&nbsp; Dorothy developed an interest in animals as a child, graduated with a BA degree in natural history from Carlton College in 1942, a Master’s in biology from the University of Pittsburgh, and another Master’s in geography from the University of Minnesota.&nbsp; As a young woman, Dorothy traveled with her father throughout Europe, including a visit to ancient Greek ruins, and took a Magellan Tour by cruise ship around the world in 1958.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025071901074_0bad133ab22aada319e74bbad95d563e191371db291c08f373839fbd15440262.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2025071901074_0bad133ab22aada319e74bbad95d563e191371db291c08f373839fbd15440262" data-rendition-name="original" width="903" height="1178" loading="lazy" alt="How the Peace Corps changed a volunteer's life"> <figcaption>HOME AWAY FROM HOME: Dorothy Mierow as a college student in her native Colorado.</figcaption> </figure>  She was a college teacher during much of the 1940s, also teaching at a girls’ school in Hawaii. Then back to her native Colorado in 1953, where she became a curator and later director of the Colorado College Natural History Museum. She taught geography classes, and in her free time, Dorothy climbed 22 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks. Traveling in India in 1960, Dorothy decided to spend two weeks in Nepal. In late 1961, she filled out an application to join the Peace Corps and specified that she wanted to go to Nepal, ‘because I admired the people so much when my father and I were there on our trip’.&nbsp; Dorothy reached Kathmandu in September 1962 as the first group of American Peace Corps volunteers in Nepal. She stood out from the others: one of the few women in that group, surely the oldest at age 41, a world traveler, and a woman who already had established a professional career.&nbsp; One doubts if Dorothy had had a husband and children whether she would ever have gone to work and spend much of the rest of her life in Nepal.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025071901078_68e84ade1ffb0f6c83c7f8fa5c1e7315b5f6c543217f96cde012e4d86f171515.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2025071901078_68e84ade1ffb0f6c83c7f8fa5c1e7315b5f6c543217f96cde012e4d86f171515" data-rendition-name="original" width="1259" height="910" loading="lazy" alt="How th Peace Corps changed a volunteer's life NT"> <figcaption>Pokhara Bazar in 1962.</figcaption> </figure>  The Peace Corps assigned Dorothy to teach geography at Tri-Chandra College. After the school closed in the winter due to lack of heating, USAID and the College of Education asked Dorothy to help train general science teachers.&nbsp; She taught for two months and became involved in a textbook-writing project, commenting: ‘I would like the children to know something about public health, conservation (the trees are going fast and so is the soil), and learn the names of some of their common birds, trees, and flowers. They are more impressed with electricity, airplanes, and cell structure.’ When a new college opened in Pokhara in 1963, Dorothy was transferred there and lived with a Nepali family. The college boasted 30 students and no permanent buildings.&nbsp; In October 1963, Dorothy wrote: ‘Pokhara is a town of almost 5,000 people … We are in a fertile valley surrounded by foothills … There is a small Mission Hospital … a Leper Hospital and Tibetan Refugee Camp started by the Red Cross and now run by the Swiss. With winter approaching, more Tibetans are appearing in town, often with pack horses or donkeys. Some have been carrying large boxes of powdered milk,donated (by USAID) to the camp from the airport … There is no electricity, and the transportation problems make many items scarce and expensive. I am really a sort of a museum. The landlord brings all kinds of people in to see how I live and count my shoes and dresses. They express amazement at my books, pictures, tin oven, Nepali dolls from Kathmandu, screened food shelves and curtained closet.’ The standard term for Peace Corps volunteers was two years, but Dorothy extended her term and was still at Prithvi Narayan College at the end of 1965, when she wrote that she had 20 Geography students in the first-year class and 6 in the second year preparing for the IA Examination. The college enrollment was 125 students, and the foundation for a new science building was being excavated.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025071901074_c6a80e5e0db0c705b2f8733c6d30dc0386fe3abbd2238ea9d947b7d746f94a29.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="2025071901074_c6a80e5e0db0c705b2f8733c6d30dc0386fe3abbd2238ea9d947b7d746f94a29" data-rendition-name="original" width="902" height="605" loading="lazy" alt="How the Peace Corps changed a volunteer's life"> <figcaption>Mierow and friends at Phewa Lake.</figcaption> </figure>  Dorothy noted that she ate one meal a day at the (Shining Mission) Hospital but otherwise lived on dal-bhat, momo, and potato curry at local shops. However, she had developed a new passion: to build what she initially called the Pokhara Museum of the Himalaya. In commendable Peace Corps fashion, Dorothy always worked with Nepalis and respected the culture. ‘The greatest joy and satisfaction I have had has been from the building of a Museum-Library in memory of my parents … It has been possible to feel like a wealthy benefactor with the money saved by father for the family’s education and now available for the education of others… (Father) would have loved to be in on the founding of a new college and be able to plan a library. Several hundred of the books to be in the museum-library came from his collection and were carefully selected to be of use for students in Nepal…’&nbsp; ‘The museum part is to satisfy my own inclinations and was thought of when I found how little diversion there was for the people of Pokhara… It is part of the University requirements for the college that it should have a geography and biology museum. The museum building is small but adequate.&nbsp; I have tried to design it in harmony with Nepalese architecture and decorate it with some of the art of the best artists or woodcarvers… Posts holding up the porch roof are carved by Cottage Industries to represent different peoples of Nepal in typical costumes. The door was carved by a local wood carver and has typical birds of Nepal around it. Inside are 10 roof-support carvings designed by the retired Director of the National Museum in Kathmandu, Mr. C.M. Maskey.&nbsp; They were carved by the best wood carvers in Patan very skilfully. The building has three rooms: the library, the exhibition room, and a smaller workroom which can be used by our newly formed Woman’s Club as well as other groups or classes.’  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025071901074_03d3359c65389d30a0134e9a4862778994121e7e833b7d28b18e06e36fc76ff8.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="2025071901074_03d3359c65389d30a0134e9a4862778994121e7e833b7d28b18e06e36fc76ff8" data-rendition-name="original" width="629" height="599" loading="lazy" alt="How the Peace Corps changed a volunteer's life"> <figcaption>Mierow with local women in Pokhara in 1969.</figcaption> </figure>  Dorothy promoted her project to influential Nepalis connected with organisations whose support she solicited: The Department of Archaeology, the Department of Agriculture, the Godavari Botanical Gardens; Tribhuvan University’s Science and Education Department, Nature Conservation Society.&nbsp; The museum was opened officially in early 1967. The Annapurna Natural History Museum, the building Dorothy designed and had constructed, is still open and features some exhibits which she created many years ago.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025071901074_54326a8a0685e980e782378076de2f5cd02d2426e9b0d94eed972d3dbe83af26.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="2025071901074_54326a8a0685e980e782378076de2f5cd02d2426e9b0d94eed972d3dbe83af26" data-rendition-name="original" width="1333" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="How the Peace Corps changed a volunteer's life"> <figcaption>The Annapurna Natural History Museum.</figcaption> </figure>  Dorothy returned to America in 1967, but she longed for Nepal. In the spring of 1969, she again tried to enroll as a Peace Corps volunteer but was told that as she had spent more than four years, she would not be eligible for another assignment. Undeterred, she persuaded the college in Pokhara to invite her to return as a teacher.&nbsp; UNICEF and the Forestry Department sponsored Dorothy to prepare charts on trees, birds, animals and flowers in colour for distribution to the schools of Nepal. Dorothy, back in the Peace Corps, returned to Pokhara and the Museum in 1972. She formed a friendship with her former geography student from Sikles, Chandra Prasad Gurung, and in 1974, she brought Chandra to America, where he enrolled in Colorado College and studied cultural anthropology.&nbsp; Chandra subsequently earned his PhD in geography from the University of Hawaii and returned to Pokhara to become director of the Annapurna Conservation Area Project. Gurung actively promoted ecotourism, landscape conservation, and biodiversity conservation in Nepal. His life was cut short along with those of 23 other Nepalis and foreigners who perished in a helicopter crash near Taplejung in September 2006.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025071901074_322d3c3ac6f1b08ffa07c44a19998b937a7db9eb43527f7539cf6481e1546314.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="2025071901074_322d3c3ac6f1b08ffa07c44a19998b937a7db9eb43527f7539cf6481e1546314" data-rendition-name="original" width="2500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="How the Peace Corps changed a volunteer's life"> <figcaption>Mierow's four books on Nepal and its biodiversity. </figcaption> </figure>  Dorothy worked with several well-known Nepalis to publish her paintings and photos in beautifully illustrated books. She and Hemanta Mishra of the National Parks and Wildlife Service wrote Wild Animals of Nepal (Ratna Pustak Bhandar, 1976). More than 400 photos Dorothy took on treks to the Everest region, Gosaikunda, Muktinath, Jumla and Rara Lake, as well as travels in the Tarai, appeared in Himalayan Flowers and Trees (Sahayogi Prakashan, 1978).&nbsp; The botanist Tirtha Bahadur Shrestha identified the species. Dorothy and Kesar Lall published This Beautiful Nepal (Sahayogi Press, 1981). Birds of the Central Himalayas (1988) contained Dorothy’s paintings of 250 species of birds found along the areas of the Kali Gandaki River, Pokhara, Chitwan and the central Tarai. Dorothy summed up her life and work in Nepal in Thirty Years in Pokhara (Pilgrims Book House, 1997). Dorothy returned to Pokhara and her adopted Gurung family several times during the 1980s and 1990s to celebrate festivals and meet old friends. Her final years were spent at her mountain cottage in Green Mountain Falls north of Colorado Springs. She died at the age of 79 in August, 2000. Nepal gave new meaning and purpose to Dorothy Mierow’s life. Daniel W Edwards was a Peace Corps volunteer in 1966 and is the author of several books on Nepal. The author thanks Special Collections, Tutt Library, Colorado College.

How the Peace Corps changed a volunteer’s life

· On the night of 15 May, two glacial lakes burst in Tharka in Humla and the debris flow washed away homes and bridges.&nbsp; · Last week, a slurry surge on the Kali Gandaki in Upper Mustang caused at least Rs15 million in damage, and was traced to a melting glacier. · Dozens are feared dead after <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/rasuwa-flood-likely-a-glof">an expanding glacial lake in Tibet overflowed</a>, sweeping down into Nepal and damaging four hydropower plants generating 230MW, nearly 8% of the country’s total grid supply.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250718060748_45225dc707c1e9c2968ca8dbf6e564e01e4eb6e2ff254fb8eb940cf62cdd910b.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20250718060748_45225dc707c1e9c2968ca8dbf6e564e01e4eb6e2ff254fb8eb940cf62cdd910b" data-rendition-name="original" width="2667" height="1500" loading="lazy" alt="Rasuwa flood"> <figcaption>Miteri friendship bridge connecting Nepal and China was swept away in the Rasuwa flood. Photo: PRAKASH CHANDRA TIMILSENA / NPL</figcaption> </figure>  And those are just in the past month. Climate scientists say Himalayan glacial lake outbursts are becoming more frequent and destructive, and a warning for Nepal not to put all its eggs in the hydropower basket.&nbsp; <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/when-it-rains-it-pours-ksqprbu3">Record precipitation last September</a> unleashed floods that killed 200 people, and temporarily slashed Nepal’s total generation capacity of 3,000MW by nearly half. The <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-valley-suffers-quadruple-disaster">Melamchi flood of 2021</a> caused by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/the-not-so-permanent-frost">permafrost melting</a> on a glacier upstream nearly destroyed a $800 million water supply scheme, Nepal’s largest infrastructure project which four years later still has not resumed full operation. The <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/sikkim-flood-is-warning-to-nepal">glacial lake overflow in Sikkim</a> caused by record rainfall in September 2023 that destroyed the $1.2 billion Chungthung Dam and caused catastrophic damage to infrastructure on the Teesta River. This was a warning to the cascade of hydropower plants on the Arun and Marsyangdi river basins.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250718060736_6f61797a6be308321e3bae26e55d2f64cba4b9e5eb262adacb9e92fb5f3c6152.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20250718060736_6f61797a6be308321e3bae26e55d2f64cba4b9e5eb262adacb9e92fb5f3c6152" data-rendition-name="original" width="919" height="549" loading="lazy" alt="hydro disasters and hydropower plants"> </figure>  Nepal has set a target of generating an additional 28,500MW by 2035 -- out of the feasible 48,000MW -- but how viable is an energy strategy that is exposed to heightened risk due to climate breakdown? &nbsp; “As extreme weather events increase, we must design and build infrastructures respecting river flow and topography,” says former Energy Secretary Dwarika Nath Dhungel. “We must make the best use of our water resources, but not by letting excavators loose everywhere mining riverbeds and building haphazardly where we shouldn’t.”&nbsp; Although no project can be disaster-proof, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/climate-smarter-himalayan-infrastructure">climate smart design</a> can minimise damage from flash floods and landslides. Recent disasters have driven up insurance premiums for energy projects in Nepal, and smaller ones cannot even afford them. The 456MW Upper Tamakosi hydroelectric project which is still not fully functional after the September floods has claimed insurance worth Rs1.8 billion. The alternative to high risk high investment hydropower projects is <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/what-s-cooking-in-nepal-besides-politics">energy diversification</a> to other renewables such as solar, wind or biogas. Nepal gets annual sunlight of 300 days with 6-7 hours on average to total 50,000 terawatt-hours (TWh) per year.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250718060744_4acd452b4117180ca9bb5d3be839ff46dfd5464e4d507f5ad3704cef6253bc48.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20250718060744_4acd452b4117180ca9bb5d3be839ff46dfd5464e4d507f5ad3704cef6253bc48" data-rendition-name="original" width="1080" height="720" loading="lazy" alt="solar power"> <figcaption>Farmers in Tarai using solar powered water pump. Photo: GHAMPOWER</figcaption> </figure>  The Solar and Wind Energy Resource Assessment (SWERA) calculates that Nepal could source 3,000MW from wind energy alone, considering 10% of the area with more than 300W/m2 wind power density. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/people-power/decentralising-power-in-nepal">Solar energy</a> stations are cheaper and quicker to build, and would be an ideal alternative to reliance on hydropower.&nbsp; “There has been some investment in solar power, especially from the state sector,” says water expert Madhukar Upadhyay. “But there is an issue of land acquisition since the arrays need a lot of space. It is comparatively easier to get a permit to put up a hydropower plant on a river.” As for biogas, there is simply no incentive to build on past success with household level plants to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/more-bullshit">promote industrial-scale production</a>. Scaling up biogas by integrating it with urban biodegradable waste would still be a viable alternative to LPG.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250718060744_715d44afd5eb4ba8dafa209b0ad0f19400665797b5f078f5636821e600f96684.jpg" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20250718060744_715d44afd5eb4ba8dafa209b0ad0f19400665797b5f078f5636821e600f96684" data-rendition-name="original" width="1419" height="954" loading="lazy" alt="windmill"> <figcaption>A wind mill in Hapsikot in Nawalpur. Photo: WINPOWER NEPAL</figcaption> </figure>  Nepal’s public sphere is buzzing with excitement over the discovery of potentially 430 billion cubic metres of methane gas beneath Dailekh district that, if properly harnessed, would meet the country’s energy demand for the next 50 years. Even though a feasibility study is awaited, politicians from the prime minister down see this as a petro bonanza that will make Nepal rich. But drilling, storage and distribution of CNG in the country’s current kleptocratic state make that unlikely. If Nepal was to get rich solely on its hydro-energy potential, it could have done so in the past 50 years. Says Dhungel: “This is not exactly a new discovery, but it is premature to celebrate until its extraction is proven to be cost effective. And let us hope it does not get <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/balance-of-power">tangled in geopolitics</a>, since China is involved in the prospecting and drilling, which could make India uneasy.”&nbsp; The country suffers from the Dutch Disease curse even before its resource is fully exploited. And the same cronyism, corruption and rent-seeking structure cannot deliver the riches we expect from Dailekh’s methane discovery. Now, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/right-climate-for-nepal-s-energy-transition">with hydropower in jeopardy</a>, Nepal’s planners will have to evolve a new strategy for energy security into the future. But first, governance needs to be cleaned up with long-term strategic planning that takes climate risk into account. For example, do we need to mine fossil gas when there are renewable options? Will Dailekh take Nepal away from its climate commitments? Says Madhukar Upadhyay: “Nepal has always been resource rich and management poor. And the larger the resource, the bigger our management incapacity. It is a societal malaise.”&nbsp;

Nepal’s Resource Curse

Cabinet Shrestha of Agni Group and investor-slash-mentor was listening to a pitch recently from a bead shop owner from Chitwan on Himalaya TV’s new hit reality show Shark Tank Nepal. Shrestha liked what he heard, and offered Sandhya Gaire Poudel of Sandhya Pote House Rs2 million for 35% equity plus profit with an exit after three years. She had taught herself to make traditional Nepali glass bead necklaces, starting with just Rs5,000 and selling them straight to married women through TikTok. She has trained 5,000 women in necklace making, and with the Rs 2 million investment can expand to take bigger orders all over Nepal. “So after three years, I give you back 20 lakh?” asked Paudel. Cabinet Shrestha laughed and replied: “20 lakh plus profit, म त ब्यापारी हो नि.” Cabinet Shreshta handles the Mahindra dealership and has his hand in many other businesses. Paudel gleefully accepted the Rs2 million offer, and there was applause from the studio audience. Shark Tank Nepal, a franchise reality show, was first launched in Japan in 2001 as ‘Tigers of Money’ and has since been adapted in 54 countries under various names. Entrepreneurs pitch their businesses to a panel of investors, who grill them about the details of their venture before deciding whether or not to extend deals for stakes in the company. This is the first season with 20 episodes of the show in Nepal, each an hour-and-a-half long on Wednesdays and Thursdays on Himalaya TV, and will soon also be streamed on its YouTube Channel. Besides Shrestha, the four other sharks are: Hem Raj Dhakal of IME Group, Ritu Singh Vaidya of VOITH Group, Anand Bagaria of Nimbus, and Saurabh Jyoti of the Padma Jyoti Group of Companies. It is gripping television because the audience does not know which pitch will be successful. It is also educational because it shows what entrepreneurship is all about — all one needs is an idea that flies. But there is a larger message that Shark Tank Nepal is broadcasting: that not everyone is hell bent on leaving the country. “Its a step in the right direction, and a breath of fresh air,” says Ashutosh Tiwari, an entrepreneurship consultant himself. “The businesses are all different: their age, caste, gender, ethnicity, where they were born or raised in Nepal, what they studied (or didn’t study), and what work they’ve done.” He continues, “It also shows on national tv the important skill of having to persuade absolute strangers to invest in you. Business plans and advising events is great, but the real help for entrepreneurs comes from the exchange of other people’s cold hard cash that they are accountable for.” Social media is also a major player in the show. Not only as a medium to promote Shark Tank, with behind-the-scenes and meet-the-shark type content but also as a place where a lot of the businesses being pitched sell their goods. Most of the business ideas are related to tech, food and beverage, or clothing and skincare, and many of the entrepreneurs are women. Some of the more interesting pitches include a dehydrated carrot cake, a completely organic and bio-degradable skincare brand, and a couple who turned interior design careers into a booming furniture business. One of the biggest deals accepted was Hem Raj Dhakal’s decision to invest Rs60 million in the tech company Veda which started off as a simple notification app facilitating communication between schools and parents, and grew into an international company that provides complete employee resources for schools including payroll and analytics for student performance data.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250724130728_cfd2ca117499c0613fa271970aeac37b6e04c6a9f3194510c6b9253805746dd8.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20250724130728_cfd2ca117499c0613fa271970aeac37b6e04c6a9f3194510c6b9253805746dd8" data-rendition-name="original" width="928" height="594" loading="lazy" alt="Swimming with sharks "><figcaption>Photo: VEDA/ FACEBOOK </figcaption></figure>  “I feel that the sharks have learned as much from the pitchers that they have gotten from us,” says Shrestha. “We’ve learned a lot about markets that we have no expertise in. They have gotten us back in touch about how the younger generation is thinking.” Shrestha notes that Nepalis seem to be naturally gifted at tech, and he likes to see how the pitchers have ‘localised’ or put their own twists on business ideas. The show has received a lot of positive feedback, especially from young Nepalis studying abroad, some of whom may now be thinking of moving back. Despite its popularity, Shark Tank Nepal took a long time to get sponsors and entrepreneurs. Director Simosh Sunuwar, known for his adventure-based reality show Himalayan Roadies, says: “It was hard to get participants who were afraid that their business ideas would get stolen with Nepal’s weak trademark laws. Of the applications we did receive, many did not meet all the criteria. Some were missing balance sheets…” Sunuwar says given how busy the Sharks are, it was difficult to find a stretch of time in which they were all free. “Even when we have them, their phones are going off non-stop,” he says. The solution was a fifteen-day stretch that worked for all Sharks, with multiple sets of clothes for continuity. By the end, the Sharks were shooting up to 15 hours a day, hearing up to 13 pitches a day. While all the shooting is done early, post-production editing for clarity and length is still ongoing as the episodes air. Like all of reality TV, how much of Shark Tank Nepal is scripted? Tiwari thinks that the show feels “slick, a little over scripted at times”. Sunuwar reveals that it is a mix: “As director, I do have to coach the pitchers and the Sharks on how to say certain things, but at the end of the day the Sharks are who they are and they are all very nice and genuine people. My job is to make them comfortable being themselves. They get nervous too.” The Sharks are quick to sniff out iffy businesses, like a skincare brand that was only packaged in Nepal and claimed competitors were misrepresenting ingredients. The Nepali version of Shark Tank may lack the drama of the US version, and the Sharks do not live up to the ruthless reputation of the sea predator. This means it is a feel-good show that Nepali audiences prefer. When bowing out of deals, the Sharks are exceedingly graceful, often offering other sorts of help such as networking or contacts to soften the ‘no’. OLD MONEY Two or more Sharks often go in together on joint deals, maybe because there are only so many ‘shark-level’ entrepreneurs in Nepal. The funniest parts of the show are when Sharks talk ‘candidly’ in between pitches. But more shark-like Sharks would give the show a more dramatic feel. In one case, the Sharks agree to fund a business that repackages sanitary pads for ‘CSR’ purposes, which betrays the premise of the show. Some of the criticism online about the choice of Sharks is that besides Hem Raj Dhakal, they all come from old money families, and had considerable head starts in life and business. “But you can’t fault this right now,” says Tiwari, “there are very few self-made successful entrepreneurs in Nepal, and trading is a legitimate business that has made multimillionaires in the alcohol business in the US, for example.” The friendlier Sharks do make for more deals, though. In the first season, investment from the Sharks totaled Rs400 million, in contrast to Rs420 million in the Indian version of the show and Rs170 million for the Bangladesh version. While the show is pioneering, Tiwari notes that it is more glamorous, and glosses over the gritty parts of business in Nepal. “The reality is that there is a government, and a registrar that you have to visit every year. There are rental taxes, penalties, and fines. Businesses don’t get immediate payments, and are often only profitable on paper, which makes it very difficult for them to operate. The investment that they get from the Sharks will give them some working capital, some oxygen.” Director Sunuwar is grateful for the reception: “It’s great that viewers have welcomed Shark Tank, and I hope it will encourage young entrepreneurs. We’re already getting applications for the next season, and I am excited to make it better, perhaps with different sharks.”

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