No smoke without fire

Usually in winter, air quality in Kathmandu is equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. But wildfires raging across central Nepal for the past weeks may have increased that to four packs a day.

NASA’s Fire Information and Resource Management System (FIRMS) uses infrared heat detecting satellites to map the world for fires. While central India and Burma are the worst affected, forests along the central Tarai and the mountains south of Kathmandu have hundreds of red dots — each representing a forest fire.

Kathmandu Valley had the worst air quality of any city in the world on Monday afternoon, according to Swiss-based air quality tracker IQ Air. Air Quality Index (AQI) which measures the concentration of tiny suspended particles in the air smaller than 2.5 microns hit 250 because of soot particles from smoke combined with pre-existing pollution from vehicular and industrial emissions.

This was ten times higher than what the World Health Organization (WHO) has set as the threshold for healthy air. The microscopic particles cannot be seen by the naked eye and can jump the blood-air divide in capillaries in the lungs causing not just lung infections but also heart disease and cancer. 

The immediate effects of air pollution are felt in dry and burning eyes, itchy throats, difficulty breathing, headaches, and dizziness. In the longer term, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a major cause of death in Nepal, with the average life expectancy of Kathmandu’s residents has been reduced by 3.5 years. 

Despite studies, Nepal’s leaders are preoccupied with coalition politics, and little action has been taken to control vehicular emissions with green stickers, curb open garbage burning and industrial pollution.

Studies have shown that in winter 60% of the air pollution over Kathmandu is transboundary from the south, and in November it is compounded by crop residue burning by farmers in India and Pakistan which prevailing winds blow up the Himalayan mountains. 

Forest fires are common in Nepal in the pre-monsoon months as farmers and herders set fire to slopes hoping for green shoots when the rains arrive for their livestock. But successive years of winter drought have meant that the wildfires have been starting earlier, and they spread fast because of high afternoon winds this time of year. 

On 29 March, there were at least 200 fires burning across central Nepal. The FIRMS satellite image also shows thick blue smoke blanketing the river valleys, reducing visibility and affecting flights. On Monday morning three flights attempting to land at Kathmandu airport had to divert due to runway visibility being below minimum. 

This level of pollution is classified as ‘extremely unhealthy, and  has serious health impact not only on vulnerable groups like children, the elderly, and those who live with health conditions, but across Kathmandu’s population. 

After the devastating September floods last year, Kathmandu Valley and much of the country experienced a prolonged drought with little to no winter rain. Such prolonged dry spells raises fire risk, and with Kathmandu’s bowl-shaped topography concentrates pollutants.

There are indications that high pollution levels do not just harm human health, but are also beginning to affect tourism. Operators in Pokhara said that there were many negative online posts by visitors unable to see the famous panorama of Machapuchre and the Annapurnas even from Sarangkot.

Aviation is also affected, as planes have to circle sometimes for hours burning fuel for visibility to get better at Kathmandu airport. The higher fuel cost is just passed down to customers, making air tickets in and out of Kathmandu some of the highest in the world. 

Kathmandu’s toxic air quality is not a temporary phenomenon, it has consistently gotten worse. IQ Air places Kathmandu eighth out of 121 capital cities with the worst air quality in 2024, and Nepal is seventh among countries with the highest air pollution.

The State of Global Air (SOGA) Report published last June revealed more than 50,000 Nepalis died from air pollution in 2021, accounting for 19% of all mortality, just behind high blood pressure.

Kathmandu, with a population of four million, has not implemented a concrete policy to curb toxic air despite having formulated various action plans and repeated commitments by the government to protect the environment and control air pollution.

The Department of Environment’s  2017 Air Quality Management Action Plan for Kathmandu put forward a policy to reduce air pollution caused by vehicles which was approved by the Cabinet, but has yet to be put to practice.

The action included the immediate implementation of the Euro 5 emission standard to reduce pollution emitted by vehicles. But Nepal has not even been able to implement Euro 4 standards so far. India, meanwhile, has already moved forward with the implementation of the Euro 6 standards.