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

Chandra Kishore

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Borderlines

Tarai districts gasp for water

The two sides of Punjab in India and Pakistan may be 2,000km away, but the war between two <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/south-asia-2040-qxr16oup">South Asian neighbours </a>sent aftershocks here to the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/borderlines/nepal-india-trans-boundary-bonds">India-Nepal border</a>.&nbsp; Among the 26 tourists killed by terrorists in Pahalgam on 22 April was a Nepali from Butwal on a holiday with his family, and Nepali nationals enlisted in the Indian Army could be see action in case of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/peacemongers-at-india-pakistan-border">conflict between India and Pakistan</a>.&nbsp; The open border between India and Nepal is usually relaxed with people going back and forth without much checking, but after hostilities broke out last week, controls by India’s Border Security Force of documents and inspections of vehicles has been stepped up. About 15km east of Birganj is the frontier village of Ghodasahan. On the Nepal side, the settlement is under the Bisrampur Rural Municipality in Bara District and on the other side it is in East Champaran of India’s Bihar state. There are <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/20-years-ago-this-week/secularism-debate">Hindus and Muslims </a>on both sides of the national boundary that slices through the village. The increased security on both sides of the border is starting to affect the daily life of villagers who had been used to going back and forth without any hindrance. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/nukes-in-the-neighbourhood">Nukes in the neighbourhood</a>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250511160520_7202b268e053118ed783c740918389ace533bf47576c0bda787eecb6f71af5b9.png" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20250511160520_7202b268e053118ed783c740918389ace533bf47576c0bda787eecb6f71af5b9" data-rendition-name="original" width="2230" height="1534" loading="lazy" alt="No man's land"> </figure>  “We know who the locals are, but if there are people who we don’t know and they look different, we interrogate them,” one Nepali security official said, adding that local people also inform the police if they see any strangers. Right along the 1,700km <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/people-to-people-at-india-nepal-border">Nepal-India border</a>, there are many townships like Ghodasahan which have the same name on both sides of the border. In some places, the border divides <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/home-is-where-the-heart-is">homes and households</a>, in others one side of the road is in Nepal and the other side is in India.&nbsp; In most of these villages, the local people have come to accept the presence of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/job-insecurity-in-security-forces?%2F">security forces </a>on both sides. Some farms are divided by the border, and villagers are used to border guards inspecting harvests being brought across. The India-Nepal border is also a hotbed of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/from-the-nepali-press/smuggled-chimps-wait-it-out-in-kathmandu?%2F">smuggling</a>, so police inspections are normal, but the heightened tension between India and Pakistan have made such checks stricter. Also in Bara district is the village of Gulariya which also stretches on both sides of the border. Seventy-year-old Satan Bhagat’s house is on the other side of no-man’s land in India but his livestock shed is in Nepal.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250511160520_4b4057c9f03b82e4f634fc071929b2847897b13982e2dc08eaaa48c6feb9f906.jpg" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="20250511160520_4b4057c9f03b82e4f634fc071929b2847897b13982e2dc08eaaa48c6feb9f906" data-rendition-name="original" width="1600" height="1204" loading="lazy" alt="No man's land NT"> <figcaption>Satan Bhagat</figcaption> </figure>  With new requirements for citizenship on both sides, and stricter enforcement of those with dual citizenship, families are having to decide whether they are Nepali or Indian. “We don’t want war, we want peace,” said one villager, apprehensive of the spillover effect of the India-Pakistan conflict. “In the 1971 war we followed what was happening on the radio, but now we know minute-by-minute what is happening <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/surveying-nepal-s-digital-landscape">on our mobiles.</a>”&nbsp; The open Nepal-India border is a model for other parts of the world, where frontier controls are getting tighter and populist anti-migration parties are winning elections. The rhyming slogan in Hindi here has been ‘बोर्डर बनेंगे अमन के निशान, दोनों &nbsp;मित्र नेपाल - हिंदुस्तान’ (Nepal-India Border: A Symbol of Peace).  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250511160520_7607dcca541c23093c11c3b3a5e1380d27401d458d2ce28a24c18a6b609df1fd.jpg" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20250511160520_7607dcca541c23093c11c3b3a5e1380d27401d458d2ce28a24c18a6b609df1fd" data-rendition-name="original" width="1600" height="1204" loading="lazy" alt="No man's land NT"> <figcaption>The village of Gulariya in Bara district also stretches on both sides of the Nepal-India border.</figcaption> </figure>  But slogans only go far when policies about these<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=7594"> borderlands </a>are made in faraway national capitals in New Delhi and Kathmandu. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/messaging-is-the-message">The media </a>also has a role in making border controls only about security and crime, and not about how much it helps local people on both sides. The reason there are calls for stricter border control is due to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-geopolitics-of-nepal-s-politics">geopolitics</a>, and this concern has been enhanced by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/indo-pak-tension-hits-saarc-climate-action">the India-Pakistan conflict</a>. But this is not just about safeguarding India’s security interests, but also about Nepal being vigilant and taking advantage of its open border.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250511160524_d31874e0dad74299d3849a37690e050690604a03f0320b79f1816ea3bb039679.jpg" data-media-id="editor_17" data-image-id="20250511160524_d31874e0dad74299d3849a37690e050690604a03f0320b79f1816ea3bb039679" data-rendition-name="original" width="1600" height="1204" loading="lazy" alt="No man's land NT"> <figcaption>Naser Ahmed</figcaption> </figure>  <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/the-world-9-11-made">Terrorism </a>cannot be defined as ‘moderate’ or ‘radical’. Terror has no morals. It cannot be justified by arguments for or against. Terrorism has no respect for innocent human life — whether it is structural violence of the state, or militant counter-violence. Pahalgam was proof that terrorism is not an accident. It does not happen in a vacuum. When geopolitical rivalry is involved, it complicates matters further as a tit-for-tat in which <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/remembering-not-to-forget-the-peoples-war">innocent civilians are cruelly caught in the crossfire</a>.&nbsp; As Naser Ahmed on the Nepal side of the border village of Ghodasahan says: “The open border may not be open forever, we have to work to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/justice-delayed-justice-denied-byrx8a1c">safeguard peace </a>on both sides of no-man’s land.”

No-man’s land

During <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepals-constitution-3-years-later">the Constitution </a>drafting process that took nearly ten years, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/faith-in-tolerance?form=MG0AV3">Nepal’s various ethnicities and religions </a>tried to define their status vis-a-vis the state. They laid down their demands, they struggled, and then forged compacts. When the Constitution was finally promulgated in 2015, these agreements between individual groups and the state were given a rough roadmap. However, the new statute could not address the divisions between various communities and ethnicities. Despite its <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/decoding-diversity?fbclid=IwAR3P0GygTCQ7HE-LaaVOhmKSyUDLlIrR2l9VzXKwCFJ8Em7YFHSAOiiXqQE">diversity</a>, Nepal does not have a history of serious sectarian, religious or <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-cycles-of-revolution">communal conflict</a>. The Constitution’s preamble accepts pluralism and tolerance. Every group is guaranteed the right to demonstrate its faith as long as it does not infringe on the right of another group. Authoritarianism and democracy are two opposing poles of any political system. They are governed differently, and their internal structures are disparate. Authoritarian systems exist only if the status quo is maintained, while democracies are always in dynamic flux. This is why democracies cannot always guarantee stability, and there will be voices using the very freedoms the system guarantees them to agitate for a dictatorial regime. This can seem contradictory, but in Nepal’s present context they are complementary. The evolution of Nepali society has seen insurgency, interaction and intermingling, and democracy has allowed tolerance of different belief systems.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250418100452_b50e2b40e20769f7c27c4e30b25ccabb369c57b5f5d30b92a67c6fbf5e9daa2c.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20250418100452_b50e2b40e20769f7c27c4e30b25ccabb369c57b5f5d30b92a67c6fbf5e9daa2c" data-rendition-name="original" width="1280" height="720" loading="lazy" alt="The sociology of social unrest"> </figure>  In the past, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-ghost-of-monarchy-returns-to-haunt-nepal">the monarchy</a> tried but could not fully address the cultural aspirations of the country’s ethnicities. During the Panchayat, the geopolitical need of the time was to strengthen national unity and identity through a unitary state. Today’s<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/republicans-and-royalists-on-nepal-s-streets"> royalists </a>are using the current political disarray and public dissatisfaction to evoke nostalgia for strongman rule. In politics, there can be smoke even without a fire. The ex-king’s project is to terminate the pluralism ensured by this hard-won Constitution. There are indications that reactionaries are trying to fish in troubled waters. In the past four years, Birganj has started marking Hanuman Jayanti in honour of the monkey god of the Ramayana, and it has always been accompanied by tension with adherents of other faiths. Last week, violence flared again during the procession, and the city was shut down with a curfew for two days. Although restrictions have now been lifted, the city is still licking its wounds.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250418100456_bf07e5702dcae169ea57b72f7284eac805fa4d7d8dc6f5d6ccd01835bc873463.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20250418100456_bf07e5702dcae169ea57b72f7284eac805fa4d7d8dc6f5d6ccd01835bc873463" data-rendition-name="original" width="1280" height="720" loading="lazy" alt="The sociology of social unrest"> </figure>  Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-s-deja-vu-on-black-friday">Nepal’s déjà vu on Black Friday</a>, Sonia Awale A religious procession has to be sensitive to the neighbourhood it is moving through, it cannot provoke those from other communities who live there. The administration is responsible to ensure that things do not get out of hand. This was obviously not done. There should have been strict guidelines about the route of the procession, a ban on openly carrying weapons of any kind, and against provocative slogans directed at another religious group. These rules should have been pre-agreed and strictly enforced. Another factor that poured oil on the fire was live video reporting on social media of the procession that magnified the agenda of the organisers. Such ‘reporting’ by ‘journalists’ sensationalised the violence and helped spread it with fake videos, disinformation and hate speech. Sharing such content also spurs copycat violence and prevents resolution. There are signs various groups are trying to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/volatile-mix-of-politics-and-religion">mix politics with religion</a> and with extremist rhetoric. There should be forceful and immediate legal action against such elements to nip the unrest in the bud. Local problems need <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/global-crisis-local-solutions">local solutions</a>. Outside interference may complicate attempts to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/protecting-nepals-forests-from-fires">extinguish the fire</a>. The silent majority of citizens do not want violence and turmoil, they want peace and reconciliation. Any political force that tries to exploit the Birganj unrest to further its own narrow interest elsewhere will ultimately reap the whirlwind. Chandrakishore is a Birganj-based political commentator who writes this monthly column BORDERLINES in Nepali Times. @kishore_chandra

The sociology of social unrest

The fact that the festival of Holi is celebrated on two different days in Nepal this week is itself an indication of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepalis-moving-from-mountains-to-plains">how the mountains and plains of Nepal</a> are culturally united. The full moon day of Fagu Purnima is marked with much merriment in the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/knowing-our-mountains-43v4iyvo">mountains</a> on Thursday, while the festival of colours is celebrated on Friday in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-tarai-s-shrinking-forests">the Tarai</a>. And it would be fair to say that the passion with which <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/holi-in-birganj">Holi in the plains </a>is several times more intense. In fact, along the Nepal Tarai, holi is celebrated on both days. In many places in Birganj, Janakpur and Rajbiraj, young Hindu or Muslim, Madhesi or Pahadi, celebrate each other’s <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/festivals-of-sisterhood">festivals</a> together. The 2021 census shows that more than half the country’s population now lives <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-tarai-learns-from-past-floods">in the Tarai</a>, and this coexistence has made the Holi mosaic in the Tarai even more colourful.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250312040356_6026f407093ac0acaf39542e71a72279fc67226e50e0f3b2a3e10dc436f58d40.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20250312040356_6026f407093ac0acaf39542e71a72279fc67226e50e0f3b2a3e10dc436f58d40" data-rendition-name="original" width="1920" height="1280" loading="lazy" alt="Holi story 2"> </figure>  The festival proves that as long as the rulers on either side of these borderlands do not mix <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/volatile-mix-of-politics-and-religion">politics with religion</a>, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/decoding-diversity">Nepalis of all faiths and ethnicities</a> can get along as they have for centuries. And example of this are the tradition of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepali-folk-songs-move-beyond-love-and-loss">folk songs</a> in the Bhojpuri language sung during the Holi festival by people in India and Nepal.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=15948">Many tongues, one voice</a>, Amar Kanta Jha One such song actually prays for the prosperity of Nepal: ‘Blessed be Nepal,<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/a-thousand-sadhus-and-a-hanuman"> the land of Pashupati </a>which I will decorate with gold and sprinkle Nepal with silver.’ The lyrics of this song are contained in a 1948 Hindi book, Bhojpuri Folk Songs shows that reverence for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-healer-of-pashupati">Pashupati </a>and its role as Nepal’s patron deity is part of the culture on both sides of the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/india-s-border-trains-that-connected-nepal">Nepal-India border</a>.&nbsp; The <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/languages-are-both-software-and-hardware">language</a> is a bond that ties the people of these borderlands together, but it is also the festival of Holi that cements the people-to-people relations. The <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/margins/songs-from-chomolungma">folk songs</a> sung during the festival have been passed down for generations, highlighting the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/borderlines/barbwire-borders">age-old ties</a>. Holi is celebrated all week this week in Nepal as well as in India with communities gathering in the evenings to sing the ‘Hori’ folk songs. With <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-road-out-of-nepal">outmigration</a>, it is mostly older people who take part in these rituals and there are fewer and fewer people every year who can sing the songs. “The cultural erosion had been happening, but it is accelerating in recent years,” says Harinder Himkar, a historian from the neighbouring Indian state of Bihar. “Because of this, mutual closeness of people <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/borderlines/nepal-india-trans-boundary-bonds">in the border regions of India and Nepal</a> have also diminished.”&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025031205030_a0fecd32df939e0a3f642585d9f3133683e7cf332511d20c34b78534a6fdd4bf.jpg" data-media-id="editor_19" data-image-id="2025031205030_a0fecd32df939e0a3f642585d9f3133683e7cf332511d20c34b78534a6fdd4bf" data-rendition-name="original" width="1920" height="1280" loading="lazy" alt="Holi 3"> </figure>  Holi is a festival of love, intimacy and celebration of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/kathmandus-silent-spring">spring</a>. It is flirtatious, and represents the changing of the seasons and new beginnings. Which is why the songs sung are happy and optimistic despite the daily grind that the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/strength-in-numbers-for-female-farmers">farming communities</a> here are engaged in. It is believed that<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-deities-in-transit"> the deities </a>Krishna, Shiva, Ram and Sita all splashed colours on each other, and humans are just emulating their merrymaking. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/eastern-melodies-in-kathmandu">Folk songs</a> are by definition old. They are moulded by centuries of experience and knowledge that makes them relevant to this day. No one knows who wrote these songs, or who gave them music, and yet they are immortal. This particular Bhojpuri folk song sung at Holi, reminds us that Nepal is an ancient country, and it is Pashupati that is the holy bond. Says cultural historian Ramsharan Agrawal from Sitamarhi, just across the border in Bihar state: “The folk song proves that the ties that bind our civilisations together are ancient, and the fact that there are references to Pashupati and wishing prosperity on the people of Nepal shows just how interconnected we were, and are.” Holi may be celebrated differently on different dates in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/to-save-the-tarai-save-the-siwalik">the Tarai</a> and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/conserving-mountains-for-people-and-nature">the mountains</a>, but it is a festival of solidarity between <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-is-turning-into-a-nation-of-hybrid-identities">different ethnicities </a>and geographies of Nepal. ‘Holi Friendship Ceremonies’ are held in just about every town along the border. Just like the song itself says: “May you be happy all year round, like today.” "आरे धन्य नगर नयपाल हो लाला, धन्य नगर नयपाल हो । आरे जाहवां विराजे पशुपति बाबा, धन्य नगर नयपाल हो। आहो कथिये छवइबो में बाबा के मन्दिलवा, आहो लाला,कथिये छवइबो नयपाल हो सोनवे छविइबो में बाबा के मन्दिलवा रूपवे छवइबो नयपाल हो।" Chandrakishore is a Birganj-based commentator who writes this monthly column Borderlines for Nepali Times. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/un-holi-colours">Un-Holi Colours</a>, Ashish Dhakal

Holi days along the border

Every five years, the Gadimai Festival puts Nepal in the international spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Tens of thousands of buffalos, goats, fowl and rodents are slaughtered inside a temple enclosure in the village of Bariyapur of Bara district.&nbsp;
Devotees believe the goddess will fulfil their wishes, and unlike other festivals in Nepal the sacrificial animals are usually not eaten. In 2009 an estimated 400,000 water buffalos, goats, chicken, ducks and even white mice were said to have been killed over a two-day period. The 250-year-old Gadimai Mela has therefore been called ‘<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/night-before-the-slaughter">Gadimai Massacre</a>’ by animal rights activists.
The killings polarise Nepali society every five years. The Supreme Court in 2015 instructed the Gadimai Temple Committee to <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Overkill-in-Gadhimai,1794">phase out the mass sacrifice</a>, and issued a mandamus order directing the Nepal government to set a timeline stop the killings. The temple trust discouraged devotees to bring animals and announced that it would discontinue killings starting with the festival in 2019, but the sacrifices continued unabated.
Because of the <a href="https://time.com/3609356/the-worlds-largest-animal-slaughter-festival-has-begun-in-nepal/">intense international media glare</a>, the mass sacrifice has <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/night-before-the-slaughter">tarnished Nepal’s compassionate image</a> as the birthplace of the Buddha. Celebrities like actresses <a href="http://setopati.net/society/4105/">Brigitte Bardot</a> and Joanna Lumley and India’s Menaka Gandhi have staged demonstrations, and even the European Union (EU) wrote to the Nepal government.
However, here in the Tarai and across the border in India, the sacrifices are driven by a strongly-held belief that it will appease the goddess. Local groups have invoked right to religious freedom and point to the tradition of ritual sacrifices in other religions.&nbsp;
The Gadimai Mela coincides with the Thanksgiving Festival in the United States in which tens of millions of turkeys are slaughtered, and supporters say that is also a mass killing. Sacrifices on a similar scale are held across the Muslim world during Bakr Id.
<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=16522">Rabi Thapa, in his 2014 column ‘Kalam’</a> in this newspaper wrote: ‘It is the fact of the slaughter, more than anything else, that attracts or repulses. The imagery employed by those speaking out against the mass sacrifice -- drunken men hacking away at 20,000 hapless young buffalos, a marshland of blood and gore -- betrays a horror of industrial scale barbarism that is anathema to (western) notions of sanitised, civilised progress. At root, the global protests against Gadimai can be applied to all individual sacrifices in the name of religion that are conducted within the premises of the household, the temple, or the street. ’
Pitted against each other are those who are against mass cruelty to animals not primarily killed for eating, and the people of the borderlands who celebrate that very sacrifice. This year, the voices against the sacrifices have been amplified in social media platforms. &nbsp;&nbsp;
But however strong the voices within Nepal and abroad against Gadimai, faith seems more powerful – that the sacrifices will mollify the gods during trying times. The arguments (and laws) about unnecessary mass killing of innocent animals does not seem to work against a deeply-held belief system.
The ritual killings at Gadimai temple premises are on 8-10 December, and all 16 municipalities in Bara district have declared a three-day holiday. Upendra Prasad Yadav, mayor of Gadimai Municipality heads a coordination committee, and the main priest of the temple Mangal Chaudhary is from the indigenous Tharu community, as is the custom.
Buffalos used to be decapitated in an open ground near the temple, but after animal rights activists started protesting, it is now done inside a barbwire walled enclosure. The goats and chicken are sacrificed in a post-harvest paddy field across the Pasaha River.
Although the Gadimai Festival has earned a dubious reputation, it is also an opportunity for clans from both sides of the India-Nepal border to get together. Even the Muslim community here takes part, and Gadimai is also a celebration of religious harmony.&nbsp;
In recent years, what used to be a small gathering with a few hundred people has become massive and heavily commercialised. The sheer scale of the event overwhelms local authorities, and traders exploit visitors to maximise profits.&nbsp;
It has been more <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/from-nepali-press/Manage-Gadhimai,1804">than ten years since I have been writing</a> about the lack of regulation, and preparedness for potential emergencies at Bariyarpur. There are no veterinarians on site, no plans for post-festival cleanup of the blood and carcasses, and no oversight of the food for both animals and visitors. Sanitation standards are abysmal, and there is the risk of stampede.
The festival is also an occasion to see how society in the Madhes and in Bihar is changing: tractors have replaced bullock cart caravans. The Chamar community from India and Nepal still retrieve the buffalo carcasses, but rather than consume it themselves, the meat and skin are sold.
Since there are so many people who come together at one time, the festival is an opportunity for the Madhes Province government to use it to spread cultural awareness and information about public health issues.&nbsp;
Chandrakishore is a Birganj-based commentator who writes this monthly column Borderlines for Nepali Times.

Gadimai Again

The corridor between Simara and Birganj is Nepal’s prominent industrial area. Proximity to the Indian border, and location astride the main highway to Kathmandu also makes it an important trade route. However, these very attributes also bring out many problems, including health risk. Pollution of the waterways by factories is one hazard, the toxic effluents leaching into the soil contaminating groundwater.&nbsp; The other less visible but insidious health hazard on both sides of the border is from <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/impact-of-lead-on-intellectual-development%20,3820" target="_blank">lead poisoning</a>. Neither in India nor in Nepal is there much awareness in government or the public about the long term impact of lead in the environment. &nbsp; The solution to this problem should also be crossborder, but like with every other transboundary issue there is very little discussion between the two governments about it. International Lead Prevention Week (21-26 October) is as good a time as any to look into the issue. <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(23)00166-3/fulltext#:~:text=The%20global%20cost%20of%20lead,income%20losses%20from%20IQ%20loss." target="_blank">Worldwide, lead exposure risk</a> has reduced after leaded gasoline phase-out because it was discovered that lead in the environment caused a reduction of IQ and cardiovascular disease in people. In Nepal, however, research by the group <a href="http://cephed.org.np/" target="_blank">CEPHED (Center for Public Health and Environmental Development)</a> in Kathmandu has shown that lead is still present in paint, lead chromate used in colour dyes specially during Tihar, and in cooking utensils. Nepal is already at the bottom in terms of average intelligence of the population, according to the <a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/average-iq-by-country" target="_blank">World Population Review.</a>&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241025161024_45dd6cad017d1c1387d238213bb2cbfcadae2e0b17bedb839c44ca47bfd8655f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20241025161024_45dd6cad017d1c1387d238213bb2cbfcadae2e0b17bedb839c44ca47bfd8655f" data-rendition-name="original" width="1674" height="1360" loading="lazy" alt="lead poisoning in Nepal"> </figure>  Another <a href="https://a70774f5.streaklinks.com/CK_WIdlTE-cobDnhCwv4l9MA/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41598-024-59519-0" target="_blank">Rapid Market Survey</a> by the group Pure Earth that analysed hundreds of household items in Nepal found that 14 types of ceramic, aluminium or plastic kitchen ware had levels of lead above safe limits. Recycled aluminium cookware that leach lead is said to be the best-known of the three sources. Here in the Tarai, there is evidence that lead content in the <a href="https://journal.com.ph/lead-loaded-eyeliner-tested-in-malaysia-also-sold-in-the-philippines/" target="_blank">kajal traditional eye-liners </a>used daily by women is high enough to be a health hazard. The frightening thing is that despite the known risk, there have been no studies in the borderlands between India and Nepal about the lead content in the bloodstream of the population, especially of women and children. There are some extrapolated global statistics that suggest one third of urban Nepalis have blood lead levels that are higher than the safe threshold. Even Amarnath Thakur of the Mangalam Diagnostic Centre in Birganj says there are no reliable figures on lead contamination. There was a paper published in the Journal of Pathology of Nepal in 2016 that said the blood lead level among school-going children was ‘alarmingly high’. “There has not been enough definitive research, but the condition is probably not very good, especially among children,” says paediatrician Sailash Thakur, who thinks it is largely because of the proximity of the industrial corridor. In Kathmandu, two out of every three children could grow into adults with <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/impact-of-lead-on-intellectual-development%20,3820" target="_blank">limited mental and intellectual capacity</a> because of high blood lead content. “Imagine what this will do to our country,” said paediatrician Imran Ansari at Patan Hospital told <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/impact-of-lead-on-intellectual-development%20,3820" target="_blank">Nepali Times in 2018</a>. A 2013 survey of school children in Kathmandu Valley calculated that every extra 10 µg/dl concentration of lead in the blood resulted in <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/jiom.com.np/index.php/jiomjournal/article/download/744/686" target="_blank">a drop in IQ of 2.35 points</a>.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241025161024_ad9df4419d7a7e9adcc77393dca9aab8680bb514797e66f940efcafbb8acc75a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="20241025161024_ad9df4419d7a7e9adcc77393dca9aab8680bb514797e66f940efcafbb8acc75a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1700" height="1118" loading="lazy" alt="lead poisoning in Nepal"> </figure>  Here in Birganj, children and pregnant women are exposed to high lead content, but there is little awareness, no strategy to tackle it, and no action on the part of local, provincial or federal governments. Awareness is especially necessary just before festivals like Diwali, Chhath, or Holi when spices, vermilion and other colour powders are used with <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/toxic-tihar" target="_blank">high lead chromate content</a>, as well as heavy metals like cadmium and strontium that are highly toxic. The paint industry uses lead to make the products shinier, to reduce rust and to make paint dry faster. Even though the companies say that they voluntarily no longer use lead, there is little monitoring whether they do or not. One research in the Tarai found groundwater contaminated with lead and arsenic, but municipalities here have never heard of either. It has been ten years since the Ministry of Forests and Environment issued a gazette notice fixing the maximum lead concentration in paint to 90 ppm (parts per million). But that regulation seems to exist only on paper, and the government has abandoned its primary responsibility of safeguarding the health of people. Lead poisoning is not like other types of toxic ingestion, children and adults can be exposed to it through the ambient air and once it enters the bloodstream the lead then affects the brain and other organs over the long term. Children have been found to be especially vulnerable. Lead poisoning can even expose the foetus if the mother is exposed to it, and the damage it does is much more serious than what it would do to an adult. There are many sources of contamination: carelessly disposed lead acid batteries, inverter batteries, e-waste, leaded paint, water coming out of older leader pipes. But the general public is mostly unaware of these risks.&nbsp; Lead poisoning is a hidden danger, and if the federal government does not care, it should be the Madhes Province that does by spreading public awareness, monitoring sources of lead, and providing safe alternatives. &nbsp;Cooperation with local governments across the open porous border in India would also be essential.

The silent danger of lead

It was a rainy night in August, 50 years ago, in our ancestral village of Balara near the Indian border. Because of the monsoon, our village was surrounded by flood waters.&nbsp; I vividly remember my grandmother Sharada Devi picking me up, and putting me to sleep on the bed. Waking up the next morning, I learnt that she had been bitten by a snake, and a porter had carried her in a bamboo basket across the Bagmati to a shaman. She died on the way. That bereavement at a young age left a wound that is still fresh. Even after half-a-century, the trauma of snakes has not left me. Many thousands of Nepalis die every year because of lack of timely treatment for snake bites. The Tarai presents an ideal habitat for venomous snakes, and during the monsoon they come out of their flooded hideouts to enter homes and fields. The monsoon is also when there are more farmers out and about for planting, exposing them to the danger. Snake bite has been such a clear and present danger to life in Nepal’s southern borderlands that during the many festivals this season, stories are told of people who have survived snake bites because of their devotion.&nbsp; There are Maithili folk songs that pray for the welfare of snakes, but also plead for divine protection from snake bites at night, so they can wake up alive in the morning.&nbsp; The traditional occupation of the Natuwa people is of snake charmers. They used to travel from village to village blowing on a flute-like instrument, making a captive cobra sway and dance.&nbsp; The Natuwa can be Hindu or Muslim, and are also called upon when a venomous snake is found inside the house. Some earned the reputation for being quacks because of their ineffective and fake treatment of snakebites. Mobarak Miya (below) lives near Simara, and shows a round wooden box in which he used to keep his dancing cobra.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240926110956_e1c94271600b547e21183c3502b51993e37a1aa404b16b3cbff89124d360c149.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20240926110956_e1c94271600b547e21183c3502b51993e37a1aa404b16b3cbff89124d360c149" data-rendition-name="original" width="1204" height="1600" loading="lazy" alt="The snake bite emergency"> </figure>  “Nowadays snakes are a protected species and the law does not allow us to keep them, but we had a charmed life as snake charmers,” recalls Miya, who now does day jobs to earn a living. For a hazard that claims thousands of lives every year in Nepal, there are no reliable estimates of fatalities from snake bites. Awareness is lacking about distinguishing between venomous and non-venomous snakes, or what to do if bitten. Snake bites are treatable, but health posts lack adequate anti-venom vials. About 10 people every year are killed by tiger or wildlife attacks, but those get much more media attention than the estimated 40,000 snake bite cases a year in Nepal and the 3,000 fatalities that result from them. &nbsp;&nbsp; As with everything else, it is the marginalised communities which are most exposed to the risk. Tarai Dalits, who spend more time outdoors in the fields and live in flimsy mud and thatch houses, suffer disproportionately.&nbsp; With federalism, rural municipalities should be taking a more proactive approach to supplying antidotes to their health posts and spreading awareness. But this is not happening. Statistics from existing health posts that administer antivenom show that many victims are from across the border in India. This proves that northern Bihar also suffers from the same risk and lacks treatment. The role of local FM radio in spreading awareness has transboundary importance because these stations have a considerable listenership in India.&nbsp; Tarai families are more exposed to the risk because most of Nepal’s venomous species are found in the plains. But in addition, unsafe housing, flooding, paddy plantation and harvest, grazing livestock, open defecation, and sleeping on the floor are added risk factors. Researchers at BPKIHS in Dharan showed in a pilot in four Tarai villages that a Motorcycle Volunteer Program to rush snake bite victims to health posts saved lives. There used to be about 500 snake bites per 100,000 population with a 10% fatality rate in the sites, but after the experiment, only 0.5% of the 315 cases were fatal. &nbsp; Snakes kill and maim the poorest Nepalis, which may be why the state is not so bothered, and there is a direct correlation with unsafe housing, lack of education, and quality health services.&nbsp; The snake bite emergency is as serious as ever. It could be that agriculture, pesticide use, urbanisation, infrastructure has forced snakes out of their habitat. Climate breakdown, heat stress, and floods could be making human-snake contact more probable. &nbsp;&nbsp; Whatever the cause, I lost my grandmother and many Tarai households lose family members every year. Nepal has had multiple governments in the past three decades, and two elections under the federal system that were supposed to provide accountable local governance.&nbsp; But the menace of snake bites remains an emergency. &nbsp; Chandrakishore is a Birganj-based commentator who writes this monthly column Borderlines for Nepali Times.

The snake bite emergency

As the well-known adage goes: you can choose your friends but not your neighbours. There is no alternative to learning to live together. Relations between neighbours in a housing estate or nation states is (or should be) dependent on long term bilateral interest, not instantaneous calculations. Nowhere is relations between nations become more of an everyday issue than in the borderlands. And how multidimensional relations between countries are managed and nurtured should be the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/learning-rubbish-memorising-gibberish">message in school textbooks</a>. Afterall, the foundations of knowledge and values are laid in school and in the books used to teach them. In most countries the content of textbooks is determined by the state, in fact it is an official document reflecting a country’s position on various facets of citizenship. Textbooks determine a person’s views on a cross border state.&nbsp; I have recently been leafing through the<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/delay-dilute-deny"> Social Studies textbooks</a> for Grades 9 (pictured, below) and 10 published by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology’s Curriculum Development Board at Sano Thimi. Imagine my astonishment when in the Grade 9 chapter on ‘Nation and Nationalism’ was this sentence in the section titled Border Security (translated from Nepali): ‘An open border opens up the possibility of increased human trafficking and drug smuggling. In fact, an open border can poison relations between people and even lead to war.’  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240717080732_a0492a1be8aaa76b0a90985f0c8ebf85874f53fd9e328d09aef9b614aa29cb84.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20240717080732_a0492a1be8aaa76b0a90985f0c8ebf85874f53fd9e328d09aef9b614aa29cb84" data-rendition-name="original" width="1074" height="1600" loading="lazy" alt="Nepali textbook social studies NT"> <figcaption>Social Studies textbook for grade 9.</figcaption> </figure>  Similarly, a section titled ‘Nepal’s Friends and Agencies’ talks about Nepal being a landlocked country situated between India and China, &nbsp;without indicating that these two neighbours of Nepal are global economic heavyweights. Whatever the text book may say about the dangers of an open border, all <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/borderlines/barbwire-borders">national frontiers should be as open as the one between India and Nepal</a>. Nepal has had a similar open border with Tibet for centuries.&nbsp; Officially, a country’s relation with its neighbour is marked by when diplomatic relations were established. But there is no such date with which we can pinpoint how long Nepal’s relations with India and Tibet (now an autonomous region of China) has existed. Nepal’s school textbooks fail to impart on students the importance of the country’s relations with these two vast and powerful neighbours. Instead of establishing a narrative that an open border is the ultimate symbol of strong and close ties between countries, Nepali textbooks give it an unhelpful negative connotation. By contract, Nepal’s trans-Himalayan border with China is limited and controlled. Citizens of both countries need passports and visas to enter the other. From time to time, some Tibetans do enter Nepal bypassing official checkpoints.&nbsp; The Nepal-India border on the other hand is open because of mutual agreement, friendship, good neighbourliness, religious and cultural diversity, social cohesion, family relations, and common geographical features on both sides.&nbsp; These economic, cultural, political and historical aspects of the open border should have been incorporated into Nepal’s text books. On the other hand, the books should also have explained the reason why the Nepal-China border has not been open since the annexation of Tibet 65 years ago. The content of the Social Studies text book reflects state neglect. A border is not the result of the wishes of a country on one side, it is the common meeting point of nations. Because the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/lessons-not-learnt-homework-not-done">examination system </a>requires students to memorise and regurgitate content of textbooks, a teacher cannot deviate from what it says even if it is incorrect. A secondary school teacher regards the textbook as the curriculum. A text book’s content therefore does not just impact the point of view of students, but also teachers. More than disinformation on social media, it is the half-truths and false notions in text books that are more dangerous. In fact, textbooks read like the declaration of the political party in power. This is a result of the curriculum drafters not being inclusive and representative of Nepal’s diversity.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-exceptional-buhari">The Exceptional Buhari</a>, Sudeshna Thapa This can bring about a tectonic shift in the thought process of young Nepalis, evoke a sense of animosity towards neighbours and ‘others’. In a country where political polarisation, ideological divide is already wide, such assertiveness by the dominant community can be sensitive.&nbsp; Textbooks cannot be propaganda, they cannot be a vehicle to establish a political narrative. They should heal and unite. Students need to learn and understand <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-s-love-triangle-with-china-and-india-impacts-investment">Nepal’s fragile geopolitical circumstance</a>, and not be exhorted to rock the boat. There is a common socio-cultural milieu that is transboundary because of our shared history and politics. Nepal’s youth need to have a moderate and balanced view of the history, geography and cultural links of the borderlands so they can contribute to cooperation and coexistence.&nbsp; Chandra Kishore is a Birganj-based media commentator and writes this monthly column Borderlines for Nepali Times. @kishore_chandra

Textbook case of bad textbooks

The marathon Indian election race and its nail-biting finish was watched with great interest in Nepal, and nowhere more so than here in the borderlands of the Tarai. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/modi-fever-in-motihari">Next door in the Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh</a>, the BJP faced a dramatic upset — even in Ayodhya, where Narendra Modi had inaugurated a Hindu temple complex built on the ruins of a mosque earlier this year.&nbsp; Kathmandu-based India ‘experts’ spread many conspiracy theories ahead of the elections mainly about how <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/southerly-winds">Modi’s Hindutva political ideology</a> would spread to the Tarai. They were unable to distinguish between political Hindutva and faith-based Hindu activities. Even though the BJP is expected to form the next government, it is behaving as if it lost the election because it set the bar too high for itself. Despite all the parties uniting in the I.N.D.I.A. alliance led by Rahul Gandhi of the Congress party, it still got less votes than the BJP. Yet the alliance is celebrating a victory.&nbsp; The main message of the Indian election result that should have relevance for Nepal is that voters in the world’s largest democracy refused to whole-heartedly support the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/volatile-mix-of-politics-and-religion">BJP’s divisive religious extremism</a>, and have given a nod to inclusion, tolerance and equality.&nbsp; Populism, the cult of personality, faux-nationalism, the muzzling of media and civil society, as well as religious and socio-cultural polarisation will ultimately be rejected at the grassroots. It was India’s Dalits, indigenous people, and the marginalised who punctured the BJP’s saffron balloon.&nbsp; But the Indian electorate also put the BJP back in power to reward Modi for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/india-s-election-and-its-economic-future">the visible progress in infrastructure</a>, and making many Indians feel good about themselves. The BJP party is facing internal tension as it analyses why the party did not do as well as expected. The ill-concealed rivalry between the RSS and the BJP, the alienation of India’s sizeable Muslim and Dalit population strengthened the hand of the Congress. It is said that the road to power in New Delhi is via Uttar Pradesh, because of the state’s sheer population size. The BJP Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath, who is also the high priest of the Gorakhnath Temple with strong ties to the Nepal monarchy, is expected to now have less clout in New Delhi.&nbsp; This means the political forces in Nepal who were <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/india-s-hindutva-politics-influencing-nepal">trying to roll back secularism and restore the monarchy with moral support from the South</a>, will also face a setback. The border states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh both largely rejected the politics of religious extremism.&nbsp; The election has also boosted Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal, who has been supportive of Nepal’s democratic path. The fact that he and the Congress are now stronger in Delhi will reassure Nepal’s democratic forces, however, the leaders in Kathmandu will have to face the fact that their future political careers depend more on domestic performance rather than who rules in Delhi. The other two Indian states bordering Nepal are Sikkim and Uttaranchal. Prem Tamang of the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha won a landslide, while in Uttaranchal the BJP won with its strident call to make the state an exclusive Hindu Holy Land. One often overlooked fact is that India’s relations with Nepal are determined more by bureaucracy in the south Block of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs than politicians. But India’s fraught relationships with several regional nations and growing competition over regional influence with China means that Nepal is very much on Modi’s radar.&nbsp; The BJP was in power when Nepal suffered a five-month blockade, and it could be that an insecure Modi in 2024 will try to assert dominance again to signal detractors back home that he is still in charge.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024060702064_5cce435fbad4f3dc0e9cd84ad3664071d9bd007e58c1b0c83927cde9400cb39f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="2024060702064_5cce435fbad4f3dc0e9cd84ad3664071d9bd007e58c1b0c83927cde9400cb39f" data-rendition-name="original" width="2480" height="1491" loading="lazy" alt="Indian election results NT"> <figcaption>GLORY TO THE PARTY: The mood at the Friends of BJP party at the Radisson Hotel in Kathmandu on 4 June was subdued since the expected landslide victory of Narendra Modi's BJP did not materialise. Guests included Nepali politicians, Indian expats, and the media. Photo: BIKAS RAUNIYAR(c)BR</figcaption> </figure>  One pollster broke down in tears on tv as the final results were coming in on Tuesday. The NDA that includes the BJP won 293 seats in the federal parliament, while I.N.D.I.A. led by the Indian National Congress won 234 seats. A party or coalition needs to win at least 272 out of 543 seats to form a majority.&nbsp; To say India's election results were unpredictable would be an understatement. Exit polls had predicted a massive <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/new-year-same-difference">win for the BJP and Modi</a>.&nbsp; The BJP by itself won 240 seats falling wildly short of its election promise of 400. Unlike in 2014, and 2016, the BJP will need to depend on its allies to form a government. Modi’s key allies in the NDA coalition, Janata Dal United’s Nitish Kumar and the Telugu Desam Party’s Chandrababu Naidu who are said to have aspirations of their own to become Prime Minister, are now kingmakers. &nbsp; During his last two terms, that very majority gave PM Modi the power to control his Cabinet at whim, but he no longer has that luxury. The BJP’s underwhelming performance was due to a growing void between the BJP and its Hindu ideological guru the RSS, animosity between Modi and influential BJP leaders like Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath, and the Indian general public’s heightening discontent towards Modi and the BJP’s Hindutva politics. In Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP had won 62 out of 80 seats in 2019, this time it won only 33 and the Samajwadi Party of I.N.D.I.A. alliance won 37 out of 80 seats. Modi’s decade-long rule over India has been characterised by his monopolistic control over the political mechanism and state institutions, a media sector full of lapdogs, a silenced civil society and persecuted opposition, as well as increasing socio-cultural polarisation.&nbsp; Over the years, Modi’s former f<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/borderlines/the-south-wind-blows">ringe Hindutva ideology spread like wildfire</a> to the mainstream, and the struggles faced by Dalits, Muslims, and other minorities were swept under the rug. But democratic and political movements across the world have shown us that the relentless targeting of marginalised communities eventually leads to resistance against the injustices brought upon them by the dominant groups. The results of the election are a reflection of the growing intolerance to the suffering of everyday Indian citizens and have served as a safety valve of India’s democracy. Modi is infamous for his long memory. He systematically silenced critics and dissenters and developed a God complex. Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi and his INC won 99 seats, and seems to have keyed into the pulse of India, forgoing the politics of polarisation to focus on pressing issues including a massive unemployment problem, inflation, social security, and farmers’ rights. The INC did not win overall, but its election strategy gained traction.&nbsp; Overall, Modi seems more relieved about I.N.D.I.A.’s failure to collectively win as many parliament seats as the BJP did on its own than about being prime minister for the third time.&nbsp; Chandra Kishore is a Birganj-based media commentator and writes this monthly column Borderlines for Nepali Times. @kishore_chandra

Demodification of India

It is fitting that Kathmandu Valley’s living heritage is getting so much international exposure, and the restitution of its stolen artefacts has become a part of Nepal’s national agenda. Nowhere else in Nepal is there so much cultural heritage crammed into such a small space. Yet, there are some equally important archaeological and heritage areas in the Tarai and the trans-Himalayan regions of Mustang and Dolpo. Kathmandu Valley’s kingdoms had strong cultural and historical ties with the Mithila Kingdom to the south. It was that <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/nation-bhaktapur,597">Malla-Mithila alliance</a> that helped Kathmandu Valley avoid even worse destruction from the Tughlaq ruler of Delhi who razed the Milithla capital of Simraungad in 1326 established by the Karnatak king Nanya Deva three centuries previously.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240604140624_7645bc82d9d4449fb329b4465ab96c4e17d6e832b864b1a58fdba2c08046633c.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20240604140624_7645bc82d9d4449fb329b4465ab96c4e17d6e832b864b1a58fdba2c08046633c" data-rendition-name="original" width="800" height="1200" loading="lazy" alt="Tarai heritage NT"> <figcaption>One of the few relics left in Simraungadh of an empire that stretched across present day North India and Nepal. </figcaption> </figure>  Simraungad today is located in Bara district on the borderland between India and Nepal. The art and culture of Simraungad was enriched by Kathmandu and Tibet to the north and the Buddhist holy sites to the south. As the Moghuls arrived at the gates, <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/nation-bhaktapur,597">King Harisingh Deva fled north</a> to Kathmandu Valley along with his most precious possessions. But much of his palace, its elaborate sculptures and artefacts lie scattered about and buried underground. Today the region is an open museum. Simraungad itself stretches across a dozen ancient villages, ruins of which lie half-buried in the plains. These relics are more than 1,000 years old, and if it was to be excavated by Nepal’s Archaeology Department could have been as important as Nalanda in India as a centre of learning. But at the rate of its destruction, it will soon only remain in history books. &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240604140624_b830d553c941d98d3500cdb82828650f204afb07797a51461a83438853a7a47f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20240604140624_b830d553c941d98d3500cdb82828650f204afb07797a51461a83438853a7a47f" data-rendition-name="original" width="1048" height="948" loading="lazy" alt="Tarai heritage NT"> </figure>  Instead of protecting what is there, the Madhes Province government has declared Simraungad a ‘Fish Zone’ and helped locals construct ponds. Every dig unearths millenium-old statues, terracotta utensils, and other priceless artefacts all hints at aspects of the history and culture of this lost kingdom. Aside from the ponds, there are concrete buildings going up, their foundations cutting through what should be an archaeological site destroying heritage that had a direct bearing on the later enrichment of the Kathmandu Valley civilisation. While all the attention is on the stolen artefacts of the capital valley, Simraungad is suffering a second plunder of what remains of its heritage, this time by thieves and traffickers. The attention now needs to focus on protecting the hidden past of historic sites like <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/nation-bhaktapur,597">Simraungad</a>, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/buddha-s-birthday-in-his-birthplace">Kapilvastu</a>, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/unholy-developments-at-holy-sites">Ramgram</a>, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/where-siddhartha-gautam-walked">Tilaurakot</a>, <a href="https://medium.com/@iflytonepal/kakrebihar-is-a-shikhara-hindu-and-buddhist-temple-in-birendranagar-surkhet-karnali-province-46af9dfe0822#:~:text=Jan%205,%202024-,Kakrebihar%20is%20a%20Shikhara%20Hindu%20and%20Buddhist%20temple%20in%20Birendranagar,over%20180%20hectares%20of%20land.">Kakrevihar in Surkhet</a> and other places we may not even have heard about.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240604140624_9c3b83a1d6b3e8825dad9ba7e533e60e8fd22ccb757b1db68329fd5e323281a3.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20240604140624_9c3b83a1d6b3e8825dad9ba7e533e60e8fd22ccb757b1db68329fd5e323281a3" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="1050" loading="lazy" alt="Tarai heritage"> </figure>  A silver lining could be that local governments may be more interested in preserving their identities than Kathmandu, and we can see some evidence of that.&nbsp; In Rautahat recently the Maulapur Municipality excavated the Pataura site to unearth a thousand- year -old Mahadev temple. Archaeologists restored it, and locals now worship at the ancient shrine. Stolen religious items have been returned to Kathmandu where they are once more consecrated and venerated, but this is possibly the first time an entire temple has been unearthed from 5 metres below to be revered once more. It is not just temples, there are ponds, rivers, forest groves cobblestone streets that have cultural importance that are also being preserved and restored. Just in Madhes, there are campaigns to revive the historically important Kamala, Jalad, Dudhmati, Lakhandeyi rivers. But sometimes, although local officials have the right intentions, there are wrong outcomes. The Janaki Devi Temple in Janakpur, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-sita-ram-corridor">the birthplace of Sita</a>, is a case in point. In a misguided effort to beautify the historical monument, thousands of holes have been drilled into its stucco facade to fix multicoloured LED lights just as efforts are afoot to include the temple in the UNESCO World Heritage List.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240604140624_fef3874f29b3c7ad81c8b3079a86131defea826baf94ed1f0ff155dafec18b5c.jpg" data-media-id="editor_11" data-image-id="20240604140624_fef3874f29b3c7ad81c8b3079a86131defea826baf94ed1f0ff155dafec18b5c" data-rendition-name="original" width="1600" height="721" loading="lazy" alt="Tarai heritage"> </figure>  Making a temple look like a casino cannot preserve a living faith, nor will it help get the site into the UNESCO listing. As they say, if you want to know about a country, read its history but you want to truly understand it, visit its heritage sites.&nbsp; There is a need to work across the border with archaeologists in India, since Simraungad Kingdom predates the two nation states and a large part of it lies in what is now northern Bihar. Since archaeology does not respect modern political boundaries, relying on governments is not enough. Cultural preservation does not just need money, it needs willpower which is now being shown by local communities. Nepal’s soft power is its heritage, what unites the plains and the mountains is our shared history as exemplified by Simraungad-Kathmandu Valley and the mingling of Mithila and Malla histories. Chandra Kishore is a Birganj-based media commentator and writes this monthly column Borderlines for Nepali Times. @kishore_chandra

Nepal’s soft power is its heritage

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

चौतारा rest stops have long been an integral part of scenic touristic town of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/pokhara-six-decades-ago">Pokhara </a>but are now rarely seen as the city bursts at the seams. They say inhabitants of Pokhara saw a plane before they saw cars. Indeed, the grass airfield was built in the 1950s, while the Kathmandu highway 20 years later. Before roads, people walked to get around, pausing to rest or even nap under the shade of banyan-pipal trees. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/pokhara-s-desperation-and-hope">Pokhara airport’</a>s ‘terminal’ in those days was a shady chautara where passengers waited for their flights. The chautara bore silent witness to daily life, whether it was travellers seeking a brief respite from the summer heat or villagers gathering for a chat in the mornings and evenings. But with the roads came vehicles, and then houses started filling up spaces, even farmlands. Pokhara began transforming from a serene village to a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/pokhara-comes-alive-at-night">bustling city</a>.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250719010724_d101fa482441ce67afdf5bc4e4547b334e7662c1cf0a20e9d31a0e8dff66f04b.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20250719010724_d101fa482441ce67afdf5bc4e4547b334e7662c1cf0a20e9d31a0e8dff66f04b" data-rendition-name="original" width="2147" height="1581" loading="lazy" alt="Trees of life and living NT"> <figcaption>Photo: DURGA RANA MAGAR</figcaption> </figure>  The banyan-pipal trees were chopped down to make way for wider intersections and buildings. The once-iconic rest stops that carried Pokhara’s identity had all but vanished. “Building chautara was once considered a religious duty, which is why so many of them were constructed across Pokhara,” says archivist Sunil Ulak. <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=10927">Ekai Kawaguchi</a>, a Japanese Buddhist monk, who visited Nepal 120 years ago en route to Tibet, documented <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/no-visitors-in-pokhara-to-admire-view">the landscape of Pokhara</a> and its surroundings. In his book, Three Years in Tibet, he reflects on the natural beauty of the town and its shady trees. A chautara used to be surrounded by ponds, where shepherds would bring their cattle to drink from while they took a nap under the shade. The gentle rustling of leaves in the cool breeze lent a soothing melody as did the chirping of birds, while the insects took refuge in the branches and leaves. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/pokhara-800-years-ago">Pokhara 800 years ago</a>, Kunda Dixit This ‘nature’s breeze’, as botanist Kalyan Panta puts it, is now history due to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/cost-of-living-in-a-big-city">haphazard urbanisation</a>. “When the wind strikes against one leaf, it creates a domino effect and other leaves start waving as well,” he explains. There were 632 chautara in the city until 1977, and by 2000 the number had fallen to 278. But in some wards the number of trees fell from 55 in 1984 to only five now.&nbsp; The gradual loss of these resting places has meant habitat <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/between-existence-and-extinction-in-nepal">destruction of birds and insects</a>, it has also damaged the environment and natural beauty of the city.&nbsp; Researcher Jagannath Adhikari’s study showed that infrastructure projects ignored the environment, and concluded that that urbanisation in Pokhara was unsustainable.&nbsp; The destruction continues to this day. Recently, old chaurata in wards 6, 13 and 14 were cleared to make way for a sacrificial ritual. In fact, ward 6 got a permit from the local government to clear its remaining trees.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250719010724_cee1d4faf8376e7ba18b9c7012ea4215b7c3fbf7e0983b0c97005df5567d6de0.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20250719010724_cee1d4faf8376e7ba18b9c7012ea4215b7c3fbf7e0983b0c97005df5567d6de0" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Trees of life and living NT"> <figcaption>Photo: DURGA RANA MAGAR</figcaption> </figure>  But in wards 13 and 14, the Human Service Foundation cut down some 33 trees for which it is in a dispute with the metropolitan city as there is no unclear jurisdiction regarding who gives the permit. The Kaski Division Forest Office is currently investigating the matter. Elsewhere in ward 19, the ward office had launched ‘मेरो रूख, म काट्छु’ campaign due to an alleged chaos caused by monkeys in the area. The decision was rescinded after an all-around opposition.&nbsp; To be sure, there are policies in place to protect trees such as the Gandaki Province Forestry Act, 2080, and the Regulations, 2081. The province government also introduced an act in 2019 per which no tree, including pipal, silk cotton and other <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/suburban-tales/trees-trees?%2F">trees of natural and historical importance</a> shall be damaged, eroded or removed. But the local government, responsible for implementing the Act, is doing the opposite. “If this rapid rate of tree felling continues, neither trees nor chautara will survive for the future generation,” conservationist Ram Bahadur Poudel tells us, adding that old trees are being cleared under the pretext of pruning branches. Interestingly, Ulak notes that Pokhara-8 was called सिमलचौर in the past because there were so many majestic silk cotton trees, but there are very few left, if any, and hence altering the identity of a place. With modernisation, people have questioned the significance of chautara in this day and age. But they still have relevance. Urban centres in Pokhara and Kathmandu are much hotter than the outskirts because of the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/in-the-heat-of-the-moment-5xcycyot">urban heat island effect</a>. Says archivist Ulak: “While their original purpose was to provide rest, today they continue to play a crucial role in regulating temperature, beautifying the city, and preserving our environment.”

Trees of life and living

Nepalis are living longer than ever. By 2028, the country is set to join the ranks of other <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepals-demographic-window-is-closing">ageing societies</a> around the world, and by 2054, 1 out of every 7 people in Nepal will be over 65. Life expectancy at birth has risen dramatically from just 55 in 1990 to 71 today, &nbsp;thanks to improvements in public health and access. But as more people live longer, the country must also prepare for a parallel rise in age-related illnesses and the complex social and medical needs that come with an <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/need-to-prepare-for-ageing-society,3624">ageing population</a>. Extended families have always acted as a safety net for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/home-sweet-home-for-older-nepalis">the elderly</a>, with children and grandchildren shouldering most caregiving duties. But with more than 1,600 <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/migration-not-a-wish-but-necessity-for-nepalis">Nepalis migrating </a>every day, older parents are left behind with no one to care for them. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/the-new-equaliser">Remittances</a> from migrating youth, which account for nearly a third of Nepal’s GDP, have kept the economy afloat. But money sent home cannot make up for the chronic departure of kin and caregivers, who are often the first to catch the signs and symptoms of disease in elders. In rural areas where over 85% of Nepal’s elderly live, the absence of this daily vigilance means early signs of illness often go unnoticed until they become debilitating. As a result, chronic conditions like hypertension, diabetes, and depression are left unmanaged.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250720130748_213f2c65f2638872e9ac0550a7ac251e4960c3726dc5c76215962a23ba71dff1.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20250720130748_213f2c65f2638872e9ac0550a7ac251e4960c3726dc5c76215962a23ba71dff1" data-rendition-name="original" width="1064" height="701" loading="lazy" alt="Smart ageing is Nepal’s next frontier"> </figure>  Geriatric medicine is largely absent from medical curricula and there is no national plan in place to manage cognitive decline, memory loss and confusion. These are often mistaken for signs of normal ageing, instead of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/dementia-brings-new-problem-that-families-have-little%20knowledge-of,2151">dementia</a>, delaying care until it is too late. The same pattern plays out with strokes, osteoarthritis, and vision problems — conditions that could be managed early but are instead allowed to spiral into <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/changing-disability-to-this-ability-h68f6sq2">disability</a>. Nepal is not ready for an older future. It needs a strategy for ‘smart ageing’ where the focus is not adding years to life, but enhancing years lived through the intelligent application of policy, infrastructure, and crucially, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/tech-and-transition-in-nepal">technology</a>. Many models of smart ageing, however, are sculpted around modern societies where independent living in later life is the norm. Furthermore, eroding traditional family care and an underdeveloped formal care system means there is a large gap that can’t simply be filled by copy-pasting from foreign models. Nepal must shape its own version of smart ageing. The <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/healthcare-moving-from-hospitals-to-homes?%2F">tech boom</a> has led to homegrown digital healthcare apps such as Hamro Doctor, Cura Health, Jeevee and Health Yaad Ayo which offer teleconsultations, online appointments, and at-home test bookings. As <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/nepal-s-new-digital-landscape">smartphones and internet access</a> extend to the most rural fringes of the Nepali countryside, geography is no longer a barrier to the use of these digital tools. What limits their use is the lack of digital proficiency among the older generation. Others find the idea of turning to a device instead of a familiar, reassuring face unfathomable. That is why <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/addressing-nepals-digital-divide?ref=blog.togglecorp.com">digital literacy</a> efforts must be paired with guided human support to build trust alongside technical skill. Such a model of community-led digital mediation is already gaining traction elsewhere. In the UK, ‘digital health ambassadors’—often young people or even schoolchildren—are trained to co-design and advocate for online platforms that resonate with peers who might otherwise feel excluded from automated health services. A Nepali version could engage cohorts of nursing students, tech-savvy youngsters and returnee migrants to assist elders in navigating digital health platforms and troubleshooting problems, and most of all, normalising the idea of health apps being a reliable recourse.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250720130748_fcb94ab76e76b5574189757e88d76fccad4e115e78dd9eae92a3bd4c882c3431.png" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20250720130748_fcb94ab76e76b5574189757e88d76fccad4e115e78dd9eae92a3bd4c882c3431" data-rendition-name="original" width="2246" height="1590" loading="lazy" alt="Smart ageing is Nepal’s next frontier"> </figure>  Nepal’s own network of Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs), whose credibility is rooted in long-standing relationships across rural communities, could be similarly upskilled, their roles in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/target-2030-for-maternal-and-newborn-health">maternal and child health </a>expanded and repurposed to also include geriatric tech support. However, there is a limit to how much older adults can adapt to new technologies. So, Nepal should simultaneously invest in passive technologies—tools that monitor and act for the elderly, instead of demanding active use. That is where wearables and in-home smart health devices collectively known as 'gerontechnology' come in. Picture an 82-year-old in far-flung Rolpa, away from the facilities of an urban hospital. Installed in her home are low-cost motion sensors that monitor prolonged inactivity or signs of a fall, instantly triggering alerts to the nearest health post when necessary. On her wrist, a wearable bracelet continuously tracks her sleep, vital signs, oxygen saturation, and glucose levels. This data is encrypted and synced to a digital dashboard accessible by health staff at the local post. If the system flags an acute risk—such as a potential stroke or hypoglycemia—a nearby health worker is dispatched immediately to her home. If her readings over time indicate a trend toward a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/why-do-so-many-nepalis-have-high-blood-pressure">chronic condition</a> like diabetes, community health volunteers step in. They help schedule a virtual consultation with an endocrinologist in Butwal. Based on the advice received, she gets a prescription and picks up her medication from the local community pharmacy, along with a smart dispenser to ensure she sticks to her treatment plan without missing doses. This is not as far-fetched as it may sound. Many of the individual devices forming this connected medical system called an Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) already exist in Nepal as imported commercial products. What is missing is a stronger framework for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/business/public-health-partnership">public-private collaboration</a>: one where health tech companies continue developing locally adapted tools, and the government actively integrates these innovations into public health delivery. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/people-power/nepal-as-an-ai-power-bank">Nepal’s tech ecosystem</a> is maturing, but policymaking must evolve in tandem, especially when it affects an older generation largely resistant to change. The backlash against the recent mandate requiring National Identity Cards for accessing social security benefits revealed the pitfalls of imposing top-down reforms without adequate preparation or support for seniors. For Nepalis to age well, community caregivers, doctors, innovators, and above all, the state, must step in where families have stepped away. The goal is not to replicate traditional care, but to build a coordinated system of support that connects everyone through technology. The future is older for Nepal, let us be wiser too. The writers are pursuing their undergraduate studies in biomedical engineering at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.