Last month was a tragic reminder of just how unsafe travel in Nepal is, leading some experts to question if there is a mismatch between modern technology and a fatalistic culture. Dor Bahadur Bista tried to get to the bottom of this conundrum in 1991 in his seminal book, Fatalism and Development. It was an early attempt to see how an ‘everything goes’ attitude hindered <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepals-demographic-window-is-closing">Nepal's socio-economic progress</a>.&nbsp; Since then, others have struggled to explain why Nepalis do not adhere to mandatory safety standards in technologies ranging from electricity to gas cylinders, and in road and aviation safety.&nbsp; It has been 30 years since author Kedar Sharma published his book आधुनिकतासँग सावधान (Beware of Modernity) in which he warned that Nepalis had not kept pace with advanced technology. “It gives me no pleasure to say that, tragically, this is still the case,” says Sharma, referring to the loss of life in recurring highway and aviation disasters.&nbsp; “We are careless about following rules in all spheres of life,” adds Sharma. “And this is made worse by our faith in fate which lends to our tendency to be reckless. Roads were supposed to be synonymous with development, but are <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-deadly-roads-take-their-toll">now synonymous with death</a>. The quality of roads plays a big role in accidents, but we are culturally, administratively and legally negligent about safety.” Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/underpasses-to-reduce-roadkill-in-nepal?fbclid=IwAR0KntTDqdjk2YwmtQyTSkgh8wjtidPqx4LUNukUpYyT9-9SNO1fXzOA5ns">Underpasses to reduce roadkill in Nepal</a>, Tufan Neupane There has been much debate about regulatory failure in aviation that underlies frequent air crashes, and this was brought to the fore in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/unsafe-skies">last week’s Saurya Airlines crash</a> at Kathmandu airport in which 18 people lost their lives. That crash got much more attention than the disaster on the Mugling highway in which two buses were swept into the Trisuli River by a mudslide, killing 59. An investigation showed the flood was caused by debris from a poorly engineered road up the mountain that was washed down by a torrential downpour at night. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/managing-the-monsoon">Managing the monsoon</a>, Ngamindra Dahal It is easy to blame accidents on Nepal’s terrain and weather, but there are deeper socio-cultural underpinnings that magnify these dangers. And the buck stops at the gate of government. There are other soft states like Nepal that also have harsh conditions, but do not suffer such frequent disasters.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240802050832_60c87a1a569467f65bab8cfe0f05766af368fc3cd5bbb3a934eb054e2abc3283.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20240802050832_60c87a1a569467f65bab8cfe0f05766af368fc3cd5bbb3a934eb054e2abc3283" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="fatalism and fatalities NT"> <figcaption>Illustration: SUBASH RAI</figcaption> </figure>  The interface between technology and safety is not properly understood by most Nepalis: electric shocks and cooking gas disasters kill hundreds every year. There were 2,267 reported electrical accidents in the past five years, 60% of them fatal.&nbsp; More than 2,000 people died on <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/highway-accidents-are-no-accident-in-nepal">Nepal’s roads and highways</a> in the past year, many times more than all natural disasters combined. “Accidents aren’t just accidents, they are linked to the governance of the country and reflect political failure,” says Vijay Lama, an A330 captain with Nepal Airlines. “We need serious, open and prolonged discussion between regulatory bodies, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/100-101-102-hh5uvzf9">service providers</a>, airline operators and pilots that look deep into the crux of the problem to come up with solutions.”&nbsp; Lama has been flying for nearly 40 years, logging 30,000 hours on various aircraft from Twin Otters and Boeing 757s to Airbuses.&nbsp; He says, “If flying is unsafe, I would be the first one to say so, but it is still the safest and most efficient mode of travel. Air crashes just get more media attention but after the news fades, we go back to doing what we did before.” The international community has taken note, mainly because their nationals are often involved. The European Commission (EC) has put all Nepal-based airlines on its <a href="https://transport.ec.europa.eu/document/download/3195fabb-7575-4db9-85b9-ec5a77b481aa_en?filename=air-safety-list-2024-05-30_en.pdf">Air Safety List</a>, and the Saurya crash will surely hurt the chance of being taken off the list.&nbsp; One of the measures the EC has pushed is to separate the regulatory and operational functions of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN). Successive governments have not shown the political will to do so, and some doubt bifurcating CAAN will help since political interference will persist.&nbsp; Indeed, after every crash, CAAN sets up an investigation committee that issues recommendations. There is strict compliance, but only for a while. &nbsp; <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/keeps-happening">Read also: Keeps happening&nbsp;</a> Blame for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/60-years-of-living-dangerously">making travel dangerous</a> ultimately has to do with a political culture that has failed to prioritise safety even when the country’s international image is tarnished, affecting the tourism industry. &nbsp; “We should look at each crash as a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/latest/why-missing-planes-are-so-difficult-to-find-in-nepal">systemic failure</a>,” explains Ajaya Dixit, whose physician father perished in a Pilatus PC-6 crash in 1962 sent to investigate a previous crash in Dhorpatan of a DC-3 flying to New Delhi from Kathmandu. Nepal’s ambassador to India and two high ranking US officials were among the 10 victims. &nbsp;&nbsp; He adds: “Modern technologies are all imported, they didn’t evolve in our society. We lack a larger technological ethos in their operation, management, maintenance. Our commitment to technological discipline is low, cutting corners is accepted.”&nbsp; Indeed, travel safety cannot be an island of efficiency when the entire <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/democracy-s-sidekicks">political machinery of the country</a> is dysfunctional. And like other sectors, there is a culture of impunity here too. Human rights campaigner Sushil Pyakurel sums it up: “No one is suspended after crashes. The bus accident is no one’s responsibility because a landslide caused it. Unless those responsible are held to account, accidents will keep happening, people will continue to die.” &nbsp;

Sonia Awale

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Fatalism and fatalities

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101152/636b78c99c7e80680e0646bejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1125"/><figcaption>Photo: BIKRAM RAI</figcaption></figure>Nearly 2,800 people were killed on Nepal’s roads in the past year: that averages at seven fatalities per day. No data is available for the number of people who suffer such accidents, but thousands are injured seriously enough to be disabled for life. Yet, this <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Nation-road-kill,621" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pandemic of road accidents</a> gets much less media attention than COVID-19.Actress and model Mahima Silwal was headed to Chitwan for her wedding  along with her sister Sharmila on 12 February when their scooter was hit by a speeding bus. Mahima was pronounced dead at a nearby clinic. Her sister later died in a Kathmandu hospital.On 26 February CPN-ML General Secretary C P Mainali and several of his family members were injured in a car crash near Bardibas. On 2 March, former Constituent Assembly member Dharma Prasad Ghimire was killed in a crash in Bagdogra of India.News of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-deadly-roads-take-their-toll/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bus crashes and traffic accidents</a> do not even make it to the news line-up of the mainstream media anymore, unless they are celebrities. <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/maps-showing-increase-in-road-accident-fatality-rates" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Yet the numbers killed</a> on Nepal’s roads in the past ten years exceeds the total 17,000 who died during the armed conflict. In fact, road traffic accidents ranked as the number one cause of death among children between 5 and 14 years of age in Nepal.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/when-panic-goes-viral/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">When panic goes viral</a>, Editorial“There has been a big expansion of new roads, but unfortunately highway infrastructure and road discipline enforcement have not kept pace. We need to work on implementation day-by-day,” Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Basanta Kumar Nembang told Nepali Times in Stockholm while attending the Third Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety here.Along with 140 countries attending the conference, Nepal committed to meeting the World Health Organisation (WHO) goal to halve the number of road fatalities by 2030. According to the WHO’s own statistics, at least 7,000 people were killed worldwide during the two days of the conference – whereas the total known fatalities due to COVID-19 in the past two months was 4,635 as of Thursday.The WHO was holding the Stockholm conference even while the coronavirus was spreading out of China to the rest of the world, but road traffic accidents have long been an endemic cause of mortality and morbidity the world over. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Stockholm that it was “an outrage” that so many people were dying on the world’s roads every day.“Most road traffic deaths and injuries can be prevented, using tried and tested strategies, and everyone should be a part of the solution,” he told the gathering. But even as the conference came to a close on 20 February, the issue was already being eclipsed by the worldwide coverage of the COVID-19 spread.Since then, there have been at least 150 deaths on Nepal’s roads – mainly from overcrowded jeeps falling off poorly-built mountain roads, or buses overspeeding on highways <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/nation-nepal-highways,622">lacking basic safety features</a> like centreline guard-rails. In the cities, 90% of fatalities involve motorcyclists or pedestrians, indicating poor safety enforcement and low awareness.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-deadly-roads-take-their-toll/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepal's deadly roads take their toll</a>, Gopal GartaulaWHO says the fatality rate is highest in low- and middle-income South Asian countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Poor countries account for 93% of highway fatalities in the world.The United Nations observed 2011-2020 as a Global Decade on Road Safety, proposing to stabilise road traffic deaths and injuries around the world. There were mixed results, with partial success in ensuring better legislation, safer roads and vehicles, mandatory use of helmets and seatbelts. and reduced speeds.The <a href="#1001 March 13datairap.orgabout-us" target="_blank" rel="noopener">International Road Assessment Programme</a> is trying to raise awareness by rating roads by their safety records, and by giving ‘vaccines for roads’ to increase safety features. But very little of the infrastructure promoted by the program exist on Nepal’s roads, most of which are rated only one star out of five. Haphazard road construction in the past decade has not just disfigured the countryside with landslides, but also increased the rate of accidents.More than 200 children were killed on Sweden’s roads every year in the 1970s, but that figure now hovers at about 15. Opening the conference, Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf said there were tested ways of saving lives.“Road safety should now be linked to other sustainability challenges, such as global health, climate change, equality, poverty and human rights,” the king said.There are now nearly 2.4 million vehicles on Nepal’s roads, and a majority of them are two-wheelers, with 800,000 motorcycles in Kathmandu Valley alone. As the number of vehicles increases, so will the fatality rate.Puspa Raj Pant, a Nepali researcher at the University of West of England in  Bristol, is concerned about the lack of pedestrian crossings, cycle lanes and traffic signals in Nepal as well as lights or crash barriers along winding mountain roads.“We have vaccines to fight killer diseases, but no medicines to reduce road fatalities,” he said. “Education, improved infrastructure and safer vehicles hold the key to improving road safety.”

The other global pandemic: road fatalities

<figure><img width="1400" height="663" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110814110/636a52fe9c7e80680e052328jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photo: PRAKASH SINGH</figcaption></figure>Last month Kalpana BK delivered a healthy newborn baby on the way to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/state-of-the-art-rural-hospital/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bayalpata Hospital in Achham</a>, but her placenta did not come out spontaneously. As a female community health volunteer, she was usually the one providing support for women before, during and after they give birth. But when the road to the hospital was blocked for nearly 10 hours by a landslide (above) she became <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/people-politics-placentas-child-delivery-complications,3922" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the emergency</a>, bleeding massively and was increasingly short of breath.Luckily, once she finally made it to the hospital near Sanfebagar, Kalpana BK’s retained placenta was removed and she was transfused with blood. Today she is recovering from her life-threatening post-partum haemorrhage. More recently at Bayalpata, a surgical team was preparing to perform an emergency caesarean section to save both the mother and foetus. But the surgery was delayed for 20 minutes because of lack of water needed for the surgical team to scrub in, protecting the patient and her baby against infections. The delay significantly heightened the risk that the two lives would be lost, not saved.Across Nepal, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/nepals-silent-emergency-springs-going-dry/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">traditional springs are going dry</a>, and hospitals are also affected. Without adequate water, staff at health facilities are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain cleanliness and best practices for preventing infections. When this happens, hospital-acquired infections are likely to rise. <figure><img width="1500" height="712" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110814110/636a53019c7e80680e052329jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Due to a combination of factors, such as <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/where-is-the-monsoon-this-year/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lower rainfall</a> and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/turning-on-the-heat/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rising temperatures</a> caused by <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/weather-warning-for-climate-meeting/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">climate change</a>, rampant construction of poor-designed roads, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/who-now-owns-nepals-forests/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">deforestation</a>, overpopulation, overconsumption and inadequate maintenance of pipes and wells, Nepal’s mountains are suffering <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/editorial/h20-shortage,3456" target="_blank" rel="noopener">water shortages</a>.Roads are supposed to improve access of patients to hospitals, but have themselves become killers in two ways. <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/accident-prone-Mugling-Narayangadi-highway,3828" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Haphazard construction triggers landslides</a> that endanger lives, and roads are blocked, delaying patients like Kalpana BK from reaching hospitals in time. These two recent examples of a landslide and water shortage in Achham reflect the adverse impacts of worsening environmental conditions on our health system and their possibly devastating impact on people who are already ill and often vulnerable. So-called ‘natural disasters’ actually have a strong connection to human decision-making and are frequently caused by <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-deadly-roads-take-their-toll/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reckless road construction</a> that does not pay sufficient attention to environmental factors.Navin Bhatt, staff physician at Bayalpata Hospital, says environmental degradation can undermine health care delivery: “Deforestation is one of the causes of landslides, which lead to roads being blocked, hampering the transportation of people who are ill to the hospital. Rising temperatures are resulting in more <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/hisss/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">snake bite</a> cases. The quality of healthcare services is affected by environmental pollution.” The urgency to recognise that health and the environment are strongly connected is growing worldwide. To raise awareness about the issue and motivate grassroots solutions to these problems, the World Health Organisation announced in its ‘Ten threats to Global Health in 2019’ that <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/air-pollution-is-more-dangerous-than-smoking/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">air pollution</a> and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/climate-climax/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">climate change</a> are the number one public health threats. Nepal Government officials at all levels, health workers, environmental experts and development partners need to collaborate with advocates for <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/between-existence-and-extinction-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ecological balance</a>. Only when we work hand-in-hand rather than in isolation, can we take tangible steps to prevent environmental damage and restore healthy and resilient ecosystems.   Bikash Gauchan is a doctor in Achham. Nathaniel Uchtmann is a medical doctor and lawyer.

Environmental destruction is a medical emergency

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101132/636a22ff9c7e80680e0417c1jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="1050"/><figcaption>Photos: BIKRAM RAI</figcaption></figure><ul><li>At least seven people were killed when a bus heading to Narayangad from Beni lost control and fell 70m from the road down to the Kali Gandaki River in Kusma Municipality of Parbat district on Thursday.</li> <li>A bus plunge from a crumbling highway in Tulsipur last month killed 22 and maimed 15 -- most of them students and teachers from a technical school in Ghorahi on a field trip.</li> <li>A mini truck skidded off a dirt tract in Nuwakot and plunged several hundred meters in Dupcheshwar rural municipality on 14 December, killing 22 out of the 40 on board the lorry. The passengers were returning home to Sisipu after performing funeral rites for a fellow villager.</li> <li>In just one day that week, Devi Prasad Rai of Kerabari in Morang lost his life when a bus hit him near a fuel station. Dhan Prasad Giri, 63, and his 29-year-old son were killed by an Indian-registered truck. Nirmala Karki of Gauradaha of Jhapa was hit by a school bus and died.</li></ul><iframe id="datawrapper-chart-PxGlE" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important;" src="//datawrapper.dwcdn.net/PxGlE/1/" height="549" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>In the past five months alone, 1,176 people have been killed across Nepal in what police call ‘road traffic accidents’ (RTA). This is an increase from last year, and with more vehicles driven by negligent drivers on poorly-built roads, fatalities have <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/maps-showing-increase-in-road-accident-fatality-rates" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gone up sharply in the past decade</a>.The district-wise data of total fatalities from 16 July 2017 were collected by a Nepali Times team over two days this week, and shows that the majority of road traffic mishaps have occured in crowded urban areas in the Tarai and Kathmandu Valley. But even Dolpo has had three serious accidents, killing 20 since the first roads were built four years ago.In the last 10 years, 22,461 lost their lives in RTA, according to Nepal Police. While most were men, women made up 3,577 of the fatalities, and of the total, 2,440 were men and women below 18 years of age.Read also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/traffic-accidents-continue-to-increase-worryingly-in-Nepal,2799" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Road kill</a>, Surendra Phuyal<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/accident-prone-Mugling-Narayangadi-highway,3828" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Unblocking an artery</a>, Sanjeev SharmaPolice records blame 95% of accidents in Nepal on negligence of drivers. Mechanical failure, poor road condition, careless pedestrians and bad weather accounted for the rest. However, even though over-speeding, over-loading are major causes, the number of accidents caused by poor road maintenance, and the presence of animals and pedestrians on highways are probably under-reported.This means the blame ultimately goes to lax Police monitoring, and <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/traffic-accidents-continue-to-increase-worryingly-in-Nepal,2799" target="_blank" rel="noopener">government apathy</a> in completing road construction and maintaining minimum safety standards.The Department of Transport Management, the governing body responsible for safe and reliable transportation does not even seem to acknowledge that road safety is its responsibility, taking an ‘accidents happen’ attitude.<iframe id="datawrapper-chart-gIV87" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important;" src="//datawrapper.dwcdn.net/gIV87/1/" height="400" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe><iframe id="datawrapper-chart-espux" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important;" src="//datawrapper.dwcdn.net/espux/6/" height="400" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe><iframe id="datawrapper-chart-ED7Lj" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important;" src="//datawrapper.dwcdn.net/ED7Lj/2/" height="393" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>There is no effort to enforcing and implementing existing laws to ensure safety, and none of the officials interviewed for this article appeared to recognise that the rising number of road traffic accidents was a national emergency that needed a strategy for mitigation.Article 257 of the Vehicle and Transport Management Act 1993 authorised the Department of Transport Management to appoint transport supervisors to fine or seize driving license of individuals violating traffic rules.Read also:<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/cartel-carnage-highway,3243" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Highways of death</a>, Santa Gaha Magar<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/maps-showing-increase-in-road-accident-fatality-rates" target="_blank" rel="noopener">6 years of road traffic accidents</a>, Sunir PandeyBut 26 years on, not a single transport supervisor has been appointed. Article 67 of the Act also clearly states that the co-drivers also need to obtain licenses from the Department, but none has been issued so far, admits Tirtha Khanal, head of the Vehicle Monitoring and Provincial Coordination Division.“We are a small five-person office. It is impossible for us to monitor such a huge number of vehicles in Nepal,” said Khanal. There are more than 3.2 million motorcycles, cars and trucks registered across Nepal and the figure is growing exponentially.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101136/636a23029c7e80680e0417c2jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="1050"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The Act further states that all vehciles must have passed pollution tests and possess a vehicle inspection report, and drivers are required to take a half-an-hour of break after four hours on the road. Passenger vehicles are also restricted from carrying more people than the total number of seats, and long-distance vehicles should have two drivers with change in shift after 6 hours.In March 2018, the government amended the Vehicle and Transport Management Rules and banned buses older than 20 years. But eight months later, these polluting old vehicles are still on the roads.Read also: <a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/lack-of-trauma-centres-along-nepal%C3%A2%E2%82%AC%E2%84%A2s-highways-worsened-fatality-rate,1383" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Highways of death</a>, Sunir Pandey<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Nation-road-kill,621" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Road kill</a>, Duncan MaruThe Department of Transport Management spent Rs60 million to build the Vehicle Fitness Test Centre in Teku in April 2017. Built to originally conduct a complete health check-up of vehicles including emissions, and condition of brakes, chassis, headlights, spring balance and wheel load, most of the testing equipment do not work and the tests cannot be carried out.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101136/636a23059c7e80680e0417c3jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="800">“At the moment we are only able to do emission tests, and fasten loose bolts, most of the equipment do not work and we don’t have plans to repair it anytime soon either,” says Chief Engineer Ramchandra Paudel bluntly, as if it is no one’s responsibility. There are no vehcole test stations outside Kathmandu Valley.The only good news is that the number of drink driving cases and fatalities caused by them have gone down significantly in Kathmandu Valley. Called ‘MaPaSe’ by its Nepali acronym, the Police’s campaign against driving under the influence of alcohol has saved thousands of lives since 2012.  Between July 2017- June 2018 there were 32,234 men and 58 women drivers who failed breath analyser tests.On a daily basis, 1,500 traffic police officers work to manage the traffic in Kathmandu Valley and in the last five months they penalised 185,436 individuals for violating traffic rules -- 1,236 per day. Similarly, 472,407 vehicle drivers and owners were fined in the last fiscal year.A whopping 3 million people have been penalised for violating various traffic rules in the last 5 years and this has resulted in the government earning more than Rs1.238 billion.

Nepal’s deadly roads take their toll

<figure><img width="1400" height="798" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107171136/636934479c7e80680e03dfe8jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Kunda Dixit</figcaption></figure>A drain in the middle of the road outside the gates of a school in Kirtipur had its concrete slabs removed for maintenance six months ago. No one bothered to close it after the work was finished. Students passed it every day, and at night numerous motorcyclists had been injured trying to avoid the gaping hole. A parent who complained to workers was told to mind his own business. Calls to KUKL went unheeded.On 27 October, as the city readied to celebrate Tihar, soft-spoken yoga tutor Shyam Sundar Shrestha went bicycling to Chobhar. When he did not return home till late at night, his mother and relatives called around. Police found his body the next morning inside Kirtipur’s open drain. An autopsy showed he had drowned in sewage. Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/dont-go-quietly-into-the-night/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Don't go quietly into the night</a>, Kunda Dixit<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/murder-not-accident/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Murder, not accident</a>   After this paper printed <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/dont-go-quietly-into-the-night/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the story</a>, readers sent in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/murder-not-accident/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">many photographs of similar death traps</a> all over Kathmandu Valley: ditches, gaping potholes, open manholes. The 2015 earthquake, the road expansion, laying of Melamchi water pipes, repairs of mains, and lately digging for a new sewage network have repeatedly torn up Kathmandu’s busiest thoroughfares. Contractors never adhere even to the minimum safety standards of installing warning signs, fencing off dangerous areas, and paving the streets after digging them up.Aside from the clear and present danger to pedestrians and vehicle users, the decrepit state of Kathmandu’s streets has worsened the Valley’s already <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/every-breath-you-take-air-pollution" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unbreathable air</a>. As our weekly graph of the daily <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/poisoning-the-air-we-breathe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">air pollution</a> averages and the live hour-by-hour pollution updates on our <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">homepage</a> sourced from the U.S. Embassy monitoring station at Phora Darbar show: Kathmandu air quality index is <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/open-air/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">one of the worst</a> in the world. At this level of toxicity, residents of Kathmandu will on average lose nearly four years of their lives.In Nepal, we are used to recklessly feckless governments that fail in the state's primary function of protecting citizens. <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Nation-nepal-highways,622" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepal’s killer highways</a> claim 2,000 lives for every 100,000 vehicles annually. The figure for Japan is just 7 for every 100,000 cars. While many vehicle fatalities are caused by careless drivers, most are the result of the poor condition of roads, lack of enforcement of traffic rules, the absence of highway dividers, fencing and guard rails. The only reason the fatality rate is not higher is that the surface of city roads and highways are so rough that vehicles are forced to go slow. All this points to criminal negligence on the part of the state. That, in turn, is abetted by a fatalistic culture that ignores prevention, maintenance and safety. A combination of corruption and a complete lack of accountability on the part of elected officials and bureaucrats has turned our sidewalks, roads, highways, bridges, airports, and cities into death traps. Passing the buck and lack of coordination are blatant.For a long time we blamed Kathmandu's kleptocracy, and hoped that last year’s elections to three levels of government would finally decentralise responsibility. It has been more than a year, but most municipalities are governed by the party that rules in Kathmandu, and its culture of poor governance has trickled down to the grassroots.There are syndicates in every sphere of business, and many of them are hand-in-glove with national and local politicians. This greedy neo-elite has honed rent-seeking into a fine art. Structural corruption and pre-paid appointments of jobs in the bureaucracy have reduced the impact of public spending. There is plenty of cash to go around, but the Centre is loath to hand over the purse-strings to provincial and local governments. Development budgets go unspent because no one can decide who gets the cut.An investigation in this paper recently showed that one-third of elected mayors were contractors, owned construction companies, or had excavators they rented out to municipalities they lead. Elections should have been able to fix all that, because in a democracy, legitimacy comes not just from being elected but from performance. But winning an election in Nepal has more to do with party affiliation than accomplishments while in office. Poor governance has a direct impact on urban planning, infrastructure, safety – and is often a question of life or death, as in the tragic martyrdom of Shyam Sundar Shrestha. As one of the mourners at his memorial said: “All three levels of government are responsible for the death of this citizen. And it goes right up to the Prime Minister’s office.”Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/dont-go-quietly-into-the-night/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Don't go quietly in the night</a>, Kunda Dixit<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/poisoning-the-air-we-breathe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Poisoning the air we breathe</a>, Sonia Awale<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/open-air/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Open Air</a>, Nepali Times <h2>10 years ago this week</h2> The Nepali Times issue  #425 of 14-20 November 2008 ten years ago carried an editorial that reads like it could have been written today. At that time, the Maoist party had just been elected to office with a landslide. Ten years later, the party is in government with a near two-third majority. But the frustrations are the same. Excerpt:'Nepal’s revolution was supposed to lead us towards a New Nepal. A new set of elected leaders was supposed to bring us a new vision and infuse citizens with hope and a sense of national purpose. Nepalis haven’t yet given up hope. They want to give the government they elected a chance to prove itself-both in improving their daily lives and also by charting a new future for this country. We are suffering the byproducts of the insurgency: criminality, bribery, extortion and breakdown in law and order.In Nepal, a revolution that was fought at great human cost has ironically habituated people to kidnappings and corruption. Even if the lives of Nepalis don’t improve, we need to have a perception that things are on the mend: that delivery of services is happening, that jobs are being created, that wealth is being spread. The present culture of impunity, the surge in crime and corruption do not give us that perception.' <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/issue/425" data-elementor-open-lightbox=""> <img width="640" height="999" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107171136/6369344b9c7e80680e03dfe9jpeg.jpg" alt=""></a>

Reckless fecklessness

In the black and white photograph, General Wangdu smiles broadly in front of the dusty cactus garden in Kathmandu’s Annapurna Hotel. With an ill-fitting jacket and shaggy hair he looks benign enough, but this was the last leader of the Tibetan freedom fighters who led the resistance against the Chinese from their remote mountain hideouts in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/comings-and-goings-in-mustang">Mustang</a>. Five months later, Wangdu was dead. Snapped in March 1974, I had only recently arrived in Nepal. How did I meet this legendary fighter? Possibly with his devoted camp follower, Lynne Klapecki, and probably in the Om Restaurant near Freak Street which was the preferred <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/hippie-trail-nostalgia-in-kathmandu">hippie hang-out</a>. Om Lobsang and his brother Yeshe were <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/earthquake-brings-back-memories-of-camps-for-tibetan-refugees">refugees from East Tibet </a>whose cafe offered a friendly welcome and<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/momo-loco"> the best momos</a> - they became my in-laws after I married their eldest brother Tenzin, but that was a decade later.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_4573b34282b0f5395c007243d6bef12c7ba76bfd520419e994cdcea048d795a1.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="2025052403054_4573b34282b0f5395c007243d6bef12c7ba76bfd520419e994cdcea048d795a1" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="1583" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>Photo: LISA CHOEGYAL</figcaption> </figure>  Wangdu’s English was enthusiastically rudimentary, but even riding around town with him on the back of an aging <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/kathmandu-s-new-motorbike-museum">motorbike</a>, he was a commanding presence. Always flanked by armed outriders, impressive scars marked his forearms and a pistol hung from the cord around his neck. A charismatic guerrilla leader, Wangdu was celebrated by his followers for his tough commitment and respected for his measured pragmatism. He seemed so young to have shouldered such a responsibility of command, leading hundreds of hardened <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/50-years-after-the%20raid-into-Tibet,1012#google_vignette">Khampa combatants </a>through what had been a particularly <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/heavy-snowfall-over-nepal-himalaya">brutal winter in Mustang</a>, the last bastion to hold out against the Chinese invasion of their Tibetan homeland.&nbsp; The freedom fighters of Tibet, known as the Chushi-Gangdruk, had emerged to resist the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/territorialism">Chinese takeover</a> of Tibet during the 1950s. Estimated to be 80,000-strong at the time of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/what-or-who-after-the-dalai-lama">the Dalai Lama</a>’s final escape to India in 1959, the sheer number of Chinese deployed into Tibet eventually forced the Chushi-Gangdruk to retreat to Mustang, From this high Himalayan stronghold, they continued cross-border raids on the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) throughout the 1960s.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_8a4a935ba25ae79dc3a63bb5c14626927020e5ec098093c45ccb9a5982e009fd.jpg" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="2025052403054_8a4a935ba25ae79dc3a63bb5c14626927020e5ec098093c45ccb9a5982e009fd" data-rendition-name="original" width="1114" height="676" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>Guerrillas known as the Chushi-Gangdruk emerged to resist the Chinese annexation of Tibet during the 1950s. Photo courtesy: MIKEL DUNHAM</figcaption> </figure>  Their Kathmandu base was a small discreet lodge in a back lane near Rani Pokhari. Sipping sweet tea from a blue mug with a chipped lid, I sat bemused in a corner of the Mustang Hotel room whilst Wangdu and his cohorts received a battered brown suitcase from their CIA connection, a tousle-haired American in a leather jacket. Heaved onto the dingy bedspread that covered the thin mattress, it was clicked open to reveal piles of neatly stacked dollar bills.&nbsp; I cannot think why Wangdu allowed me to witness this handover but I was clearly no threat, a newly arrived world traveller with no understanding of the stakes nor any Nepali or <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/tibetan-music-in-nepals-sacred-valley">Tibetan language</a>. Despite armed guards in the corridor,Wangdu radiated confidence and bravado, and there was a practiced familiarity to the tense transaction. This deadly dance for many years had been funded by the Americans, tolerated by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-kingdom-within-a-republic">Mustang’s residents</a>, and permitted by King Mahendra and the Nepali authorities who it suited to turn a blind eye.&nbsp; But Mahendra died in 1972, and times were changing. Richard Nixon’s ping-pong diplomacy thawed the cold war and signalled a fresh entente with China. Nepal’s yet-to-be-crowned <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/if-birendra-was-alive-nepal-could-still-be-a-monarchy">King Birendra </a>was under pressure to curb the irritating incursions against the PLA launched from the Nepali territory of Mustang. Keen to appease his northern neighbour, on several occasions the King summoned Wangdu for peace talks but, despite increasingly overwhelming odds, Wangdu refused to surrender.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_a8efd5cfb92cd997bd7cb74296a936fef46e2f7428f9cd642b03f1ac4ea11ecb.jpg" data-media-id="editor_14" data-image-id="2025052403054_a8efd5cfb92cd997bd7cb74296a936fef46e2f7428f9cd642b03f1ac4ea11ecb" data-rendition-name="original" width="1055" height="885" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>General Wangdu flanked by two Tibetan resistance fighters in Mustang in the 1970s. Photo courtesy: MIKEL DUNHAM</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_75969125a745847a2ef82b6fe8b9106c0b21a116d85b8efdf5d2ee89a347bb31.jpg" data-media-id="editor_15" data-image-id="2025052403054_75969125a745847a2ef82b6fe8b9106c0b21a116d85b8efdf5d2ee89a347bb31" data-rendition-name="original" width="1044" height="792" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>King Birendra with General Wangdu (right in dark glasses) taken in 1974 possibly in Mustang after one of their few attempts at negotiation. Photo courtesy: RAJRNDRA KUNWAR</figcaption> </figure>  While I naively rode pillion around Kathmandu in the spring sunshine, Wangdu was in the midst of what turned out to be his final round of negotiations with the Nepal government. Refusing to cease hostilities with the Chinese, Wangdu must have suspected the cost of his decision, making his cheerful smile in the photograph all the more poignant and brave. It was only much later that I appreciated the significance of the moment. Wangdu had been sent to replace the first resistance leader in Mustang, Baba Gen Yeshe, a much derided corrupt character who stole money meant for his troops and exploited fleeing refugees by seizing their treasures. Baba Gen Yeshe never forgave Wangdu,and sought revenge in May 1974 by betraying him and his commanders to the Nepal authorities. Renewed Chinese incursions from the north, active PLA collusion with the Nepali forces under the new King, and treachery from within the Chushi-Gangdrukranks combined to seal their fate.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_e0987a7c90d76431b0d7d5e6115ebfe3dbda7ab939e5941e079c18d722e884c0.jpg" data-media-id="editor_16" data-image-id="2025052403054_e0987a7c90d76431b0d7d5e6115ebfe3dbda7ab939e5941e079c18d722e884c0" data-rendition-name="original" width="1400" height="769" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>British television journalists George Patterson and Adrian Cowell embedded themselves with Khampa guerrillas and accompanied them from Tsum Valley on a cross border raid on a Chinese Army convoy in 1964. Photo: ESSAYS ON NEPAL / SAM COWAN</figcaption> </figure>  Mikel Dunham, renowned author of Buddha’s Warriors, writes: ‘It is possible that Wangdu was waiting for some cue from the Dalai Lama’s government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India. It is equally possible – during that last, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/the-human-cost-of-nepal-s-yarsa-gold-rush?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR31-Cqw8oyIwMPzf_35e4Skr0ululJvLf3_vDkzHn-AYG2h8uPw2rqqErg_aem_tGVn5coY1-jA7fze_xqhew">desolate winter </a>– that he made the decision to go out in glory rather than admit defeat. Over the last fifteen years, Wangdu had experienced Tibet’s organized resistance being squeezed and shoved around by every conceivable outside force.&nbsp; First they had been pushed out of their own country by the PLA; then they had been refused sanction while on <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/borderlines/nepal-india-trans-boundary-bonds?fbclid=IwAR0PpJ5zUEbwdug3g_U3ar6FUugngRY0S8Tl2v_7wqzrsHmXWcXsKjvL4t4">Indian soil</a>; then they were abandoned by the Americans because, apparently, Nixon wanted to make friends with Wangdu’s mortal enemies, the communists; then they had been betrayed by the vampiric Baba Gen Yeshe – a Tibetan and, even worse, a fellow Khampa; and now, finally Wangdu’s army was being evicted by the Nepalis. One thing was certain: Wangdu was a warrior. To imagine Wangdu simply giving up and settling down in the pacific squalor of a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/elderly-left-in-bhutan-refugee-camp">refugee camp </a>was unthinkable.’  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_8fc1ffef4ae751628b90ae781b66e11e51e4fdde2787207c9042efbee345ce49.jpg" data-media-id="editor_20" data-image-id="2025052403054_8fc1ffef4ae751628b90ae781b66e11e51e4fdde2787207c9042efbee345ce49" data-rendition-name="original" width="500" height="746" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>The much derided Baba Gen Yeshe, the first Tibetan resistance leader in Mustang, who betrayed Wangdu for personal gain. Photo courtesy: MIKEL DUNHAM</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_b1d833cdb00d3ac4416b844d8730475cd88c238caaaf8da69889a584eea229a3.jpg" data-media-id="editor_21" data-image-id="2025052403054_b1d833cdb00d3ac4416b844d8730475cd88c238caaaf8da69889a584eea229a3" data-rendition-name="original" width="500" height="656" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>Aditya SJB Rana of the Royal Nepal Army whose team ambushed Wangdu and his cohorts at the top of Tinker Pass in Darchula, West Nepal. Photo courtesy: GAUTAM SJB RANA</figcaption> </figure>  By August 1974 the game was up. Wangdu and six of his exhausted party were killed on their horses by <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=7270">the Royal Nepal Army</a> on the brink of escape. The officer in charge, Aditya SJB Rana, cleverly predicted their route into India after they failed to silence a police radio in Yari. A carefully laid ambush trapped them near the summit of the Tinker Pass in Darchula,at 5,000 meters the highest military operation of its time. Wangdu’s body was helicoptered to Kathmandu, and a big show made of the royal Nepal victory.&nbsp; The Tibetan armed insurgency against China had reached its end.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250524030520_3ff9c6fc85a65bc9a2c3afe9736d9f5f9413de752e790a5d9dca0981ea94f9b4.jpg" data-media-id="editor_23" data-image-id="20250524030520_3ff9c6fc85a65bc9a2c3afe9736d9f5f9413de752e790a5d9dca0981ea94f9b4" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> </figure>

The Last Days of the Khampa

Starting 17 September Turkish Airlines will fly daily to Seville, one of Spain’s major tourist draws. This is Turkish’s sixth destination in Spain after Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Malaga, and Bilbao. Seville is in the Andalusia region on Spain’s south coast with a rich Moor history. There are approximately 30,000 Nepalis living in Spain.&nbsp;

Turkish to Seville

Fenerbahçe Beko won the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague finals in Abu Dhabi, held 23-25 May, defeating Monaco 81-70 in the final. Olympiacos, who defeated Panathinaikos 97-93, finished the series in third place. The Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the final match, Nigel Hayes-Davis from Fenerbahçe Beko, received a prize of 1,000,000 Miles&amp;Smiles from Turkish Airlines’ Chief Commercial Officer Ahmet Olmuştur. The carrier has been the title sponsor of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, a top tier tournament, since 2010.

Turkish Basketball

The newly-formed Himalayan Art Council is set to launch Nepal’s National Art Protection Platform that seeks to preserve <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/the-history-of-heritage">Nepal’s unique cultural heritage </a>using<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/artificial-censorship"> AI-powered tools</a>. The Council seeks to safeguard <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepali-art-going-places">Nepali art works</a> from neglect, theft and counterfeiting as well as preserve existing artwork and celebrate living masters by giving them a cultural space to continue the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/sacred-survival">sacred art traditions</a>. "We are introducing a new digital platform designed to preserve, verify and elevate <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-new-generation-of-alternative-artists">Nepal’s art for generations to come,</a>” says a statement from the Council, adding that the digital platform will use AI told for authentication and blockchain to keep track of works of art. Artists can now be protected by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/ayo-ai?fbclid=IwAR1uwmTVq4gUB70ljfRezjzukD9ArWXPuMnUikopeQ8PoiZMjicToPSwhKE&amp;=1">AI tools</a> that detect forgeries, identify their work even when unsigned, and ensure they receive proper recognition and credit. The archives will be searchable with translated inscription and interactive guides. Says curator Meena Lama: “AI and blockchains are tools that give us the power to detect fakes and identify unsigned paintings and track every piece. With these tools we can restore trust, secure authorship and give artists the dignity they deserve.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250514170544_2ab58f6313c0458f75114a692b0016bd9efb3b59d5f8f07f0da72e1e37b82f53.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20250514170544_2ab58f6313c0458f75114a692b0016bd9efb3b59d5f8f07f0da72e1e37b82f53" data-rendition-name="original" width="1300" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Artwork at the Traditional Art Exhibition at Patan Museum."> <figcaption>Artwork at the Traditional Art Exhibition at Patan Museum.</figcaption> </figure>  The Council is also holding an exhibition of Nepali cultural masterpieces with 50 historical <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Buzz-the-art,671">thangka and paubha </a>by past masters and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/between-the-sacred-and-everyday">contemporary works by current artists</a>. This curated collection is a living tribute to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/when-yaks-go-so-does-culture">Himalayan culture</a> with economic depictions of deities, mandala and sacred narratives. The exhibition at <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/a-portal-into-patan-s-past-and-present">Patan Museum</a> also provides an opportunity to meet painters and custodians of art and culture. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/golden-deities">Golden deities</a>, Sewa Bhattarai ‘The exhibition is only the first step in a long journey to ensure that Nepali art is no just seen but fully understood, <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Narratives-of-Faith-and-Memory-Remembering-the-Lost-Sculptures-of-Kathmandu-exhibition,987">protected and remembered</a>,’ the Council says. Artist Kailash K Shrestha of Artudio has spent decades promoting thankha and paubha traditions because of their beauty and devotional meaning. But he also says artists are underpaid, exploited and ignored. He adds, “AI and blockchain are not just buzzwords, they are powerful tools that can protect Nepal’s artists from fraud, verify authenticity and build a permanent record of provenance.” Traditional Art Exhibition Till 17 May Patan Museum

accidents