Widespread abuse of antibiotics has led to patients not responding to treatment because bacteria causing infections have developed resistance to the drugs.&nbsp;
In 2021 alone, the last year for which statistics are available, nearly 20,000 patients died because the antibiotics they were prescribed did not work for such diseases as tuberculosis, pneumonia and other infections.&nbsp;
Now, public health experts are pushing for vaccines to address the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Nepal. Vaccines are highly effective tool since they prevent infections, reduce the need of antimicrobial use thereby mitigate the emergence and spread of AMR.
Last week, the Global Antibiotic Resistance Partnership Nepal (GARP -Nepal) in collaboration with Nepal Public Health Foundation and The One Health Trust launched a policy brief titled ‘The Value of Vaccines to Mitigate Antimicrobial Resistance’.&nbsp;
“We need to integrate vaccines more effectively into national AMR strategies and cross-sectoral collaboration under the One Health framework,” said Sharad Onta of the Nepal Public Health Foundation. “The solution to antimicrobial resistance in Nepal is prevention, since there is no cure for it. And vaccines are an effective tool.”
Narayan Dhakal of the Department of Drug Administration (DDA) agreed that preventing infections was easier and cheaper than treating it with antibiotics. He added: “Promoting WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) and infection prevention measures can be effective complementary strategies.”
The launch event brought together a wide range of stakeholders, including representatives from the Ministry of Health and Population, the Department of Livestock Services, academia, clinical professionals, veterinarians and non-government stakeholders like World Health Organisation, and FHI360.
Overuse of antibiotics in the veterinary sector has also contributed to AMR in humans due to the chicken, eggs and various other meats in the food chain. &nbsp;
Paras Kumar Pokharel of GARP-Nepal said: “Effective vaccination programs can lead to herd immunity, where a large proportion of the population is immune, protecting even those who are not vaccinated. So, maximise coverage and minimise anti-microbial uses.”&nbsp;
Sameer Mani Dixit of the Centre for Molecular Dynamics Nepal (CMDN) said: “We need more action, not more words to fight AMR in Nepal.”
The GARP policy brief recommends actions that include sustained policy advocacy, use of health economics to demonstrate vaccine benefits, and learning from best immunisation practices. It calls for inclusion of the livestock sector, adherence to treatment guidelines, prioritisation of high-risk populations, and improved surveillance systems.&nbsp;
The brief also emphasises the need for evidence generation, investment in vaccine development and regulatory support, international collaboration, and efforts to ensure equitable access, public education, and AMR awareness.

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Drugs vs Bugs

<h6>Antibiotics in poultry make Nepalis resistant to drugs that fight infections</h6>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlOudtkiAyQ&amp;feature=youtu.beThe next time you dig into a plate of chicken curry and rice or order momos, you may want to first find out what the birds are fed in the poultry farm where the meat came from.Broiler poultry is fast replacing free-ranging chicken in markets across Nepal, meaning birds bred in crowded pens have to be fed <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=11719#.WweuOe6FO70" target="_blank" rel="noopener">antibiotics</a> so they don't get infections and grow faster.Half of broiler chicken meat and eggs in Nepal are estimated to have antibiotic residue. This means people who consume them slowly develop a <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Antibiotic-resistance,1974" target="_blank" rel="noopener">resistance to antibiotics</a>, and will not respond to treatment of bacterial infections.An <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/counter-attack-microbes,3407" target="_blank" rel="noopener">epidemic of anti-microbial resistance is sweeping the world</a>, and scientists say one of the main reasons is the ingestion of antibiotics from poultry products, dairy milk, pork and aquaculture fish.Common illnesses are turning into potential killers, and surgery can sometimes be fatal because of ‘superbugs’ that are immune to most antibiotics. Kathmandu hospitals all have patients who are not responding to antibiotic treatment for typhoid, <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/resistance-to-live-saving-drugs-threatens-to-set-back-progress-in-nepal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tuberculosis</a>, pneumonia, or common infected wounds.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107101156/6368d7049c7e80680e0314bajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="1050"/>“Two-third of antibiotics globally is used on animals, and chicken are often fed last resort antibiotics. It may not be a good idea to eat poultry products,” advises Buddha Basnyat, physician at Patan Hospital.Numerous studies in Nepal have shown that antibiotic residue in poultry is finding its way into the human food chain. Poultry farmers use antibiotics not just when their chicken fall sick, but for prevention and also as a growth promoter.“We know it for a fact that farmers are using antibiotics in poultry as prophylactics to prevent diseases,” explains Sameer Mani Dixit of the Centre for Molecular Dynamics Nepal. “We might be getting healthy chicken, but at the cost of resistance that has major public health consequences.”However, the use of antibiotics in poultry farms is going down in Nepal because of a recent law against antibiotic additives in chicken feed, and farmers are now generally more careful about hygiene. Even so, chicken consumption in Nepal has grown several fold in the last decade as living standards rise. Nepalis consume up to 5kg per capita of chicken meat per year, higher than annual consumption per person in India and Bangladesh combined.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107101156/6368d7079c7e80680e0314bbjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="840"><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5870509/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A study</a> this year by the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Sciences showed that 94% of the E coli bacteria in broiler chicken in Chitwan showed resistance to up to four types of antibiotics. Not only is antimicrobial residue in meat making people resistant to the drugs, but the chicken themselves are contaminated with harmful bugs that are resistant. (See chart, below)<a href="https://www.nepjol.info/index.php/IJASBT/article/view/18302" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Another study</a> published in the International Journal of Applied Sciences and Biotechnology last year showed high tetracyclin and penicillin residue in 22% of meat samples in Kavre and Kailali districts. <a href="https://www.farm.com.np/research/detection-of-antibiotic-residues-in-marketed-broiler-meat-of-gorkha-parsa-chitwan-and-kathmandu-district/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Another research</a> by the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science, Rampur, showed that 40% of chicken samples in Gorkha, Parsa, Chitwan and Kathmandu had penicillin residue, while 35% had tetracycline traces, and there were aminoglycosides in 17.5% of the samples.An earlier study by the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control found that nearly 70% of chicken meat sold in Kathmandu Valley still had ampicillin residue -- with about 17% having concentrations above the permissible threshold.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107101156/6368d70a9c7e80680e0314bcjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="666">Although Nepal now has a law against antibiotic additives in feed, the ban is not effective because of the open border with India. A recent expose by the UK-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism titled ‘<a href="https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2018-01-30/a-game-of-chicken-how-indian-poultry-farming-is-creating-global-superbugs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A Game of Chicken: How Indian Poultry Farming is Creating Global Superbugs</a>’ revealed lax controls, and a looming superbug epidemic in hospitals across India.High bacterial disease burden, overuse of human antibiotics, and no regulation on use of antimicrobials in poultry and livestock means <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/india-tackles-the-emergent-threat-of-superbugs,1976" target="_blank" rel="noopener">India is sitting on a time bomb</a>, scientists say. And right next door, with no border controls, is Nepal.The British company Venky exported nearly a thousand tons of the ‘last hope’ antibiotic colistin branded ‘Colis V’ to India and Nepal in 2016 for use in poultry, according to customs data. WHO has recommended that colistin be restricted in animals because it is one of the few drugs that can still treat infections in humans. Two Indian companies also manufacture colistin as antibiotics and growth promoters.The report quoted Timothy Walsh, professor of Medical Microbiology at Cardiff University as saying: “Colistin is the last line of defence. It is the only drug we have to treat critically ill patients resistant to carbapenems. Giving it to chickens as feed is crazy.”Carbapenems are last resort antibotics used to fight infections in the bladder, lungs and blood in humans, but more than half of infected patients in India are already resistant to carbapenems and need colistin to get better. Drug resistant infections kill an estimated 58,000 babies in India every year. In Nepal, there is evidence that colistin resistance is spreading among humans (see graph, below).<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107101156/6368d70c9c7e80680e0314bdjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="411">Although European countries have restricted antibiotic use in animal feed, the United States is still using it indiscriminately even though the Atlanta-based Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and WHO have warned about the proven link between antibiotics in animals and antibiotic-resistant infections in humans.From 2008 to 2016, Nepal’s import of veterinary drugs is estimated to have doubled as poultry farms proliferate to meet demand. An estimated Rs300 million worth of veterinary antibiotics were imported last year, records show. Nepal meets only 15% of its poultry and livestock antibiotic requirement from domestic pharmaceutical companies. Experts say the government controls on antibiotic additives in animal feed will not work as long as it is allowed in India.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107101156/6368d70e9c7e80680e0314bejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="579"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>“The trend of antibiotic residue in poultry and resistance in humans won’t stop unless there is a better mechanism to regulate and monitor quality control and sales of drugs,” says Varun Sharma at the Department of Livestock. "Our only hope is to make sure that antibiotics which still work last longer, by regulating their use."There is also a need to make poultry farmers aware of the dangers. Many have a misconception that antibiotics prevent infections and promote growth, when it should be given only for treatment. However, Til Chandra Bhattarai of Pancha Ratna Group of Poultry Industries in Chitwan says it is impossible to run a modern poultry business without antibiotics because of the widespread danger of <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Buzz-chicken,657" target="_blank" rel="noopener">avian infections</a>.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107101156/6368d7109c7e80680e0314bfjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="758">Tika Rai, who runs a poultry farm in Nuwakot that supplies meat to Kathmandu markets, agrees. He urges the government to help with alternatives like probiotics as growth promoters and biosecurity.“These drugs are a major cost in the business, but we cannot stop using antibiotics. We would lose all our investment if the birds die,” Rai told us.Farmers are also said to be violating the withdrawal period which requires birds fed antibiotics to be quarantined for a period before being sold. Over-the-counter sales of antibiotics, over-prescription and self-administration in poultry farms all contribute to spreading drug-resistance in humans.WHO calls antibiotic resistance the biggest threat to global health. It warns that South Asia is 'the epicentre' of the drug resistance crisis, and an epidemic of superbugs in India would engulf Nepal as well.Many Nepalis already have multi-drug resistant tuberculosis and pneumonia that do not respond to treatment, because of earlier misuse of antibiotics, and from eating chicken raised on antibiotic-laced feed.Says Sarada Thapaliya, Dean of Veterinary Science and Fisheries in Chitwan: “The restrictive and judicious use of antibiotics in animal feed is the best available solution for now.”<h4>Banning antibiotics in food animals</h4><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107101156/6368d7129c7e80680e0314c0jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="795">The link between anti-microbial resistance in humans and antibiotic use in poultry and livestock is now scientifically proven, and countries around the world have banned their use as growth promoters. Many countries still allow limited use to control poultry epidemics, but enforce a window period after the drugs are administered so the meat does not have drug residue when consumed.Sweden was the first country to stop animal antibiotic use as growth promoters, in 1986. In 2006, the EU banned all antibiotics used to make animals grow faster. In 2017, the US also restricted antibiotics as feed supplement.In the Asia Pacific region, antibiotic use in poultry feed is projected to rise by 129%, by 2030, with India and China leading the way because of higher living standards. Bangladesh law in 2010 criminalises antibiotic use as growth promoter in animal feed.Read also:<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Antibiotic-resistance,1974" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Antibiotic resistance</a>, Buddha Basnyat and Hellen Gelband<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/growth-of-antibiotic-resistance-in-nepal,1975" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"Patients are impatient"</a>, Sonia Awale<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/counter-attack-microbes,3407" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Counter-attack of microbes</a>, Sameer M Dixit, Buddha Basnyat and Paras PokhrelSource: Department of Food Technology and Quality Control, Antibiotic resistance pattern and virulence genes content in avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) from broiler chickens in Chitwan, Nepal, Multi-drug resistance and extended spectrum beta lactamase producing Gram negative bacteria from chicken meat in Bharatpur Metropolitan, Nepal, Prevalence and Antibioic Resistance Profile of Salmonella from Livestock and Poultry Raw Meat, Nepal, Assessment of Antibiotic Residues in the Marketed Meat of Kailali and Kavre of Nepal, Detection of antibiotic residues in marketed broiler meat of Gorkha, Parsa, Chitwan and Kathmandu districtReaders write:<a href="https://twitter.com/RajeebLalSatyal" data-user-id="85534869">Rajeeb Lal Satyal‏</a>Not scary anymore. It comes in package as a part of being Nepali and a lot more. We become vegetarian for the same reason. But Vegetarians are also not free. Every vegetable we eat has pesticide. That's why, unlike in old days, we look for vegetables with insects instead.

Sonia Awale

Are you sick of chicken?

New and old, businessmen and former diplomats, engineers and academics — they have all been trooping to the Election Commission to register political parties ahead of the Sunday deadline.
Till press time Thursday, five new parties had been registered and 21 new parties were in the process of applying. Behind the scenes, new parties are head-hunting, well-known figures are shopping for parties to join, while older parties are splitting or uniting to form new united parties.
“It is reason for optimism that people are enthused to form new parties,” notes political analyst Indra Adhikari. But, she adds, this does not mean that despite the celebrity status they will win votes and succeed in politics.
The outlier in all this are the Nepali Congress (NC) and the UML, which are still licking the wounds after being swept out of power by the GenZ protests in September. Neither are too keen on elections because of the prospect of losing badly.
Former prime minister K P Oli is the most recalcitrant, and seems to want to scuttle elections so Parliament will be reinstated. After announcing that he was stepping down, the NC’s Sher Bahadur Deuba has had a change of heart in Singapore and is gunning to restore Parliament.
Neither party and their leaders have shown any remorse for the 8 September massacre, or understood the outrage on the streets against their decades-long incompetence and corruption. &nbsp;
Among those registering parties are various GenZ youth groups and family members of those killed during the September protests. Notable among the new parties certified this week was Gatishil Loktantrik Party (गतिलो) backed by Buddha Air founder Birendra Basnet and led by sociologist Dinesh Prasai. Dharan Mayor Harka Sampang’s Shram Sanskriti Party is also registered.
Energy and Infrastructure Minister in the interim government Kulman Ghising has backed the Ujyalo Nepal with former secretary Anup Kumar Upadhyaya as its chair. Ghising has been playing coy about his political ambitions, and is planning to resign from his cabinet post before elections.&nbsp;
Ghising had been talking to Rabi Lamichhane’s RSP about joining, but that negotiation failed. Former RSP lawmaker Sumana Shrestha was supposed to join Ghising, but pulled out following Ghising’s reluctance to resign from government.
Ghising has much public support because he is credited with ending power cuts as head of the Nepal Electricity Authority, but is now getting flak for being unwilling to give up his ministerial portfolios while still wanting to contest elections. &nbsp;
Ujyalo has hit other snags. GenZ activist Tashi Lhazom, who was considered for a Cabinet position last month but was dropped by Prime Minister Sushila Karki, has said she is not in Ujyalo despite being listed as a Central Committee member. Another member has said that he will not be a part of Ujyalo due its “a lack of political culture”.
Even though Nepalis from across backgrounds and professions are eager to participate in the country’s new political landscape, there are doubts about the structure of their parties, ideology and electoral platforms.&nbsp;
Hurriedly set up parties without a shared philosophy have less chance of political influence and longevity. For example, the RSP was formed just months before the 2022 polls to become the fourth-largest party in Parliament, has lost its momentum, and its leader is in jail.
“Parties like the RSP, which did some positive work after being elected, have still not been able to establish a clear ideological roadmap or organisational structure,” Adhikari says. &nbsp;“It is easy to form parties, the real work goes into building an institution, which is the hard part”
Meanwhile, despite expectations of increased and inclusive youth participation not just at the polling booths but also on the ballot, only a few GenZ-led parties are applying at the Election Commission. They include the Rastriya Pariwartan Party and the Rastriya GenZ Party Nepal. Most other parties are led by men in their 40s, even in their 70s.&nbsp;
Analysts note that despite hopes of young blood in politics, Nepalis are still inclined to trust those with experience, as evidenced by GenZ’s choice of Sushila Karki to succeed KP Oli as Prime Minister after the September protests.&nbsp;
“So it will be difficult for young Nepalis without prior political experience to lead parties and it will be even more difficult for them to cultivate enough public trust to get votes,” says Adhikari.&nbsp;
Then there are the old political players, who have been breaking up and making up new alliances. Resham Chaudhary quit his Nagarik Unmukti Party and registered a new one.
Last week, Puspha Kamal Dahal’s Maoist Centre, and Madhav Kumar Nepal’s Unified Socialists merged along with smaller leftist parties to form the Nepali Communist Party (NCP). Disgruntled former UML members like Bhim Rawal have also joined the NCP. On the other hand, Janardan Sharma has fallen out with Dahal and is going his own way.&nbsp;
Even though the NC, UML and NCP show little sign that they have learnt their lesson and will be turning a new leaf, they still have the party organisation and vote banks to fall back on at election time in the runup to 5 March. &nbsp;
Says Adhikari: “At the end of the day, Nepali society remains hyper-partisan. And although the newly-formed parties and their popular candidates may give older leaders a run for their money, established parties will still benefit from their solid vote base.”

Party Time

The very first frame in The Lama’s Son starts with a vision of Shangrila and the quest of a mythical utopia in the Himalaya when the rest of the world is crumbling away. It is also the personal search of filmmaker Kesang Tseten, but what he finds there are adherents of the Bon Po faith clinging to the last remnants of a culture as it erodes away like the sandstone cliffs of Mustang. “It was while editing the documentary that the story became distilled: how does what we see in the high Himalaya relate to the notion of the Shangrila idyll that especially the West ascribed to them,” asked Tseten during a recent trip to Kathmandu from Berne where he now lives. He continued: “Often and perhaps rightly criticised as an orientalist construct, I wondered if there was any basis at all to the Shangrila notion, and I hung the film on that idea.”&nbsp; Tseten takes us to the vast vistas of Mustang and Dolpo, a landscape of his Tibetan ancestors. This is as much an intimate documentation of families on Nepal’s Himalayan rimland torn between remoteness and globalness as it is about Tseten’s own quest for rootedness.&nbsp; We start from Lubra, a 3,000m village in Mustang the 15 households of which follow the Bon faith. Lama Tsultrim is from a 900-year-old lineage of the animist faith and an exponent of the tradition that is slowly being subsumed first by Buddhism and now modernism. For Tseten, the material is familiar, and not at all exotic as it is for non-Nepalis and indeed for many urban Nepalis. Bon, founded in Tibet, predates Buddhism, but over time, the two religions have come to resemble each other.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20251113111156_ecf8148fbaa17b93c81ddfa3ed244bed266e3ef6af0cd5e6ca7b64c181b97d45.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20251113111156_ecf8148fbaa17b93c81ddfa3ed244bed266e3ef6af0cd5e6ca7b64c181b97d45" data-rendition-name="original" width="1920" height="1080" loading="lazy" alt="The periphery cannot hold NT"> </figure>  ‘Both believe in karma, rebirth, and that humans can become enlightened. Nature and spirits are predominant in Bon, and rituals are what keep them benign and alight,’ says Tseten, who rarely narrates in his documentaries. “This is not really a personal film as such, but it has a point of view,” Tseten said. “I decided to have a voice-over on this one and cast my presence in the film.”&nbsp; Lubra's Lama Tsultrim is called upon to perform rituals from Kagbeni and other villages, but there is no one to continue the tradition after him, which is passed from father to son. Lama Tsultrim’s son (hence the title of the film) is a sushi chef in New York and has been gone for 20 years. “The Lama is like a setting sun, his son should come back and take over his father’s responsibilities,” says a local youngster chatting with friends. “If he dies tomorrow, where do we go? We can’t just light butter lamps ourselves to the gods.” It is not only the Lama’s son who has left. The village is nearly empty, and more are planning to leave. One of them is Chimi, a teacher who will be joining her fiancé who is an Uber driver in New York. Her brother is already in Hong Kong. In Lo Manthang a local is back home for a three-month vacation after being in New York for 12 years. A shopkeeper was in Japan for several years, and has returned. “Everything has changed, our language, our tsampa, our religion. We used to work and live together, now the children live separately,” says a middle-aged woman. “There are roads now, and vehicles stop right outside our house, but what’s the point? No one stays home.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20251113111156_47b4c4984fa33e42791b16dba1f078aaa7f9d8bd51ca3bfd5415b436c3a0bf2c.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20251113111156_47b4c4984fa33e42791b16dba1f078aaa7f9d8bd51ca3bfd5415b436c3a0bf2c" data-rendition-name="original" width="1920" height="1080" loading="lazy" alt="The periphery cannot hold NT"> </figure>  Like most of Tseten’s films, The Lama’s Son is an honest documentation of a place and people whose lifestyle, culture and heritage cling precariously to the past. In Dri village we come across local women filling their buckets with water. Tseten asks them why the village is so empty: “Where is everyone?” The women reply that they are “here, there and everywhere”. Then it is their turn to ask Tseten about where he lives and what he is doing in their village. Migration is a recurring theme in Tseten’s documentaries from We Corner People, In Search of the Riyal, or Saving Dolma. His previous film Diversity Plaza documented the lives of Nepali and Tibetan emigrants in Jackson Heights in the borough of Queens in New York.&nbsp; Diversity Plaza was shown at DOC NYC in 2023, and The Lama’s Son will be one of only two Asian films shown next week at one of the biggest documentary film festivals in the world.&nbsp; “The Lama’s Son is not loud, not attention grabbing but intimate, so I was surprised they chose a quiet film for a big, flashy event,” Tseten told us. In Lama’s Son, we also see how climate breakdown is impacting Nepal’s trans-Himalayan regions. Lama Tsultrim shows us the aftermath of a recent glacial flood that swept away houses and fields. The debris-covered farms are as hard as cement.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20251113111156_c82126a3c2dc4577b99beb9bef20aafa16f532a3f41e59caea17c93914c59fff.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20251113111156_c82126a3c2dc4577b99beb9bef20aafa16f532a3f41e59caea17c93914c59fff" data-rendition-name="original" width="1920" height="1080" loading="lazy" alt="The periphery cannot hold NT"> </figure>  The nearby village of Dhey at 3,900m is a high and dry cold desert. Farmers get one crop in a year, but the springs have gone dry and there is no snow in winter. So they are relocating to New Dhey, closer to the road. We follow Kesang Tseten to Samling in Dolpo, which at 4,200m is another Bon village. Locals are preparing for the Walchu festival in which Lama Sherrab carries out elaborate rituals to appease spirits that can turn malevolent. But unlike Lama Tsultrim in Lubra, Lama Sherrab has a community of lamas to help him, including two sons, one of whom will eventually take on his role. We move on to the adjacent village of Bicher and listen in as locals talk about how despite being dirt poor, they thrive in scarcity and are resilient. “We wear sheepskin, eat stew and yak meat, and drink wine. But we are very poor, we have nothing. Look at how dirty our clothes are. We may be dirty, but we have few illnesses,” says one. But even here in Upper Dolpo, a week’s walk from the nearest road, things are changing. There are mobile phones, readymade clothes and instant noodles.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20251113111156_d1472165cfa9ffa6edbf72de59167e8cbddcc2bf4a7928f7830e099966259a78.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20251113111156_d1472165cfa9ffa6edbf72de59167e8cbddcc2bf4a7928f7830e099966259a78" data-rendition-name="original" width="1920" height="1080" loading="lazy" alt="The periphery cannot hold NT"> </figure>  At the Walchu ritual, Tseten watches men and women with hand-woven blankets and down jackets sing and dance after the main ceremony. He narrates: “Bon is sustained by a way of life that fosters a fine but fragile balance between nature and people, where humans come before gods. This is what lies at the heart of Shangrila if there is such a thing.” The film then takes us half-way around the world to a Bon centre in New York, but (spoiler alert) the eponymous Lama’s son never appears. He did not want to be filmed, but it makes for a more powerful portrayal of the life of emigrants forever trapped between two worlds. “Bon villages may be in danger, but the Bon has spread widely across the world,” narrates Tseten, a director who likes to call his storytelling ethnographic, and avoids coming to an apt conclusion. Lama Sherrab’s words after the Walchu ritual is a perfect segue:&nbsp; “Whether you say om mani padme hum (in Buddhism) or matri mi yu (in Bon) they are the same. When you go up, it’s the same heavenly realm. If you go down, it’s still the lord of death who awaits. There isn’t a separate heaven and hell for Buddhists and Bon, it has to be the same for both.” &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025111312110_82817ef48840bb6baa1732d5b0b90c90ead2f9bd9eb0c289940fa61d8058de8d.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="2025111312110_82817ef48840bb6baa1732d5b0b90c90ead2f9bd9eb0c289940fa61d8058de8d" data-rendition-name="original" width="7087" height="10004" loading="lazy" alt="The Lama's Son NT"> </figure>  The Lama’s Son by Kesang Tseten, 2025 Shunyata Films To be screened at DOC NYC 16 November at 2:05PM local time, Online: 17-30 November Details <a href="https://www.docnyc.net/film/the-lamas-son/">here</a>.

The periphery cannot hold

It was pure drama: the political transition in Madhes unfolded by the dawn’s early light. At around 4AM on Monday, Province Head Sumitra Subedi Bhandari quietly departed Janakpur saying she was headed to Kathmandu for health reasons.&nbsp;
Outgoing Chief Minister Jitendra Sonal, whose coalition had begun to unravel, even saw her off, asking supporters to clear the road for her motorcade.
But an hour later, instead of continuing on to the capital, Bhandari stopped in Bardibas on the East-West Highway. There, as the sun started rising over the misty plains, she administered the oath of office to Saroj Kumar Yadav of the CPN-UML, invoking Article 168(3) of the Constitution.&nbsp;
Bhandari is also a member of the CPN-UML. The provision she invoked is typically used only after coalitions fail under Article 168(2), and the timing and location of the swearing-in have since drawn scrutiny.
Bhandari was subsequently relieved of her duties, and former National Planning Commission member Surendra Labh Karna was sworn in as the new Madhes province head on Tuesday.
Sonal had formed his government barely a month ago, with the backing of 56 provincial lawmakers but it became evident he would not secure the 54 votes needed to survive a confidence motion.&nbsp;
Several lawmakers in his coalition publicly signalled they would abstain. Still, the seven-party alliance that opposed Yadav’s appointment argues that the Province Head, who is the highest constitutional rank in the provincial structure, acted prematurely and under pressure from central UML party command.&nbsp;
A coalition of seven parties, including the Nepali Congress (NC), had been urging the Province Head to invite them to form a new government under Article 168(2). At the same time, the UML, which had been holding demonstrations outside the Province Head’s office in Janakpur, was calling for the formation of a minority government under Article 168(3).
The alliance of the seven parties that included the NC and Maoist Centre took to the streets. By mid-morning, protests had escalated outside Madhes Bhawan with cadre vandalising both the Chief Minister’s office and the Province Head’s office.
This was the third government in Madhes to fall since the 2022 provincial elections, and it follows a similar pattern. The previous Chief Minister Satish Kumar Singh of the Janamat Party, resigned before a scheduled confidence vote after losing the support of his own party and others including NC and LSP.&nbsp;
His resignation unfolded amid nationwide GenZ protests against corruption, demanding accountability and reform. The recurring instability points to a structural tension in Nepal’s federalism.&nbsp;
Provincial politics remain closely tied to alliances shaped in Kathmandu. The withdrawal of support by parties like the NC and Maoist Centre in provinces often reflects national-level calculations rather than provincial priorities.
As a result, the Provincial Assembly is repeatedly consumed by survival of the coalition instead of governance. Development work stalls. Budget execution slows. Public frustration grows. In a province that was at the forefront of the movement for federalism to counter what is seen as neglect, apathy and discrimination by Kathmandu, the sense that the system may not delivering on its promise is becoming increasingly pronounced.
If federalism is to be strengthened, provincial governments must be able to function with a degree of autonomy that currently exists more in principle than in practice. Otherwise, the perception that federalism is costly, unstable, and ineffective will continue to expand, providing fertile ground for anti-federal sentiment that is already gaining traction.
Earlier examples such as the NC General Secretary Bishwo Prakash Sharma in January calling for a new government in Madhes led by his party demonstrates how the central party leadership deliberately intervenes in provincial affairs. His remarks came during campaigns for bi-elections in Madhes when former CM Singh had been in office for six months only.&nbsp;
Likewise, in early June 2024, the federal coalition in Kathmandu shifted from a Maoist Centre and NC to form a new alliance between the NC &nbsp;and the UML. Within a day, coalition negotiations in Madhes changed to mirror this.
UML leaders publicly stated: “The issues at the federal and provincial levels will be resolved together.” This indicated that the realignment in Madhes followed national party decisions rather than provincial deliberation.
The events that unfolded in Madhes are a reminder that federalism in Nepal is still in transition, and that its success depends on political actors honouring the constitutional framework.

Chronic instability in the Madhes

You do not have to be a climate expert or atmospheric pandit to claim that Nepal is not pulling its weight on the grand narratives of the Anthropocene. As a heavily populated ‘country-on-an-incline’ from the Tarai to the Himalaya, Nepal is a thermometer of global warming.&nbsp; Its people are human witnesses to environmental and climate breakdown, but remain mute observers to the unfolding crises. Nepal should be leading the pack at the COP30 climate conference in Belém, backed by science and lived experience. But it is doubtful that two of the most crucial climate-related subjects central to the culture, economies and human wellbeing in the Himalaya and South Asia will be discussed at the summit that started this week in Brazil.&nbsp; The first topic that should be raised at COP is Black Carbon or the South Asian Brown Cloud, made up of tiny suspended particles in the air. This is not just a transboundary health hazard, there is now enough science to make the case that Himalayan snowmelt is accelerated significantly by the albedo effect that makes ice melt faster because of reduced reflectivity. But Kathmandu has not been able to make governments near and far listen. In 2014, I wrote a short piece published in Outlook magazine explaining why India’s Prime Minister Modi looking northward from a SAARC Summit retreat in Dhulikhel was unable to see the Jugal Himal range barely 30km away. His view was obscured by the pollution layer arriving from as far away as Lahore with substantial contribution from the Delhi region. That summit itself was an opportunity for Nepal to inform the Indian and Pakistani prime ministers that much of the haze, smog, dust and soot that settles on our slopes was generated in Sindh, Punjab, Punjab, Haryana, Western UP and Delhi NCR, carried by prevailing westerly winds up to the Himalaya. The forest fires within Nepal as well as Kathmandu Valley’s pollution contribute to the haze, but the shroud that suffocates the region through autumn, winter and spring is mostly transnational. Last year, these anthropogenic fine aerosols actually curled over the Bay of Bengal and invaded the airspace of Sri Lanka and Maldives.&nbsp; Even as the soot particles accelerate glacial melt and impact everything from infrastructure to public health, the most visible effect is on tourism. Nepal’s economic future is based on tourism, and much of this relies on being able to see the snow mountains. Why should travellers go to Pokhara if they cannot see the Annapurnas?&nbsp; Hoteliers in Nagarkot have started a campaign: ‘Visit Nagarkot 2025: More than Sunrise and Sunset’. While clever, the slogan is a response to the acclaimed Himalayan vista from Everest to the Annapurnas from the hill station, now obscured by the brown curtain of haze for most of the year. As the bellwether country of South Asia when it comes to the climate crisis, Nepal must build diplomatic confidence to reach out to the governments of Pakistan and India even in their present state of antagonism. Kathmandu must launch ‘haze diplomacy’ for its own sake and for the region.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20251113001132_16c9941da7b31c1d4683c06dc0f8a572803240701270606848851f915140329c.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20251113001132_16c9941da7b31c1d4683c06dc0f8a572803240701270606848851f915140329c" data-rendition-name="original" width="1005" height="695" loading="lazy" alt="permafrost"> </figure>  IMPERMANENT FROST&nbsp; Permafrost is understood mostly as a phenomenon of the Arctic, Antarctica, Siberia and Alaska. Mountains elsewhere did not figure, though it was natural for the ground to freeze all year round at high altitudes.&nbsp; In the Himalaya, besides the snowfields and glaciers, frozen moisture binds rocks and stabilises slopes. But global warming is melting the permafrost that used to cement mountain flanks, including boulders, sand and scree slopes. Some of the debris (गेग्रान) did tumble down, but much of it remained entombed on high, thanks to permafrost. Pokhara Valley and the Seti River reaching all the way up to the base of the Annapurnas, is the best place to observe this dance of geology between gravity and the mountain range. Rubble from the collapse about <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/remembering-the-seti-disaster">700 years ago of paleo-Annapurna IV </a>created the sediment field on which Pokhara is situated today. However, much of the debris from the crumbled mountain is still lodged up on and around Annapurna IV, but the binding is loosening with the warming earth. A <a href="https://www.icimod.org/event/analysing-permafrost-in-the-hindu-kush-himalaya-using-open-access-tools/">2024 report by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD)</a> indicates that global warming is thawing the permafrost across High Asia. Among the unintended consequences of climate breakdown is that mountains and moraines are collapsing, with <a href="https://www.icimod.org/press-release/everest-region-a-hotspot-of-cryosphere-linked-hazards-icimods-new-study-on-nepals-2024-thame-flood-confirms/">cascading impact</a> that includes glacial lake outburst floods, reduced groundwater recharge as well as winter flow in the Ganga, Indus and Brahmaputra. No one has calculated the total volume of rubble locked in by permafrost across the Himalaya. Despite the increased risk, there is accelerated construction of highways, hydropower projects, housing and tourism infrastructure across the Himalaya. While the COP conferences discuss rising oceans and receding glaciers (without doing much about it), Himalayan permafrost has been melting unremarked. In their path-breaking September 2024 <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/the-not-so-permanent-frost">article in Nepali Times</a>, Wilfried Haeberli and Alton C Byers argued that the extreme events of the past few years that led to mountain and moraine collapses, unleashing destructive debris flows downstream, were the result of melting permafrost. Haeberli and Byers suggest that the avalanches and floods including those of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Anatom-of-a-Himalayan-tsunami,1330">Seti (2012)</a>, <a href="https://www.icimod.org/article/understanding-the-chamoli-flood-cause-process-impacts-and-context-of-rapid-infrastructure-development/">Chamoli (2021)</a>, Birendra Tal (2023), <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772883825000251">Sikkim (2023)</a>, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/climate-breakdown-linked-to-thame-flood">Thame (2024)</a>, <a href="https://himat.org/publication/byers-rockfall-induced-2019/">Barun (2017)</a> and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/drones-to-the-rescue-in-melamchi">Melamchi (2021)</a> were the result of the thawing of frozen ground. They say that the collapse of the lateral moraine on the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/sikkim-flood-is-warning-to-nepal">South Lhonak glacial lake</a> in Sikkim on 4 October 2023 that swept away more than 100 people, destroyed the $1 billion Chungthang Dam as well as houses, roads and farms far downstream, was also caused by cloudburst on a lateral moraine that had lost its permafrost adhesive. There will be permafrost sceptics, as there have been climate change deniers. But it is time to wake up to the reality that the Himalayan peaks are no longer the immutable sentinels as regarded by humanity since prehistoric times.&nbsp; Modern society has pumped so much greenhouse gas into the atmosphere that now even the mountains are giving up. And we have not even begun to think about the bacteria and viruses locked away in the permafrost up the slope.&nbsp; Loss of permafrost adds to the cumulative impact of climate breakdown, including extreme weather events, drought and cloudbursts, heat waves in the plains affecting lives and livelihoods, creating mass migration, social unrest, and upending politics and geopolitics. The government and polity of Nepal have a duty to themselves and the larger humanity to wake up to the climate breakdown. The Sagarmatha Sambaad conclave organised by the Government in May failed to emerge as a pulpit for global warming and associated ills. Our political class, bureaucracy and academia should make up for lost opportunities to rise to the occasion and take the lead.&nbsp; Kanak Mani Dixit is writer, commentator and founding editor of Himal Southasian.

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