<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413110/63722e7f9c7e80680e0c24c9jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="798" height="534"/><figcaption>A captive elephant named Kajallkali lying on the ground with an emaciated body, shrunken face and big wounds on her legs, shoulder and other parts of body. Photos: KIRAN RAJ RIJAL/NTNC</figcaption></figure>Many who saw the photograph of the once majestic Kajalkali lying prostrate with an emaciated body, shrunken face and gashes on her legs and shoulders were heartbroken.When we at the Biodiversity Conservation Center in Chitwan heard about her deteriorating condition, we rushed out veterinary team of Kiran Raj Rijal and Amir Sadaula to attend to the elephant. They did their best, but she did not stand again.This was not the first time Kajalkali had fallen, she had done so twice before in May and the same team of vets from the Natural Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) and Chitwan National Park (CNP) had attended to her and brought her back to her feet.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413110/63722e819c7e80680e0c24cajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="436" height="492"><figcaption>Melkali at the NTNC Biodiversity Conservation Centre in Chitwan. She retired nine years ago in 2013.</figcaption></figure>Kajalkali was brought to Sauraha from Uttar Pradesh in India five years ago for tourist safaris. She was already over 60 years old, which is above the average life span of an Asian elephants. But she not sick and her health had improved with veterinary care and anti-parasitic drugs, minerals and vitamins.She worked for nearly two years at the safari camp, carrying tourists on her back. But it did not last long, her appetite started to decrease, her digestion weakened and she began to lose weight. Vets tried their best to treat her, but to no avail.Elephants replace their molar teeth five times in their lifetime. After that, they are unable to grind the food and their nutrition level falls. She had probably reached that stage.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-elephant-whisperer-of-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The elephant whisperer of Nepal</a>, Biraj AdhikariUpon knowing her condition, her owner sold her illegally to an Indian who then tried to transport her. Kajalkali had travelled half the distance to Birganj in the back of a truck, when the buyer found out that she might be confiscated at the border. He then turned his vehicle back to Sauraha parking Kajalkali at the elephent shed at Parkside Hotel where she remained for nearly a year, her health deteriorating further.The NTCN and CNP vets attended to Kajalkali regularly. Given her digestive problems, they advised the mahout to feed her the right kind of diet. They also collected her blood sample to test for tuberculosis and other diseases for which she was cleared.Finally, on 23 May she could not stand anymore on her feet and collapsed. After 80 litres of saline water and a whole day of effort, she managed to stand again only for her to fall again a week later.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413110/63722e849c7e80680e0c24cbjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="725" height="434"><figcaption>Kajalkai a month before she passed away.</figcaption></figure>But when she collapsed for the third time on 16 June, the vets had already lost hope. They tried to ease her suffering by giving painkillers and treating the wounds. She died 10 days later on 26 June.An elephant is listed as protected species under Nepal’s National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1972. The government has issued a Captive Elephant Management Policy in 2001. The CITES Act has been enacted to regulate the trade of endangered wildlife and their parts. Under this, all captive elephants should be registered at DNPWC and follow CITES provisions in case of trade or trans-border movement of endangered wildlife.But the CITES regulation has not been fully implemented and not all captive elephants in Nepal are registered. The government is also not in a position to confiscate those captive elephant not registereds.Asian wild elephants are listed in the CITES Appendix I and their trade is strictly prohibited, but captive-born elephants with certification fall in Appendix II and can be moved across the border legally with approval from CITES authorities of both exporting and importing countries.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepals-wild-elephants-are-also-on-the-move/">Nepal’s wild elephants are also on the move</a>, Salik Ram Chaudhary<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413110/63722e869c7e80680e0c24ccjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="817" height="393"><figcaption>Helping Kajalkali to stand using JCB.</figcaption></figure>In Nepal, there are about 70 captive elephants under private ownership, used primarily for safari tourism. But then the tourist industry suffered during the pandemic, owners could not afford the $3,000 a month needed for the upkeep of these animals.Which is why owners have sold 20 elephants to Indian buyers during the pandemic, and Kajalkali was one of them.Buying and selling of elephants is illegal but given the increasing elephant export from Chitwan to India, animal rights activists had filed a petition in the Supreme Court which then issued an interim order in September 2021 for the government to immediately stop the illegal cross-border sale of Nepal’s captive elephants into India.Privately owned captive elephants need management from two perspectives. On one hand, elephants are endangered animals protected under the various conventions, treaties, rules and regulations. Their illegal trans-border trade should be stopped and their welfare ensured regardless of their status and ownership.Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/how-humans-can-live-with-wild-elephants/"> How humans can live with wild elephants</a>, Sheren Shrestha and Gokarna Jung ThapaOn the other hand, they are also owned as private property in many parts of South and Southeast Asia. For private owners, elephants are part of their livelihood and want to make a profit. So it is in their interest to care for them, but once they are old, diseased or injured, elephants become a burden.Kajalkali is the prime example of how elephants are used and then discarded when they do not benefit the owners anymore. Most of the privately-owned elephants in Nepal are above 40 years and will soon be retiring. They may very well suffer Kajalkali's fateif there is no provision for sustainable income either from tourism or external support.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413110/63722e899c7e80680e0c24cdjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="392" height="455"><figcaption>Kajalkali in October 2021.</figcaption></figure>At present elephant safari is the primary source of income for these communities and it will be unwise to stop it immediately regardless of how strong the voices against it are, as it will mean negatively impact the welfare of these magnificent pachyderms.But elephant-based tourism does not have a long future either, people are essentially riding endangered wildlife. Developing elephant-friendly alternative products and activities that ensure their welfare in the long term and generate good revenue to sustain their cost should be the priority.At the same time, specifically for elephants that need support like Kajalkali, we should establish a sanctuary or a retirement centrewhich can be integrated with the government-planned wildlife rescue centre.At NTNC's Biodiversity Conservation Center, we already have some experience caring for 80-year-old Melkali, who is living a proper retired life with care and support.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/set-the-elephants-free/">Set the elephants free</a>, Michelle SzydlowskiBabu Ram Lamichhane is with the Natural Trust for Nature Conservation – Biodiversity Conservation Center in Sauraha, Chitwan.

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Making the life of Nepal's captive elephants easier

Samsung Nepal has opened pre-orders for the Galaxy A57 5G and A37 5G. Both phones run Samsung’s One UI 8.5, featuring AI capabilities like voice transcription, Circle to Search, and photo editing. They feature a 50MP triple-camera system, a Super AMOLED display, and six years of OS and security updates.

Galaxy A series

The war in West Asia has exposed the fragility of the economic architecture Nepal has built on over two generations. If the conflict continues, growth across developing Asia will slow and prices will rise. For Nepal, this will be felt through higher living costs, weaker economic activity, and growing uncertainty for the millions of families who depend on remittances.&nbsp; Nepal now needs to structurally transform from exporting labour to investing in domestic job creation. &nbsp; The country's current path toward a knowledge economy has a blind spot. A <a href="https://iids.org.np/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/unleashing.pdf" target="_blank">report</a> by the Institute for Integrated Development Studies (IIDS) in Kathmandu shows that IT export companies alone generated 7,228 jobs and income for 66,509 freelancers.&nbsp; We are building digital labour export, not an economy that accumulates institutional knowledge. The Nepali Upwork developer and a migrant construction worker in the Gulf are engaged in the same economic activity, but with different tools. Nepal’s reliance on a <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/BX.TRF.PWKR.DT.GD.ZS?locations=NP" target="_blank">remittance-driven economy,</a> means the country has failed to create enough <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/nepal/publication/unlocking-nepal-s-growth-potential" target="_blank">quality jobs</a> at home. For millions of young people, leaving the country is not a choice but a necessity to survive and support families back home. <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/nepal/publication/unlocking-nepal-s-growth-potential" target="_blank">Remittances</a> have no doubt helped reduce poverty. Thirty years ago, 55% of Nepal’s population lived on less than $2.15 a day, now it is 20% after the absolute poverty line was revised upwards. This progress has come at a cost — &nbsp;an economy that depends more on exporting workers than creating opportunities at home. This development reflects a deeper political failure to create meaningful jobs within the country. Since the democratic transition in 1991, Nepal’s leadership has largely recycled the same faces, with limited progress on job creation or industrial growth.&nbsp; Nepal cannot build a <a href="https://nipore.org/accelerating-nepals-startups/" target="_blank">knowledge economy</a> while its most ambitious people are outbound to Doha and Tokyo. We are also not just losing ‘labour’. We are losing the entrepreneurial risk tolerance of our youth.&nbsp; If the most ambitious 25-year-olds are abroad, who is left to support innovation and entrepreneurship? The same people who are working tirelessly abroad, are our biggest asset for development. Their work ethic and the know-how inurban renewal could well fit into the new RSP government’s mandate of 7% annual growth.&nbsp; The <a href="https://english.biznessnews.com/posts/-nepal%E2%80%99s-it-exports-cross-1-billion-" target="_blank">$1B milestone</a> of IT exports is a celebratory moment for Nepal. However, that cannot lead to a pathway to a $100 billion economy without innovation ecosystems that go beyond individual labour export. Companies like SecurityPal and industry associations such as NASIT have made significant efforts in building such an environment, recently championed by private sector leaders as a &nbsp;<a href="https://www.securitypalhq.com/blog/silicon-peaks" target="_blank">Silicon Peaks</a> model that emphasises a home growth tech cluster. The need to accelerate this transition is even more urgent with the escalating conflict in West Asia. &nbsp;The recent International Labour Organisation (ILO) <a href="https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/2026-03/Nepal%20LDC%20Graduation%20Employment%20Impacts%20Report.pdf" target="_blank">report</a> shows that LDC graduation is expected to adversely impact manufacturing with losses of $1 billion by 2030.&nbsp; If manufacturing takes such a large hit from losing trade preferences, then Nepal’s services and IT sectors need to structurally transform and shift from exporting individual talent to building firms. &nbsp; A generation’s frustration has finally forced a shift in Nepal’s political structure, handing the new government a clear mandate to fix failures. But the question still persists: what prevents Nepal from achieving sustained, productivity-driven growth? &nbsp;&nbsp; RSP is in the right place at the right time to put Nepal's economy on a firm footing. At the heart of Nepal’s economic underperformance lies a major development binding constraint: low returns to investment on projects.&nbsp; The government invests like a high-growth economy, with gross capital formation at around <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NE.GDI.FTOT.ZS?locations=NP" target="_blank">25–30 percent of GDP</a>. Yet economic growth remains modest. The problem is not how much the country invests, but how little it gets in return. One way to see this is by looking at how much investment is required to generate growth.&nbsp; Nepal needs large amounts of capital to produce relatively small gains in output (graph, below). For instance, in 2024, the ICOR was 8.29, this suggests that Nepal had to invest more than 8 units of capital to produce a one unit of additional economic output.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260406040412_605dc527641d2ff2dc5723ed8bbec946898331d5538a55b9941e32a0725bf811.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20260406040412_605dc527641d2ff2dc5723ed8bbec946898331d5538a55b9941e32a0725bf811" data-rendition-name="original" width="1827" height="925" loading="lazy" alt="Economy graph"> <figcaption>Source: Author's calculation based on a Growth Diagnostic simulation</figcaption> </figure>  This reflects a deeper issue in how investment is allocated and executed. Capital is often locked in low-productivity sectors or diluted by delays, inefficiencies, and policy uncertainty.&nbsp; As a result, even high levels of investment fail to translate into sustained growth. Until investment shifts toward productive, firm-building activities, higher spending alone will not deliver results. &nbsp; To reverse this, the government must focus on raising the returns to investment by enabling firms to grow and compete. This requires a shift from managing scarcity to creating an environment where capital can generate consistent and predictable returns. A central priority should be given to attracting and retaining both domestic and foreign private investment. Investors do not just respond to direct incentives, but also to policy stability in the country. Nepal’s economy cannot sustain high growth if its human capital continues to leave the country.&nbsp; The goal should not simply be to create jobs, but to build companies that scale, innovate, and compete beyond Nepal. This requires supporting sectors with strong productivity potential and ensuring that firms can expand without being constrained by infrastructure gaps or regulatory friction. Finally, the state must improve the quality of its own investment. Public spending should focus on lowering the cost of doing business through reliable electricity, efficient logistics, and digital infrastructure.&nbsp; The GenZ movement took two days to bring change. The economic transformation of Nepal might take a generation. The RSP can accelerate this transition, but only if it focuses on building a better investment climate for business and not just feeding the global labour pool. Kailash Raj Pandey is an MPA/ID and MBA candidate at Harvard Kennedy School and MIT Sloan School of Management and a fellow at MIT Kuo Sharper Center for Innovation and Prosperity.&nbsp; Siddhartha Raymajhí is a policy researcher based in Kathmandu.

Creating a firm future for Nepal

Know your Ministers

Prime Minister Balendra Shah on Wednesday broke tradition and met with 17 foreign envoys collectively, a move that was a notable departure from how his predecessors operated.&nbsp;
Shah had already set himself apart by talking less, listening more, and delegating to trusted friends. But by meeting all ambassadors at one go in the presence of the Foreign Ministry, he signalled a paradigm shift in how he wants Nepal to be seen: no longer just balancing India and China, but as a country confident about its <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/guest-editorial/tripolar-contestation-over-nepal">strategic importance and place in the world</a>.
In just two weeks, the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/rsp-dos-and-don-ts">RSP has sprung into action </a>on multiple fronts to implement its ambitious 100-point, 100-days action plan. It has taken short-term measures to mitigate the impact of the Gulf war, as well as medium- and long- term measures to streamline the bureaucracy. A few high-profile figures have been made examples of to drive the message home.
Earlier this week, the government recalled six politically appointed ambassadors, the most notable being long-serving Shankar Sharma from New Delhi. The Kathmandu District Court issued arrest warrants against former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and his former foreign minister wife Arzu Rana on charges of money laundering and corruption.
Each ministry has been trying to clean up the accumulated rot from the past three decades: regulatory overhaul of microfinance, education, health and service delivery.&nbsp;
These actions widely disseminated campaign-style on YouTube and TikTok have made most Nepalis hopeful that the party they installed in power means business.
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BACKLASH
But such attempts to overhaul a long-entrenched political culture were bound to face backlash. In their impatience and enthusiasm to get things done, some of Prime Minister Shah’s ministers have over-reached.
It was common knowledge that government-paid advertising in the mainstream press was kickback-driven, but the PMO’s directive that official notices be published or broadcast only on state-run media has been denounced — especially as the media industry struggles to stay afloat.
More serious are some recent appointments by ministers of relatives and figures closely associated with the RSP to key positions. This has rankled because this party built its political plank on ending nepotism and graft.&nbsp;
News that Home Minister Sudan Gurung allegedly had not paid rent on leased land, which illegally encroached on the lake in Pokhara did not help. &nbsp;
Prime Minister Shah himself has come under scrutiny for appointing a kitchen cabinet full of male buddies from his time as Kathmandu mayor. To douse criticism he brought in as adviser investigative journalist Deepa Dahal, who has exposed corruption in high places of the previous coalitions.&nbsp;
Shah’s appointment of another political adviser Asim Shah to the head Constitution Amendment Task Force, is also seen as problematic. He is a filmmaker and former lawmaker, but does not have a background in constitutional law.&nbsp;
Even more controversial is the Cabinet’s decision to appoint RSP Chair Rabi Lamichhane’s legal counsel, Narayan Kandel, as Attorney General. Kandel used to be a UK permanent resident, and does not have as much experience practicing law in Nepal.&nbsp;
Kandel’s appointment drew flak and raised eyebrows, and with the pending legal cases against Lamichhane this appointment represents a flagrant conflict of interest.
Health Minister Nisha Mehta was also accused of favouritism after reappointing Junu Shrestha, wife of Labour Minister Dipak Kumar Shah, as member of the Health Insurance Board which had earlier suspended her. The Labour Minister’s rambling rant at the Board’s meeting on Tuesday has not helped the RSP’s image.&nbsp;
(UPDATE: On Thursday, Prime Minister Shah sacked the Labour Minister after the RSP found him in breach of the party's code of conduct and discipline. He served 14 days in the Cabinet, one of the shortest tenures for a minister in Nepal )
It is hard to know what <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/ball-in-balen-s-court">Balendra Shah is thinking</a>, and how Rabi Lamichhane is going to justify some of these moves. After all, making politics, governance, and bureaucracy a meritocracy has been the core tenet of the RSP, and it risks alienating its mainly youth base if these missteps persist.
But at least for now, most RSP supporters seem to be giving the party the benefit of doubt.

captive-elephants

Making the life of Nepal's captive elephants easier

Galaxy A series

Creating a firm future for Nepal

Know your Ministers

Nepal’s new government springs into action