<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101136/63720c889c7e80680e0b7875jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1053" height="1012"/><figcaption>Photo: PRATIBHA TULADHAR</figcaption></figure>On nights when things got unbearable, Laxmi Maya always stepped out of the house in the quiet of the night. There was nowhere to go, really, but the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=7121#.YiRUsy8w3u0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">gully</a>. The gully or galli, as she said it, was the long tunnel that went from under the house on the main street into a courtyard where one of the four houses flanking the square, brick-paved space, was hers. Her husband’s family’s rather.The bickering over the house had gone on for so long. Every few weeks, government officials showed up at her threshold, and asked her innumerable questions. Where was the infamous husband? “I don’t know,” was Laxmi Maya’s consistent answer.As time went by, she had learned to say those words without at all batting an eyelid. And as she said it on repeat, the words became more believable to the government officials, as they did to her. She had started to believe she had no idea about his whereabouts.In her mind, Calcutta was a distant country of which she did not know anything. She did not know what its streets or nooks looked like or how the tram she had heard about operated. And so knowing that her husband was in Calcutta was tantamount to not knowing where he was. So, her statement was not entirely false.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/coping-with-the-patriarchy/">Coping with patriarchy</a>, Bhumi GhimiréThe government officials always appeared in a pair. Laxmi Maya would hurry upstairs to her baiga after asking them to sit down on the wicker mats and quickly poach two eggs and pour a dash of aeila into little copper kholas and present them before the men.“So you do not know where your husband is?” one of them would ask between taking a sip.“I don’t,” she would say quietly.“We are only letting you live in this house because you have three small children. By law, he is banished and so everything he owns is now government property, we hope you know.”“I know, Sarkar. But this house was given to me in dowry by my father,” Laxmi Maya would lie again. It had become a drill.Promptly, the officers would leave after polishing off their snack, setting in motion for Laxmi Maya, the wait for another such visit.Did she miss the husband? She could not say. His presence had been punctuated by his time spent with the dancers, or neighbourhood events from where he always came away as the feared. What was there to miss of such a man, besides moments of imagined intimacy when his limbs were hers to hold? She wondered, had she been a dancer, would it also have kept him from straying? Yes, they said he had strayed.Read also: <a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/nepals-unequal-marriages/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepal's unequal marriages</a>, Anjana RajbhandaryBut the women in her clan did not dance. They had not been taught to. Dancing, they said, was for women who were “loose”. They had taught her to speak softly, tread softer and to hold her tongue and restrict her movements to grace. That was who she was-- all those things they said she should be.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101136/63720c8a9c7e80680e0b7876jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="126" height="150">Standing in the darkness of the galli, Laxmi Maya often felt streams of hot tears soak her face. She had never learned to cry before others, so the quiet of the night was a good time. On one such night, she had seen rows of carriages go by, carrying large boxes. They were followed by rumours that the Ranas were getting their belongings removed to India because some kind of revolution was afoot to throw them off. They said that was why the king had left for India.Tonight, though, there was no such activity. It was quiet. As Laxmi Maya stood there, tears finding their way down her jaw, she thought she saw a light flicker near the Naradevi temple. It was followed by the clanking of a door and then of ghangala, the bunch of bells worn by the goddess. Wafting in with the sound was the goddess herself, stepping out of her temple, draped in a long red frock, a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/getting-behind-the-divine-mask/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">mask</a> on her face. As the deity started doing the familiar dance, lilting her hands in the air, feet shuffling, Laxmi Maya froze, but her tears ran down in thick rivulets. She stared in awe and trembled.…“The wedding was fun?”“The ratyauli was fun.”“The what?”“Yes. Ratyauli. I had heard about it but never seen one before,” says Mamu.I ask her to explain, but she says she cannot because it would embarrass us both. She will not divulge any detail, but tells me how she felt a tinge of envy that <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/parodying-patriarchy-at-tij/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">women had the liberty</a> to engage in that kind of lewd talk without being judged while singing and dancing and acting.Read also: <a style="font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/boys-will-be-boys-is-never-an-excuse/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Boys will be boys is never an excuse</a>, Anjana Rajbhandary“How come women in our community don’t dance?” I ask.“We have the gods and the goddess, the masked dancers,” she says.“But they are all men wearing masks,” I remind her. Then Mamu goes on to explain how apart from the Jyapu community, women from other clans had never been given that kind of freedom.“Don’t you think that is so unfair? Taking the right from you to revel, to be in tune with your own body. When else do you explore the joy of being in your body as you do with dancing? It is so much to take away from a woman.”“I don’t know, I never thought about it. My movements don’t sync and so I don’t dance.”Mamu often sits in a corner watching others dance. When asked to dance, she will sometimes try, but her footwork never matches her hand gestures or the music: “I guess, I just watch people dance.”Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/patriarchy-in-an-oligarchy/">Patriarchy in an oligarchy</a>, Editorial…Dance! My senior, who is having a “ragging” session with me, orders. Do the twist, she says, and sings a Rafi number. What is a twist, I wonder. She says, if you do not obey your seniors, you measure the entire campus with a one rupee coin. In my heart, I wished I could just dance and get over it. But I can’t. Like Mamu, my feet are wooden, too. I just stand there, my face burning in shame and fury.Here, she says. Take this coin and now go measure the entire place with it.As I bend down at her feet and place the coin on the ground, I wish I could have told her I cannot dance because women in my community <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/letter-to-a-nepali-aunty/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">are not expected to dance</a>. But saying that, would also require a dance-- of the tongue. So, I bend down and start flipping the coin inch by inch across the campus.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/anger-management-for-nepali-women/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Feel angry? read this</a>, Anjana RajbhandarySuburban Tales is a monthly column in Nepali Times based on real people (with some names changed) in Pratibha’s life.

Pratibha Tuladhar

original

674x448

610x380

500x500

400x266

400x240

400x203

301x200

The light of feet

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181152/636be8ed9c7e80680e087891jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3001" height="2261"/><figcaption>Murti Devi Chaudhary, chair of a community forestry group in Saptari says, “Wildlife are like the forest’s jewels” Photos: Teri D. Allendorf</figcaption></figure>The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepals-highest-ever-tiger-sighting/#:~:text=A%20tiger%20has%20been%20caught,the%20mountain%20forests%20of%20Ilam&amp;text=A%20tiger%20has%20been%20caught%20on%20camera%20trap%20at%20an,the%20mountains%20of%20eastern%20Nepal." data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepals-highest-ever-tiger-sighting/%23:~:text%3DA%2520tiger%2520has%2520been%2520caught,the%2520mountain%2520forests%2520of%2520Ilam%26text%3DA%2520tiger%2520has%2520been%2520caught%2520on%2520camera%2520trap%2520at%2520an,the%2520mountains%2520of%2520eastern%2520Nepal.&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHxJD4WwjnKkFNan4bMU66TNK3O7A">camera trap photos</a> of a large tiger on a nighttime walk in Nepal's eastern mountains were thrilling. It was only a matter of time before we would find them exploring eastern Nepal, since forests there have been <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/tree-mendous/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/tree-mendous/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHMJRFjC5Q56n2iPaKGs78XYw1gnw">improving</a>. And tigers are dispersers.The endangered cats have been documented in <a href="https://kathmandupost.com/climate-environment/2020/12/12/tigers-sighted-high-in-the-hills-wildlife-experts-wonder-why-they-are-moving-north" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://kathmandupost.com/climate-environment/2020/12/12/tigers-sighted-high-in-the-hills-wildlife-experts-wonder-why-they-are-moving-north&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNELmzB_Bn2tB6NIqKXfxzaWQHMN-Q">many parts</a> of the western and eastern Himalaya. The number of tigers in Nepal grew from 121 in 2009 to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-tigers-now-number-235/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-tigers-now-number-235/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHyYHYBf-ZFiJitzKi1W2LvgVm4uw">235 in 2018</a>, according to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/how-many-tigers-in-nepal/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/how-many-tigers-in-nepal/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGvmnw6NGnSGoArEXNFNxlQj52fuA">a tiger census</a>, and Nepal was the first tiger range country to meet the international target of doubling  its population of wild tigers.It is possible tigers have been present in eastern Nepal for a while, and that only now the wider use of camera trapping is allowing us to prove their presence. People often say they see tigers, but without photographic evidence, it is often assumed they have seen चितुवा (<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/rise-in-tiger-numbers-make-leopards-raid-livestock/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/rise-in-tiger-numbers-make-leopards-raid-livestock/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG0jfqiaoptCWoEA14f9r9eQfT3Qw">leopards</a>) and not बाघ (tigers).Other factors also probably contribute to tigers coming out in eastern Nepal. As villagers <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/9/3/84/pdf" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/9/3/84/pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGBjd-nWQuc9ImBjdXsjQrfTqJlAQ">abandon farmland</a> and migrate for economic opportunities, wildlife find more habitat and space. In Europe, there have been reports of bear and wolf numbers climbing as villages and farmland are abandoned in a process called ‘<a href="https://theconversation.com/rewilding-as-farmland-and-villages-are-abandoned-forests-wolves-and-bears-are-returning-to-europe-119316" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://theconversation.com/rewilding-as-farmland-and-villages-are-abandoned-forests-wolves-and-bears-are-returning-to-europe-119316&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHNG9KB0Oehww2RYYpXUHXvMNid8w">rewilding</a>’.As wildlife populations increase, their sightings in unexpected places also go up. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200929-how-wolves-and-bison-are-returning-to-europe" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200929-how-wolves-and-bison-are-returning-to-europe&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH5U9SPFnmq8co-TvUpQlSJIDIS9A">Wolves are known to pass through European</a> cities and <a href="https://kathmandupost.com/climate-environment/2019/06/21/this-is-why-leopards-are-entering-our-cities-20190621195755" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://kathmandupost.com/climate-environment/2019/06/21/this-is-why-leopards-are-entering-our-cities-20190621195755&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFVFgZqRZdu9hqXWpRcrhIhz2fEgw">leopards</a>move from one forest patch to another in  Kathmandu Valley.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181152/636be8f09c7e80680e087892jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="562" height="154"><figcaption>Tiger sightings</figcaption></figure>Blue dots are places tiger have been camera trapped in Nepal and Sikkim <a href="https://kathmandupost.com/national/2020/12/12/tigers-sighted-high-in-the-hills-wildlife-experts-wonder-why-they-are-moving-north" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://kathmandupost.com/national/2020/12/12/tigers-sighted-high-in-the-hills-wildlife-experts-wonder-why-they-are-moving-north&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608621325773000&amp;usg=AFQjCNECVxmegeQK-fwbZ8dmRlc8p-DrCQ">recently</a>. Black dots are from <a href="http://globaltigerforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Final-HAT-VERSION-28-AUGUST-20191.pdf" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://globaltigerforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Final-HAT-VERSION-28-AUGUST-20191.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608621325773000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGoA1lM1jl5Scz5yzxDmaBysj0sJw">Status of Tiger Habitats in High Altitude Ecosystems of Bhutan, India and Nepal (Situation Analysis) 2019</a>.The red dot shows confirmed tiger presence in the 1990s in Udayapur.Human-wildlife <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/close-encounters-with-tigers-in-nepal/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/close-encounters-with-tigers-in-nepal/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGlSNepxKqlnBukXV17yMvoLsiRww">conflict</a> is bound to increase as forests and wildlife thrive. But there is no better way to address these problems than with the full <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/unsung-heroes-of-nepals-tiger-recovery/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/unsung-heroes-of-nepals-tiger-recovery/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEmY66nWU_gtggS3FQBx5p7P8zlrw">participation of communities</a> to help create and implement mitigation measures that make sense to them.Spotting tigers in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepals-highest-ever-tiger-sighting/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepals-highest-ever-tiger-sighting/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHwzNmLQ2JbVFZz3T7hxXhxrW3HyA">Ilam</a> is a reminder that excellent opportunities exist in East Nepal for conserving tiger and other wildlife populations like the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/how-humans-can-live-with-wild-elephants/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/how-humans-can-live-with-wild-elephants/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEAD_g4V3hCH7RIkDf_u5pd7kajiw">wild elephant</a>, <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Dancing-to-freedom,4096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Dancing-to-freedom,4096&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGo2idBextTTyjIKkOy1LKmwySDsQ">sloth bear</a>, and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/protecting-pangolins-from-being-eaten-to-extinction/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/protecting-pangolins-from-being-eaten-to-extinction/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNECcACdohCnmnPiu3ddl2eDcDf1Wg">pangolin</a>. Recovering forests in the Chure and Mahabharat Ranges could become good habitat for these endangered species.There is no better way to protect wildlife in eastern Nepal than by giving <a href="https://www.intechopen.com/books/precious-forests-precious-earth/creating-modern-community-conservation-organizations-and-institutions-to-effect-successful-forest-co" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.intechopen.com/books/precious-forests-precious-earth/creating-modern-community-conservation-organizations-and-institutions-to-effect-successful-forest-co&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGoBMufpknqZ6Tb__Ch04aYquYj3g">local communities</a> the tools to manage their community forests for wildlife. Although community forestry has traditionally focused on managing trees and plants, there is no reason management cannot include wildlife.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181152/636be8f19c7e80680e087893jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1125"><figcaption>Community forestry user group members being trained in wildlife conservation.</figcaption></figure>Nepal’s communities have been champions in protecting and conserving their forests, leading the world by their example. With the right training, policies, and incentives, they can achieve similar success with wildlife, including tigers.With the support of Nepali partners, NGOs like <a href="http://communityconservation.org/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://communityconservation.org/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFtuYhObmw_sl38IYzKijzCjr9iCg">Community Conservation Inc</a> has begun to bring together a network of communities and community forests in southeastern Nepal for the conservation of endangered tigers, bears, and elephants.Since 2014, the organisation has been partnering with the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/caught-on-camera-nepals-rare-fishing-cat/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/caught-on-camera-nepals-rare-fishing-cat/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGASqxATh0pj7qR8ZeocJSoostooQ">Small Mammal Conservation and Research Foundation</a>, Resources Himalaya, and Community Conservation Nepal, to build a network of community forests in the Chure from the Bagmati River to the eastern border.Communities in Nepal are already protecting endangered species like the <a href="https://www.redpandanetwork.org/projects/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.redpandanetwork.org/projects/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGmi6lVmeCOaYgbAVeigCj6gqazEg">Red Panda Network</a> project, the group that found the tiger in Ilam, and Nawalparasi's <a href="https://thehimalayantimes.com/lifestyle/environment/ex-poachers-turn-conservationists-himalayan-ghoral/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://thehimalayantimes.com/lifestyle/environment/ex-poachers-turn-conservationists-himalayan-ghoral/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG5Ch22XgwoK5ATg_smg6-V5Prd6g">Ghoral Conservation Area</a>. Both demonstrate how communities can safeguard endangered species.While we should not romanticise people’s desire to protect wildlife, we also should not underestimate it. As Murti Devi Chaudhary, Chairperson of the Jharkhanda Community Forestry User Group OF Saptari District, told us during a meeting last year, “Wildlife are like the forest’s jewels.”<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181152/636be8f49c7e80680e087894jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2272" height="1704"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>Community forestry in Nepal has shown that people can be the solution, not the problem, for protecting forests. The same is true for wildlife. Communities need to be recognised as the backbone of wildlife conservation. Investments in community capacity and policies to support them should be a priority.Nepal has the opportunity to become a world leader, not only in community forestry, but also in community wildlife management. And this would mean more fantastic photos and sightings of endangered wildlife in eastern Nepal.Community commitmentNepal can integrate wildlife conservation into community forestry by building:* Community capacity for wildlife conservation, including trainings in wildlife conservation for women, marginalised, and youth. Ideally, individuals could gain special training in areas that particularly interest them, like birds, mammals, plants, etc.* Capacity of forest guards and user groups to gather data on wildlife as part of regular activities, including camera trapping, with community forestry users’ groups buying their own cameras if they have enough income or through subsidies.* Networks of community forests linked across corridors, with community forestry user groups that communicate and share information about the wildlife in their forests.Teri D. Allendorf, PhD is a conservation biologist affiliated with the Dept of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in the US, and is the Board President of Community Conservation, Inc.

1250x600

1084x550

Villagers step up to protect Nepal’s tigers

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191120/636befdb4b0ad905ca02efdajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3001" height="2261"/><figcaption>Murti Devi Chaudhary, chair of a community forestry group in Saptari says, “Wildlife are like the forest’s jewels” Photos: Teri D. Allendorf</figcaption></figure>The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepals-highest-ever-tiger-sighting/#:~:text=A%20tiger%20has%20been%20caught,the%20mountain%20forests%20of%20Ilam&amp;text=A%20tiger%20has%20been%20caught%20on%20camera%20trap%20at%20an,the%20mountains%20of%20eastern%20Nepal." data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepals-highest-ever-tiger-sighting/%23:~:text%3DA%2520tiger%2520has%2520been%2520caught,the%2520mountain%2520forests%2520of%2520Ilam%26text%3DA%2520tiger%2520has%2520been%2520caught%2520on%2520camera%2520trap%2520at%2520an,the%2520mountains%2520of%2520eastern%2520Nepal.&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHxJD4WwjnKkFNan4bMU66TNK3O7A">camera trap photos</a> of a large tiger on a nighttime walk in Nepal's eastern mountains were thrilling. It was only a matter of time before we would find them exploring eastern Nepal, since forests there have been <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/tree-mendous/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/tree-mendous/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHMJRFjC5Q56n2iPaKGs78XYw1gnw">improving</a>. And tigers are dispersers.The endangered cats have been documented in <a href="https://kathmandupost.com/climate-environment/2020/12/12/tigers-sighted-high-in-the-hills-wildlife-experts-wonder-why-they-are-moving-north" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://kathmandupost.com/climate-environment/2020/12/12/tigers-sighted-high-in-the-hills-wildlife-experts-wonder-why-they-are-moving-north&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNELmzB_Bn2tB6NIqKXfxzaWQHMN-Q">many parts</a> of the western and eastern Himalaya. The number of tigers in Nepal grew from 121 in 2009 to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-tigers-now-number-235/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-tigers-now-number-235/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHyYHYBf-ZFiJitzKi1W2LvgVm4uw">235 in 2018</a>, according to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/how-many-tigers-in-nepal/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/how-many-tigers-in-nepal/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGvmnw6NGnSGoArEXNFNxlQj52fuA">a tiger census</a>, and Nepal was the first tiger range country to meet the international target of doubling  its population of wild tigers.It is possible tigers have been present in eastern Nepal for a while, and that only now the wider use of camera trapping is allowing us to prove their presence. People often say they see tigers, but without photographic evidence, it is often assumed they have seen चितुवा (<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/rise-in-tiger-numbers-make-leopards-raid-livestock/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/rise-in-tiger-numbers-make-leopards-raid-livestock/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG0jfqiaoptCWoEA14f9r9eQfT3Qw">leopards</a>) and not बाघ (tigers).Other factors also probably contribute to tigers coming out in eastern Nepal. As villagers <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/9/3/84/pdf" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/9/3/84/pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGBjd-nWQuc9ImBjdXsjQrfTqJlAQ">abandon farmland</a> and migrate for economic opportunities, wildlife find more habitat and space. In Europe, there have been reports of bear and wolf numbers climbing as villages and farmland are abandoned in a process called ‘<a href="https://theconversation.com/rewilding-as-farmland-and-villages-are-abandoned-forests-wolves-and-bears-are-returning-to-europe-119316" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://theconversation.com/rewilding-as-farmland-and-villages-are-abandoned-forests-wolves-and-bears-are-returning-to-europe-119316&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHNG9KB0Oehww2RYYpXUHXvMNid8w">rewilding</a>’.As wildlife populations increase, their sightings in unexpected places also go up. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200929-how-wolves-and-bison-are-returning-to-europe" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200929-how-wolves-and-bison-are-returning-to-europe&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH5U9SPFnmq8co-TvUpQlSJIDIS9A">Wolves are known to pass through European</a> cities and <a href="https://kathmandupost.com/climate-environment/2019/06/21/this-is-why-leopards-are-entering-our-cities-20190621195755" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://kathmandupost.com/climate-environment/2019/06/21/this-is-why-leopards-are-entering-our-cities-20190621195755&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFVFgZqRZdu9hqXWpRcrhIhz2fEgw">leopards</a>move from one forest patch to another in  Kathmandu Valley.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191120/636befde4b0ad905ca02efdbjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="562" height="154"><figcaption>Tiger sightings</figcaption></figure>Blue dots are places tiger have been camera trapped in Nepal and Sikkim <a href="https://kathmandupost.com/national/2020/12/12/tigers-sighted-high-in-the-hills-wildlife-experts-wonder-why-they-are-moving-north" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://kathmandupost.com/national/2020/12/12/tigers-sighted-high-in-the-hills-wildlife-experts-wonder-why-they-are-moving-north&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608621325773000&amp;usg=AFQjCNECVxmegeQK-fwbZ8dmRlc8p-DrCQ">recently</a>. Black dots are from <a href="http://globaltigerforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Final-HAT-VERSION-28-AUGUST-20191.pdf" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://globaltigerforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Final-HAT-VERSION-28-AUGUST-20191.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608621325773000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGoA1lM1jl5Scz5yzxDmaBysj0sJw">Status of Tiger Habitats in High Altitude Ecosystems of Bhutan, India and Nepal (Situation Analysis) 2019</a>.The red dot shows confirmed tiger presence in the 1990s in Udayapur.Human-wildlife <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/close-encounters-with-tigers-in-nepal/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/close-encounters-with-tigers-in-nepal/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGlSNepxKqlnBukXV17yMvoLsiRww">conflict</a> is bound to increase as forests and wildlife thrive. But there is no better way to address these problems than with the full <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/unsung-heroes-of-nepals-tiger-recovery/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/unsung-heroes-of-nepals-tiger-recovery/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEmY66nWU_gtggS3FQBx5p7P8zlrw">participation of communities</a> to help create and implement mitigation measures that make sense to them.Spotting tigers in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepals-highest-ever-tiger-sighting/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepals-highest-ever-tiger-sighting/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHwzNmLQ2JbVFZz3T7hxXhxrW3HyA">Ilam</a> is a reminder that excellent opportunities exist in East Nepal for conserving tiger and other wildlife populations like the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/how-humans-can-live-with-wild-elephants/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/how-humans-can-live-with-wild-elephants/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEAD_g4V3hCH7RIkDf_u5pd7kajiw">wild elephant</a>, <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Dancing-to-freedom,4096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Dancing-to-freedom,4096&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGo2idBextTTyjIKkOy1LKmwySDsQ">sloth bear</a>, and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/protecting-pangolins-from-being-eaten-to-extinction/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/protecting-pangolins-from-being-eaten-to-extinction/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNECcACdohCnmnPiu3ddl2eDcDf1Wg">pangolin</a>. Recovering forests in the Chure and Mahabharat Ranges could become good habitat for these endangered species.There is no better way to protect wildlife in eastern Nepal than by giving <a href="https://www.intechopen.com/books/precious-forests-precious-earth/creating-modern-community-conservation-organizations-and-institutions-to-effect-successful-forest-co" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.intechopen.com/books/precious-forests-precious-earth/creating-modern-community-conservation-organizations-and-institutions-to-effect-successful-forest-co&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGoBMufpknqZ6Tb__Ch04aYquYj3g">local communities</a> the tools to manage their community forests for wildlife. Although community forestry has traditionally focused on managing trees and plants, there is no reason management cannot include wildlife.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191120/636befdf4b0ad905ca02efdcjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1125"><figcaption>Community forestry user group members being trained in wildlife conservation.</figcaption></figure>Nepal’s communities have been champions in protecting and conserving their forests, leading the world by their example. With the right training, policies, and incentives, they can achieve similar success with wildlife, including tigers.With the support of Nepali partners, NGOs like <a href="http://communityconservation.org/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://communityconservation.org/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFtuYhObmw_sl38IYzKijzCjr9iCg">Community Conservation Inc</a> has begun to bring together a network of communities and community forests in southeastern Nepal for the conservation of endangered tigers, bears, and elephants.Since 2014, the organisation has been partnering with the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/caught-on-camera-nepals-rare-fishing-cat/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/caught-on-camera-nepals-rare-fishing-cat/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGASqxATh0pj7qR8ZeocJSoostooQ">Small Mammal Conservation and Research Foundation</a>, Resources Himalaya, and Community Conservation Nepal, to build a network of community forests in the Chure from the Bagmati River to the eastern border.Communities in Nepal are already protecting endangered species like the <a href="https://www.redpandanetwork.org/projects/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.redpandanetwork.org/projects/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGmi6lVmeCOaYgbAVeigCj6gqazEg">Red Panda Network</a> project, the group that found the tiger in Ilam, and Nawalparasi's <a href="https://thehimalayantimes.com/lifestyle/environment/ex-poachers-turn-conservationists-himalayan-ghoral/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://thehimalayantimes.com/lifestyle/environment/ex-poachers-turn-conservationists-himalayan-ghoral/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608620326024000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG5Ch22XgwoK5ATg_smg6-V5Prd6g">Ghoral Conservation Area</a>. Both demonstrate how communities can safeguard endangered species.While we should not romanticise people’s desire to protect wildlife, we also should not underestimate it. As Murti Devi Chaudhary, Chairperson of the Jharkhanda Community Forestry User Group OF Saptari District, told us during a meeting last year, “Wildlife are like the forest’s jewels.”<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191120/636befe84b0ad905ca02efddjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2272" height="1704"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>Community forestry in Nepal has shown that people can be the solution, not the problem, for protecting forests. The same is true for wildlife. Communities need to be recognised as the backbone of wildlife conservation. Investments in community capacity and policies to support them should be a priority.Nepal has the opportunity to become a world leader, not only in community forestry, but also in community wildlife management. And this would mean more fantastic photos and sightings of endangered wildlife in eastern Nepal.Community commitmentNepal can integrate wildlife conservation into community forestry by building:* Community capacity for wildlife conservation, including trainings in wildlife conservation for women, marginalised, and youth. Ideally, individuals could gain special training in areas that particularly interest them, like birds, mammals, plants, etc.* Capacity of forest guards and user groups to gather data on wildlife as part of regular activities, including camera trapping, with community forestry users’ groups buying their own cameras if they have enough income or through subsidies.* Networks of community forests linked across corridors, with community forestry user groups that communicate and share information about the wildlife in their forests.Teri D. Allendorf, PhD is a conservation biologist affiliated with the Dept of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in the US, and is the Board President of Community Conservation, Inc.

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141116/636a576a9c7e80680e0547e1jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="1050"/><figcaption>CANOPY COVER: Nepal's midhills have seen the greatest increase in forest cover over the past 25 years. Outmigration from villages and the success of community forests like this one in Chitlang of Makwanpur district have contributed to the regrowth. Photos: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption></figure>New analysis of historical satellite imagery indicates that Nepal’s forest area has nearly doubled, from 26% of land area in 1992 to 45% in 2016. The midhills have experienced the strongest resurgence, although forests have also expanded in the Tarai and in the mountains. This makes Nepal an exception to the global trend of <a href="http://www.fao.org/forest-resources-assessment/en/">deforestation in developing countries</a>.These findings may come as a surprise to readers who regularly hear about deforestation. Indeed, recent <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/in-conservation-nepal-is-not-out-of-the-woods-yet/">infrastructure expansion projects</a> seem to pit development against nature. Protesters have pushed back against the felling of trees for the <a href="https://kathmandupost.com/climate-environment/2019/08/31/trees-could-save-kathmandu-but-can-kathmandu-save-its-trees">Ring Road expansion project</a> in Kathmandu, as well as <a href="https://www.recordnepal.com/wire/oversold-overhyped-evidence-free-development/">the plan</a> to cut down 8,000ha of jungle in Bara district for a proposed airport in Nijgad.But the new research, conducted by a <a href="https://lcluc.umd.edu/projects/twenty-five-years-community-forestry-mapping-forest-dynamics-middle-hills-nepal-2">NASA-funded team</a> whose members are based in the US, Switzerland and Nepal, does not indicate that Nepal has been free from deforestation in recent decades. Rather, the data show that on average, more new forests have grown up than have been cut down. As a result, there has been net forest gain.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/its-a-jungle-out-there-2/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">It's a jungle out there,</a> Ajaya Dixit<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/trees-politics-and-greed/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trees, politics and greed</a>, Mukesh Pokharel<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141116/636a576e9c7e80680e0547e2jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="200">Jefferson Fox, a geographer at the East-West Center in Honolulu who is the project’s principal investigator, thinks it is important to acknowledge Nepal’s forest successes, even if localised deforestation remains a problem in parts of the country.“When I did my dissertation work in the early 1980s, Nepal was all over the international press for deforestation,” he says. “Now that Nepal has turned it around, it can’t get any attention!”From 1950 to 1980, Nepal lost much of its forest cover. Deforestation was due in part to a growing rural population that cut trees to harvest timber and convert land to agriculture. Nepal had nationalised all forests in the 1950s, but the government was often ill-equipped to oversee them. Bureaucrats were frequently unaware, or turned a blind eye, when villagers cut trees for household use, and sometimes they colluded with commercial loggers to illegally exploit timber.In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the government began handing over what eventually amounted to 1.8 million hectares of national forest land to communities to <a href="http://dof.gov.np/dof_community_forest_division/community_forestry_dof">manage</a>. Unlike government officials, local communities were seen to have a vested interest in preserving forest resources for long-term, sustainable use. They also were better positioned to monitor forests and enforce rules for harvesting forest products.Fox’s research team found that areas with high rates of community forest membership experienced the most forest recovery, implying that decentralised forest management has played a key role in Nepal’s reforestation.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141116/636a576e9c7e80680e0547e3jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1100" height="1467"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Demographic changes have also been important to forest recovery. Although Nepali villagers have migrated to India for seasonal and military work for centuries, migration to Gulf countries, Southeast Asia and beyond has exploded since the 1990s.Migrants’ families often abandon marginal farmland because they lack the manpower to use it, allowing forests to naturally regenerate. Likewise, the families often harvest fewer forest products, like firewood, because they have more money to purchase alternatives, such as LPG. Fox’s team found that areas of Nepal where people receive the most remittances have also experienced greatest reforestation.The data also indicate that Nepal’s forest gains have been concentrated in the midhills. This is not surprising, because community forests are widespread in this region and outmigration and agricultural <a style="background-color: #ffffff; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.forestaction.org/app/webroot/vendor/tinymce/editor/plugins/filemanager/files/JFL%20VOl%2012%20(1)/Paudel%20et%20al.pdf">land abandonment</a> are increasingly common. The data also show that forests have expanded in the Tarai, despite greater population growth, fewer community forests and more conflicts over resources there. However, gains in the Tarai — and in the mountains — have been smaller than in the midhills.Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-third-pole-is-warming-faster-than-expected/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Third Pole is warming faster than expected,</a> Kunda Dixit<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/mustnt-blame-everything-on-climate-change/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mustn't blame everything on Climate Change,</a> EditorialImportantly, forest extent is not the same thing as ecological value, which can vary greatly from forest to forest. For example, young, dry, and isolated forests do not provide as good wildlife habitat as old-growth and riverine forests, or forests located along wildlife corridors. Similarly, a forest on a steep slope helps reduce soil erosion, giving it conservation value that a forest in a flat area may not have.Fox’s team is not the first to analyse Nepal’s forest cover change using satellite imagery. A group at the University of Maryland (<a style="background-color: #ffffff; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="http://globalforestwatch.org/">GlobalForestWatch.org</a>) has monitored forest change globally since 2000. In Nepal, its data show there has been forest loss — the opposite of Fox’s team’s findings. This data has been cited by numerous academic studies and the media, including <a style="background-color: #ffffff; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-cost-of-peace-in-post-conflict-countries-forest-cover/">this newspaper</a>.Both the old and new data were generated using computer algorithms that look at historical satellite images to determine — based on the colour and shade of pixels in each photograph — what is forest and what is not. Forests are considered to be any area with at least 50% canopy cover — meaning that, looking from the air, at least half of the ground is obscured by trees. (This may not sound like much, but the FAO standard is only 10%.)While the Maryland team used algorithms designed for application around the world, Fox’s team have created algorithms specifically tailored for Nepal. Alex Smith, a member of Fox’s team who is also a PhD candidate at Oregon State University and a current Fulbright-Hays scholar in Kathmandu, says that image-analysis algorithms designed for worldwide use can be inaccurate in Nepal because of the mountainous terrain.Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/mosquitoes-move-up-mountains-as-the-earth-warms/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mosquitoes move up mountains as the earth warms,</a> Sonia Awale<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/climate-health-emergency/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Climate-health emergency</a>, Sonia Awale<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141116/636a57719c7e80680e0547e4jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="453">By contrast, his team’s algorithms use topographic correction techniques to compensate for shade and other visual distortions caused by steep slopes. Furthermore, they ensure their algorithms are accurate by cross-analysing results with other high-resolution photographs of the same areas — a process known as 'ground truthing'.  For these reasons, the results are probably far more accurate for Nepal than the University of Maryland data.Some would argue that because Nepal nearly doubled its forest area since 1992, it can spare a few thousand hectares here or there for infrastructure projects like Nijgad. But according to Smith, this is not the upshot of his team’s research.“Our study provides a big-picture view about what is happening, but the decision to convert any specific forest should be taken after considering local factors as well,” he says.These might include the potential benefits of the infrastructure project weighed against the value of the forest as wildlife habitat and as a source of resources, cultural values and aesthetics for local people.Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/tourism-aviation-and-carbon/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tourism, aviation, and carbon,</a> Sanghamitra Subba<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/climate-summit-leads-packed-un-agenda/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Climate Summit leads packed UN agenda,</a> Thalif DeenInfrastructure aside, <a href="https://himalmag.com/a-conservative-harvest/">some people argue</a> Nepal should allow more timber harvesting, which has hitherto been tightly regulated, as long as it is accompanied by sustainable forest management. Proponents of this approach say that forest-based industries could boost the economy without leading to deforestation, because trees would be replanted once cut.Sceptics counter that ensuring long-term sustainability would be difficult, given pervasive problems with corruption and short-term thinking among leadership.The new research by Fox’s team does not provide conclusive evidence for one side or the other. Decisions about how much, and where, to harvest will inevitably involve balancing conservation and development objectives.However, the research does highlight the continued importance of community forestry. “Local communities have put in a huge amount of effort conserving these forests,” says Smith. “Whatever happens next, you want to keep people invested.”  Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/protecting-kathmandus-historic-roofscape/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Protecting Kathmandu’s historic roofscape</a>, Anne FeenstraThis story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story. <h2>Trees, politics and greed</h2>Mukesh Pokhrel in Bara<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108141116/636a57759c7e80680e0547e5jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="995"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Political battle lines are being drawn over the proposed new international airport in Nijgad, turning the mammoth project into a Province 2 vs Kathmandu tug-o-war. This threatens to overshadow the concerns of environmentalists that the $6-billion airport is not economically viable and would destroy the last remaining hardwood forest in Nepal’s eastern Tarai.On 1 September the Forest and Environment Minister of Province 2, Ramnaresh Yadav, said he would not allow trees to be cut in Nijgad to make way for the airport. There was immediate reaction in Bara, Parsa and Rautahat districts, which are adjacent to the proposed airport site, and Minister Yadav was burnt in effigy.“There is conspiracy to move the airport from Nijgad to Saptari. We will never accept relocating it,” said Ajay Patel of the Samajbadi Party Nepal of Bara district.Read also: <a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=32892&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tree-mendous,</a> Peter Gill<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=32877&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">It's a jungle out there,</a> Ajaya DixitTill last year, the controversy over the proposed airport centred on environmental grounds because the site is a biodiversity hotspot. Critics said it was not an airport project but a logging concession, and accused politicians of ignoring alternatives that would not involve cutting trees. They also said the expensive new airport made no business sense.However, Nijgad has now become a political football within Province 2, as well as with the federal government in Kathmandu. Even politicians from Madhes-based parties in Bara, Parsa and Rautahat who were against the airport are now saying there is no alternative. All politics is local, goes the adage, and nothing proves that better than this sudden turnaround.Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/does-nepal-need-a-4th-international-airport/">Does Nepal need a 4th international airport?</a>, Om Astha Rai<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/economy-ecology-of-nijgad-airport/">Economy &amp; ecology of Nijgad airport,</a> Om Astha RaiResponding to criticism from constituents, even Province 2 Chief Minister Lalbabu Raut and Speaker Saroj Kumar Yadav are now saying the airport must be built in Nijgad and nowhere else. Raut represents Parsa, and Yadav was elected from Bara. Till last year, both had raised environmental concerns.Now, people of the eastern Province 2 districts of Bara, Parsa and Rautahat suspect Ramnaresh Yadav is raising environmental concerns because he wants the airport moved to his constituency in Saptari. They have also labelled environmentalists ‘anti-Madhesi’.In 2014, a cabinet decision handed over 8,000ha of primary hardwood forests in Bara to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) for the project, saying it was needed because Kathmandu airport was too congested. Even though it is 70km south of Kathmandu, the airport will be linked to the capital via a fast-track highway now being built.Read also:<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=32868&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mosquitoes move up mountains as the earth warms,</a> Sonia Awale<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=32805&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Climate-health emergency,</a> Sonia AwaleProject chief Om Sharma rejects the claim that 240,000 trees will be felled. He says it will be no more than 10,000 in the first phase, for the terminal building and the first 3km of runway, because most of the project site is not forested, but is home to the settlement of Tangiya. However, this has raised another problem: resettlement and compensation for 1,500 households in Tangiya.Says environmentalist Chanda Rana, who is spearheading opposition to Nijgad: “This is the wrong project, at the wrong time in the wrong place. It goes against all our global commitments to protect nature. Why is the forest, a wildlife migration corridor, being cut when an alternative site is available?”This story is part of <a style="background-color: #ffffff; letter-spacing: 0.15px;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/world-joins-to-cover-climate/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Covering Climate Now</a>, a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story.Read also: <a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=32849&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tourism, aviation, and carbon,</a> Sanghamitra Subba<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=32856&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Climate Summit leads packed UN agenda,</a> Thalif Deen<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=32872&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Protecting Kathmandu’s historic roofscape,</a> Anne Feenstra

Tree-mendous

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

Thousands of Nepali students dreaming of an American education have been forced to look elsewhere as the Trump administration’s visa restrictions make their future uncertain.
The US was long considered a top destination for higher studies, making Nepal the 10th biggest country of origin for international students in America.&nbsp;
However, that number has seen a significant decline with the total for Nepali students now at 16,482. Some 8,000 Nepali students obtained no-objection certificates to study in the US from the Ministry of Education in the past year.&nbsp;
India, Australia, Canada, South Korea, United Kingdom and Japan are the other popular destinations for Nepali students. There are no clear numbers for Nepalis going to India, but a slight decline was noted this year after the deaths of two female students.
The US State Department has issued a circular to its embassies not to issue new visas to applicants until further notice. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the directive stated that the department planned to expand the screening of applicants' social media.&nbsp;
While new applicants are barred including those applying for visitor visas, students with scheduled interviews are allowed to proceed.
“Many of our students are affected by the new restrictions, but those who had applied for student visas earlier have got interview dates,” one Kathmandu-based college counsellor told us.
Meanwhile, even foreign students with spotless records already in the US have not been spared, as visa scrutiny intensifies under the new policy. In a move that underscores the growing sense of insecurity, many US colleges advised international students to carry their passports and documents at all times, even when traveling locally.
“Me and my friends did not go home this summer because we were not sure we would be allowed back, so we just went to Niagara Falls,” said a Nepali undergrad in Ohio, who like many interviewed for this report did not want her name used for fear of repercussion.
<div class="embed-block"><iframe title="MORE NO OBJECTIONS" aria-label="Column Chart" id="datawrapper-chart-a7y6L" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/a7y6L/1/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;" height="600" data-external="1"></iframe><script type="text/javascript">!function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}))}(); </script></div>
Nepali students have adopted a cautious stance, with many choosing not to return home during summer vacation due to fear of visa revocations as well as travel bans. Meanwhile, over 7,000 Nepalis with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) will have to come back to Nepal by 5 August or face deportation. Thirty-seven were flown back to Kathmandu on Omni Air last week.
“The US is one of the most sought-after destinations for higher education, and the ban will definitely impact bright students,” says Narottam Aryal of the King’s College in Kathmandu.
Indeed, Nepali undergraduates admitted into Ivy League colleges for the 2025 academic year have been asked to look for alternatives. The entire Fulbright Foreign Scholarships Board resigned on Wednesday citing interference from the Trump administration on the selection of this year’s cohort. Some Nepali students already on Fulbright scholarships have noted disruptions, delays and even cancellation of stipends.&nbsp;
The student visa restrictions were initially just for foreign students admitted to Harvard University, but it was later extended to all Chinese students and now to all students. Universities like Columbia which actively recruit foreign students, face sharp enrolment declines, threatening their financial stability and diversity.
An Indian female PhD candidate at Columbia University had her visa revoked by the US State Department, and said she was targeted on the basis of her social media posts on Israeli military attacks in Gaza. Social media vetting of political activism has raised concerns about privacy and freedom of expression in a country where such rights were a given.
Many students have been informed via email that their visas have been revoked for getting speeding or parking tickets, but even others with no criminal record have been affected. The fear of deportation looms large amongst international students, including those from Nepal.&nbsp;
For most Nepalis who migrate to the US for education, the journey is a high-stakes investment. They come largely from middle-class families, often rely on a patchwork of scholarships, work-study programs, loans, or even the sale of family assets to afford fees.
Most Nepali students pursue STEM subjects which offer extended Optional Practical Training (OPT) periods that help fund their education. But with the US backsliding on education and humanitarian matters, countries like the UK and Canada are becoming more attractive despite their own recent stricter controls on student visas.&nbsp;
The UK universities saw a 63% rise in Nepali students’ admissions in 2024. Japan is another popular destination with 64,816 Nepali students enrolled as of 2024.
<div class="embed-block"><iframe title="WHERE WE WENT" aria-label="Map" id="datawrapper-chart-yUABv" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/yUABv/3/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;" height="500" data-external="1"></iframe><script type="text/javascript">!function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}))}(); </script></div>
Already, China, Hong Kong and Malaysia are poised to benefit from the increased scrutiny of US student visas. Several Hong Kong universities are offering unconditional admission to affected students, while Malaysian institutions are targeting previously US-bound Asian students. China and India have 330,000 and 280,000 students respectively in America, but the numbers for China have seen a sharp drop in the past year.
Elsewhere, branch campuses of American institutions such as NYU in Abu Dhabi, Georgetown in Dubai and Northwestern in Doha are getting more admission applications, and universities in the Gulf region are expanding infrastructure to accommodate those who would otherwise have gone to the US.&nbsp;
Even educational institutions in Nepal are hopeful that the US visa restrictions can be an opportunity to at least keep Nepali undergrads in Nepal, and also attract foreign students from the region.&nbsp;
“Many students might choose to complete their undergraduate degree here in Nepal and then move abroad for their Master’s degree later,” says Aryal of King’s College. “There was a need for quality higher education in Nepal anyway in terms of innovation and opportunities, so this could be the time to reduce our dependence on other countries.”
Nepal’s strategic position between India and China makes it sensitive to US policy shifts. India, a key ally, is also under US scrutiny for potential student travel restrictions. Chinese universities are already offering more scholarships to Nepali talent to capitalise on the US retreat.
American universities have challenged student visa restrictions in the courts. A federal court in Boston revoked the blanket ban on Harvard, and the State Department has ordered the resumption of processing student and exchange visitor visas.&nbsp;
Some are still hoping that President Trump will backtrack on the student visa restrictions, just like he has done with many of his more drastic executive orders.
Even so, the visa see-saw and longer-term uncertainties about living in the United States and its education system means students across the world are making alternative plans.
Says Aryal: “Policies of foreign countries change according to their needs, so excessive dependence was never a good idea. We should work to create different opportunities and choices of higher education within Nepal, so students are retained.” &nbsp;

America no longer prime destination for Nepali students

That winter day in January 1664 marked an exceptional event in the reign of King Pratap Malla of Kathmandu. It was 15 Paush 784 of the Nepal Sambat and for the first time, a historical event was being immortalised on canvas for generations to come.&nbsp; The occasion was the grand Tuladaan ceremony of the King’s youngest son Chakrabartendra Malla from his wife Anantapriya, an Indian princess from Cooch Behar in present-day Assam.&nbsp; During the ritual, the prince was weighed against gold, silver, pearls, and other precious stones, which were then offered to Goddess Taleju Bhavani, the guardian deity of the Malla dynasty.&nbsp; The 170 x120cm painting captures the time of King Pratap Malla in all its splendour and is more than a personal tribute to his son: it is a significant visual historical document. It was evidently completed five years later in 1669, and could be considered a photographic record, with retrospective recreation of the event by the unknown artist. A Tuladaan ceremony is performed to purify one’s karma, quell impending bad luck, or as an act of charity and devotion. Chakrabartendra Malla was not well, and the ritual was performed in hopes of restoring his health. King Pratap Malla had arranged for each of his sons to take turns ruling Kathmandu so they got administrative experience. But Chakrabartendra died just two days after assuming power in 1670 (790 NS). This painting is considered the earliest known example in which the composition is dominated by an architectural landscape: the Taleju Temple. Given the stylistic features such as side-profile facial depictions and the rendering of human forms, it is believed that the Nepali artist was trained by a Rajput master.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250615040624_ddad3bc27a327e3f9926c8473287e4f14b53081296c295049009f327a4d97051.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20250615040624_ddad3bc27a327e3f9926c8473287e4f14b53081296c295049009f327a4d97051" data-rendition-name="original" width="3248" height="4395" loading="lazy" alt="Tuladaan NT"> </figure>  During that era, there were regular exchanges of artists between Northern India and Kathmandu Valley. The painting is also a melding of Nepali, Tibetan, Mughal, and Rajput art styles of the time. Pratap Malla could have been inspired by a painting of Mughal Emperor Jahangir’s Tuladaan ceremony for his son Khurram in 1607. The Mallas and Mughals shared cordial relations, which is reflected in the cultural influences seen in the art and attire of the period.&nbsp; The clothing of the Malla ruling class, in particular, features colourful tunics, turbans, and jewelry that display strong Rajput and Mughal stylistic elements. The musicians in the upper tier are also dressed in Indian-style clothing, while the ensemble on the lower steps wear local attire, notably without turbans. Their hairstyles also differ, with the lower group wearing their hair tied in a bun at the front. This national treasure is currently in storage at the Collège de France in Paris, and has never been publicly displayed. Nepal’s art scholars like Gautam Vajracharya, Pratap Aditya Pal and Anne Vergati have written about this iconic paubha in the past, but the only detailed study is from the perspective of music history by researcher Richard Widdess who had access to high resolution copies of the original.&nbsp; Widdess from the Department of Music at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London describes the paubha as the most significant and richly detailed documentation of music in Nepali art. He identifies distinct musical ensembles on the terraces of the temple, and remarkably most of them are actively used today. One of them reflects the Mughal naqqārakhāna model — a loud outdoor ensemble typically composed of kettledrums, trumpets, and cymbals, traditionally performed from the gateway of the emperor’s palace to announce his entrances and exits. The depiction of such an ensemble in the tulādāna painting is likely the earliest known representation of a complete naqqārakhāna in Nepal — considered the forerunner of the panche baja, the traditional Nepali ensemble. On the stepped pyramid base of the temple are two groups of musicians playing local instruments: dhimey, bhushya, and dha. They are unmistakably Newar musicians, wearing short skirts and short-sleeved tops, with bare heads and legs—clearly distinguished as local performers.&nbsp; Higher still on the temple pyramid are musicians of apparently higher status, positioned close to the king, and his courtiers, possibly professional court musicians from India, well-versed in rāga and tāla. A dāphā group is also clearly depicted, identifiable by their characteristic instruments.&nbsp; Dāphā bhajan is likely the oldest surviving tradition of Newar devotional singing, and this paubha is the oldest visual record of it. Pratap Malla himself is believed to have composed songs that continue to be performed by dāphā groups throughout Kathmandu till today.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025061211064_d67636730cdc0ec778c02494817aca0b99654f2950d0fae4b95499a61faf7ef3.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2025061211064_d67636730cdc0ec778c02494817aca0b99654f2950d0fae4b95499a61faf7ef3" data-rendition-name="original" width="596" height="768" loading="lazy" alt="Priceless paubha in Paris NT"> </figure>  The artist’s thorough attention to musical detail may be attributed to King Pratap Malla’s own deep interest in music. His inscriptions on this painting and elsewhere proclaim his mastery of all branches of knowledge, including music. He is also known as the author of dance dramas and poems, penning his name as Kavindra (king of poets). Some noteworthy elements of new art techniques stand out: for example, the roof of the temple is filled with realistically rendered white doves, pigeons, and crows. This is a rare feature in paubha, where animals and birds are stylised, mythological forms. This remarkably talented unknown artist has managed to also render an orthographic projection: the front and side view of Nepal’s first architectural paubha. The Taleju Temple, with its staggering multi-tiered structure and numerous steps and platforms, is masterfully translated into layers within the painting. This represents a significant artistic achievement of the time, especially considering that dimensional perspectives had not started in deity-based paubha.&nbsp; The artist has also made a meticulous effort to capture architectural details such as the toran (ornamental arch) and temple struts with impressive precision. There are flickering lamps along the steps and some people carrying what appear to be oil pots.&nbsp; It is a full moon night and the dark sky is adorned with all the gods and goddesses, who are depicted as blessing the ceremony while seated on stylised thangka clouds. There is a lot happening in this painting, with people engaged in various activities. The artist has also rendered a forest backdrop behind the temple, complete with deer, trees, and flowers. Could there have once been a royal garden behind the Taleju Temple?&nbsp; More details and clarity can only be achieved if we are able to view the original or a high-resolution scanned version of the artwork. Many countries proudly display art depicting historical events in their national museums with great reverence. France, for example, has The Coronation of Emperor Napoleon and Empress Joséphine by Jacques-Louis David (1808–1822), along with numerous paintings of the Napoleonic Wars. Many were commissioned by Napoleon himself for future generations to remember.&nbsp; For Nepal, the equivalent is the Tuladaan paubha which is a visual record capturing a historic moment involving one of Kathmandu’s greatest kings, on the very day the event took place. Sadly, we await the day when this masterpiece is displayed, shared in high resolution for detailed study, or more rightfully — repatriated to its homeland, where it truly belongs. &nbsp; Shaguni Singh Sakya is the Director of the Museum of Nepali Arts (MoNA) at Kathmandu Guest House in Thamel. <h2>Gods homeward bound</h2> The Nepal Heritage Recovery Campaign and Nepal’s Department of Archaeology are convening the first international conference on the Recovery of Cultural Heritage from 16-18 June in Patan. The conference will address urgent issues of theft, illicit trafficking, the campaign to repatriate looted cultural artifacts, and explore how the return of sacred antiquities contributes to justice, healing, and reconciliation for communities and nations affected by cultural loss. American art crime professor Erin L Thompson and Saubhagya Pradhananga of the Department of Archaeology will deliver the keynote. Meanwhile, author and Nepali Times publisher Kunda Dixit will lead a conversation on Illicit Trafficking: Public Opinion and Role of Media with Erin Thompson, Amr Al Azm, associate professor of Middle East History and Anthropology at Shawnee State University in Ohio, as well as Bradley J Gordon, a lawyer based in Phnom Penh. There will be sessions looking at repatriation perspectives from Cambodia, India, Vietnam, China and Poland, international frameworks for repatriation, emerging digital technologies in the repatriation of cultural heritage, cultural property agreements, museums as well as trends in the art market, and heritage diplomacy and the role of media.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025061211068_59cfccfa8f5d73bfe8b4c5811a7f53abc09ea04e8cb7c638933d62e5283efdf6.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="2025061211068_59cfccfa8f5d73bfe8b4c5811a7f53abc09ea04e8cb7c638933d62e5283efdf6" data-rendition-name="original" width="1080" height="1350" loading="lazy" alt="Heritage recovery NT"> </figure>  <h2> </h2> Some of the other highlights include James K. Reap, a professor in the Master of Historic Preservation Program at the University of Georgia who has a session on the US response to illicit trafficking. Art historian Lea Saint-Raymond is taking on “Gods at Auction: The Market for Himalayan Artefacts”, while lecturer of criminology at the University of Glasgow Emiline Smith is delving into transformative approaches to heritage ownership and repatriation. Helena Arose of Antiquities Coalition and Melina Antoniadis of NOSTOS Strategies that specialise on the return home of cultural heritage as well as Hao Liu of International Cultural Heritage Law at the School of Law at Shandong University are some of the others attending. The Nepal Heritage Recovery Campaign was set up in 2020 to develop a coordinated movement to reclaim Nepal’s stolen gods and goddesses, with an aim to ensure that recovered items are returned to their original shrines, niches or sanctums. Ahead of the conference opening organisers have arranged for a film screening of Loot &amp; Return: 4 Documentaries at YalaMaya Kendra in Patan Dhoka between 14-15 June. Following the conference is a multimedia exhibition titled Absent Gods: Nepal’s Lost Heritage from 31 July to 4 August at Patan Museum.

Priceless paubha in Paris

While Nepal was hosting the Sagarmatha Sambaad international climate conference in Kathmandu this month, on Mt Everest it was pretty much business as usual.&nbsp; The signs of climate breakdown are all there: a river now runs through Base Camp in summer, the Khumbu Icefall is more unstable, and there are more &nbsp;frequent avalanches. When expeditions arrived in March, the mountains were bare: it had not snowed since September, but then blizzards dumped unseasonal snow in May. And despite climate worries, such is the pull of Himalayan mountaineering that the Everest Industry showed no signs of slowdown. More than 600 international climbers and their Nepali guides had made it to the summit of the world’s highest mountain. At one point there were an estimated 2,000 people in the tent city on the Khumbu Glacier. All the ropes and ladders on the Icefall came down on Thursday, marking the official end of the spring climbing season, and just in time to avoid a monsoon cyclone approaching from the Bay of Bengal. It has been an action-packed season. One factor could be that Everest fees will go up from September: each foreign climber needs to pay a $15,000 royalty, up from the present $11,000. The cost for a Nepali climber on the South Col route will also go up: from Rs75,000 to Rs150,000.&nbsp; The fee to climb Everest in autumn is $7,500 (up from $5,500), but most climbers still prefer spring. Winter permit fee (December-February) is only $3,750 per person and the mountain is now also open for monsoon (June-August) climbs, when the fee is ever lower at $2,750. The revised rule also makes it mandatory for every two climbers on an 8,000m peak to hire one Nepali mountain guide.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025053004050_67f856fe52714e4bdcf21ae7d45c6f18c82117b9d0a5f73ed1efa04c96de1046.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2025053004050_67f856fe52714e4bdcf21ae7d45c6f18c82117b9d0a5f73ed1efa04c96de1046" data-rendition-name="original" width="931" height="732" loading="lazy" alt="The Everest Industry graph 1"> </figure>  In addition, climbers also have to pay for porters and guides, equipment, Base Camp costs, Ice Fall and fixed rope team fees, so climbing Everest does not come cheap. But such is the draw of climbing the world’s highest peak that some say the increased fees will not diminish the crowds next year. The government has tried to spread expeditions out to other seasons and other 8,000ers, but with not much success. Earlier this year, Nepal unilaterally increased the number of 8,000m peaks to 14 by adding six more sub-summits to broaden the choice for climbers. Added were: Yalung Kang (8,505m), Yalung Kang West (8,077m) &nbsp;Kangchenjunga Central (8,473m), Kangchenjunga South (8,476m), Lhotse Middle (8,410m) and Lhotse Shar (8,400m).&nbsp; The announcement could go against the accepted topographic criteria that a stand alone peak has to be at least 300m higher than an adjoining prominence, and at more than 3km isolation from it. The UIAA (Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme) still recognises only 14 mountains as eight-thousanders, and only eight of those are in Nepal, or on the border with China. Nepal’s revised mountaineering regulations also increased the insurance coverage of high-altitude workers to protect porters and high altitude guides who usually take more risks on the mountains. Rescue teams and clean-up campaigners to collect trash and remove bodies of dead climbers up to Camp IV of Mt Everest do not need permits.&nbsp; The Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee is now using drones to fly down trash in 20kg sacks. Each climber is also required to bring down at least 6kg of waste and not just their own, but this rule is erratically enforced. With five fatalities on Everest and Lhotse, Spring 2025 had a historically low death toll. Another five climbers died on Annapurna, Kangchenjunga and Makalu.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025053004050_38681de22f0fefb6faa12b01755566d09c5064d0ff84e12ccc7b5d68ea9ba38a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2025053004050_38681de22f0fefb6faa12b01755566d09c5064d0ff84e12ccc7b5d68ea9ba38a" data-rendition-name="original" width="665" height="740" loading="lazy" alt="The Everest industry graph 2"> </figure>  Journalist Ben Ayers who ran the Everest Live social media channel from Everest Base Camp with daily updates credited the low death rate to dramatic rescues of climbers from the ‘Death Zone’ by their Nepali guides and longline helievacs — the visuals all uploaded on YouTube.&nbsp; “Ironically, this perception of safety is bringing more and more inexperienced climbers to the mountain, and they need more rescues,” Ayers said in one of his dispatches.&nbsp; American expedition chronicler and summiteer Alan Arnette suspects there is a lot of under-reporting given that the jet stream and storms were lashing Everest even till late in the season. He told us: “I heard a lot about frostbite and rescues that were not made public. It’s become practically impossible to cover the details on Everest. All the teams report nice news, and they don’t talk about bad stuff to avoid hurting businesses.” Although trash on Nepal’s mountains makes headlines, what does not receive as much attention is the climate impact of so many expeditions. The Sagarmatha Sambaad conference sidestepped this issue, which is ironic given that the impact of climate breakdown is most evident on Himalayan peaks and their glaciers.&nbsp; <h2>Need for Speed</h2> The big stories this year have been about speed-running from their home cities to the top of Everest. Ukrainian entrepreneur Andrew Ushakov flew out of JFK on 15 May at 10:15AM Nepal time, and was on the summit 3 days, 23 hours, and 7 minutes later on 19 May at 9:22AM.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250601080640_1c5cc6fc991307861768f07037ed9d30930fb20f35dbb57dc31c9a92a9e1a885.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20250601080640_1c5cc6fc991307861768f07037ed9d30930fb20f35dbb57dc31c9a92a9e1a885" data-rendition-name="original" width="1440" height="1800" loading="lazy" alt="The Everest Industry"> <figcaption>Andrew Ushakov at the summt. Photo: ELITE EXPED</figcaption> </figure>  “I could never find the time for the traditional 40-50 days of acclimatisation,” Ushakov explained matter-of-factly. His ‘Everest Sea-to-Summit’ climb was possible because he spent 400 hours in hypoxic sleep tents over the past four years in New York. However, Ushakov did use ropes already fixed, hired four Nepali guides, helicoptered to Base Camp, and used much more oxygen than an average climber. And after the climb, Ushakov was arrested at Kathmandu airport for being in possession of $20,000 of undeclared cash and spent a night in jail and fined $60,000.&nbsp; The other speedsters were Garth Miller, Alastair Cairns, Anthony Stazicker, and Kev Godlington, all former British Army commandos. They left London and summited five days later on 21 May, and flew right back. They also used hypoxic tents to simulate the thin air high on Everest.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250601080644_90c8dd5cc07b4b43f2989b1dc0c0650ab80f10ebb06680c25a6909c519957bd8.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20250601080644_90c8dd5cc07b4b43f2989b1dc0c0650ab80f10ebb06680c25a6909c519957bd8" data-rendition-name="original" width="810" height="668" loading="lazy" alt="The Everest Industry "> <figcaption>All four members of the Furtenbach team at the summit. Photo: Sandro Gromen-Hayes</figcaption> </figure>  But more controversial was their use of xenon gas therapy in a German hospital to ramp up the production of oxygen-carrying haemoglobins in their blood. Xenon is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency for being performance enhancing in sports. Expedition leader Lukas Furtenbach said this rule does not apply to mountaineering, as it is not a regulated sport like swimming. Nepal has no rules about xenon, but the Department of Tourism said it was launching an ‘investigation’ to decide on future policy since it is difficult to ban xenon, but allow oxygen. The controversy has also divided the mountaineering community, with some climbers saying they just want to maximise their chances of survival. Spending less time on the mountain could make climbing safer by reducing avalanche risk. It would also mean less trash on the mountains, but it would reduce the income of Nepal’s expedition industry. It is also unclear how much of the success was due to xenon therapy and whether the ex-special forces were already in good physical shape.&nbsp; The need for speed hides the fact that climbing in the Himalaya is dangerous business, and climbers cannot sprint to the top just by huffing xenon. But ultra-fast climbs could be charged more, and the revenue generated can be used to establish state-of-the-art rescue operations, and increase pay and insurance for guides. Two other speed chasers this season were Swiss-Ecuadorian Karl Egloff and American Tyler Andrews, both on Everest without oxygen. Andrews choppered to Base Camp to catch a weather window, but turned back from 8,500m due to high winds. Heavy snow and wind also forced Egloff to descend from 7,000m. Slow and steady climbers like Anja Blacha from Germany did make it to the summit without oxygen, while Kami Rita Sherpa broke his own record with his 31st Everest summit as he led a 26-strong Indian Army group. There were 468 permits issued for foreign climbers from 48 expeditions to Everest this spring. Nepal’s other eight-thousanders together had only 17 expeditions. Nepal has more than 1,000 peaks above 6,000m, and has opened only 476 of them for climbing.&nbsp;