Epidemics are nothing new in Nepal. In fact, the country’s history is littered with references to frequent outbreaks of cholera, influenza, measles and other disease that killed thousands at a time Nepal.Yet, despite knowledge about prevention or the availability of vaccines, Nepalis still continue to die in large numbers. An outbreak of diarrhoea killed 200 people, mostly children, in Jajarkot in 2009. Last year’s unprecedented eruption of <a href="https://tropmedhealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s41182-020-0194-1" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tropmedhealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s41182-020-0194-1&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1586755561427000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF2kQRkqfQlK6HcTgAWijq2RpcGaQ">dengue in Kathmandu</a> infected 15,000 and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mosquitoes-move-up-mountains-as-the-earth-warms/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mosquitoes-move-up-mountains-as-the-earth-warms/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1586755561427000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEBf6yExopyyX2QWQrwe2mffPJ09w">killed at least a dozen people</a>.So, for Nepal the only difference between the coronavirus pandemic and previous disease outbreaks is that it is global in scope, and it has wrecked the economy. The government has been more proactive this time, compared to previous epidemics in taking strict measures to prevent the spread, like the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-covid-19-lockdown-extended-till-7-april/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-covid-19-lockdown-extended-till-7-april/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1586755561428000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHcPke1rqEHuZS0-wb1tig9mHFzYw">lockdown</a> which has now lasted nearly three weeks.Even so, experts say Nepal’s response was unnecessarily delayed. Nepal was one of the first countries outside China to report a case of COVID-19 when a Nepali student who had returned from Wuhan tested positive for the virus on 24 January. He later recovered, and right new cases have been detected since, but it was only in the second week of April that the government finally began mass testing in western Nepal and Tarai districts, where there have been returning migrant workers from India.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/remembering-a-pandemic-100-years-ago/">Remembering a pandemic 100 years ago</a>, Buddha Basnyat<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b679c7e80680e06b298jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="4096" height="2730"/><figcaption>A doctor based in Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital explains on COVID-19. Photo: BIKRAM RAI</figcaption></figure>The mosquito-borne haemmorhagic fever is already being reported in all seven provinces. Cases have been arriving in hospitals which are already on high alert of COVID-19. A double epidemic would mean medical facilities will be overwhelmed.“We are not new to epidemics. Thousands of children continue to die of easily preventable diarrhoea every year and there will be another dengue outbreak this summer, but where is the preparedness?” asks Gangalal Tuladhar, a disaster expert and politburo member of the ruling Nepal Communist Party. “It is a primary duty of a responsible government to prepare for any disaster or an epidemic before it strikes.”<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-is-a-microcosm-of-all-of-the-changes-in-world-health/">“Nepal is a microcosm of all of the changes in world health”</a>, Nepali TimesIt is ironic that a senior member of a ruling political party that commands a near two-thirds majority in Parliament is the one complaining about the government being lax. To be sure, the government has been strict in enforcing the lockdown, and Prime Minister Oli hinted during a conference call with provincial chief ministers on Saturday that the lockdown may need to be extended because the virus was spreading in India.Also, local government have been crediting with taking effective prevention measures, including house-to-house surveillance and monitoring of high-risk individuals. Swab collection and mass testing of high risk groups has started in earnest.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/confusion-persists-about-lockdown-rules/">Confusion persists about lockdown rules</a>, Alisha Sijapati<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b6b9c7e80680e06b299jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="427"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Still, Nepal’s lack of preparedness to fight public health emergencies has been similar to the apathy shown about enforcing building codes and having a rescue and relief strategy in place for future mega-earthquakes.It took the devastating 2015 earthquake to finally push the policymakers to develop the Disaster Risk and Management Act in 2017 – more than five years after it was languishing in the legislature. Unlike the Natural Calamity Act 1982 that is centred on the relief, the new Act listed 22 kinds of disasters in Nepal and it focuses on preparedness. Epidemics however have been categorised under ‘non-disaster’ in the new Act.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/rebuilding-five-years-after-2015-quake/">Rebuilding five years after 2015 quake</a>, Alisha SijapatiEpidemics has been lumped together with famine, fire, pest or micro-bacterial attack, industrial accident, toxic gas hazard, chemical radiation leakage, gas explosion, toxic food intake, environmental pollution, deforestation, physical infrastructure damage and accidents during disaster relief.“Placing snakebites and outbreaks together itself shows that we haven’t really understood what an epidemic means. There is a huge difference in how we have to deal with them,” says Baburam Marasini, former head of the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division.The emergence of COVID-19 on top of the reoccurrence of pre-existing diseases mean countries need health institutions with medical staff equipped to deal with epidemics, research wing to undertake new studies on emerging diseases, and a strong system that can take immediate steps to control spread of a contagion.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/rebuilding-five-years-after-2015-quake/">The climate connection to Covid-19</a>, Rastraraj Bhandari“We need to make laws taking infectious diseases into account, strengthen local infrastructure as well as increase capacity of the health sector,” Marasini says.  “We have to turn COVID-19 into an opportunity to build a new health structure and strengthen existing laws.”Chronic lack of coordination and turf battles between the Department of Health Services, National Public Health Laboratory, Epidemiology and Disease Control Division, Epidemiology and Epidemic Management Section, Teku Hospital and Animal Disease Investigation and Control Division have added to the problem.Says public health expert Madhav Chaulagain: “We are unprepared not just for new emerging epidemics but for the pre-existing diseases and seasonal disasters too.”<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/in-nepals-weather-erratic-is-the-new-normal/">In Nepal’s weather, erratic is the new normal</a>, Olivia Molden and Tyler McMahonClose to three years after Nepal adopted a decentralised federal structure, provincial governments have to fly COVID-19 samples to Kathmandu in lack of regional laboratories and hospitals specialising in infectious diseases.The root of the problem is a culture not primed for prevention, but for cure. Also a ‘ke garne’ fatalistic attitude that tends to leave solving a known problem until after the disaster hits.“We think about building modern hospitals to cure people. What developing countries like us should really be focusing on is prevention and preparedness,” says Gangalal Tuladhar. “We are lucky we still have time to prepare for COVID-19. It is time to work on prevention.”Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/cash-flow-crisis-for-migrants-and-families/">Cash flow crisis for migrants and families</a>, Upasana Khadka<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/what-is-novel-about-the-novel-coronavirus/">What is novel about the novel coronavirus?</a>, Buddha Basnyat

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Ke garne attitude kills people

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813118/636a46ea9c7e80680e04d403jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="1050"/><figcaption>Pic: SEWA BHATTARAI</figcaption></figure>The memory of the catastrophic flood of 2017 is still fresh in the minds of the people of Rautahat district. But even though they are better prepared now, there have been no moves to address the cause: floodplains of rivers blocked by embankments.Rautahat is now in Province 2 under Nepal’s federal structure, disaster management is the responsibility of local governments. But even with the arrival of the monsoon, Kathmandu and the other provinces are still wrangling over power devolution. Ironically, the Bagmati that burst its banks here two years ago, originates in the Kathmandu Valley.The 2017 Disaster Risk and Management Act farmed out responsibilities of preparedness, rescue and relief to central, provincial, and local governments. Province 2 has passed its own Disaster Management law, but it exists only in paper. By the time it is ready, the central Tarai could drown in another flood. Experts say that the rampant construction of road embankments, levees and settlements along the floodplains on both sides of the India-Nepal border will make future floods much worse.Read also:<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=29068&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Flood of recrimination</a>, Editorial<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=29099&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepal Tarai learns from past floods</a>, Sewa Bhattarai“We have a total of Rs150 million in the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund and in the ministry’s own disaster fund,” says Arun Jha at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Law of Province 2. “But we have not been able to procure rafts, tents, and food stockpiles in time. But when the flood comes, we will find a way to deal with it.”The lack of civil servants has prevented the provincial government in Janakpur from functioning at full capacity, and so, it depends on Kathmandu for everything. First responders like the Nepal Army and Police, for instance, are deployed by the central government. As the tornado disaster in Bara in April showed, the role of the Province 2 government is limited to coordination.It will take a few more years before all three levels of government start functioning smoothly to prevent and cope with disasters. Till then, Lalita Kumari Ram (pictured above), who survived the 2017 flood by fleeing to a road embankment with her family, will be on her own.Read also:<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Flood-and-food,3916" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Food and flood</a>, Sunir Pandey<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/preparing-for-the-big-flood,3190" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Preparing for the big flood</a>, Om Astha Rai

Only half prepared for floods in Nepal

<figure><img width="1400" height="933" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813118/636a46e59c7e80680e04d401jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Pic: BIKRAM RAI</figcaption></figure>With the advent of the monsoon, we will be flooded with stories of floods, landslides and other water-induced ‘natural disasters’ as they ‘wreak havoc’ throughout the land. Floods are natural, disasters are not.Nepal has nine dry months and three months in which we have too much water. In the rainy season, rivers used to spread along the floodplains, dissipating the force of the water. Nepalis traditionally knew better than to locate settlements on river banks. In the agrarian Tarai, farmers had learnt to live with floods and welcomed the annual replenishment of farms with vital, water-borne nutrients.To be sure, there were years when natural buffers would be overwhelmed and rivers burst their banks, eroding valuable farmlands as they changed course. But bad planning means that we have turned a predictable annual occurrence into a regular calamity.Read also:<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=29099&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepal Tarai learns from past floods</a>, Sewa Bhattarai<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=29069&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Only half prepared</a>, Sewa BhattaraiMore than half of Nepal’s population now lives in the Tarai, and human settlements have encroached on what used to be floodplains.Deforestation of the fragile Chure hills has increased sediment loads of seasonal rivers, causing them to flow through villages and farms. A river will find its own way to the sea no matter what we do to block its path.It is true that floods are getting more destructive, but not because there is more rain. Our attempts to control floods are making them worse.Levees built to ‘train’ rivers end up constricting their flows, embankments often act as dams blocking the natural course and submerging huge tracts of farmlands. Roads have been built on elevated land to prevent them from flooding, but they just make the floods worse.Many roads just on the other side of the border in India have inadequate drainage and create vast reservoirs on the Nepal side every year. Meanwhile, tv news in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh blames Nepal for releasing water from its dams — not bothering to explain that Nepal has only one reservoir and the sluice gates of the three border barrages are under Indian management.After every disaster like Sunsari (2008), Bardia and Surkhet (2014), Saptari and Rautahat (2017) and Bhaktapur last year, there is a flood of recrimination, blaming nature and bemoaning our lack of preparedness. Rescue agencies are usually at the scene quickly, but are overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the disaster. Relief and rehabilitation is mired in bureaucracy and corruption, with villagers still waiting for help decades later. Poverty-stricken farmers are impoverished even more, and floods force many to migrate.Read also:<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2017/07/11/chure-denudation-and-floods/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chure denudation and floods</a><a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/mycity/2016/07/10/bhotekosi-flash-flood/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fleeing flash food</a>, Gopen RaiOnce the monsoon tapers off in September, we will forget about floods for another year. Instead of taking preventive measures to improve drainage and poorly designed infrastructure that block the natural flow of rivers, it will be back to business as usual.Most of the flood damage in the Tarai is not caused by Nepal’s four big rivers, but by Chure streams that are dry most of the year and become raging muddy torrents during the monsoon. The paradox is that boulder and sand mining in the Chure hills to feed the infrastructure boom in Nepal and India actually make these floods more destructive in the Tarai and downstream in India.As we learn from a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-tarai-learns-from-past-floods/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">field report from Rautahat this week</a> most flood victims are poor, and neglecting them comes naturally to the state. Because not enough is being done to prevent destructive floods, relief agencies are turning their attention to early-warning systems and the management of disasters after they happen.Making all these problems more difficult is the climate crisis, which is leading to more extreme weather events. Monsoon cloudbursts are said to be more frequent and intense, and cause localised flooding. And then there are disasters like the Sunsari flood, which have nothing to do with heavy rainfall or global warming, but are caused by contractors stealing boulders from the Kosi’s eastern levee, thus weakening the embankment.Sunsari was just a rehearsal for a future Kosi mega-flood that is waiting to happen, and will hit millions in Nepal and India. It is a given that floods elsewhere will also get more destructive in the years to come. Preventing them requires understanding nature’s ways, and letting rivers flow free again.With federalism, flood prevention, management and emergency relief is no longer just the responsibility of the Kathmandu apparatus. In fact, first responders by definition have to be local governments, and the state needs to enhance their flood prevention and management capacity.Read also:<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/editorial/deep-water,3883" target="_blank" rel="noopener">In deep water</a>, Editorial<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/60-years-after-1954-devastating-flood-same-failings-of-government-today-post-quake,2433" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Disaster geopolitics</a>, Sharad Ghimire and Tom Robertson10 years ago this weekTen years ago this week, in <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/issue/457" target="_blank" rel="noopener">issue #457</a> of 19-25 June 2009, Everest summiteer Billi Bierling wrote a story titled ‘The Bright Side of Everest’. Her words could as valid today:‘Mount Everest often gets bad press for commercialisation and the lack of morality of its climbers. But I saw a different side this spring. On 22 May, two mountaineers from Austria and the Netherlands found an American climber sitting at the Balcony, just above Camp 4 ,at about 8,400m. He was clearly confused, and he had taken off his gloves and parts of his down suit. Had these two climbers not helped, the man would have died.Several doctors saved the life of a Sherpa, who nearly died after he had consumed a bottle of whiskey adulterated with methanol. There are gruesome books about Mt Everest: the commercialisation, greed, selfishness and crime. This season, I saw none of that, only humanity, generosity and courage. If I were to write a book about Everest (which I promise I will never do) I’d probably call it 'The Bright Side of Everest.’<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/issue/457"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813118/636a46e89c7e80680e04d402jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="1249"></a>

Flood of recrimination in the Nepal Tarai

Violations of Nepal’s airspace during WWII

At Budhanilkantha School Ujwal Thapa was a few years my senior. He was a quiet person who kept to himself; I didn’t know him very well despite being related to him because of that introversion and natural shyness. What we did have in common, coming of age in the 1990s, is our generation, GenX, which became weary, inured for the most part, to Nepal’s famously unstable politics.&nbsp; Counting the events of this past September, GenX has, astonishingly, lived through three people’s revolutions, one armed conflict, a flawed but hard won constitution, and a major earthquake. Ujwal Thapa, one of Nepal’s most cherished Gen Xers, despite his previous, youthful reticence, did not long remain a complaisant bystander against the backdrop of these extreme upheavals.&nbsp; By the mid 2000s he had become deeply political, but without the equivocation that so often accompanies politics. Thanks to his lived experience, he came to believe that the youth of Nepal are the key to our future. He believed in discerning wisdom (bibeksheelta), innovation, and nurture. He inspired entire generations, young and old, including GenZ, before his untimely death due to Covid in 2021. He was only 44.&nbsp; By the time of his passing he had started a tech company, and employed and mentored scores of youth. It is important to note that only after he had made a significant contribution to civil society did he turn towards politics, founding and then stepping back from the Bibeksheel Nepali party, which has now, after several complicated mergers and splits, been integrated into the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP). When the Ujwal Thapa Foundation set out to make a documentary on his life three years ago, no one could have known that it would premiere at such a crucial point in Nepal’s social and political history.&nbsp; Everything that Ujwal Thapa believed in still holds true. I think he would have been proud to see the youth of our country, GenZ, stand up for themselves, peacefully. He would have been grieved at the state condoned bloodshed, and, believing in non-violent protest himself, been deeply shocked by the savage revolution that followed.&nbsp; Most of all, I wonder how he would have reacted to the publishing of the blatantly elitist RSP proportional representation list - the party that many had pinned their hopes on, and that Bibeksheel Nepali has ultimately been absorbed into. That party now seems like it may be a chip off the rotten old block, ruled by men endorsing rampant nepotism, and outnumbered by people without scruples.&nbsp; Many of the names on the list and the rankings, in particular, disrespect the very spirit of a provision that was created for those competent individuals who would not otherwise be able to contest elections, due to lack of monetary and social capital, but whose marginalised voices are vital for inclusive policy making. There is still time for real inclusion, to embrace a more bibeksheel path, before the March elections.&nbsp; Ujwal Thapa’s own, firm, ethical stances are clear in the The Man Who Shook Our Minds, translated loosely from the Nepali title Dimaag Ghhochne Manchhe. While long, at almost two hours, it is filled with thought-provoking and sage counsel. The film also offers very real insight into how Ujwal Thapa evolved into the icon he is today.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026011111018_eb596eb063dcaf0f67840bfa4ffa39eb27df2bf9ec1a3f9a1f531824c1b7a569.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2026011111018_eb596eb063dcaf0f67840bfa4ffa39eb27df2bf9ec1a3f9a1f531824c1b7a569" data-rendition-name="original" width="1600" height="670" loading="lazy" alt="Ujwal Thapa"> <figcaption>Stills from the documentary.</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026011111018_65d9625d3a4865ca228425b7ce7b7b186ae5009313bbfab0ee65eada276aebd6.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2026011111018_65d9625d3a4865ca228425b7ce7b7b186ae5009313bbfab0ee65eada276aebd6" data-rendition-name="original" width="1600" height="670" loading="lazy" alt="Ujwal Thapa"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026011111018_2ff455c55722d153cafbd2d650e19584e38d7c098b109271bd106a55201f4fa0.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="2026011111018_2ff455c55722d153cafbd2d650e19584e38d7c098b109271bd106a55201f4fa0" data-rendition-name="original" width="1600" height="670" loading="lazy" alt="Ujwal Thapa"> </figure>  It isn’t easy making a documentary after the passing of the primary subject. While there are many talking heads, the people featured, friends, family, fellow activists and senior politicians are all eloquent in their descriptions of Ujwal Thapa and his transformation from an engaged, civic minded entrepreneur into a committed political leader who among many other commendable things, believed in putting women first, and understood the crucial necessity for a welfare state that would serve its people. The main man is not deified, he is humanised.&nbsp; The feature is punctuated, and leavened, with moments of real humour as his infamous bluntness and occasional domestic haplessness are gently exposed. Another strength of the film is the profound love story between Ujwal Thapa and his brave, brilliant, incredibly resilient wife, Erica Adhikary, the heroine to a real life hero, and a major force behind the making of this film, alongside many of his stalwart wellwishers and friends, old and new.&nbsp; Sushila Karki, the Prime Minister, was present at the premiere of the film with members of her Cabinet. Candid and sincere in her opening remarks, she said she had wanted to attend the moment she heard about the film. She had known Ujwal Thapa, and she had mourned his loss, praying for him during his illness. She wished that leaders like him were here today to show us the way forward in a time of need. The film opened in theatres on the 9th of January, and is an essential viewing experience for anyone who cares about Nepal’s future and wants some insight into how they might make a difference.&nbsp; Ujwal Thapa was not perfect, but he was remarkable. He realised that being a civic minded citizen just isn’t enough. To make a real difference, one also needs to be principled, insightful, entrepreneurial, creative, self motivated, able to speak truth to power, uncorruptible, practical, well prepared, and, perhaps, most importantly, able to step back from holding power even after attaining it.&nbsp; The saying by Plato that goes “He who does not desire power is fit to hold it” was surely meant for people like Ujwal Thapa. One can only hope that in the near future more people embodying this description will, however reluctantly, come forward to lead Nepal. Ujwal Thapa worked hard to enable this, they must be out there. <div class="embed-block"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/veO1yVM4pS4?si=f0Lcbs1wasyqfnK1" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></div> The Man Who Shook Our Minds is being screened at QFX cinemas across town. Sophia L Pandé is on the Ujwal Thapa Foundation Advisory Board. She is a writer, art-historian and filmmaker, advising on the economic and social potential of the Cultural and Creative Industries. She is Director of Development at the Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust, and Founding Director of The Kalā Salon, a non-profit space for the arts.

The Man Who Shook Our Minds

Did <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/1921-rendezvous-mallory-pumori-and-everest">George Mallory</a> and Andrew Irvine of the 1924 British Expedition reach the top of the highest mountain in the world? It has been more than a century after the two climbers were last seen just 300m below the summit. And 26 years ago Mallory’s remains were found on the North Face of Everest, while Irvine’s boot was located at its base.&nbsp; Some doubt that the two could have reached the top with the level of equipment and clothing of the time, but others are convinced that at least one of them made it but had an accident on the way down.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260108110148_26b4f6883ce3362c6f0c312d35422a57384c04aeb673f578d3ddb660761747fc.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20260108110148_26b4f6883ce3362c6f0c312d35422a57384c04aeb673f578d3ddb660761747fc" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="George Mallory and Everest"> <figcaption>Panuru Sherpa on the top of Mt Everest with a client in 2002. He has climbed the peak 16 times.</figcaption> </figure>  Among those who believe Mallory and Irvine were the first to climb Mt Everest, and not <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/everest-70-years-on">Hillary and Tenzing in 1953</a>, are the Nepali guides who took part in the research expeditions in 1999, 2001 and 2004 to find clues about Mallory and Irvine. Mallory’s body was found 8,125m on the North Face in 1999, and Irvine’s detached foot and sock with his initials inside a leather hob-nailed boot was found in 2024 in the Rongbuk Glacier below the North Face. Various expeditions have recovered a mitten, an oxygen cylinder, and ice axe from that expedition. “I believe they reached the summit, and fell on the way down in the dark and bad weather,” says <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/sherpaland-co-usa">Panuru Sherpa</a>, who has climbed Mt Everest 16 times, including on the northern route taken by four British expeditions in 1921, 1922, 1924 and 1933. “They were making good progress past the Second Step from where it is a much easier hour-and-half to the summit. A climber who reaches that point below the final pyramid does not turn back.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260108110148_bdbdd01c5c12cb5bb022857f7ca871cc4ff95e02c2305f6bbf1a63d1d15de8e4.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20260108110148_bdbdd01c5c12cb5bb022857f7ca871cc4ff95e02c2305f6bbf1a63d1d15de8e4" data-rendition-name="original" width="1300" height="864" loading="lazy" alt="George Mallory and Everest"> <figcaption>Mt Everest North Face in China which early expeditions took because Nepal was closed till 1950. The red line is the classic route to the peak, the dotted line is probably what George Mallory and Sandy Irvine took in 1924 to avoid the formidable obstacle of the Second Step.</figcaption> </figure>  Panuru is convinced that the location of Mallory’s body and Irvine’s ice axe shows that the two had not lost their way on their descent. He told Nepali Times in Denver, where he now lives: “Mallory’s body was not decomposed even after 75 years, and his exposed back was white like marble. One of legs was broken, and there was an altimeter and letters written to his wife Ruth in his pocket.” He remembers the search team was happy to locate <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/mountains-of-books">Mallory</a>, but it was unable to find one of the three cameras believed to be with the duo that could have held the proof that the two, or at least one of them, had indeed been the first to climb Everest.&nbsp; There was a deep wound around Mallory’s waist, which could have been caused during the fall by the rope which was still found tied around his body. Mallory’s remains were covered in stone slabs at the site after a brief ritual, Panuru recalls. A 1975 Chinese expedition reported seeing the body of a Western climber, which was probably Mallory, near their Camp VI. There are rumours in climbing circles that the Chinese also found a camera, but that the negative could not be developed. Everest summiteers have said the Second Step’s 45m overhanging cliff at 8,610m would have been “essentially insurmountable”, and it is only possible today because the Chinese fixed aluminium ladders to the rock face in 1975.&nbsp; But Panuru agrees with other mountaineering historians who believe Mallory could have decided to take a route below the northeast ridge and bypass the Second Step, following the advice of fellow team member Ed Norton who set the then world record by reaching 8,572m. The other finding that could indicate that Mallory reached the top was that a photograph of his wife Ruth which he intended to place at the summit was not in his pocket.&nbsp; EVEREST CONNECTION Panuru is the son of Nima Tsering Sherpa, who was a part of the 1953 expedition to Mt Everest that made Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay the first climbers on the world’s highest peak. Nima carried loads for that expedition up to the South Col. Nima had eight sons and a daughter, Panuru is the sixth, and<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-most-prolific-mountaineering-clan"> most of his siblings are also climbers</a>. After the successful 1953 expedition, Nima spent time grazing yaks, growing potatoes and raising his family in Phortse. He joined expeditions to support the family. The young Panuru would meet mountaineers who stopped by at the family’s tea house in Phortse. He has walked the Jiri route to Kathmandu many times, and his eldest brother who worked for Mountain Travel Nepal got him a job as a trekking guide. Panuru ended up joining expeditions, climbing Everest from both sides multiple times. Panuru Sherpa’s brother Danuru was the youngest member of the 1999 expedition, and a year earlier had first climbed Everest from the Nepal side when he was only 18. The siblings are now chefs at the Sherpa House in Colorado.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260108110152_9275f617585d33f7324d087455de7c61fd3759fe4d44a7ebe604fa2eefc047df.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20260108110152_9275f617585d33f7324d087455de7c61fd3759fe4d44a7ebe604fa2eefc047df" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="523" loading="lazy" alt="George Mallory and Everest"> <figcaption>Brothers Panuru and Danuru Sherpa are now working in Golden, Colorado, and lead occasional climbing trips in the Rockies and Alaska.</figcaption> </figure>  In 2001, both brothers were members of another expedition composed of 20 foreign and 21 Nepali climbers led by David Hahn that tried to find Irvine in the same area of the North Face, guided by the discovery of Irvine’s ice axe in a 1933 expedition as well as sightings of what was believed to be his body near the ridge above. No more clues were found then, or in 2004 when Danuru returned for another search expedition. Remnants of Irvine and Mallory’s Camp VI were found at 8,600m during the 2001 expedition, only about 300m from where Mallory’s body was located.&nbsp; “It was probably dark when Mallory fell because his snow goggles were in his pocket,” says Danuru, who has taken part in the three search expeditions on the north side and is also convinced the two fell on their way down after reaching the summit. Altogether 13 people died on Everest during the three expeditions that Mallory was involved in, of which nine were Nepali porters, cooks and guides who were hired in Darjeeling before the march-in. “Chomolungma and Sherpa are synonymous,” says Danuru. “It was Chomolungma that made the Sherpa people famous globally, and it was Sherpas who made it possible to climb Everest.” Konrad Anker, who led the 1999 team that found Mallory’s body, doubts that one or both the climbers reached the summit in 1924, mainly because of the difficulty of climbing a cliff at 8,600m with the kind of gear they had.&nbsp; “It is possible, but unlikely they climbed the Second Step with 1920s equipment, but even getting to that altitude back then was an incredible accomplishment,” he has said. After the expedition, Anker and Panuru worked together to set up the Khumbu Climbing Center to upgrade the technical skills of Nepali guides. Panuru has also trained hundreds of fellow Nepali guides, and many of them regard him as a mentor. Panuru knew the need for better training because he himself had been badly wounded during a fall into a crevasse in the Khumbu Icefall in one of his early expeditions in 1992 and had to be evacuated by helicopter to Kathmandu.&nbsp; But the very next year, he was back on the mountain. He climbed Everest from the north with a Korean team in 1994, and a year later got to the top again from the north side with an American expedition. He summited again from the Nepal side in 1996, and nearly died in an avalanche on the north side that killed a fellow Sherpa in 1997.&nbsp; So far, Panuru has climbed Everest 16 times, Cho Oyu 14 times from both sides, Xixapangma four times, five other eight-thousanders in Nepal, and Ama Dablam six times. He was the first Nepali to ascend Gurla Mandhata in Tibet. After emigrating to the United States, he has climbed Mt Denali (6,190m) in Alaska three times while also being a part of a volunteer rescue team.&nbsp; Irvine’s boot was found by an expedition led by American climber Jimmy Chin in the Rongbuk Glacier, probably transported there from the base of the face by the movement of ice in the past 100 years. Asked why he climbed Everest 16 times, Panuru echoes George Mallory: “Because I was there.” &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Finding George Mallory

The 12-day political partnership of Kulman Ghising with Rabi Lamichhane and Balen Shah that ended on Saturday was brief even by Nepali standards.&nbsp;
The Ujyalo Nepal Party backed by Ghising and Lamichhane’s RSP had inked a deal to unite on 29 December, one day after Balen Shah formed an agreement with the RSP to contest the election under the party’s banner.
The alliance between the RSP and Ghising is said to have fallen apart after Ghising asked for institutional and ideological changes within the party, and for members of his team to be given key positions including senior vice-chair and general secretary, as well his stipulation that more than two dozen of his camp be appointed members of RSP’s central committee.&nbsp;
Ghising had also been less than happy about some of his 18 proposed candidates being left off RSP’s Proportional Representation list, and had taken issue with the priority order of those from his camp on the docket.&nbsp;
The merger between Ghising and Lamichhane happened after last minute negotiation before the deadline for the submission of the PR candidate list after multiple previous rounds of discussions between BRK had failed. Ghising had agreed to sit down one final time with the two leaders following a last-ditch effort by youth leaders including Sudan Gurung.
Ghising following his resignation last week had told the press that his partnership with Lamichhane and Shah had not come into effect even though his UNP had formally signed to merge with RSP. The party, which has been hailed as a formidable alternative political foil to legacy outfits in the March polls, had come under considerable criticism for its PR list, most of which included influential public figures as opposed to qualified people who would represent the nation’s socio-culture, socio-economy, diverse ethnic makeup, and geography.&nbsp;
On Saturday, following news of the RSP-UNP dissolution, Ghising was announced as the chair of the UNP, of which he had only remained the patron so far.
That Ghising broke away from Lamichhane and Shah does not come as a shock. Analysts had already predicted the clash of egos between the three figures who have gained popularity through personality rather than ideology driven politics.&nbsp;
It is also not surprising that the new trio has been following the playbook of make-up and break-politics written by the Oli-Deuba Dahal trio that has defined Nepali politics for the last decade.&nbsp;
As the RSP deals with its growing pains, Nepal’s established parties are busy preparing for the polls even as they confront infighting within their own institutions. The Nepali Congress is seeing widening rifts between factions brought on by power struggles between old and newer leadership within the party. The &nbsp;special general convention called by General Secretaries Gagan Thapa and Bishwo Prakash Sharma began on Sunday amid party president Sher Bahadur Deuba and other senior leaders’ refusal to endorse and attend the event.&nbsp;
The special general convention was called after it was endorsed by 54% of NC’s general convention delegates, but the party leadership has been adamant about holding the general convention to choose a new party head after the election.
The decision to go ahead with the special general convention has been opposed by numerous NC district chapters for going over the head of party leadership. Even so, leaders of the Thapa-Sharma faction expect 60% of the party’s delegates to attend the event.&nbsp;
The Thapa and Sharma faction want the party to contest the election under a new leadership, seeming to have a better grasp on the sheer lack of popularity of the party, especially after GenZ protests. The leaders are banking on having a better outcome at the March polls if there is a change in party leadership.&nbsp;
Leftist leaders like Pushpa Kamal Dahal of the NCP and Baburam Bhattarai have also been busy reaching out to Indian leadership in the weeks leading up to the election.
And while pro-monarchy leaders like Durga Prasai—while initially calling for a royalist mobilisation following the September protests—seem to be laying low lately, only emerging after the Balen-Rabi merger to call them “political actors groomed by foreign powers”, former king Gyanendra during his Prithvi Jayanti address on Saturday took the opportunity to deliver a particularly somber address to the nation.&nbsp;
Gyanendra commented on the youth frustration that led to the September revolt, linking it to the ongoing exodus of young people and capital, as well as geopolitics, and criticising Nepal’s political leadership of “repeatedly using the youth but not understanding their needs”.
“Yesterday, there was concern that there was no development in the country, but today there is a bigger worry that the country itself might not survive,” Gyanendra said in his remarks. “This country was not built, nor will it be built, by speeches, magic or miracles.”