Droughts are not uncommon in Nepal. In 1983, the monsoon failed and international food aid had to be parachuted into western Nepal to avert famine. The Tarai has long suffered from too much water or too little. This year it is too little. The monsoon arrived ahead of schedule on 1 June, but since then there has been only 20% of the normal precipitation in the eastern Tarai, and only one-third of paddy fields have been planted. On Wednesday, the Cabinet decided to declare Madhes Province a ‘disaster-hit zone’, and Prime Minister K P Oli told Parliament that the Nepal Army could be deployed if necessary to alleviate the water shortage. But government response could be limited since this is a crisis that took years to build up. Politicians have blamed climate breakdown, but the reality is more complicated. Denudation of the fragile Chure Hills, river-bed mining for boulders and sand, and over-extraction of ground water on both sides of the border, are more important factors. Climate change has just made the human-induced causes worse. The farmers of the Madhes are used to “gambling with the monsoon”. Precious paddy seedlings are transplanted, but since so much of the agriculture is rain-fed, failure of the monsoon does not just mean no harvest, but also the loss of seeds that could have been eaten. &nbsp;&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250724040752_bd7bb70c2eda9b421809d178610461f94aee645076cf3bc49900357b6f654d23.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20250724040752_bd7bb70c2eda9b421809d178610461f94aee645076cf3bc49900357b6f654d23" data-rendition-name="original" width="1600" height="1204" loading="lazy" alt="Tarai districts gasp for water NT"> </figure>  Monsoons used to be like clockwork, vegetation in the highlands to the north controlled floods and recharged groundwater, population density and intensive agriculture in India and Nepal had not yet happened. The rains were something to celebrate. Although farmers here remember monsoon failures before, this year’s drought is happening after many years. And it is not just no rain, ponds and water pumps have gone dry, even deep tubewells provide limited water. Cities like Birganj and Janakpur are badly hit. The eight Madhes districts have the highest outmigration rates in Nepal, crop failure and lack of water is surely going to add to the push factor this year. If this is the situation during the monsoon, many wonder what will it be like in the dry season. It is said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Politicians do not have a magic wand to solve this crisis – it is the result of past mistakes and poor planning. The Prime Minister said on Wednesday that deep tube wells would be drilled to pump water, but this could exacerbate the problem by lowering the groundwater table even further. In the past month, the people of the borderlands are wondering what went wrong. There is not much they can do about global climate breakdown, but a responsive federal or provincial government could take measures to address the immediate crisis and launch mid- and long-term mitigation plans. The Madhes water crisis has exposed the historical inattention and neglect of the federal government. That is nothing new, Kathmandu has always disregarded the plains. Wards, municipalities and cities of the Tarai have had to deal with it on their own, in many places fire brigade tankers have been deployed to ferry drinking water.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250724040752_5894923ae3375fb07caec431fcb5458a49fa92fdfe3b2694c00c2662ce3161e4.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20250724040752_5894923ae3375fb07caec431fcb5458a49fa92fdfe3b2694c00c2662ce3161e4" data-rendition-name="original" width="960" height="720" loading="lazy" alt="Tarai districts gasp for water NT"> </figure>  Some of the reasons for the water emergency here is what has been allowed to happen in the upper catchment in the Mahabharat and Chure. Wells are going dry not just because of farms in Nepal over-pumping – groundwater does not respect national boundaries. Geographically, the plains, hills and mountains may look different but they are part of the same ecosystem, the same river basins. The Himalayan eco-biological domain is not only mountains, it includes the plains. There are also interventions that can be done at the local level. Wetlands, marshes and ponds that used to store monsoon water and recharge the aquifers have been built over in the past decades due to urban expansion.&nbsp; Traditional water conservation practices have been abandoned. Some of these were carried over since 1990 with Village Development Committees, but urban pressure, settlements along the highways &nbsp;and the almost complete disappearance of the dense jungle that used to cover the northern edges of the eight districts. The Tarai now has 53% of Nepal’s population, with Madhes Province alone having 6.5 million people. Private water tanker companies are doing a roaring business. But the water they distribute is neither clean nor cheap. It is enough only for household use, not for agriculture.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250724040752_d068f249d0abd7e2766218de4ae4cb9e953d34fc920bcca1b0902b3abb4d695b.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20250724040752_d068f249d0abd7e2766218de4ae4cb9e953d34fc920bcca1b0902b3abb4d695b" data-rendition-name="original" width="960" height="720" loading="lazy" alt="Tarai districts gasp for water NT"> </figure>  The Tarai used to be Nepal's rice bowl producing surplus grain to feed the whole country. The soil has been poisoned by chemical fertiliser and pesticides, and now there is no water. Loss of forest in the Chure slopes has also brought down sand and reduced the fertility of the soil. There is no reason the Tarai should suffer such a severe water shortage just because the rains fail. There is plenty of water flowing down snowfed Himalayan rivers that can be channeled for agriculture with schemes like the Marin-Kamala Diversion.&nbsp; What has to be understood is that this severe drought in the Madhes is not just the problem of Madhes Province, it is a problem for Nepal. It is an opportunity for Kathmandu to show that it cares for the people of the Tarai, and take steps to address the crisis before public outrage in the plains boils over again.&nbsp; Unless this crisis is tackled on an emergency footing, there is a danger of mass out migration due to the lack of water. Let’s set aside climate breakdown for now, let us tackle the man made causes first. The federal government declaring Madhes Province a disaster zone is a glimmer of home, but the people sweltering in the desiccated plains are waiting for that pronouncement to be followed by action. Chandrakishore is a Birganj-based political commentator who writes this monthly column BORDERLINES in Nepali Times. @kishore_chandra

Chandra Kishore

original

674x448

610x380

500x500

400x266

400x240

400x203

301x200

1250x600

1084x550

thumbnail

viewImage

Tarai districts gasp for water

Indra Bahadur Rana Magar, 29, boarded a bus with his parents on 30 May from Bardia to Rampur in the western Tarai. During the uncomfortably hot ride, Indra Bahadur sweated profusely. At the village of Hasulia, he could not take the heat anymore and got off and rested under the shade of a tree. He never woke up.&nbsp; “He died in his sleep,” recalled police inspector Lokendra Chand, who is certain Indra Bahadur died of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/the-heat-is-killing-us">heat stroke</a>.&nbsp; Earlier this week, Balram Magrati ,53, of Dhangadi suddenly fainted while working in an outdoor food stall. He was rushed to Seti Provincial Hospital, where he died. “Cases of people fainting and having breathing difficulties due to excessive heat are now common,” says Sher Bahadur Kamar, a physician at the hospital.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240621140644_8d2dffbed2e4f6c95b6c7bb1e6aae8761f6cca58f54f1b384a2bf0e70f545703.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20240621140644_8d2dffbed2e4f6c95b6c7bb1e6aae8761f6cca58f54f1b384a2bf0e70f545703" data-rendition-name="original" width="1810" height="918" loading="lazy" alt="Heat wave western Nepal"> </figure>  The monsoon rains arrived in eastern Nepal on 10 June, bringing down the temperature, but<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/soon-monsoon"> unleashed floods and landslides</a>. The monsoon was advancing across Nepal, but has stalled because of a resurgent westerly, and this means more delays in cooling rains coming to the sweltering western Tarai. Dhangadi and neighbouring parts of India have seen the maximum lingering at 45°C for weeks on end. Earlier, such high temperatures would only last a few days. “For the first time since 1996, we have also recorded the highest temperature. It was 44.1°C on 30 May, the minimum that day was 30.2°C,” explains Singal Chaudhary of the Mahakali Basin Field Office in Attaria. The office has since recorded near 44°C for days on end. As the monsoon approaches, increased humidity is making conditions worse. Children and the elderly are particularly vulnerable, and locals say they cannot live indoors either because of their corrugated tin roofs. The electricity also is off and on because of increased demand. On Thursday, Sethia Dagaura, 85, was in Dhangadi inside her neighbour’s house which is under construction. This has been her refuge for more than a month. “My house has a tin roof and it is too hot to live there, so I moved here,” she explains, fanning herself with cardboard. But even that blows on hot air. “It should be raining by now, maybe god is telling me this is the end,” she says.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240621140644_fa1e92b804a42612dd49272832fb6dd8639b226f38da3a71fc26eaf5f5ec6323.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20240621140644_fa1e92b804a42612dd49272832fb6dd8639b226f38da3a71fc26eaf5f5ec6323" data-rendition-name="original" width="1689" height="918" loading="lazy" alt="Heat wave western Nepal"> </figure>  The heat in northern India has <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/smoke-screen">ignited forest fires</a> in Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh, and also in the mountains to the north of here. But it has also dried the soil moisture and crops. The ground water table is also going down and wells are drying up. “Five out of seven taps in our village do not have water anymore, we go to the neighbour’s tap for drinking water,” says Rajkumar Choudhary, who lives on the outskirts of Dhangadi. Schools in Banke, Bardia, Kailali and Kanchanpur have been closed for three weeks due to the heat. Just as they were supposed to reopen, the closure has been extended at least until 25 June. According to the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/preparing-for-kathmandu-s-heat-waves">heat wave</a> may continue for a week more because of the westerlies blocking the monsoon’s progress. Until then, physician Kamar at Seti Provincial Hospital suggests staying in a cool place to avoid heat, drinking plenty of water and fluids, wearing light clothes and not going out in the afternoon sun.

Too hot to handle

On a slow, sweltering summer afternoon at the edge of a forest in deep rural northern Thailand, the brain fever bird is doing my head in with its insistent, rising call.
We, like most of Asia south of the Himalaya,<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/warmer-drier-winters-in-nepal"> are now living on the heating planet</a> which experts have long warned of and science has projected for decades.
Across the world as summer temperatures break record after record, bumble bee nests are overheating, endangering the key pollinators. Warming seas are killing corals, which will then affect fish and then artisanal fishing communities in South and Southeast Asia. Sea surface temperatures are at 34° Celsius in the Bay of Bengal, the highest recorded anywhere in the open oceans.&nbsp;
Meanwhile, are our leaders and billionaire class - the two often overlap - <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-politics-of-pollution">serious about climate change</a>? The evidence is not compelling. Former US President Donald Trump in April reportedly asked top fossil fuel industry leaders for $1 billion for his campaign to retake the White House. “We’re going to drill, baby, drill,” he has said at his rallies. &nbsp;
Should he win the White House, climate change mitigation goals will be out of the window in his first days in office. Meanwhile, as if nothing untoward was happening, wars in Ukraine and Gaza are - besides death, destruction and misery - producing staggering amounts of greenhouse gases.
The burning of oil wells by Saddam Hussein’s army in 1990 as western coalition forces drove Iraqi forces out of Kuwait generated more than 400 million tonnes of carbon, according to Axel Michaelowa, a University of Zurich climate policy expert.
Even at the most peaceful of times, militaries are massive emitters of greenhouse gases. In 2018 - the most recent year figures are available for, the US Department of Defense alone produced 56 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent - more than many single countries.
But<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/guest-editorial/the-international-order-is-dying-in-gaza"> wars and militaries </a>are the sacred cows of national security establishments, and their emission reductions are never a part of climate summits. It's business as usual for the military; total global military expenditure reached US$2443 billion in 2023, an increase of 6.8% in real terms from 2022, says the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) — the steepest year-on-year increase since 2009. The ten largest spenders in 2023 were the United States, China and Russia.
In May, the Guardian reported that a poll of hundreds of leading climate scientists found that they expect global temperatures to rise way past the internationally agreed target of 1.5° Celsius above pre-industrial levels. A dystopian future is not just around the corner: for a farmer in Asia’s heat belt it is already here. Numerous experts told the paper they felt hopeless, infuriated and scared by the failure of governments to act despite the clear scientific evidence provided.&nbsp;
I asked anthropologist and expert on warfare Brian Ferguson, a professor at Rutgers University, whether the human species is capable of rising above its quarrels to unite in the face of a genuinely <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/biosphere-on-the-brink">existential threat to the biosphere</a>.
Ferguson asked for a week to think about that, and then wrote back: ‘Any way I think about it, the answer is no.'
'Identity is always constructed, with competing versions, often involving an enemy. It is easy to create alternative versions. So people with power can redirect an experienced threat to a target they find more congenial. Which is what we have seen happening in climate debates, and we see in war all the time.'
The many thousands of young people who flood the streets demanding action against global warming, have something in common with<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/protests-of-despair"> the thousands across campuses in the US </a>demanding their schools sever any investments in and association with Israel. They have woken up and discovered what the adults have been up to.
In the energy of those students, there is hope. Like the protests in the US in the late 1960s and early 1970s against the Vietnam war, and in the late 1980s against South Africa’s apartheid, they challenge and disrupt the prevailing power dispensation. But they are fundamentally hopeful. They demand peace, not war.
‘You see the kids protesting on behalf of Gazans? See how they <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/business/solidarity-with-gaza">risk their careers</a>? DO THAT. And then do it again and again,’ wrote Genevieve Guenther, a climate activist and founder of End Climate Silence, on X.
As psychologist Viktor Frankel famously wrote in his classic Man’s Search for Meaning, about life and survival in the Nazi regime’s death camps: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
You could call it survival. We are an ingenious species, and we have no choice. Amid the bad news, we have a responsibility, and an obligation, to hope.
Nirmal Ghosh, veteran foreign correspondent, author and former US Bureau Chief of The Straits Times, co-hosts the podcasts Green Pulse and Asian Insider.

The obligation of hope

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141128/636cfc6b9c7e80680e0a0b8ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2006" height="1332"/><figcaption>Paddy and maize fields in Kavre. A heavier than usual monsoon this year brought destructive floods, but was a boon to farmers. Photo: AMIT MACHAMASI</figcaption></figure>As if the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/first-drought-then-downpour/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">drought</a>, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/wildfires-ravage-nepal-mountains/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wildfire</a> and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/disasters-in-nepal-come-in-waves/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">flood disasters</a> this year were not bad enough, scientists have warned that unless the world reduces emissions of greenhouse gases drastically, these disasters will get much worse.Hundreds of scientists spent the past two years drafting a 4,000 page <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/">report for the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),</a> but even as they did so, news of climate calamities were coming in thick and fast: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/turning-on-the-heat/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">heat waves</a>, continental-scale wildfires, flash-floods, biodiversity loss.A summary of the report for world governments was released on Monday, three months before world leaders meet in Glasgow in November for a Climate Summit called COP26 (Conference of Parties 26).The highly technical Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the IPCC on the science behind climate change has forecasts that will directly affect Nepal and the Himalaya. It also has pointers on what must be done urgently to reduce its impact.The IPCC report contains the most direct correlation scientists have drawn between <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/a-hotter-himalaya/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">climate change and extreme weather</a> around the world.‘The frequency and intensity of heavy precipitation events … and droughts have increased since the 1950s,’ the report states with ‘high confidence’, adding that human-induced climate change is likely the main driver.It adds categorically: ‘Increases in monsoon precipitation since the 1980s have resulted from rising GHG (greenhouse gas) concentrations … Monsoon precipitation is projected to increase in the mid- to long term on a global scale, particularly over South and Southeast Asia.’<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141128/636cfc6e9c7e80680e0a0b8bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1988" height="1024"><figcaption>Source: IPCC</figcaption></figure>It predicts that these heavy precipitation events will intensify and become more frequent in most regions as the world continues to warm. Globally, there will be 7% more <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/climate-damage/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">extreme weather</a> for every 1° Celsius of global warming.Even under the best-case scenario of reduced greenhouse gas emission, global average temperature is set to exceed 1.5°C by the turn of the century. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-biden-presidency-climate-and-the-himalaya/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Himalaya</a> will get hotter faster than other parts of the world, and could warm by 1.8-2.2°C.The main conclusions of this IPCC report were leaked to AFP in June, and predicts global surface temperatures increasing until at least the mid-century even under the best scenario. The warming will ‘exceed 2°C during the 21st century unless deep reductions in CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions occur in the coming decades’.The 2015 Paris Agreement recommended capping global warming at ‘well below 2°C’ above pre-industrial levels, and to 1.5°C in the next 30 years by reducing emissions. However, the increase is already at 1.2°C Celsius, and on track to exceed 2°C.This will lead to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/between-existence-and-extinction-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">mass species extinction as ecosystems collapse</a>, more <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mosquitoes-move-up-mountains-as-the-earth-warms/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">widespread diseases</a>, heatwaves making parts of the world unfit for human habitation, cities and small island nations at risk of being submerged by sea level rise.For Nepal, even a 1.5°C rise in global temperature will mean <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/manpower-and-hydropower/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">heavy precipitation and associated flooding</a> of the kind the country saw in 2018 and this year. At 2°C increase, the floods, heat waves and droughts  will be even deadlier.The other impact on Nepal will be a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/on-thin-ice-in-the-khumbu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Himalayan meltdown</a>, as the mountains thaw with rising temperatures.‘Human influence is very likely the main driver of the global retreat of glaciers since the 1990s,’ the report states. ‘…The global nature of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/human-face-of-a-himalayan-climate-crisis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">glacier retreat</a>, with almost all of the world’s glaciers retreating synchronously, since the 1950s, is unprecedented in at least the last 2,000 years.’<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141128/636cfc719c7e80680e0a0b8cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="546"><figcaption>Future annual emissions of CO₂ under the five scenarios SSP1-1.9, SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0 and SSP5-8.5. Source: IPCC</figcaption></figure>This is even truer for the Himalaya because of its proximity to the equator. Scientists say it is already warming up to 0.3-0.7°C faster than the global average due to a phenomenon called ‘Elevation Dependent Warming’. But at the current trajectory, the mountains may see warming of up to 5.7°C during this century. In such a scenario, the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-terrifying-assessment-of-himalayan-melting/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Himalaya will lose two-thirds of permanent ice</a>, and most glaciers will have melted.It predicts that even if greenhouse gas emissions are curtailed, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-third-pole-is-warming-faster-than-expected/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">mountain and polar glaciers will continue melting</a> for decades or centuries. This will impact not just Nepal but about 1 billion people living downstream from the Himalaya in China, India, Bangladesh and southeast Asia.‘Human influence has likely increased the chance of compound extreme events since the 1950s, increases in the frequency of concurrent heatwaves and droughts on the global scale, fire weather in some regions of all inhabited continents, and compound flooding in some locations,’ the says the IPCC report, almost describing the winter drought, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/weve-seen-fire-and-weve-seen-rain/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wildfires and floods that have ravaged Nepal</a> in the past 8 months.The main cause of all this warming is that in 2019, atmospheric CO2 concentrations were higher than at any time in at least 2 million years. Global surface temperature averaged over 2081–2100 will be higher by 1.0°C to 1.8°C compared to pre-industrial levels even if emissions are controlled in the next 30 years.The IPCC report summary says that the only solution is for world governments to immediately agree on reaching net zero anthropogenic CO2 emissions to stabilise human-induced <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/climate-for-change/the-great-himalayan-thaw/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">global temperature increase</a>.If the biggest carbon emitters like India and China meet cut back targets, under the most optimistic scenario global average temperature would stabilise at below 1.5°C toward the end of the 21st century after overheating by 0.1°C. But experts do not sound very optimistic about this happening.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141128/636cfc749c7e80680e0a0b8djpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2006" height="986"><figcaption>Projected global temperature rise under the intermediate, high and very high GHG emission scenarios considered. Source: IPCC</figcaption></figure><a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-lockdown-proves-air-quality-can-be-improved/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepal’s greenhouse gas emission</a> is negligible, but it has doubled in the past seven years according to a mandatory report filed by the Ministry of Environment with the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Most of this is because the volume of petroleum imports from India has doubled in the past 10 years to meet the demand of transportation, expansion of cement and other industries.Last year, Nepal had submitted its second Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to meet <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/blueprint-for-a-net-zero-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">zero emission by 2050</a>. Switching to electric public transport and battery vehicles to reduce the petroleum import bill by just 10% would save Rs21 billion a year. This will also clean up the air, dirty air killed 41,000 people in Nepal in 2019.It is a sign of just how desperate the situation is that the IPCC scientists say in their report that the only hope for life on the planet may be a major volcanic eruption this century that would reduce global surface temperature because the sun will be blocked out for 2-3 years.The reports says rather phlegmatically: ‘If such an eruption occurs, this would therefore temporarily and partially mask human-caused climate change.’

UN climate report declares planetary emergency

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813114/636a46959c7e80680e04d3e6jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="933"/><figcaption>ALL PHOTOS: KAMZANG JOURNEYS</figcaption></figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813114/636a46989c7e80680e04d3e7jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="803">Another harsh winter this year in the part of the Tibetan Plateau that is located in Nepal’s <a href="https://nepalitimes.atavist.com/high-and-dry-upper-mustang" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upper Mustang</a> region has resulted in a massive loss of livestock.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mixed-blessings-in-mustang/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mustang</a>’s nomads have been particularly hard hit, losing hundreds of yaks, sheep and <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/ode-to-goat,3321" target="_blank" rel="noopener">goats</a>. Blizzards in February killed many of the goats and sheep in their pens, and yaks in the upper regions also died. The nomads have a close bond with their sheep and goats, giving each of the baby animals to the correct mother every evening after grazing.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813114/636a469b9c7e80680e04d3e8jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="935"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813114/636a469e9c7e80680e04d3e9jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="801">The nomads who live on the Nepal side of the border with China are resilient, and know how to survive in the bitter cold winters of the high plateau. But nothing prepared them for the ferocity of this year’s storms. A series of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/annapurnas-avalanche-and-blizzard-early-weather-warning-systems" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blizzards</a> in February and March left up to 1m of snow, and before it had a chance to melt, more started falling.This is the third winter in the last seven years with unusually heavy snowfall, and the nomads have suffered the loss of a large percentage of their livestock.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813118/636a46a19c7e80680e04d3eajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="933"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813118/636a46a49c7e80680e04d3ebjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="803">News of the blizzards did reach faraway Kathmandu and the provincial capital in Pokhara, but no help came. The nomads, many of whom are Tibetan refugees without Nepali citizenship, do not have monetary savings and survive on barter, so they had no way to recover their losses.Local communities and trekking groups have been helping the nomads living near <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=3802#.XQtcRRYzaUk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lo Manthang</a> recover. One of them is <a href="https://www.kamzangjourneys.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kamzang Journeys</a>, which specialises in taking trekking teams to camp and travel with the nomads.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813118/636a46a89c7e80680e04d3ecjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1279" height="854"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813118/636a46ab9c7e80680e04d3edjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="853">It has set up <a href="https://www.kamzangjourneys.com/the-nomad-fund-adopt-a-goat/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Nomad Fund</a>, and says the money collected from its Adopt a Goat program is delivered directly to nomad families. Despite its name, the $150 per goat collected can be used by the nomads as they need, whether for food and supplies, medical care or to purchase replacement livestock.“The Adopt a Goat project is very close to our hearts as we have been trekking with these resilient, warm, generous and tough nomads for nearly two decades,” says Kim Bannister of Kamzang Journeys. “We provide families with financial help when they lose their animals during winters, and help with sales of their hand-woven textiles.”To contribute to Adopt a Goat and The Nomad Fund go to: <a href="https://www.kamzangjourneys.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.kamzangjourneys.com</a>/

Gift a goat to Tibet nomads in Nepal

<figure><img width="1500" height="1000" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101132/636a22149c7e80680e04176fjpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Women and children displaced by flood seek shelter in Jogapurwa village of Bahraich district, Uttar Pradesh in India. Photo: NABIN BARAL</figcaption></figure>Parash Nath Kashyap, 62, has moved three times in two decades due to floods and erosion along the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghaghara">Ghaghara</a> River, which is what the Karnali is called after crossing the border in southwestern Nepal.“How different our life was 20 years ago,” says Kashyap, dragging a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charpai">charpai</a> under the shade of a tree along the left embankment of the Ghaghara in Jogapurwa, 30km west of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahraich">Bahraich</a> city.In 2000, severe floods washed away his family’s land so they moved a kilometre east. Another flood in 2002 forced them to move again. In 2008, they were made homeless again and settled in a patch of government land along the flood-control levee. “It’s like hide and seek, we move as the river moves,” he says wryly. “For years we have danced with the river, but with tears in our eyes.”Read also:Part 1: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/faith-to-reality/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Faith to reality</a> Part 2: <a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/dams-and-dreams-a-journey-down-the-karnali/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dams and dreams a journey down the Karnali</a><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101132/636a22179c7e80680e041770jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000">Parashnath Kashyap is the leader flood victim communities in Jogapurwa in Uttar Pradesh, India. He has been fighting for rights of the affected communities in Ghaghara. Photo: NABIN BARALThe Ghaghara flows into the Ganga downstream in Bihar in one of the most flood-prone regions and most densely-populated regions of the world. Floods in the Ganga basin between 2000 and 2014 affected about 93 million people. According to a <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Ganges-River-Basin-Status-and-Challenges-in-Water-Environment-and/Bharati-Sharma-Smakhtin/p/book/9781138900325">2018 report</a> from the International Water Management Institute, there were 326 extreme flood events in the Ganga basin between 1980 to 2015 resulting in 67,000 casualties. Of these 212 floods were in India, 74 in Bangladesh and 40 in Nepal. China accounts for 4% of the basin, but there is almost no information about floods there. Read also:Part 3: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/climate-denial-in-the-himalaya/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Climate denial in the Himalaya</a> Part 5: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-karnali-portrait/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A Karnali portrait</a> After the river-engulfed more land in Jogapurwa of Uttar Pradesh, the number of people living in temporary settlements has grown. This has led to a web of social problems in recent years. “People living far from the embankment (our relatives) don’t want to get their daughters to marry our boys as we live in a very vulnerable situation,” Kashyap adds. <img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101132/636a221b9c7e80680e041771jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000">Chandra Vahal , a flood victim in Jogapurwa village of Uttar Pradesh shows the level of flood that submerged their make shift houses last mosoon. Photo: NABIN BARALHe knew that problems would get worse when he was first displaced in 2000, so he married off his daughters as early as possible while he had some money left. As he lost his land, his economic condition deteriorated. “We have land certificates but we are landless because the river is flowing over where we used to live,” he said.Most of the younger generation have gone to bigger cities in Punjab or Delhi to look for work. The result of the exodus is visible: most people in the villages were women, the elderly and children.“We cultivate some vegetables on the sandy land in the dry season. You can’t imagine how big this river is in the monsoon,” said Kamlesh Kashyap, another flood refugee. This land is far from where they live, so their vegetables are often stolen or eaten by animals. “If boys were here, they could guard the land at night, but women can’t because it’s very unsafe,” he adds. <figure><img width="1500" height="1000" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101132/636a221e9c7e80680e041772jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Locals collect sand from the Ghaghara river at the Ganga/Ghaghara confluence. NABIN BARAL</figcaption></figure>Displaced people who move to the cities have to do low class jobs, like dish-washing or toilet cleaning, since very few had been to school. The farming community has been devastated, children do not go to school.“They have to herd animals, so parents are reluctant to send them to school,” says Dhrub Kumar of the Panchasheel Development Trust which works with displaced communities. “Parents are forced to sell most of the milk from their cows or buffaloes, so the children do not have enough to eat.” The Uttar Pradesh government’s attempts to relocate the displaced have largely failed due to a lack of understanding of their long-term needs. A decade ago, the government provided land for people in Jogapurwa to construct houses, but the land was too far away from where they farmed. “It’s about 10-15 km from here and the land is just enough to build houses so where do we keep our animals, where do we produce food, how do we survive?” asks Parashnath Kashyap, whose family decided to stay put in the hope that Ghaghara would change course someday and they would get back to their land. Some people moved to the government provided land, but later they returned to the embankment. “We are all low caste people but the new land was dominated by higher caste people so we were afraid we would be harassed,” says Chandran Bhaal, 56. <figure><img width="1500" height="1000" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101132/636a22219c7e80680e041773jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Hare Ram and his wife sow pointed gourd in the sandy soil at the confluence of the Ganges and the Ghaghara in Chhara district of Bihar. Photo: NABIN BARAL</figcaption></figure>The Karnali River traverses the mountains from Tibet through Nepal and becomes the Ghaghara in Uttar Pradesh in northern India. The Girijapuri Barrage 16km downstream from the Nepal border was built 55 years ago to divert water for irrigation to central Uttar Pradesh. Much of the water is diverted west to the Sharada River , another tributary of the Ganga. “We are killing this river by diverting most of the water for irrigation and leaving the downstream areas dry,” says Dhrub Kumar.According to the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279200603_River_Bank_Erosion_Induced_Human_Displacement_and_Its_Consequences">studies</a>, the Ghaghara started shifting course particularly after 1995. The Gangetic plains are relatively flat, and after the steep descent from the Himalaya, the rivers shift course in the alluvial plains, especially when they swell during the monsoon. According to the <a href="https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/floods-in-north-and-east-india-kill-120-people-45848">National Disaster Management Authority of India</a>, about 2.7 million hectares out of 24.1 million hectares of land in the state is affected by floods every year, with an estimated loss of $57 million. Debates whether embankments are the right way to deal with floods are not new, but the problem is getting bigger as more money has been invested in flood control levees over the past decades. Experts say the heavy sediment load is raising the river beds, and although the embankments may control floods temporarily, they can cause catastrophic flooding when the levees are breached in future. <figure><img width="1500" height="1000" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101132/636a22259c7e80680e041774jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>An embankment to control floods in the Ghaghara river near to the Ganga/Ghaghara confluence at the border of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. NABIN BARAL</figcaption></figure>Many argue it is only corrupt contractors, bureaucrats, technocrats and politicians who have benefited, making billions from embankments despite their failure to curb the floods. “Long-term solutions are not a priority, but immediate relief and embankments have always been priority. It clearly shows that money is the motivation behind (embankment building),” said Ajit Dixit, a journalist based in Cornelganj in Gonda district.Governments are supposed to protect people but many say they are not moving in the right direction. The population grows rapidly and land encroachment near rivers is a serious problem because it leaves them vulnerable to future floods. “If we invest the amount of money we have been investing in embankments, I think it’s possible to resettle villages in safe places. But as it’s a politically motivated move it’s not going to happen,” Dhrub Kumar says.While the construction of embankments started during British rule, the majority were built after India’s independence in 1947. According to the World Banks’s 2014 <a href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/955751468000263739/pdf/103889-WP-Ganges-Strategic-Basin-Assessment-A-Discussion-of-Regional-Opportunities-and-Risks-PUBLIC.pdf">report</a>, about 16,200 km of embankments were constructed between 1954 and 1997 in India alone and authorities claim this has protected about 17 out of 40 million hectares of flood prone lands along the Ganga.The story is jointly published by Nepali Times and <a href="https://www.thethirdpole.net/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Third Pole</a>. Subsequent instalments of this five-part series will appear from 8-11 January.

Dancing with the river

Leaked letters from Korea’s Unification Church have revealed its extensive involvement in buying political and media influence worldwide, including links to Nepal’s parties and politicians. Documents obtained by the <a href="https://newstapa.org/eng">Korean Centre for Investigative Journalism</a> (Newstapa) and <a href="https://dunia-asia.org/leaked-true-mother-report-exposes-unification-church-influence-in-nepal-and-north-korea-outreach/">Dunia</a> contain correspondence to and from the controversial religious movement whose leader, 82-year-old <a href="https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/southkorea/politics/20251216/explainer-who-is-han-hak-ja-true-mother-at-center-of-unification-church-scandals">Hak Ja Han</a>, is currently on trial in Seoul for allegedly bribing the wife and associates of disgraced former president Yoon Suk Yeol.&nbsp; The letters and direct messages referenced in the investigation mention three former prime ministers: Madhav Kumar Nepal who has now joined the Nepali Communist Party, K P Oli of the Communist Party of Nepal UML (Unified Marxist-Leninist), and former Maoist ideologue Baburam Bhattarai.&nbsp; The documents detail financial support from the Unification Church (now known as Family Federation for World Peace and Unification) to Nepal Paribar Dal (Nepal Family Party) and its founder <a href="https://reviewnepal.com/national/dhakal-reelected-as-chair-of-pariwar-dal.html">Ek Nath Dhakal,</a> who is a staunch ally of the UML. On Sunday, Dhakal signed an MoU with K P Oli of the UML to cooperate in the March election and beyond. The leaked correspondence concerning Nepal spans the period between the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/elections-of-by-for-men,4038">first federal elections in 2017</a> till the 2022 polls and contains emails between Dhakal and Yong Jeong Shik, Regional President for Asia of the Unification Church, with urgent requests for funds for campaigning and to support the UML.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260124080120_63bb0a555b9f0676b1301b7a71e9cefda7f3eb69e5fa0ff1249a1bbeec0c17bf.png" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20260124080120_63bb0a555b9f0676b1301b7a71e9cefda7f3eb69e5fa0ff1249a1bbeec0c17bf" data-rendition-name="original" width="1280" height="598" loading="lazy" alt="Moonie money in Nepal's politics NT"> </figure>  ‘Regarding funding, I am truly sorry, but a minimum of $500,000 is required,’ one of the messages to Yong in the report says. ‘Furthermore, as the election is scheduled for December 7th [2017], I would be very grateful if I could receive it as soon as possible. The initial $500,000 was used for overall election expenses, and the additional $500,000 is intended for campaign activities for the Family Party and supporting key leaders.’ In addition, there are also letters requesting an additional $20,000 per month in ‘maintenance costs for the Nepal Family Party and preparations for the<a href="http://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-parties-forge-new-pre-poll-alliances"> 2022 election</a>’.&nbsp; Asked for a reaction to the allegations, Govinda Nath Mishra of the Nepal Paribar Party said: “This is an unnecessary smear campaign against our party. Parties doing good work are always linked to some foreign powers in Nepal to discredit them.” Ek Nath Dhakal has also denied that his party’s affiliation with the UML has anything to do with Unification Church donations. <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Korean-movement-in-Nepal,2962">He told Nepali Times in an interview in 2016</a>: “The party has links to all faiths, as it has with the unification movement. The Nepal Family Party is a kind of conservative party with a manifesto that promotes family values, interfaith dialogue and harmony. There are 11 political parties supporting Prime Minister Oli. Nepal Family Party is just one of them.” <div class="embed-block"><div><div style="left: 0; width: 100%; height: 0; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%;"><iframe src="https://cdn.iframe.ly/api/iframe?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FMcGp_Mn4fwA%3Fsi%3DM3bVjAnbnelwKwAl&key=87ca3314a9fa775b5c3a7726100694b0" style="top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; border: 0;" allowfullscreen scrolling="no" allow="accelerometer *; clipboard-write *; encrypted-media *; gyroscope *; picture-in-picture *; web-share *;"></iframe></div></div></div> In another update to Yong, Dhakal describes the UML’s election campaign in 2017 as ‘proceeding very successfully … it appears certain the Unified Marxist-Leninist will achieve a landslide victory’. Dhakal was not contesting directly as a candidate, but piggybacking on the UML <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/house-of-cards-6alq6pvi">which had put him on the proportional representation list</a>, ostensibly in return for campaign financing. He continues: ‘It is certain that I will be elected as a proportional representation member of the National Assembly due to a shortage of female candidates. I discussed the possibility of my election with Prime Minister Madhav and Prime Minister K P Oli … both have confirmed that I could be moved from 5th place [on the PR list] to 1st or 2nd if necessary.’&nbsp; After the 2017 election, the UML formed a coalition with the Maoists and Prime Minister Oli appointed Dhakal Minister for Peace and Reconstruction overseeing Nepal’s post-conflict and post-earthquake activities. During his tenure, Dhakal organised an ‘<a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-12/01/c_137644390.htm">Asia-Pacific Summit 2018</a>’ in Kathmandu presided over by Hak Ja Han, wife of Rev Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church and Universal Peace Federation (UPF). The couple are known in the movement as ‘True Parents’ and Hak Ja Han is referred to as ‘True Mother’. Oli addressed the Kathmandu summit which was attended by 1,500 delegates, including Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. The <a href="https://theannapurnaexpress.com/story/15201/">gathering drew criticism</a> for being a proselytisation exercise, prompting Oli to decline attending a ‘blessing’ ceremony by Hak Ja Han.&nbsp; Ever since, the ‘Holy Wine’ has entered Nepal's political lexicon, and is still used derogatorily to label politicians involved.&nbsp; Nepal Paribar Party’s Govinda Nath Mishra says: “Ek Nath Dhakal has become a member of the House of Representatives twice, and our party has since its inception been close to the UML. We are just continuing that cooperation for this election as well.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260124080120_49ed56931f2bd97d75a5c9604e2d4f5cd3474177b302b13db5df2ccbe63994dd.png" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20260124080120_49ed56931f2bd97d75a5c9604e2d4f5cd3474177b302b13db5df2ccbe63994dd" data-rendition-name="original" width="1318" height="1204" loading="lazy" alt="Moonie money in Nepal's politics NT"> </figure>  The Unification Church has said that the leaked documents are not authentic and were unofficial records created by former Director General of the Unification Church’s International Headquarters Yun Young Ho to ‘flaunt his influence’. The Japanese branch of the Unification Church said in a statement this week: ‘After reviewing the documents believed to be the report in question, we have found factual inaccuracies were added or content modified.’ Milan Kumari Rajbanshi, deputy General-Secretary of the Nepal Paribar Party and former MP denied her party was funded by any outside source, and she was no aware of any correspondence between Dhakal and anyone else.&nbsp; She told Nepali Times: “After the September street protests we spoke to many political parties, including GenZ activists, but the UML was the closest to our values.” Rajbanshi will be campaigning in Jhapa-5 on behalf of K P Oli who will be contesting against former Kathmandu mayor Balen Shah. The Newstapa leak show Dhakal and the Unification Church worked behind the scenes in the 2017 election to influence the &nbsp;elections. One email from Dhakal references this: ‘(If) we can secure a majority in next year’s general election … our wish is to educate all parliamentarians for two years until 2020 and create a constitution centred on Cheon Il Guk.’ Cheon Il Guk (천일국) means ‘One Heavenly Kingdom’ and is the vision of a spiritual nation proclaimed by Sun Myung Moon and his Unification Church, and emphasises family values instead of individualism for global unity under a ‘Heavenly Parent’.&nbsp; The emails reveal that the Church was planning to convince Madhav Nepal and K P Oli to take all 150 coalition legislators to Bangkok to introduce them to its beliefs. That trip did not materialise, but the Church had earlier taken 20 Communist MPs to the Philippines and Thailand for ‘principle education’.&nbsp; In another email to Yong Jeong Shik, Dhakal describes Baburam Bhattarai as being ‘disillusioned with communism’ and that he proposed ‘gathering all minority parties to join the Family Party’. Bhattarai left the Maoists and is contesting from the Pragatisheel Loktantrik Party from his Gorkha constituency in March. Despite its connections with Nepal’s Communists, the Unification Church is known to support conservative politics around the world including through ownership of media like <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/">The Washington Times</a> newspaper.&nbsp; Founder Sun Myung Moon was deeply involved in pushing for Korean unification, and the Church has worked with Asian countries that have ties with North Korea. Documents show that the Unification Church had tried to get then UML Chair Madhav Kumar Nepal to Pyongyang, but the Nepal government supposedly under pressure from the South Korean, Japanese and US ambassadors got him to call it off. Madhav Nepal had also insisted that he meet Kim Jong Un, but the North Korean side had said it was not possible. But after Nepal left the UML to form the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Socialist) he met the North Korean Ambassador in the presence of Ek Nath Dhakal to plan a visit in order to work towards Korean unification. A 11-member delegation composed of Nepal, Dhakal, MPs and a newspaper publisher visited North Korea in 2017 (pictured below).  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260123040128_6690244be7aa18e24a4aef825935a7afcaa893b40191f712ab498105e06aaf51.jpg" data-media-id="editor_14" data-image-id="20260123040128_6690244be7aa18e24a4aef825935a7afcaa893b40191f712ab498105e06aaf51" data-rendition-name="original" width="2201" height="1148" loading="lazy" alt="Moonie money in Nepal's politics NT"> </figure>  METICULOUS ARCHIVE An extract from correspondence is indicative of the former prime minister’s links to the Unification Church: ‘Madhav Kumar Nepal … maintains a very close relationship with us and could become Prime Minister again at any time. There is no one who knows us as well or respects the Parents as much as former Prime Minister Madhav does … he is someone who regards the True Parents like God.’ The internal documents of the Unification Church obtained by Newstapa is called the ‘TM [True Mother] Special Report’ and appears to have been prepared for Hak Ja Han. The 3,212-page text provides a chronological account of the Church’s management of politicians internationally, its handling donations, and plans to expand political influence through its affiliated media outlets. The document is a meticulous archive apparently compiled by Yun Young Ho, the former Director General of the Unification Church’s International Headquarters, the organisation’s second-in-command.&nbsp; This suggests church affairs were reported directly to Hak Ja Han. Korean investigators are now focusing on whether Han merely received these reports or issued specific directives based on them. Yun testified during the trial in Seoul that the Church’s regional leaders and local partners would send daily field reports which he would synthesise into a ‘Special Report’ format to provide oral briefings to Han. Hak Ja Han therefore may have been personally involved in the Church’s operations in granular detail. Korean special prosecutors are viewing these documents as critical evidence in her trial to prove that she was directly involved in political lobbying. Last week, during a hearing on the Hak Ja Han bribery case, a regional Church leader admitted to personally drafting segments of the ‘True Parents Correspondence Report’ featured in the document. The ‘TM Special Report’ appears to be a compilation of internal documents reprocessed into a single file and includes emails and direct messaging. Certain periods are missing, leading to gaps in the narrative, raising the possibility that specific portions of the report may have been selectively curated or redacted. &nbsp; <h2>Both Koreas in Nepal</h2>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026012304018_962b3169d725dbd3dc820aab16a6ab8d3a083b55174558003d4ccfe97fe7789e.jpg" data-media-id="editor_15" data-image-id="2026012304018_962b3169d725dbd3dc820aab16a6ab8d3a083b55174558003d4ccfe97fe7789e" data-rendition-name="original" width="1750" height="1168" loading="lazy" alt="Moonie money in Nepal's politics NT"> </figure>  Buddhism spread northwards across the Himalaya from Nepal to China and Korea 1,000 years ago, but in the past decades two of Korea’s powerful ideologies have come to Nepal. Nepal’s leftist movement, most notably the Nepal Workers Peasants Party (NWPP) <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Bhaktapur-dear-leader,3010">inspired by North Korea’s Kim Il Sung’s Juche Idea</a> espouses a nationalist agenda, and has a strong base in Bhaktapur. Meanwhile, South Korea’s Unification Church of Sun Myung Moon has influenced Nepal’s political, administrative and religious spheres.&nbsp; After establishment of Moon’s Universal Peace Federation (UPF) in 2005, the Church has a sizable presence in Nepal. The movement’s leader is Ek Nath Dhakal of the Nepal Paribar Party (right) who is affiliated with the UML and even served as a minister in a UML-Maoist coalition after being nominated as a PR member to Parliament.&nbsp; <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Korean-movement-in-Nepal,2962">He told this paper in 2016</a>: “I am a Hindu, associated with the Unification Movement. The UPF staged one of its mass weddings at Dashrath Stadium in Kathmandu in 2017 (right). The movement recruits public figures like former president Bidya Devi Bhandari, Madhav Kumar Nepal and others as Ambassadors for Peace. Before he died in 2012 at age 92, Rev Moon had picked Nepal as a ‘model peace nation of God’. The Church says it embraces all religions, and does not even display the Christian cross at its places of worship.&nbsp; While young Nepalis follow South Korean pop culture fever, in Bhaktapur it is Kim Il Sung’s Juche Idea that is the dominant ideology. The Nepal Workers Peasants Party has won just about every district and local election from Bhaktapur, not so much for its politics, but because its representatives have performed well. Bhaktapur’s following of Kim Il Sung is based on Bijukchhe’s vision that his town be self-reliant and deliver development equitably.&nbsp; <h2>A worldwide web</h2>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026012304018_5c2949a3715b74f8992a6dcfc305fbaa817a0b834365c737bb81245762d74148.jpg" data-media-id="editor_18" data-image-id="2026012304018_5c2949a3715b74f8992a6dcfc305fbaa817a0b834365c737bb81245762d74148" data-rendition-name="original" width="1750" height="968" loading="lazy" alt="Moonie money in Nepal's politics"> </figure>  In 2022, the Unification Church (Family Federation for World Peace and Unification) arranged a meeting between Yoon Suk Yeol, who was then presidential candidate, and former US Vice President Mike Pence just before South Korean elections. The visit was timed for the ‘World Summit 2022’ hosted by the Universal Peace Federation (UPF), a Unification Church affiliate. The visit was widely covered by the media at the time, but a Newstapa investigation last year confirmed that the Church paid Pence $550,000 to visit Seoul. The visit was designed to bolster Yoon’s diplomatic and security credentials and appeal to religious voters. Yoon knew Pence was a devout Christian, and media at the time reported that both prayed before the meeting. Just like the UPF’s World Summit 2018 in Kathmandu, Cambodian PM Hun Sen was in attendance as was former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The welcome remark at the Summit was delivered by Yun Young Ho, then-Director General of the Unification Church’s World Headquarters. South Korean Special Prosecutors are currently investigating Yun for allegedly bribing former president Yoon Suk Yeol’s wife Kim Keon Hee.&nbsp; Newstapa also dug up Pence’s financial disclosures filed with the US Office of Government Ethics and the Federal Election Commission and found that Pence reported receiving $550,000 from the UPF for ‘a speaking engagement’ in Seoul in 2022 — an unusually hefty fee. Cambodian Premier Hun Sen has hosted K P Oli several times in Phnom Penh, once as prime minister in 2019, and again last year in August. There seems to be a similar nexus between Hun Sen, the UPF and former President Yoon and his wife Kim Keon Hee. When he became president in 2022, Yoon visited Cambodia with his wife, and South Korea doubled its development assistance to Cambodia to $1.5 billion. The Special Prosecutor in Seoul is investigating allegations that the Unification Church provided funds to Kim Keon Hee in helping a Mekong River project in Cambodia.

Moonie money in Nepal’s politics

The Kathmandu Valley has attracted an exceptional number of outstanding and accomplished foreigners over the decades, but few as extraordinary as Marilyn Silverstone (1929-1999).&nbsp; Frances Klatzel’s book A Portrait of Ourselves, Marilyn Silverstone: From Photojournalist to Buddhist Nun, is a fitting and fascinating biographical celebration of this American woman whose life of unusual choices took her, as the title suggests, from an affluent Jewish childhood in Scarsdale, New York to becoming an acclaimed and adventurous Magnum photographer.&nbsp; Roving the world, her camera captured many of the most iconic events of the 20th century, her images were published in Time, Life, Newsweek, Look, National Geographic, Paris Match, Vogue and other magazines. Following the teachings of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Marilyn Silverstone devoted the last twenty years of her eventful life to living quietly and practising Buddhism in Nepal. Ordained as a Buddhist nun, she took vows in the sanctified Solukhumbu precincts of Thubten Choling with Venerable Trulshik Rinpoche in the spring of 1977. Living in Kathmandu until her death in Shechen Monastery, which she helped create, Marilyn wrote: ‘When I look back over the years, although I did not know it at the time, ending my life as a Buddhist nun was logical and inevitable.’&nbsp; Ani Marilyn was a familiar figure amid the sacred spaces of the Valley, the lanes of Boudha and even Kathmandu’s drawing rooms during my early years in Nepal, a large smiling presence draped in maroon robes, dyed sneakers, slightly whiskered, robust.&nbsp; As a wedding gift she gave Tenzin and I an inscribed copy of her slim volume, Ocean of Life, aptly named for the span of her achievements and expansive embrace – editor, translator, writer, filmmaker, photographer, journalist and Buddhist nun. Marilyn’s nephew wrote: ‘Her legacy was that she was always herself no matter what chapter of her life that she was living.’  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260122100124_70d489c3d161f59668f315ede60cbb213d365357b0a9f2d7aad3b537a14dcb5e.png" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20260122100124_70d489c3d161f59668f315ede60cbb213d365357b0a9f2d7aad3b537a14dcb5e" data-rendition-name="original" width="1164" height="1600" loading="lazy" alt="Ani Marilyn"> <figcaption>Ani Marilyn as a Tibetan Buddhist nun at Shechen Monastery in Boudha.</figcaption> </figure>  Working with a wide range of impeccable sources, Frances Klatzel has assembled first-hand the personal recollections and unsparing insights from Marilyn’s most intimate friends. One of these, Jane Abell Coon, wrote the Introduction. She was a well-known person in 1980s Kathmandu whose husband Carlton Coon served as American Ambassador to Nepal and she simultaneously as American Ambassador in Bangladesh.&nbsp; The book begins with a rare message from the 14th Dalai Lama and a touching Foreword by Venerable Rabjam Rinpoche. It ends with exquisite excerpts from a Buddhist religious tract that Marilyn had translated from its traditional Tibetan text. Marilyn’s initial trip to India was to photograph Ravi Shankar in 1955, the classical sitar maestro. Increasingly fascinated by ‘the complex and compassionate culture’ of Tibet, her Himalayan archives include images throughout India, Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan.&nbsp; The first internationally accredited photojournalist to base herself in India, from 1959 Marilyn lived in Bombay then Delhi, with her lifelong partner Frank Moraes, the Goan journalist, writer, commentator and first Indian editor of the Times of India after Independence. INDIAN INFLUENCERS I remember being taken to meet the legendary Frank Moraes in 1973, by then politically exiled in Marilyn’s elegant but chaotic London house, a magnet for South Asian intellectuals. She was not there, but Frank’s son the poet Dom Moraes was slumped desultory on a sagging sofa. My impression of Frank was well-dressed, polite and slightly distracted. Marilyn’s talent for friendship and wide network of Indian influencers and princely connections gave her unique access to historic events, as well as recording refugees, rituals, droughts, floods, famines and funerals. In addition to maharajahs and global leaders, her images portray personal moments, ordinary people, unflinching pain and flashes of joy. She said: ‘In my job, the closer you get to people, the better off you are.’ This book is illustrated with a thrilling trove of pictures of and by Marilyn, many of which reflect the impact of Henri Cartier-Bresson who signed her up as one of the first women to join his prestigious Magnum photo cooperative.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260122100124_6dfdef41da5945aea0a8bbd8c1514af5de2adb36361d4e20c29914c59f2039e0.png" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20260122100124_6dfdef41da5945aea0a8bbd8c1514af5de2adb36361d4e20c29914c59f2039e0" data-rendition-name="original" width="2124" height="1404" loading="lazy" alt="Ani Marilyn"> </figure>  Her assignments ranged across warzones in Vietnam, the Shah of Iran’s coronation, and Russian tanks rolling into Prague. Marilyn’s 1960s involved constant travel, her Magnum beat was the ‘Far East’, from Pakistan and Bangladesh to China, Korea, and Japan.&nbsp; With a knack at being in the right place at the right time, Marilyn was the only western woman journalist to record the arrival from Lhasa into ‘safety and exile’ of the young Dalai Lama in 1959. She was at Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s funeral in Delhi, the Chogyal of Sikkim’s marriage to Hope Cooke, and with Jacqueline Kennedy on a small boat at the Lake Palace of Udaipur.&nbsp; Marilyn snapped the Pope giving blessings in Bombay, Mother Teresa attending to the poor, and the Beatles on their way to meet the Maharishi. With Frank, she travelled to Africa and shot Emperor Haile Selassie in Ethiopia, Nigeria’s independence celebrations, and a very old and solar-topied Dr Albert Schweitzer in his jungle hospital in Gabon.&nbsp; A Portrait of Ourselves, Marilyn Silverstone: From Photojournalist to Buddhist Nun, is a highly recommended tribute to an inspirational life, told with discerning honesty and private perceptions by those who knew her best.&nbsp; Her monastic years living in Nepal continued to feature travel, hard work, undiminished curiosity, dogged fights for right, uncompromising support for others, disdain for conformity and battles with ill health, but all with her characteristic good humour. Marilyn leaves us with some sound advice in her own words: “I can say that I did it all. The secret though is just keep walking through life without analysing it too much or clinging to it too much. Just walk on.” &nbsp;&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260122100140_dc0c465e462bd14e92b2a2e79b5349f23fa039bcda81cc02a9a70adbcee35c7b.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20260122100140_dc0c465e462bd14e92b2a2e79b5349f23fa039bcda81cc02a9a70adbcee35c7b" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="marilyn silverstone"> </figure>

“Just walk on”

This is the 80th episode of Diaspora Diaries, a Nepali Times series in collaboration with Migration Lab providing a platform to share experiences of living, working and studying abroad.
I worked in Kuwait for 11 years before deciding to call it quits. I had not visited Nepal in nine years. A broker from eastern Nepal had arranged the migration of 15 of us, and I was the only one from Jajarkot. 
Since the government did not allow domestic workers to migrate, we went through India. We were afraid he might sell us off in India. I had never left my village. As a precaution, we made the female broker accompany us to India till we flew out to Kuwait.
At the airport in Kuwait, no one came to pick us up and we waited there for two days. We did not have any money so we had to beg for food and water. Some gave us noodles, biscuits and water. Others ignored us. 
We even drank water from used bottles from the trash. The Indian agent finally came to pick us up but we were too scared to confront him.
The first house I was placed in was not good. I did not speak Arabic and I did not know how to use the iron or washing machine. A Filipino worker helped me, but madam kept following me around and making me do everything twice. It was not easy at all.
Not able to understand the language I was like someone dumb and deaf. Hand gestures were not sufficient. I don’t know how I passed those two years before returning to Nepal. But there were no jobs, no money. So I decided to migrate again to Kuwait because it felt familiar, and by this time I spoke Arabic. 
This time, I stayed with the same family for nine years. All four children in the house were born when I was there, so they are very attached to me. Madam was all right although she made me work a lot and micromanaged me. Every family member in Kuwait had their car and driver. Back home we don’t even own personal bicycles.
Taking care of children meant that I could go wherever they went so I got to travel and eat pizzas and burgers. They paid me on time, and I sent money home to take care of my sister, a cancer survivor.
With my savings I also bought land and built a small house in Surkhet. I have no educational background or work experience, so this was a big deal.
For nine years, I did not see a reason to return because of my obligations to my sister and her son. In Kuwait, I met with colleagues from different countries like the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and India but we communicated in Arabic. We worked for different families but got to meet every Thursday when madams used to go to her mother’s house. 
We got along and fought like sisters, but most of our time went running after the children. There was no time for anything else. Madam’s house where I spent nine years was good, but it is actually how well the employers treat us that is important.
I watched Tiktok videos during my free time. Mostly deuda songs. During the GenZ movement, I was glued to social media. I supported it, but wished they had not burnt down government offices. I was not allowed to post on social media. 
By the time I left, I was making around 180 Kuwait dinar a month ($580). I have heard horror stories from Nepali sisters about their employers, but mine paid me well and on time. She could have been better by allowing me to rest more, to use the phone more freely. 
Between preparing children for school, ironing, washing, cleaning the house, cooking, taking care of the children, I had no time for anything. Not even to sleep properly. What can we do?
Back in Nepal I often wonder how the children are doing. If they are eating well. You get attached to them, but as they grow older, they also complain about us. I used to sing and dance with the kids. They depended on me for everything and I had watched them right from the time they were born. 
Sometimes, they used to refer to me as their mother which my madam did not like. I don’t have my own kids. That is why when I made up my mind to leave, I felt bad leaving them behind, especially the youngest one who relied on me for everything. 
Even now, when I think about it, my eyes tear up. Madam asked me to take a long vacation and return to Kuwait, but I had made up my mind to go back to Nepal. A Sri Lankan woman replaced me, and we overlapped for a month as I trained her and the children got used to her. 
On my last day, Madam and I decided that I should sneak out without telling the children because they would not be able to handle it. I asked the Sri Lankan woman how the children are holding up, and she said the youngest one still cries asking about me. Madam was also emotional about me leaving, she gave me olive oil, clothes and sweets but no money. I cannot describe how happy I was to get on the plane to return home, my heart was full of excitement.
Since I came back, it has been a very different experience. After nine years of living in someone else’s house where my every move was monitored, I feel so free. I can use the phone as I please. I can sleep as I please. I need to catch up on my sleep. There is so much freedom. 
Because of the children, I had developed a taste for pizzas and burgers but they are not as tasty in Nepal, I don’t know why. But the meal I was craving for when I came home was freshly made rice, lentils and mustard greens. I went to the hospital here, and I saw nurses in uniform and it reminded me of the domestic workermaid’s clothes I wore in Kuwait. 
I am worried about money running out, even though it has only been a few weeks. Expenses are high in Nepal. The monthly income has stopped. When I went a decade ago, I relied on others financially. Now, there are others who depend on me.
Author wants to remain anonymous.

Homecoming after nine years

Bhairav is the fierce manifestation of Lord Shiva, and his strength is depicted in a fearsome face but he is also a protector and guardian. There are eight forms of Bhairav in Kathmandu, and they are all featured in Mukesh Shrestha’s exhibition Bhairav Bhav at Gallery 108 in Darbar Marg. The artist was moved to contemplate the violent September protests through this series of paintings.&nbsp; “The GenZ protests exposed the greedy and aggressive side of leaders in which many young Nepalis lost their lives. Bhairav teaches people that forms of aggression and peace can go hand in hand, and peace can be chosen,” Shrestha explains. The artworks on display have a distinct palette of yellow, black and white, symbolising peace even during turbulent times. “Yellow is an auspicious colour for Hindus and Buddhists, it also has religious significance,” he says. Each painting is imbued by the black walls of the gallery and spotlight with warm lights. Says gallery manager Pooja Mahato, “The backdrop is black deliberately so that the visitors’ focus goes more to the artwork and less on the surrounding.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026012008018_ac2e3090a926cb57fca481d580d1c087b43d392299e2d99231a6044a05696964.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2026012008018_ac2e3090a926cb57fca481d580d1c087b43d392299e2d99231a6044a05696964" data-rendition-name="original" width="2784" height="3984" loading="lazy" alt="Bhairav art review"> </figure>  Each of the paintings depicts Bhairav’s face in the real form but the bodies are imagined by the artist. This distinction is also made by the use of colours on the face while the body is conspicuously black and white. As Bhairav is one of Lord Shiva’s forms, serpents are an essential part of the portraits. The pieces on Kal Bhairav of Kathmandu Darbar Square and Bagh Bhairav of Kirtipur ooze power from every angle. Kal Bhairav is the Lord of time, and the Bagh Bhairav represents the ferocity of the tiger. Meanwhile, Unmatta Bhairav, also known as Digambar sacrificed the greed for life and is depicted naked. Couples who do not have children are blessed with offspring if they worship this Bhairav avatar. Then there is Batuk Bhairav, the childish god with a happy face. The blue here creates a vibrant, ritualistic visage even as it emotes calmness. “It is believed that Bhairav came in this child-like form to fool the demons to destroy them, and is represented through small hands and feet,” explains Mahato.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026012008018_e1f25fe3e0d9431df47cd8f76182649e969d511298c17c0c92179475e8008809.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2026012008018_e1f25fe3e0d9431df47cd8f76182649e969d511298c17c0c92179475e8008809" data-rendition-name="original" width="2120" height="3728" loading="lazy" alt="Bhairav art review"> </figure>  Shweta Bhairav's face is also depicted exactly the same as it is in Kathmandu Darbar Square. Its body includes the feet of Bhramayani Devi, one of the forms of Nava Durga. It is believed that this form of Bhairav is granted entry in Kathmandu only after the welcome of Bhramayani Devi.&nbsp; Shweta Bhairav was wrongly identified as the Akash Bhairav when it was chosen as the motif for Royal Nepal Airlines 60 years ago. Despite this, the carrier’s aircraft still carry the wrong Bhairav on their fuselage. Shanta Bhairav, meanwhile, entered Kathmandu Valley in the form of a human to meet his beloved, Lassi. After agreeing to take the role of the protector for children as many were lost, he was allowed to live in the Valley.&nbsp; The paintings also represent peace and tranquility: lotus flowers emerging from the heads of a male and female body, and military tanks below them. Says Mukesh Shrestha, “Each artwork is a journey from ignorance to knowledge. Whatever we think, we become. If we think of peace, we become peaceful, but if we think of destruction, we become destructive.” Bhairav Bhav By Mukesh Shrestha Gallery 108, Darbar Marg Until 31 January 11am-7pm (Mondays by appointment)

extreme-weather