<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111412114/6372210a9c7e80680e0c0298jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1125"/><figcaption>Gabions constructed by local lodge owners near Chukhung village in 2016, following an englacial flood from the Lhotse glacier in 2015. The embankment protected the village during a second flood in 2016. Photo: ALTON C BYERS</figcaption></figure>The development of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/tracing-past-glacial-floods-in-kangchenjunga/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">glacial lakes from receding glaciers</a>, contained by either terminal moraines or bedrock, is commonly linked with global warming since the end of the Little Ice Age (LIA), and are thought to be increasing in number and size.Such lakes are prone to sudden and catastrophic drainage of their water which is known as <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/danger-nepals-glacial-lakes-are-filling-up/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">glacial lake outburst floods</a> (GLOFs). Dam breakage can result from rapid lake area expansion rates, dead-ice melting in moraines, destabilising seepage processes, sudden lake water level change, and surge waves created by rockfall or ice calving.The stored lake water that is released has caused <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-terrifying-assessment-of-himalayan-melting/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">enormous death and devastation downstream</a>. However, there are a range of other cryospheric processes and hazards that are only beginning to receive attention. They, too, can result in landslides, debris flows, and/or other major glacier-related flood events.We focus on three of these lesser-known and poorly documented phenomena — englacial conduit floods, permafrost-linked rockfall, and debris flows. All three took place in the Nepal Himalaya during the past decade.Englacial Conduit Floods<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111412114/6372210e9c7e80680e0c0299jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1421" height="900"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Debris-covered glaciers with gradients steeper than 2° are prone to meltwater drainage as opposed to the pooling and development of large glacial lakes. Consequently, they often develop a network of englacial conduits, or cave-like features, within the glacier itself.The conduits may be interconnected and linked to surficial meltwater ponds characteristic of stagnating and ablating debris-covered glaciers. These conduits are usually water filled during the summer months, contained within the glacier by an ice lens or dam located below the exterior debris cover. They are water free during the winter months.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/it-is-getting-hotter-on-the-roof-of-the-world/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">It is getting hotter on the roof of the world</a>, Kunda DixitFlood triggers can include the rapid drainage of a surficial meltwater pond directly into water-filled conduits, overland floods from high precipitation events, where floodwaters enter sinkholes that connect directly to the conduits, or the sudden discharge of water from one internal conduit to another.Retaining ice lenses can then fracture from the increased hydrostatic pressure, with flood waters emerging directly out of the glacier itself.The discharged water from multiple conduit outlets can then merge to create <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/more-himalayan-tsunamis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">significant downstream flood activity</a>, with peak discharges in the range of several hundred cubic meters per second.These floods, while considerably smaller than most known and recorded GLOFs, can nevertheless result in damage downstream.Permafrost-linked, Rockfall-induced GLOFs and Debris Flows<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111412114/637221119c7e80680e0c029ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="732"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The impacts of global warming trends can be particularly conspicuous in glaciated landscapes, notably in the form of rapidly receding glaciers and the formation of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/living-below-nepals-melting-mountains/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">glacial lakes</a>.Growing evidence suggests that similar changes are also occurring at above 6,000m elevations with the thawing permafrost that can impact the mechanical strength and hydraulic permeability of high elevation rock faces.Rockfalls previously constrained by year-round frozen temperatures can set in motion a cascade of catastrophic processes below, including more rockfalls, debris flows, explosive impact with glaciers below in addition to triggering glacier-related floods downstream.On 20 April 2017, a flood on the Barun Valley in the Makalu-Barun National Park in eastern Nepal blocked the confluence of the Barun with the Arun River, resulting in a potentially dangerous 200m long lake.Our follow-up study during May-June 2017 revealed that the source of the flood was the &lt;0.1 km2 Langmale Glacial Lake. In spite of its small size, the estimated 1.3 × 106m3volume flood caused extensive downstream damage to forests, pastureland, and some infrastructure down to the flood’s attenuation point in Yangle Kharka.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/global-heating-melts-mountains/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Forests replace glaciers in the Himalaya</a>, Tufan NeupaneHowever, instead of the flood trigger being a snow or ice avalanche into the lake, the cause turned out to be a massive, high altitude breakage of solid rock from the east face of Saldim Peak (6,388 m). The debris landslide plummeted 1,200m down to the Langmale Glacier, creating a massive explosion upon impact characterised by a dust cloud and hurricane-force winds.A 1.1 million m3 debris flow of ice, debris, and sediment then cascaded directly into the Saldim Glacial Lake below, triggering a hyper-concentrated slurry outburst flood that grew progressively larger and more destructive as it continued down valley.Similar processes are thought to have triggered <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Anatom-of-a-Himalayan-tsunami,1330" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the 2012 Seti flood near Pokhara</a> that killed 70 people, and 2021 Chamoli flood in Uttarakhand that left 300 dead and destroyed several under construction hydropower projects.Swiss permafrost specialist Wilfried Haeberli, using recent examples from the Swiss Alps, Cordillera Blanca in Peru, and Mt Everest region of Nepal, believes that the probability of similar flood events will continue to increase with the continued formation of new glacial lakes below high mountains.Earthquake-induced GLOFs<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111412114/637221149c7e80680e0c029bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1340" height="1026"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Seismic activity is a <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/melting-mountains-shake,3073" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">potential trigger of GLOFs</a>. The fragile and unconsolidated nature of most terminal moraines means they can be easily damaged during earthquakes, releasing water downstream.Following the 25 April 2015 earthquake, a team of international remote sensing specialists from the University of Arizona mapped 4,312 landslides to identify potential hazards. They surveyed 491 glacier lakes for earthquake damage, finding nine landslide-impacted lakes but no visible satellite evidence of GLOFs. The lack of GLOFs was attributed to the impacted region’s extreme topography, which may have played a role in buffering the potentially destructive impact of the shock waves.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/langtang-copes-with-quake-and-covid/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">An earthquake-triggered avalanche</a> of ice and rock was dislodged from the Langmoche Glacier above Dig Tso glacial lake in 2015 in the Khumbu. The avalanche created a 4.2–8.2m seiche wave and small outburst flood within the Bhote Kosi downstream. Although the flood was largely contained within the river channel, several bridges were destroyed.Dig Tso first experienced major GLOF activity on 4 August 1985, as a result of a similar ice avalanche from the Langmoche Glacier. A resulting avalanche created a surge wave that breached the terminal moraine, unleashing an estimated 5 million m3 of water that killed five people and  caused extensive damage downstream.The 2015 repeat event is important because it demonstrates that even though a glacial lake has already experienced an outburst flood, it can still be dangerous, subject to additional flooding activity in the future, and in need of regular monitoring.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111412114/637221179c7e80680e0c029cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="1500"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Each of these phenomena need more detailed study to develop the most effective prevention, mitigation, and adaptation approaches possible. Such studies will most likely be strengthened if they include a on-site or remote sensing reconnaissance of the event as soon after its occurrence as possible, along with the participation, insights, and experience of local people.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/climate-risk-to-hydropower-investment/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Large hydropower projects are particularly vulnerable</a> to the impacts of glacier floods, as has happened  repeatedly in recent years. Such projects need to plan for such catastrophic events, which have thus far been largely ignored within the pre-construction feasibility and environmental impact study process.Transboundary research and cooperation will also be essential to minimising the impacts of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/global-heating-melts-mountains/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">future GLOFs</a>, particularly along the Nepal-China border.If scientists can share the results of their research with decision-makers, more timely mitigation programs will be possible.Alton C Byers, PhD is a Senior Research Associate and Faculty at the Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR), University of Colorado at Boulder. A scientific version of this article, recently published in Mountain Research and Development, can be downloaded for free<a href="https://bioone.org/journals/mountain-research-and-development/volume-42/issue-2/MRD-JOURNAL-D-21-00045.1/Three-Recent-and-Lesser-Known-Glacier-Related-Flood-Mechanisms-in/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-21-00045.1.full" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> here</a>. Byers is currently researching alpine ecosystems in the Kanchenjunga Conservation Area.

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Nepal’s mountains are melting

<figure><img width="1140" height="760" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111148/63721da19c7e80680e0bd4fbjpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk presents Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama with with a block of ice cut out from a glacier in Ladakh’s Khardung La pass. All photos: TENZIN CHOEJOR</figcaption></figure>In a symbolic commemoration of Earth Day on 22 April, Indian environmentalists from Ladakh brought down a block of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/on-thin-ice-in-the-khumbu/">glacial ice</a> and presented it to the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala.The ice was cut out from a glacier at 6,000m in Khardung La, and carried down in bicycles, public transport and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepals-journey-to-electric-public-transport/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">electric vehicles</a> in a journey that took four days.To prevent the ice from melting quickly, it was packed in an insulated drum lined with <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-salt-of-the-earth/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">locally produced</a> pashmina fibre, and presented to the Tibetan spiritual leader in exile in the presence of delegates to an international conference on climate change in Dharamsala.“This is more than a piece of ice , it is a message that the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/more-himalayan-tsunamis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Himalaya is facing an unprecedented emergency</a> because of climate change," said Ladkah-based activist Sonam Wangchuk, as the ice melted and dripped on a table in front of the Dalai Lama.Climate scientists at the conference said that the Himalaya and the Tibetan Plateau are melting even faster than the global average, and predicted that <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/forests-replace-glaciers-in-the-himalaya/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">most glaciers would be gone</a> by the turn of the century unless fossil fuel use is drastically cut.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/himalayans-on-the-frontlines/">Himalayans on the frontlines</a>, Ang Tshering Sherpa <figure><img width="1140" height="760" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111148/63721da49c7e80680e0bd4fcjpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>The Dalai Lama interacts with participants of the climate action conference at his residence in Dharmashala.</figcaption></figure>“Water is going to be very precious commodity because of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/danger-nepals-glacial-lakes-are-filling-up/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">climate change</a> , and as we know water is needed by every living being,” the Dalai Lama said. “And the Tibetan plateau is the source of water for many rivers downstream.”“I am 87 years old, and this piece of melting ice reminds us that time is running out,” he added.The Himalaya is known as the ‘Third Pole’ because it is the largest repository of fresh water stored as ice outside of the polar regions. The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/global-heating-melts-mountains/">mountains are warming up</a> to 0.7 Celsius faster than the global average, and if current trends continue, two-thirds of its permanent ice cover will have melted, reducing the flow of rivers that start here. Sonam Wangchuk is the developer of the ‘ice stupa’ in Ladakh where he has found a way to freeze water and release its melt in the dry season for irrigation.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/living-below-nepals-melting-mountains/">Living below Nepal’s melting mountains</a>, Alton C Byers“What we do in Ladakh is not going to make a big difference to the planet, but it can serve as an example for others,” says the engineer, educationist and climate activist. “People in Ladakh are <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/human-face-of-a-himalayan-climate-crisis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">suffering from a problem they did not create</a>.”Wangchuk said the glacier from which his ice block was taken has receded 300m up the mountain in the past 20 years.“We used to drive across the Khardung La pass in a bridge when it was all ice, now there is an asphalt road,” he said.He has set up the ‘Live Simply’ initiative to spread the word about consuming less, and switching to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/nepal-can-lead-in-zero-carbon/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">renewable energy</a>. He says: “The world has to learn to live simply so that we in the mountains can simply live.” <img width="500" height="667" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111148/63721da79c7e80680e0bd4fdjpeg.jpg" alt="">Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/climate-for-change/the-great-himalayan-thaw/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The great Himalayan thaw</a>, Ajaya Dixit

Dalai Lama gets block of glacial ice

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109111140/636b84239c7e80680e06777ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1037"/><figcaption>A view of the project from across the Langtang Valley showing the receding Langtang Lirung Glacier, and the location of the intake, penstock and powerhouse. There is a drop of 300m, and the turbines generate 100kW of electricity. Photos: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption></figure>From the edge of the terminal moraine of the Langtang Lirung Glacier, there is a 360 degree view of icy peaks, and below is the monastery town of Kyanjin blanketed in overnight snow.Towering above is Langtang Lirung with snow being blown off its 7,227m summit, with the jagged peaks of Kimshun standing like bodyguards with Tserko Ri, Yala Peak and Gang Chhenpo. And to the south is the rampart of the Naya Kanga ridge.“When I was a boy we brought the yaks up here to graze, and they could cross the ice from one side of the glacier to the other,” says Gyalbu Tamang. “This lake was formed only in the last 20 years.”<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109111140/636b84269c7e80680e06777bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1125"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>As climate change thaws the mountains, right across the eastern Himalaya in Nepal, Bhutan and southern Tibet, hundreds of new lakes have formed at the snouts of glaciers. Some have found outlets and emptied themselves, while others, like this one, swelled up dangerously.In the past 40 years, there have been 26 <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/langtang-copes-with-quake-and-covid/">glacial lake outburst floods on Nepal’s rivers</a>, and with newer and bigger lakes forming, they pose a serious risk to new roads, settlements and hydropower plants downstream.However, glacial lakes do not just need to be a threat, as has been shown by a unique project on the Langtang Lirung Glacier. This glacial lake at 4,100m is being drained to lower its level, and the water is used to generate electricity.The Langtang Microhydro Electricity Project was built three years after the 2015 earthquake-avalanche that devastated the valley, with help from the Hong Kong-based Kadoorie Charitable Foundation. The $534,000 scheme has a weir and spillway at the moraine, and the water is taken through a fibre glass-insulated penstock pipe to a powerhouse that generates 100kW of electricity, providing 24 hours of electricity to 120 households and tourist lodges in Kyanjin and Langtang.The project is a first-of-its-kind in Nepal to power a village, and holds promise for other remote Himalayan valleys where the risk posed by expanding glacial lakes can be mitigated, while at the same time providing electricity to tourism-dependent families.“It can be a plus-plus, you need to simply drive a glacial lake to turn a turbine while simultaneously lowering the water level and reducing the pressure on the moraine dam,” says energy economist and former Water Resource Minister <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/finding-the-nexus-between-water-food-and-energy/">Dipak Gyawali.</a>The only downside would be that most glacial lakes are at very high elevations where there are few settlements, and also the greater cost of transporting equipment by helicopter. But if the risk-reduction from glacial lake outburst floods is factored in, these multi-purpose projects would be cost-effective.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109111140/636b842a9c7e80680e06777cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1125" height="1500"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109111140/636b842d9c7e80680e06777djpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1250" height="938"><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109111140/636b84309c7e80680e06777ejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1125"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>There are other dangerous glacial lakes in Nepal like <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/from-nepali-press/Diverting-danger,3172">Imja</a> in the Everest region and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/human-face-of-a-himalayan-climate-crisis/">Tso Rolpa</a> in Rolwaling Valley, where the water level has been lowered at enormous cost, but the schemes have not added the hydropower component. Tso Rolpa had a small power unit to supply electricity to the project, but it is not in use. Imja was financed by the UNDP with funding from the Global Environment Facility, while Tso Rolpa was funded by the Dutch government.Glacial lakes have been used to generate power in the Peruvian Andes, and in the Swiss Alps existing reservoirs filled with glacial melt have been generating 4% more electricity because of accelerated melting. The Swiss are even <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/17/climate/switzerland-glaciers-climate-change.html">mapping future hydropower plants</a> on glaciers for a time when all the ice will be gone. In <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate2185.pdf?origin=ppub">Bhutan, a pilot scheme</a> on a glacial lake at 4,200m is trying to lower the water level using siphons, and plans to also see if it is feasible to generate electricity.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109111140/636b84349c7e80680e06777fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1250" height="689"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Experts say that with a little more investment, the moraine dams on glacial lakes can be strengthened for a fraction of a cost of building a new artificial dam for electricity generation. For this, the Langtang Microhydro Project presents a working model for other glacial lakes in Nepal where there are plans to lower the water level."In previous decades it used to be expensive to build power plants on glacial lakes because they were so remote, but now that roads have reached many valleys, they are more feasible," says glaciologist Pradeep Mool.Gyalbu Tamang lost his parents and many relatives in the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/langtang-copes-with-quake-and-covid/">catastrophic earthquake-avalanche in 2015</a> that killed as many as 300 people in Langtang. But for him and other trekking lodge owners who used to depend on solar panels, the 24-hour electricity has transformed the quality of life.He says: “We can charge our phones, use appliances, the children can read at night, it is like living in a city.”Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/danger-nepals-glacial-lakes-are-filling-up/">DANGER: Nepal’s glacial lakes are filling up</a>, Nepali Times

Kunda Dixit

Nepal’s first hydropower from a glacial lake

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109111140/636b83d99c7e80680e06775ejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1843" height="1000"/><figcaption>A frozen Imja Lake looking east from the outlet. Photo: SHARAD JOSHI</figcaption></figure>It is now looking doubtful if countries around the world can cut their greenhouse gas emissions as agreed in Paris six years ago, so that global temperature rise will be limited to 1.5 Celsius by 2050. The earth is going to heat up by more than that.Even if it is 1.5 Celsius, the average temperature in the Himalaya will go up by 1.8 degrees because of a phenomenon called ‘altitude effect’. The best-case scenario is that one-third of all remaining Himalayan glaciers will have melted during this century. However, if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise at the present rate, two-thirds of Himalayan ice will be gone by 2100.All this will have a catastrophic effect on water supply for 1 billion people downstream on rivers that originate in the Himalaya, as well as throw off kilter weather systems.  It will also increase the danger of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepals-glacial-lakes-in-danger-of-bursting/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">glacial lake outburst floods</a> (GLOF) within Nepal.Till the 1960s, the Imja Glacier near Mt Everest had only a few melt-pools. Since then, the ice has been replaced by a lake nearly 2km long, 600m wide and up to 150m deep. The ice is receding 70m a year.As glacial lakes expand, there is a danger of them bursting due to water pressure, or because of earthquakes and avalanches falling into them. As the average temperature in the mountains rises by 0.056 Celsius every year, the threat of glacial lake outbursts will only grow.On top of the perennial risk of earthquakes, new hydropower stations, highways along rivers, bridges and towns will also have to take into account the threat of GLOFs. The flash flood near <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/non-climate-cause-of-nanda-devi-flood/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nanda Devi in India’s Uttarakhand state</a> in March washed away two hydroelectric plants that were under construction.There is a warning there for Nepal, which is building cascade projects on the two Bhote Kosi rivers that flow down from China, Tama Kosi, Marsyangdi, and the Arun. In the Gandaki Basin is the particularly dangerous Thulagi glacial lake below Himalchuli, which would directly threaten three major hydroelectric projects along the Marsyangdi River. Scientists monitoring Thulagi have found the glacier has receded by 2km since 1984, the ice replaced by a lake.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/tracing-past-glacial-floods-in-kangchenjunga/">Tracing past glacial floods in Kanchanjunga</a>, Alton C Byers<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109111140/636b83dc9c7e80680e06775fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1080"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>“If Thulagi were to burst, the flood would go down 100km downstream on the Marsyangdi and Narayani, taking out hydroelectric projects, highways and towns along the way,” says Pradeep Mool, a glacial scientist formerly with ICIMOD.A survey last year showed that GLOF risk is highest in eastern Nepal. There are 42 dangerous lakes on the Kosi basin alone, like Imja, Tso Rolpa, Lower Barun and Hongu. The bursting of any one of these would send a wall of water and debris downstream to the Kosi.There is also the danger of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/more-himalayan-tsunamis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">transboundary GLOFs</a>. In the past, even the bursting of relatively small glacial lakes in Tibet have caused major damage in Nepal. The earliest recorded one was in 1934, when a flash flood from a glacial lake burst in Tibet caused destruction along the Bhote Kosi.In 1981, another glacial lake burst in China caused a flood on the same river in Nepal, damaging the Sun Kosi power plant and washing out a 25km section of the Arniko Highway, cutting Nepal’s only road to China for three years.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109111140/636b83e09c7e80680e067760jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="1506"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Of the 47 very dangerous lakes that threaten Nepal’s valleys, 25 originate in glaciers in Tibet. Since 1977, there have been at least 20 GLOFs of which 14 were caused by glacial lakes in Nepal bursting, and the rest were in China.To understand what a GLOF looks like, we have the<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Anatom-of-a-Himalayan-tsunami,1330" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Seti flood of 2012</a> which killed nearly 70 people north of Pokhara. Although not caused by a glacial lake burst, it demonstrated the destructive power of such a flood.Although Nepalis may not be responsible for global heating, it does not mean we can sit back and do nothing. While scientists try to figure out exactly how fast the glaciers are melting, Nepal’s policy-makers need to start planning to be prepared for floods that are bound to be unleashed.The danger of GLOFs are compounded by Nepal also being on a seismically active zone. Many of these fragile Himalayan glacial lakes could burst simultaneously during a large earthquake.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109111140/636b83e39c7e80680e067761jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1369" height="630">This calls for hazard mapping, early warning systems through SMS or radio, as well as mitigation efforts like those carried out to <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/from-nepali-press/Diverting-danger,3172" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reduce water levels on Imja</a> and Tso Rolpa. The microhydro scheme on the Langtang Lirung Glacier that reduces the water level on a recently-formed glacial lake, and also generates electricity could be a model for other remote valleys in Nepal.Because glacial lakes are located at such high altitudes in remote roadless areas, lowering their water level can be expensive. Most of the equipment has to be flown in by helicopter, and work is often hampered by altitude and weather. The question is: who should pay for these risk-reduction measures?“Even if the water level is reduced they can burst and come down like tsunamis, we have to keep monitoring the lakes, and install effective early warning systems in Tso Rolpa and Imja to at least save lives if we cannot save the infrastructure,” says Sarju Baidya of the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology.There are no feasible methods to prevent a glacial lake from bursting, and it is not in our power to stop the lakes expanding. So the only thing Nepal can do is to reduce the level of the most dangerous lakes, design downstream infrastructure taking the dangers into account, and to have an early warning system.Says Pradeep Mool: “What we can do immediately is to install measurement stations and monitor them by satellite, prioritise the high-risk lakes for site inspections to gauge the strength of the moraines, and make a short list of the most dangerous ones for early warning, and mitigation measures.”Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/human-face-of-a-himalayan-climate-crisis/">Human face of a Himalayan climate crisis</a>, Rastraraj Bhandari

DANGER: Nepal’s glacial lakes are filling up

<figure><img width="980" height="922" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191112/636bedd84b0ad905ca02ef09jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Dawa Steven Sherpa Photo: MARCO FERRARI</figcaption></figure>There is an ancestral attachment to the mountains for Dawa Steven Sherpa. His grandfather regularly crossed Nangpa La to trade with Tibet, his father is an eco-tourism entrepreneur, and he is an environmental activist helping his people deal with the dual impacts of climate change and Covid-19.At 36, Dawa has led dozens of expeditions to Mt Everest and summited three times, and four other eight-thousanders. He trekked the entire 1,555km <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-climate-smart-great-himalayan-trek/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-climate-smart-great-himalayan-trek/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607395371411000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFF-HO7MKB74a7DjBpz8oGRGmgPYQ">Great Himalayan Trail</a> across Nepal in 99 days.During the pandemic in September when the mountains were closed for climbing, he led a 45-day expedition supported by the Swiss fashion brand <a href="https://www.cntraveller.com/gallery/swiss-fashion-brand-saving-mountains?fbclid=IwAR1sVrb4ih851TaU9o2EDVmo1Dv2TQa8P0YO0C0f_0iZWi_pVKQiO-0cAVY" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cntraveller.com/gallery/swiss-fashion-brand-saving-mountains?fbclid%3DIwAR1sVrb4ih851TaU9o2EDVmo1Dv2TQa8P0YO0C0f_0iZWi_pVKQiO-0cAVY&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607395371411000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHhqpdwYEEO7G3vlxcds7yCkv2zXg">Bally</a> to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepali-expedition-to-climb-baruntse/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepali-expedition-to-climb-baruntse/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607395371411000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFOWOVCJ8S2F7BnbKIo6AayDD4Vaw">clean up base camps of Cho You, Everest, Lhotse and Makalu and climbed Baruntse</a>, bringing down more than 2 tons of trash. En route, he had to cross previously snowbound high passes that now entail technical rock-climbing. Glaciers that could be easily traversed <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/human-face-of-a-himalayan-climate-crisis/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/human-face-of-a-himalayan-climate-crisis/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607395371411000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH4XAfCnu2kx5DC2bGO8swGAyIbUg" style="font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;">are now lakes</a>.  This week, just after <a style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/dawasteven" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.facebook.com/dawasteven&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607395371411000&amp;usg=AFQjCNExMyBsLcOnTRVNE3xdcQ-tNf7_vA">mountain biking from Kala Pattar</a> below Mt Everest to Namche Bazar, he sat down for a zoom talk with Himalayan anthropologist <a style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.himalayanwaterproject.org/conference" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.himalayanwaterproject.org/conference&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607395371411000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHeJRy7A4oYYW7mrery3216MLTN-w">Ruth Gamble of La Trobe University</a> in Melbourne. Gamble began by asking him which was a bigger threat for the Sherpa people: climate or covid? “Covid, of course, is an immediate threat to the health and has devastated the tourism-based economy of the region, but in the longer term it is the climate crisis. We see the mountains melting in front of our eyes, and the process is accelerating,” Dawa said in the talk organised by the <a href="https://www.himalayanwaterproject.org/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.himalayanwaterproject.org/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607395371411000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE_76egqJf5223tPHaiqTSMxcB2TQ">Geopolitics and Ecology of Himalayan Water</a> initiative on 6 December.  <figure><img width="1566" height="1036" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191112/636bedda4b0ad905ca02ef0ajpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>The receding North Ama Dablam Glacier and new bedrock lakes created by the melting ice. Photo: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption></figure>Climbing routes on Nepal’s mountains have become more dangerous, high passes are rock bound and trekking groups now even need rubber dinghies to cross expanding glacial lakes. The climate crisis may be a slow-moving disaster, but it can unleash sudden catastrophes if these lakes burst, unleashing flash floods downstream.The Himalaya is warming up to 0.7oC faster than the global average, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-third-pole-is-warming-faster-than-expected/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-third-pole-is-warming-faster-than-expected/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607395371411000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGtuJsyaE2wg0vwgfWu5_9GnOLscg">this process is accelerating</a>, and scientists predict that the mountains will <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/global-heating-melts-mountains/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/global-heating-melts-mountains/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607395371411000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE5rB-uaCdjqDtawHntv-eKUsqpkw">lose at least one-third of their ice</a> during this century. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-terrifying-assessment-of-himalayan-melting/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-terrifying-assessment-of-himalayan-melting/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607395371411000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHZKdEyhPA8wdI5HM3RDjryB8Pudw">Other impacts</a> include abnormal monsoon rains and winter droughts, forest fires, more frequent landslides, springs drying up, and the impact on farming.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVdZG8lT5oI&amp;feature=emb_logo“The whole of 2020, there has been no income in the Khumbu because there have been no tourists,” said Dawa, “agriculture was the only other source of income, but the potato crop was destroyed by an unusually wet monsoon. There is nothing to fall back on.” The Khumbu region was opened to trekking in October, and was immediately closed off again after a Covid-19 outbreak. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/everest-trek-closed-open-closed-open-again/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/everest-trek-closed-open-closed-open-again/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607395371411000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFLZVam03OjMVokBoTwTppeghlkog">Trekkers are now allowed</a>, but need mandatory PCR negative test results to fly to Lukla. The Everest region used to get about 60,000 hikers and climbers a year, and this year the trails and mountains have had a respite. Local communities have used the time to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/everest-trail-repaired-during-pandemic/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/everest-trail-repaired-during-pandemic/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607395371411000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE-uZ-hCLQHLp50rYf9YeGoe6NDFA">repair hiking routes, clean up trash on the trails</a>, and upgrade lodges for a tourism revival next year.  Dawa Steven Sherpa has also been involved in bringing down <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/everest-garbage-caravan/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/everest-garbage-caravan/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607395371411000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG1Z2Vd0HmsnApnlBvIOe4CgpkgiA">23 tons of garbage from Mt Everest</a> in the past 13 years, and says that whole region can now return to a “better normal”.  “The media like to call Mt Everest the highest garbage dump in the world, but it is now actually the cleanest mountain in Nepal. ‘Everest cleaned up’ is not an attractive news headline,” Dawa said. “I was at Everest Base Camp this month and there is absolutely no garbage left to pick.” <figure><img width="839" height="471" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191112/636beddd4b0ad905ca02ef0bjpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>Dawa sees tourism as a “force for good”, and that responsible tourism can be a catalyst for change. Only by making Nepalis financially more stable can they fend for themselves to respond to crises like climate and Covid-19.“While the world debates about reducing carbon emissions and the Paris agreement, for us the most urgent action is to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/living-below-nepals-melting-mountains/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/living-below-nepals-melting-mountains/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607395371411000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHeQq5RCa8OeC1IgcgA5SuDIFzfHw">adapt to the impact on the ground</a>,” Dawa said. “But the Arctic and the Antarctic get all the attention, and the Himalaya is just a footnote even though its ice towers are the source of water for billions of people living downstream in Asia.”Dawa says his father, Ang Tsering Sherpa of Asian Trekking, taught him that good businessmen protect their assets, and Nepal needed to protect its wilderness and keep the mountains pristine. And he remembers his grandfather saying: “The mountains have always protected the Sherpa people, now it is our turn to protect the mountains.”

Covid-climate crises hit Everest region

<figure><img width="980" height="922" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181140/636be6cb9c7e80680e0877c0jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Dawa Steven Sherpa Photo: MARCO FERRARI</figcaption></figure>There is an ancestral attachment to the mountains for Dawa Steven Sherpa. His grandfather regularly crossed Nangpa La to trade with Tibet, his father is an eco-tourism entrepreneur, and he is an environmental activist helping his people deal with the dual impacts of climate change and Covid-19.At 36, Dawa has led dozens of expeditions to Mt Everest and summited three times, and four other eight-thousanders. He trekked the entire 1,555km <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-climate-smart-great-himalayan-trek/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-climate-smart-great-himalayan-trek/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607395371411000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFF-HO7MKB74a7DjBpz8oGRGmgPYQ">Great Himalayan Trail</a> across Nepal in 99 days.During the pandemic in September when the mountains were closed for climbing, he led a 45-day expedition supported by the Swiss fashion brand <a href="https://www.cntraveller.com/gallery/swiss-fashion-brand-saving-mountains?fbclid=IwAR1sVrb4ih851TaU9o2EDVmo1Dv2TQa8P0YO0C0f_0iZWi_pVKQiO-0cAVY" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cntraveller.com/gallery/swiss-fashion-brand-saving-mountains?fbclid%3DIwAR1sVrb4ih851TaU9o2EDVmo1Dv2TQa8P0YO0C0f_0iZWi_pVKQiO-0cAVY&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607395371411000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHhqpdwYEEO7G3vlxcds7yCkv2zXg">Bally</a> to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepali-expedition-to-climb-baruntse/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepali-expedition-to-climb-baruntse/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607395371411000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFOWOVCJ8S2F7BnbKIo6AayDD4Vaw">clean up base camps of Cho You, Everest, Lhotse and Makalu and climbed Baruntse</a>, bringing down more than 2 tons of trash. En route, he had to cross previously snowbound high passes that now entail technical rock-climbing. Glaciers that could be easily traversed <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/human-face-of-a-himalayan-climate-crisis/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/human-face-of-a-himalayan-climate-crisis/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607395371411000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH4XAfCnu2kx5DC2bGO8swGAyIbUg" style="font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;">are now lakes</a>.  This week, just after <a style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/dawasteven" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.facebook.com/dawasteven&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607395371411000&amp;usg=AFQjCNExMyBsLcOnTRVNE3xdcQ-tNf7_vA">mountain biking from Kala Pattar</a> below Mt Everest to Namche Bazar, he sat down for a zoom talk with Himalayan anthropologist <a style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.himalayanwaterproject.org/conference" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.himalayanwaterproject.org/conference&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607395371411000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHeJRy7A4oYYW7mrery3216MLTN-w">Ruth Gamble of La Trobe University</a> in Melbourne. Gamble began by asking him which was a bigger threat for the Sherpa people: climate or covid? “Covid, of course, is an immediate threat to the health and has devastated the tourism-based economy of the region, but in the longer term it is the climate crisis. We see the mountains melting in front of our eyes, and the process is accelerating,” Dawa said in the talk organised by the <a href="https://www.himalayanwaterproject.org/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.himalayanwaterproject.org/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607395371411000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE_76egqJf5223tPHaiqTSMxcB2TQ">Geopolitics and Ecology of Himalayan Water</a> initiative on 6 December.  <figure><img width="1566" height="1036" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181140/636be6ce9c7e80680e0877c1jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>The receding North Ama Dablam Glacier and new bedrock lakes created by the melting ice. Photo: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption></figure>Climbing routes on Nepal’s mountains have become more dangerous, high passes are rock bound and trekking groups now even need rubber dinghies to cross expanding glacial lakes. The climate crisis may be a slow-moving disaster, but it can unleash sudden catastrophes if these lakes burst, unleashing flash floods downstream.The Himalaya is warming up to 0.7oC faster than the global average, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-third-pole-is-warming-faster-than-expected/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-third-pole-is-warming-faster-than-expected/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607395371411000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGtuJsyaE2wg0vwgfWu5_9GnOLscg">this process is accelerating</a>, and scientists predict that the mountains will <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/global-heating-melts-mountains/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/global-heating-melts-mountains/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607395371411000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE5rB-uaCdjqDtawHntv-eKUsqpkw">lose at least one-third of their ice</a> during this century. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-terrifying-assessment-of-himalayan-melting/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-terrifying-assessment-of-himalayan-melting/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607395371411000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHZKdEyhPA8wdI5HM3RDjryB8Pudw">Other impacts</a> include abnormal monsoon rains and winter droughts, forest fires, more frequent landslides, springs drying up, and the impact on farming.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVdZG8lT5oI&amp;feature=emb_logo“The whole of 2020, there has been no income in the Khumbu because there have been no tourists,” said Dawa, “agriculture was the only other source of income, but the potato crop was destroyed by an unusually wet monsoon. There is nothing to fall back on.” The Khumbu region was opened to trekking in October, and was immediately closed off again after a Covid-19 outbreak. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/everest-trek-closed-open-closed-open-again/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/everest-trek-closed-open-closed-open-again/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607395371411000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFLZVam03OjMVokBoTwTppeghlkog">Trekkers are now allowed</a>, but need mandatory PCR negative test results to fly to Lukla. The Everest region used to get about 60,000 hikers and climbers a year, and this year the trails and mountains have had a respite. Local communities have used the time to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/everest-trail-repaired-during-pandemic/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/everest-trail-repaired-during-pandemic/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607395371411000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE-uZ-hCLQHLp50rYf9YeGoe6NDFA">repair hiking routes, clean up trash on the trails</a>, and upgrade lodges for a tourism revival next year.  Dawa Steven Sherpa has also been involved in bringing down <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/everest-garbage-caravan/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/everest-garbage-caravan/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607395371411000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG1Z2Vd0HmsnApnlBvIOe4CgpkgiA">23 tons of garbage from Mt Everest</a> in the past 13 years, and says that whole region can now return to a “better normal”.  “The media like to call Mt Everest the highest garbage dump in the world, but it is now actually the cleanest mountain in Nepal. ‘Everest cleaned up’ is not an attractive news headline,” Dawa said. “I was at Everest Base Camp this month and there is absolutely no garbage left to pick.” <figure><img width="839" height="471" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181140/636be6d19c7e80680e0877c2jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>Dawa sees tourism as a “force for good”, and that responsible tourism can be a catalyst for change. Only by making Nepalis financially more stable can they fend for themselves to respond to crises like climate and Covid-19.“While the world debates about reducing carbon emissions and the Paris agreement, for us the most urgent action is to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/living-below-nepals-melting-mountains/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/living-below-nepals-melting-mountains/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1607395371411000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHeQq5RCa8OeC1IgcgA5SuDIFzfHw">adapt to the impact on the ground</a>,” Dawa said. “But the Arctic and the Antarctic get all the attention, and the Himalaya is just a footnote even though its ice towers are the source of water for billions of people living downstream in Asia.”Dawa says his father, Ang Tsering Sherpa of Asian Trekking, taught him that good businessmen protect their assets, and Nepal needed to protect its wilderness and keep the mountains pristine. And he remembers his grandfather saying: “The mountains have always protected the Sherpa people, now it is our turn to protect the mountains.”

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181116/636be0df9c7e80680e083e18jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="750" height="1083"/><figcaption>The south face of Mt Gauri Shankar (7,134m) on the border between Nepal and China is bare rock, and shows how dramatically the snowline has receded, and the glaciers have shrunk. Photo: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption></figure>With just 4% of the world’s population, the United States is responsible for over 15% of annual global carbon emissions. What America does or does not do will affect how fast the Himalayan ice cap will melt during this century.Which is why Joe Biden’s win in the US election is <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/ununited-states-of-america/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">such a big deal for the global environment</a>, including the Himalaya. Biden has announced he will reverse Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, which ironically came into effect on 4 November, the day after the US vote.The Himalayan arc from Burma to Afghanistan is the bigg<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-third-pole-is-warming-faster-than-expected/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">est storehouse of fresh water</a> after the two polar regions, and it is warming between 0.3-0.7°C faster than the global average. The loss of Himalayan ice would have <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-terrifying-assessment-of-himalayan-melting/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">devastating consequences for 1.6 billion people</a> living in the mountains, and in downstream countries.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/in-just-2-years-a-nepal-peak-becomes-snowless/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">In just 2 years, a Nepal peak becomes snowless</a>, Basanta Pratap Singh“Reversing these warming trends will begin with Biden’s commitment to re-joining the Paris agreement, as the US is not only one of the world’s greatest climate offenders but also one of its best potential leaders and sources of needed funding,” said Alton C Byers of the University of Colorado, who has <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/tracing-past-glacial-floods-in-kangchenjunga/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">studied Himalayan glaciers</a> for the past 30 years.The Paris Agreement aims to cap the global temperature rise in this century ‘well below’ 2°C by reducing carbon emissions through renewable energy technologies, and protecting forests and biodiversity.But rejoining the Paris accord will be the easy part. Much harder for the Biden presidency will be overcoming domestic opposition to cutting emissions at home, push rapid transition to clean energy, and funding global carbon reduction initiatives.The Biden administration may be more supportive of projects like USAID efforts in the past that have helped Nepal become a global leader in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepals-glacial-lakes-in-danger-of-bursting/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">glacial lake risk reduction</a>, adaptation, and climate mitigation measures.“These projects are in need of resurrection, along with the development of renewable energy technologies, sustainable tourism, and other opportunities as part of Nepal’s post-coronavirus recovery plans,” Byers added in an email interview with Nepali Times.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181116/636be0e19c7e80680e083e19jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1503" height="1000"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Joe Biden ran on a bold climate action platform, unveiling a $2 trillion investment plan with a promise to clean up the energy sector by 2035, boost renewables and create high paying green jobs.The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/a-good-man-won/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Biden-Harris win</a> has raised hopes among environmentalists around the world, but the world has a lot of catching up to do to reverse Trump’s systematic effort over the past four years to undermine <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-climate-threat-multiplier/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">climate mitigation measures</a>. The new administration in January will also likely face a serious opposition from a possible Republican-led Senate as it seeks to transition America off fossil fuels."To regain credibility on climate, the US now has to show the world that it is on a path to net zero emissions by 2050, only then can America press other high-emitting countries to act with the urgency required by the climate crisis," added <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/more-trekkers-more-trees/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/more-trekkers-more-trees/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1605077751622000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE5ey5t5tQc3eeXYvXO5z5rMSahSQ">Adam Stern</a>, a California-based climate leader, formerly with the Environmental Defense Fund."If Biden can restore the role of science in determining US climate policy, he may also be able to focus world attention on regions like the Himalaya that are already experiencing extreme climate changes,” said Stern, who has written about energy use in Nepal’s Khumbu region.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181116/636be0e59c7e80680e083e1ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="568"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>International climate policies will have a lasting impact on the Himalaya where measurements of ice mass, temperature rise, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/forests-replace-glaciers-in-the-himalaya/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">glacial shrinking</a> and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/climate-for-change/the-great-himalayan-thaw/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">receding snowlines</a> have been more serious than previous estimates.However, experts say that Nepal also has to do its bit to accelerate its <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/an-energy-windfall-for-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">shift to solar</a> and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/decentralising-hydropower/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hydropower in generating electricity</a> for transport and household use. And since nearly a quarter of melting of Himalayan glaciers is attributed to the <a style="font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/black-carbon-easier-to-control-than-carbon-dioxide-to-reduce-global-warming%20,2079" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">deposition of soot and dust on the snow</a>, transboundary collaboration in pollution control is a must.Since October, for example, northern India has been blanketed by thick smoke from crop residue burning, and this black carbon is being blown up to the snows by prevailing westerlies. And as winter sets in, industrial and vehicular pollution will be trapped by inversion across the Indo-Ganetic plains and ultimately reduce the reflectivity of Himalayan ice cover.Air pollution was already decreasing the average lifespan of tens of millions of people in north India by 3.7 years. It killed <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/double-whammy-air-pollution-and-covid-19/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">42,100 people in Nepal last year</a> alone, studies show, and this winter that risk for patients with respiratory issues is combined with Covid-19 complications.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181116/636be0e79c7e80680e083e1bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="675"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The causes and solutions of air pollution and climate change <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/one-atmosphere/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">are intricately interconnected</a>, both largely affected by human activities over time and space. In fact, short-lived pollutants like black carbon, ozone and other gases exacerbate global warming.“Dark coloured pollutants such as soot particles from diesel and forest fires absorb sunlight and warm up the air at the altitude at which they are located,” explained atmospheric scientist Arnico Panday. “If they warm the air near snow or ice surfaces they can contribute to melting. And when dark particles, including windblown desert dust, settle on snowfields or glaciers they can darken the surfaces and melt the snow and ice. <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/reducing-black-carbon-in-the-himalayas,2031" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Certain air pollutants</a> therefore accelerate glacier melt in the Himalaya.”Even though a Biden presidency has given some hope for climate activists in the Himalaya, they point out that China has overtaken the United States, responsible for 28% of total carbon emissions in 2018. Carbon emissions in China and India are growing at a faster rate than in North America, and the two countries already contribute 37% of global greenhouse gases annually.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181116/636be0ea9c7e80680e083e1cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1884" height="1250"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>So, while a greener America will help, the real action to slow Himalayan melting <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=19368" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">will have to come from the immediate region</a>. The good news is there are already proven <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/brick-factories-still-using-old-polluting-technology,2078" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">clean technologies for brick kilns</a>, cement industries, solar and hydro here in Nepal and in South Asia. Governments need to incentivise these, provide subsidies, and investors need to back them up.“Air pollution has never made it to the priority of our politicians, their mentality of focusing on short-terms gains like tax revenue over long-term gains can’t be changed,” says <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/ipcc-report-and-nepals-food-security/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/ipcc-report-and-nepals-food-security/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1605077751622000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGQzD9EPDBRXFun8S0H0x_qaZ-bbg">Manjeet Dhakal</a>, adviser to the Least Developed Countries support group at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).He adds: “We must deploy our own young population to lobby and take part in climate action. What happens in the United States, whether international funds will be available will only help temporarily. We must cut emissions at source, educate our own people about the cost of the climate crisis, and provide alternatives.”

Sonia Awale

A Biden presidency, climate and the Himalaya

<figure><img width="2542" height="1176" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181112/636bdfba9c7e80680e083db6jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Glacial lake in the Kangchenjunga region in eastern Nepal near the border with China and India. The Himalaya face the twin threats of climate change and geopolitical rivalry. Photo: Alton Byers </figcaption></figure>For centuries, the Himalaya served as any icy frontier between empires, but even though because of connectivity it is no longer a barrier, the world’s highest mountain range has become a climate and geopolitical hotspot.  Recent violent clashes between <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/view-of-galwan-from-bhutan/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/view-of-galwan-from-bhutan/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604448211075000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG8qOkbL2dIG8GwiLLNh-Rt1h9TZg">India and China in Ladakh</a> and a border dispute between <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-india-nepal-china-geopolitical-tri-junction/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-india-nepal-china-geopolitical-tri-junction/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604448211075000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFOURe45bg-1w-KkKyE_j6zluaz3A">India and Nepal</a> over a Himalayan valley have added to existing hostility between India and Pakistan as well as friction between <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/Connecting-dots/Middle-ground-in-Doklam-the-Himalayan-war,1004" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/Connecting-dots/Middle-ground-in-Doklam-the-Himalayan-war,1004&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604448211075000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHyCCggHqvDEwKjgw3KPYIGEE7Qaw">China and Bhutan over Doklam</a>. This comes on top of a climate emergency that is melting Asia’s water tower, the source of most the region’s big rivers on which 2 billion people downstream depend. Last week’s <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/covid-19-and-the-new-great-game/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/covid-19-and-the-new-great-game/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604448211075000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG4zo-RxjyjXuRcmBMVX-_cr1ePRA">BECA pact between India and the United States</a> is seen by many as a military alliance aimed at containing China, which makes their already ecologically fragile Himalayan border a strategic frontline in a new Cold War.“The geopolitical strain across the Himalaya is taking attention away from climate change that will cause a future water crisis across South and Southeast Asia and China, which in turn will increase interstate tension even more,” predicted <a href="https://nyuad.nyu.edu/en/academics/divisions/arts-and-humanities/faculty/sophia-kalantzakos.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://nyuad.nyu.edu/en/academics/divisions/arts-and-humanities/faculty/sophia-kalantzakos.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604448211075000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGm5jiqJYYNV9gmd6q7CyG_EyXgLQ">Sophia Kalantzakos</a>, a professor at New York University Abu Dhabi at last week’s virtual conference, ‘<a href="https://www.himalayanwaterproject.org/conference" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.himalayanwaterproject.org/conference&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604448211075000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGp0Mz0OiqzLy2o7k2iVU0Qz0vqIw">The Himalayas: Geopolitics and Ecology of Melting Mountains</a>’, that brought together academics and researchers from around the world.Himalayan rivers and weather patterns do not respect borders, but experts said, governments make plans only up to the point where the rivers reach their national boundary and no further.  “Recent tensions between India and China, India and Pakistan, and even India and Nepal mean that there is <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/himalayan-rivalry-impacts-climate-science/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/himalayan-rivalry-impacts-climate-science/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604448211075000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFEhMy4Y7P1TVm486W54I6sZ2Pt6Q">even less chance of cooperation</a> between countries in the Himalaya,” said <a href="https://www.orfonline.org/people-expert/jayanta-bandyopadhyay/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.orfonline.org/people-expert/jayanta-bandyopadhyay/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604448211075000&amp;usg=AFQjCNED77Wit_tjOD-JCdXOVFne5n1Eyw">Jayanta Bandyopadhyay</a>, who has worked on eco-system based governance of rivers in India for 35 years.Other speakers in the virtual panels warned that while modern connectivity had made the Himalaya less of a physical barrier, that had also given the mountainous border between states a new strategic importance. Development of infrastructure had therefore become a matter of national security with competing schemes like <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/chinas-bri-will-ride-out-the-pandemic/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/chinas-bri-will-ride-out-the-pandemic/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604448211075000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFaJX019rST0sIe5vdGWekV-9laSQ">China’s BRI</a> and the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/knowing-whats-good-for-nepal/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/knowing-whats-good-for-nepal/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604448211075000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF7VHlAnlbhnwPeA0UWW-ySMWOTGA">American MCC.</a>“The Himalaya is no longer the natural barrier it once was, it is a now a contested border. But for us the mountains are home, they are not a boundary,” said <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/finding-the-nexus-between-water-food-and-energy/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/finding-the-nexus-between-water-food-and-energy/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604448211076000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFOzGgg0c6BtU96tmwmlJWWFPeNBQ">Dipak Gyawali</a>, a researchers who was once Nepal’s Minister for Water Resources. “The trouble is development has got completely securitised, and we are worried because climate change does not figure in any of this.”  <figure><img width="1854" height="1038" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181112/636bdfbd9c7e80680e083db7jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Virtual panel on ‘The Himalayas: Hotspot of Geopolitics?’ with Sophia Kalantzakos, Alex Davis, Ruth Gamble, Dipak Gyawali and Jayanta Bandyopadhyay on 29 October.</figcaption></figure><a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-terrifying-assessment-of-himalayan-melting/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-terrifying-assessment-of-himalayan-melting/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604448211076000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEeOuT3RJ5uOzKH-EM0y36JH-aHuQ">As the mountains melt</a>, glaciers are turning into dangerously large lakes that have been bursting with increasing frequency. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/living-below-nepals-melting-mountains/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/living-below-nepals-melting-mountains/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604448211076000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGAqkR6W2diGKXBPWBP3ARE9USl5A">Alton Byers</a>, an American mountaineer and geographer who specialises in mitigating glacial hazards in the Andes and Himalaya warned that Nepal and other countries in the region faced accelerated dangers from these lakes bursting. Byers showed repeat photography using Swiss mountaineer <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/living-below-nepals-melting-mountains/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/living-below-nepals-melting-mountains/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604448211076000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGAqkR6W2diGKXBPWBP3ARE9USl5A">Fritz Müller’s</a> hotographs of the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/khumbu-then-and-now-global-warming-climate-change,4017" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/khumbu-then-and-now-global-warming-climate-change,4017&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604448211076000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEam1y5KELMBk6A2qUtaA7T9n1erw">Khumbu Glacier</a> from 1956, and comparing it with recent ones he had taken to reveal the loss in ice mass. “The concern about these lakes is the amount of water they hold,” he said. “<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/living-below-nepals-melting-mountains/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/living-below-nepals-melting-mountains/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604448211076000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGAqkR6W2diGKXBPWBP3ARE9USl5A">Imja Lake</a> has about 80 million m3 of water, and the concern is that if this is released suddenly it can result in a <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=18418" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id%3D18418&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604448211076000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHeegGz59Y2ZRK3-UA7matrj05-Zw">glacier lake outburst flood</a>, unleashing enormous devastation downstream.”   Reducing the risk posed by glacial lakes means lowering their water levels, but that is expensive business, Byers said. Many of these lakes also drain into rivers that flow into another country, for instance from China to India, or from China to Nepal so there has to be <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepals-glacial-lakes-in-danger-of-bursting/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepals-glacial-lakes-in-danger-of-bursting/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604448211076000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGeKCQuevSmIe8hc2omHnQlDY4o8A">inter-state cooperation in mitigating the danger.</a> “We have an international order that is not fit for the purpose of confronting the climate emergency,” added <a href="https://scholars.latrobe.edu.au/display/rgamble" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://scholars.latrobe.edu.au/display/rgamble&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604448211076000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGSheWK-7mf51U5dh4zwume6IzH9w">Ruth Gamble</a>, environmental and cultural historian of the Himalaya. “There’s no system, no imperative to look after rivers. We have states looking after their own interests, own territory, own securitisation and they don’t match with each other.” The virtual conference on 29-30 October was organised by faculty and alumni from New York University Abu Dhabi in collaboration with the <a href="https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&amp;rls=en&amp;q=Rachel+Carson+Center&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;oe=UTF-8" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.com/search?client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26q%3DRachel%2BCarson%2BCenter%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604448211076000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHVN_pgcb_QmWHeSnz6hdCInzONzw">Rachel Carson Center</a>, LMU Munich. The group is also running the interdisciplinary research initiative, <a href="https://www.himalayanwaterproject.org/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.himalayanwaterproject.org/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604448211076000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEWbNj3Y_zCWEnR-HY6ohd3_CySzA">Geopolitics and Ecology of Himalayan Water. </a> Panels also looked at the non-human Himalaya and the region’s rich, but threatened, biodiversity. <a href="https://nyuad.nyu.edu/en/academics/divisions/arts-and-humanities/faculty/charles-siebert.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://nyuad.nyu.edu/en/academics/divisions/arts-and-humanities/faculty/charles-siebert.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604448211076000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFwowBzrzU_ruEib6C1mw-oylEw8w">Charles Siebert</a>, an author who has written extensively about wild elephants, said that despite the deaths and disruptions, the Covid-19 pandemic had forced people to take nature seriously again. “The virus is forcing a human retreat, maybe there is something positive about this forced pause,” he said. While the Himalaya may be a shared home for people, wildlife conservationists stressed that the mountains do not actually belong to anyone.  As <a href="https://research-repository.uwa.edu.au/en/persons/alexander-davis" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://research-repository.uwa.edu.au/en/persons/alexander-davis&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604448211076000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGdwUPTKJCu93U7cJIhDpQTPKkMjw">Alex Davis</a>, professor at The University of Western Australia put it, “The earth is an actor in this conflict. The mountains are alive. The challenge is to protect biodiversity of the Himalaya while addressing human needs.”  Nepali mountaineer and activist <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=19459#.X6AtRy8RoWo" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id%3D19459%23.X6AtRy8RoWo&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604448211076000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH7Tnt7SYSLFb0tmsUoKLrUigwCfA">Shailee Basn</a>et agreed. After climbing Mt Everest and the seven highest peaks in all seven continents, she said evidence of the impact of global warming could be seen everywhere – from the Andes to the Caucuses, from the Rockies to the Himalaya.  She added: “When I was in the mountains, I really felt for the first time in my life, that there is no distinction between me and nature. I was an integral part of nature, and the mountains were speaking to me.”  Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/tracing-past-glacial-floods-in-kangchenjunga/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/tracing-past-glacial-floods-in-kangchenjunga/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604448211076000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG8k2MXQ7qDrb-XYLI79PMXoA_4wA">Tracing past glacial floods in Kangchenjunga</a>, Alton Byers <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/melting-mountains-shake,3073" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/melting-mountains-shake,3073&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604448211076000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGbRgzcnAxizWHjh5qx1p3Tf7vfBg">When melting mountains shake</a>, Kunda Dixit <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/himalayan-rivalry-impacts-climate-science/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/himalayan-rivalry-impacts-climate-science/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604448211076000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHAw8S34CuMzFl_xXfz4SdGVqgGCQ">Himalayan rivalry impacts climate science</a>, Ramesh Bushal <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/trans-himalayan-handshake/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/trans-himalayan-handshake/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604448211076000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFXGdVSBD6THQ7NmuOrj8SON7_P3g">Trans-Himalayan handshake</a>, Editorial <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-india-nepal-china-geopolitical-tri-junction/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-india-nepal-china-geopolitical-tri-junction/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604448211076000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHL-NodlJ_WAdzDxitH5lm5jwNJyg">The India Nepal China geopolitical tri-junction</a>, Kunda Dixit

A new Cold War in the Himalaya

[caption id="attachment_54080" align="alignnone" width="900"]<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915110/636bb2b09c7e80680e07baf9jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="501"/> Panoramic view of Manang Village and the Gangapurna and Annapurna III Glaciers that have retreated dramatically since 1980. Photo: SolundirWhen Swiss geologist Toni Hagen arrived in Nepal, the Ranas were still ruling the country. Throughout the 1950s, Hagen traversed the country on foot from east to west, from north to south, examining rock strata to probe the orogenesis of the Himalaya.Along the way, he took thousands of photographs and film clips that remain a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/time-capsule-of-kathmandu/">valuable visual archive of a time</a> when Nepal was emerging from historical isolation. Today, the photographs are a treasure trove for climate researchers to measure the extent of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/human-face-of-a-himalayan-climate-crisis/">glacial retreat in the Himalaya</a>.[caption id="attachment_54105" align="alignleft" width="250"]<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915110/636bb2b39c7e80680e07bafajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="248"> Shalik Ram Sigdel, the Nepali scientist who conducted the study of melting glaciers and new forest cover in Manang.Repeat photography has allowed Nepali climate scientists like <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Shalik_Sigdel" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Shalik_Sigdel&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599194307732000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGLU7cCjeTpgUDbnMntpnJqDDySKg">Shalik Ram Sigdel</a> of the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences to plot the rapidity of Himalayan melting due to global warming in the past century.When Toni Hagen trekked through Manang in 1957, he climbed a slope above the village to take photographs of the northern flank of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-abcs-of-a-winter-trek-in-nepal/">the Annapurnas</a>. Even at that time, the Gangapurna Glacier was already debris-covered, meaning that it had lost most of its surface ice.But when Sigdel visited the area and compared it to more recent photographs, he found the glacier snout had receded 900m up the mountain, leaving a lake at its terminus bracketed by sharply defined lateral moraines. The Marsyangdi River has found a way around this feature.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915110/636bb2b49c7e80680e07bafbjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1196" height="778"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915110/636bb2b79c7e80680e07bafcjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="786">Toni Hagen’s photograph in 1957 of the debris-covered Gangapurna Glacier termius with a few supraglacial ponds, and the same view in 2010 by Nabin Baral showing the growing glacial lake and vegetation on the terminal moraine. Photos: Toni Hagen and Nabin Baral/<a href="http://thethirdpole.net/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://thethirdpole.net&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599194307733000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH20EkAK7tiS1QEO-2v8kjshrdqFw">thethirdpole.net</a><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915110/636bb2ba9c7e80680e07bafdjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1199" height="768"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915110/636bb2bc9c7e80680e07bafejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1199" height="797">Before-and-after photographs by Nabin Baral from Manang village of the Gangapurna Glacier and the glacial lake in 2007 and 2018 showing the dramatic retreat of the glacier and increased forest cover on the slopes. Photos: Nabin Baral/<a href="http://thethirdpole.net/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://thethirdpole.net&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599194307733000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH20EkAK7tiS1QEO-2v8kjshrdqFw">thethirdpole.net</a>In a paper titled Retreating Glacier and Advancing Forest Over the Past 200 Years in Central Himalayas published on last week in the <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2020JG005751" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2020JG005751&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599194307732000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH_R19ErZEJGj-6qI6IxagxD87Z8w">Journal of Geophysical Research - Biogeosciences</a>, Sigdel with co-authors <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/doSearch?ContribAuthorStored=Muhammad%2C+Sher" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/doSearch?ContribAuthorStored%3DMuhammad%252C%2BSher&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599194307732000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFez6UmtBUzucmh0dOKYcsDUeIvWA">Sher Muhammad</a> of ICIMOD, <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/doSearch?ContribAuthorStored=Zhang%2C+Hui" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/doSearch?ContribAuthorStored%3DZhang%252C%2BHui&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599194307732000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFRmO-B5dlg03-1zEr0mvuMYO6YYA">Hui Zhang</a>, <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/doSearch?ContribAuthorStored=Zhu%2C+Haifeng" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/doSearch?ContribAuthorStored%3DZhu%252C%2BHaifeng&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599194307733000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH8qC5kAyRJfSST0IRACWK8reH1mw">Haifeng Zhu</a> and <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/doSearch?ContribAuthorStored=Liang%2C+Eryuan" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/doSearch?ContribAuthorStored%3DLiang%252C%2BEryuan&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599194307733000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEHCDgbGGXh_niT1k2YRRv-DKelwA">Eryuan Liang</a> present data on the analysis of glacial debris deposits and tree-rings on the Gangapurna and Annapurna III glaciers in Manang.[caption id="attachment_54081" align="alignright" width="600"]<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915110/636bb2bf9c7e80680e07baffjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="375"> Google Earth images (south is up) of the Annapurna III Glacier (left) and the Gangapurna Glacier (right).The paper presents the first detailed evidence of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-third-pole-is-warming-faster-than-expected/">fluctuations in Himalayan glaciers</a> over the past 200 years, and concludes that snowlines have been rising and forests advancing higher, and they did so in spurts since 1790s with the process intensifying since 1980.While <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/tracing-past-glacial-floods-in-kangchenjunga/">glaciers have been shrinking and snowlines have been naturally receding</a> ever since the Last Glacial Period 12,000 years ago and the Little Ice Age 700 years ago, this process has amplified with fossil fuel burning after the Industrial Revolution.The researchers used remote sensing satellite imagery and field research to find that as the Gangapurna and Annapurna III glaciers shrank and receded, birch, pine and juniper have been moving up the mountain since 1808.For instance, in 1988 the Gangapurna Glacier was 9km long and 17.74km2 in area, and by October 2019 its length had receded to 8.05km and area was down to 17.5km2. They also found that the thickness of the ice in the glaciers had also shrunk considerably.“Just in the past 60 years, the Gangapurna glacier has receded by more than 900m,” Sigdel said in an interview. “And the speed at which they are receding has accelerated.”[caption id="attachment_54098" align="alignleft" width="500"]<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915110/636bb2c29c7e80680e07bb00jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="515"> Satellite imagery of the Gangapurna Glacier (top) and the Annapurna III Glacier in 1988, 2008 and 2019 showing that the rate of glacial retreat is accelerating.Indeed, the paper says that while the length of the Gangapurna Glacier reduced by 386m at 17.5m per year between 1957 to 1979, the speed picked up to 24m per year from 1979 to 2016 – receding by a full 903m in that time. The Annnapurna III Glacier receded at a slower pace and was smaller by 500m in the past 65 years due to the different gradient and size of the catchment.As the ice melted, vegetation started creeping up the mountains. Sigdel, who specialises in understanding treeline response to a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-terrifying-assessment-of-himalayan-melting/">changing climate in the Himalaya</a>, examined tree-rings and the vegetation that have colonised the moraines in the past decades.As shown in the before-and-after photographs of Toni Hagen’s images as well as through remote-sensing data, older moraines and those that were deposited after the Little Ice Age are already covered by dense forest, presenting evidence of forests replacing glaciers in the Himalaya.[caption id="attachment_54082" align="alignnone" width="1000"]<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915110/636bb2c59c7e80680e07bb01jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="882">Repeat photography of the Gangapurna Glacier terminus in 1957 by Swiss geologist Toni Hagen, in 1979 by Czech photographer Zdeněk Thoma. And a view of the glacier from Manang village taken by Zdeněk Thoma in 1979 and the same view in 2016. Contour map of Upper Manang showing the location of the glacier terminus in those years.Being darker, the forests also absorb more sunlight than snowfields that earlier reflected light, and together with transpiration, this feedback loop in turn could amplify <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/climate-for-change/the-great-himalayan-thaw/">the warming trend in the Himalaya</a>, the paper concludes.While the warming may favour timber and agriculture production in Nepal, Sigdel says they threaten the dry season water flow in Himalayan rivers that will have consequences downstream.He adds: “Our research confirms that the climate crisis has been seriously impacting water resources in the Himalaya. The Gangapurna and Annpurna III glaciers feed the Marsyangdi River, and their melting will affect the entire basin, endangering water supply and affecting hydropower generation and irrigation downstream.”

Forests replace glaciers in the Himalaya

Tracing past glacial floods in Kangchenjunga

One smoggy winter morning in February 2019, Ekta regretted coming to her sculpture class. It was the first day of her period, and the 19-year-old wished she was home, curled up in bed with a hot water bag to soothe her cramps.
Her class was at Kalapremi Ceramic Studio, a dark room on the ground floor of a house in Maharajganj, and Ekta’s teacher was the artist Gopal Das Shrestha ‘Kalapremi’, a noted sculptor.
Two other students were already there, using all their muscle strength to knead the sculpting clay. Ekta, now 24, recalls how Kalapremi asked her if she was feeling all right. She avoided him, as she did not want everyone to know she was menstruating.
Kalapremi repeatedly asked Ekta what was wrong. She finally muttered that she was having her period, after which he grabbed her hand and led her to a partitioned corner of the studio and sat her on a chair. Before she could stop him, he slid his hand under her dress, and started massaging her abdomen.
“I was horrified,” Ekta recalls. “I told him to stop, but he didn’t listen, asking me not to be shy, saying he knew how to relieve my pain. He stopped only after I protested furiously.”&nbsp;
The art tutor then said, “You’re like my daughter. I’m doing it out of love to make you feel better, but you’re so stubborn.”&nbsp;
“Instead of saying sorry he acted like I was the one having crazy thoughts,” remembers Ekta, adding that from April 2016 to August 2020 beginning the time she was 16, the artist sexually abused and harassed her on several occasions. &nbsp;
Now, Ekta and the artist’s other former students are finally sharing their experiences and some are pressing legal charges against him, hoping that others do not have to endure what they did.&nbsp;
Award-winning artist and teacher Gopal Das Shrestha ‘Kalapremi’ (the name means ‘Art Lover’) is known for his ceramic art, sculpture, and contemporary pottery. He was <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/the-house-of-kalapremi">profiled in Nepali Times after a collaborative exhibition</a>, ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ at the Siddhartha Art Gallery three years ago.&nbsp;
His pieces, titled Gaalis, featured sculpted female figures with the heads of dogs, sheep, and donkeys (pictured) to depict derogatory terms for women. Some critics said the collection was a satire on feminists.
Kalapremi started his artistic and teaching career in 1983 and over the years taught at Bhanubhakta School, Kathmandu University School of Arts, Lalitkala Campus and at his private Kalapremi Ceramic Studio. He has also lectured at Jeonju University in South Korea and recently at Tabor Academy in the United States.
Seven of Kalapremi’s former students were interviewed for this story. Five female students said he touched them inappropriately in his studio or at Kathmandu University. Two male students said they witnessed him abuse and harass the women. In all cases, the students struggled to recognise the abuse when it occurred, and the lack of reporting systems left them to cope on their own for years.&nbsp;
Earlier this year, students shared a social media post hinting at Kalapremi’s history of abusive behaviour following which more students of the artist reached out sharing similar experiences. Some students spoke of abuse that happened as long as 20 years ago.
Kalapremi, 60, has denied the allegations. He told Nepali Times: “Some years ago, there was a movement encouraging people to hug and kiss. I used to do it purely out of friendship and love. But after seeing posts on social media last year calling out my behaviour, I realised my actions may have hurt some people. I understand now that I should have been more mindful.”
He added: “I am also an auxiliary health worker, so I know the exact points to massage to relieve menstrual pain. It’s not just menstruation, I take anyone who is ill to the hospital.”
Sexual abuse is much more rampant than reported given how difficult it is to prove it in court. The law defines sexual abuse as occuring when someone touches another’s private parts, coerces them into touching theirs, uses vulgar language, shows degrading images, or behaves indecently towards them without consent.&nbsp;
Ekta and her fellow students are consulting lawyer Suneeta Regmi Pokhrel, who says they know that even if the court decides in their favour, it is difficult to survive after speaking up, and influential men defend themselves saying they are being framed.&nbsp;
“They are in a lot of pain and weep when recalling how he abused them,” Regmi Pokhrel told us. “They are angry and have filed a case against him, but they are also terrified. They know he is a powerful man and they have seen how our society treats women who speak up against abusers. Unless people speak up, perpetrators will be emboldened.”
Art and academia in Nepal simply reflect the power imbalances in society where people with intersecting identities experience worse forms of abuse. Theatre actors Raj Kumar Pudasaini, Rajan Khatiwada, and Sunil Pokhrel were called out during the #MeToo movement in the Nepali theatre scene in 2019. Even after the allegations Pokhrel went on to receive national awards, while others continued to work without repercussions.
“If you speak up against abusers, you gradually get sidelined from projects,” explained a theatre artist who wished anonymity fearing professional setbacks. “The theatre scene in Nepal is quite small, you just have to make peace with the perpetrators and work with them if you want to sustain yourself.”&nbsp;
In academia there is a history of faculty members sexually harassing students and getting away with it. After Tribhuvan University (TU) lecturer Krishna Bhattachan was accused of harassing women students, the university said it would follow Nepal’s sexual harassment law and set up a reporting mechanism. But nothing happened to the professor, who had already retired. Instead, he counter-accused the students of 'attacking the indigenous people’s movement with baseless allegations' as <a href="https://kathmandupost.com/letters/2019/01/29/bhattachan-responds">he told the Kathmandu Post in 2019</a>. He continues to be featured as a prominent speaker including at TU.
Other faculty members previously accused of sexual harassment include Jagadish Murti Koirala from TU, Bishnu Prasad Acharya from Ratna Rajya Campus, and Bodha Raj Tripathee from Lalitpur Madhyamik Vidhyalaya. A woman staff member from TU also filed a sexual abuse complaint against Dambar Chemjong from TU.
Prominent figures like <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-rise-and-fall-of-nims-purja">mountaineer Nims Purja</a> have been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/31/sports/mountaineering-sexual-harassment-abuse-nims-purja.html">accused of sexual assault</a>, and cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane, actor <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/celebrity-rape-case-spotlights-nepal-laws">Paul Shah</a>, and former speaker of Parliament <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/mahara-arrested">Krishna Bahadur Mahara</a> have been accused of rape, but society-at-large has let off the alleged perpetrators amdist a larger debate about justice for survivors and punishment of perpetrators.&nbsp;
‘Gaushala-26’ is the court name given to the 18-year-old who accused Sandeep Lamichhane, former captain of Nepal’s national cricket team and skipper of Biratnagar Kings in the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/here-comes-the-nepal-premier-league">ongoing Nepal Premier League</a>, of rape. She left the country citing society questioning her character affecting her mental health while Lamichhane got an outpouring of support. In May, the Patan High Court overturned a prior verdict that found Lamichhane guilty of rape and had sentenced him to eight years in prison. During the 23-month legal battle to pursue justice, Gaushala-26 faced threats of gang rape and acid attacks.&nbsp;
Exhausted by the struggle, Gaushala-26 sought to “move to a new world” where she could live free without hiding her identity.
Actress Samragyee Rajya Laxmi Shah in an Instagram video now deleted detailed the harassment she faced from a filmmaker during a movie shoot. She did not name any name but veteran actor Bhuwan KC filed a defamation case against Rana, but the court ruled that the charge lacked sufficient evidence.&nbsp;
Former Kathmandu mayor <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/theytoo">Keshav Sthapit also mocked the #MeToo movement</a>, calling accusations against him by journalists Rashmila Prajapati and Ujjwala Maharjan “a rape of men’s rights”.
Serial Abuse
Back at the Kalapremi Ceramics studio, another former student, 24-year-old Rajiv, says he felt the need to speak out after seeing his female classmates being abused.&nbsp;
“He frequently kissed them on their cheeks,” he told Nepali Times. “Whenever they walked into the studio he flailed his arms like a child asking for a hug. They awkwardly hugged him from the side, but he pulled them closer, held their chin, and kissed their cheeks.”&nbsp;
Rajiv says he also saw Kalapremi pull the women’s bra straps, touch their breasts, and slap their buttocks. The young students would freeze, not knowing how to react, and if they protested, he would say it was “normal in art”. Rajiv, 19 at the time like his classmates, remembers thinking perhaps the well-respected artist was right after all.
Another student, Luna, who took lessons at Kalapremi’s studio from 2020 to 2022 did try to confront the tutor after he made an obscene proposal to her. She recalls: “One day when the other students had left the studio and it was just the two of us, he told me that God had given him special artistic talent and he could transfer those powers to me. But to do that both of us will have to be naked, inside a dark room, and have sex.”
Luna, who was 18 then, was livid and told him she did not want any of his powers, but she says he laughed at her as if he was joking. She did not tell her family about the incident because she thought no one would believe her.&nbsp;
“They were all in awe of this famous artist and felt I should be grateful that to be learning sculpting from him,” she says. “I was scared to be alone with him in case he talked about sex again. My coping mechanism was to be rude so he wouldn’t try to come close to me.”
Seeing how some classmates were standing up to Kalapremi, Ekta too tried to push back against his advances, but she said he found ways to coerce her. Since Ekta, Rajiv, and Luna could not afford Kalapremi’s Rs30,000 monthly fee for lessons, he had offered them all a stipend to assist him in the studio.
“He had spondylosis and took me to his therapy sessions to learn massage techniques, then he often made me and other students massage him,” says Ekta. Whenever she refused, he would feign pain to make her feel sorry for him. “He would insist that I put my hands under his shirt so that I could massage him better,” she adds.
The art tutor often tried to “seduce sympathy” from Ekta by sharing how he had never been loved as a child and was “sexually frustrated” as an adult.&nbsp;
“At 7PM, he would pour himself Signature whiskey and immediately go off again about how he was sex-starved. I didn’t know how to respond. It took me time to realise alcohol was just an excuse to talk about sex,” Ekta says.
If convicted, Kalapremi could face financial penalty and/or a prison sentence of up to three years according to Section 224 of National Penal (Code) Act 2017.&nbsp;
Data suggests that victims of child sexual abuse on average take nearly 24 years to tell someone about their trauma, and some may never disclose it at all.&nbsp;
“In our culture, children are rarely taught about boundaries. They often react, show anger when adults pinch their cheeks. But adults insist they did it out of love, and force the children to accept it,” says Sita Lama, a psychotherapist at Manka Kura. “And even when someone touches them inappropriately they struggle to identify and verbalise it.”
When perpetrators claim to be “acting out of love”, Lama says survivors are likely to perceive it as something safe, rather than recognising it as abuse.&nbsp;
“It may take years for them to realise they were abused,” she explains. "And even when they become aware, the power imbalance with the abuser and the associated shame often prevents survivors from speaking up."
Other former students from the School of Art at Kathmandu University have also come forward years later, saying Kalapremi sexually abused them. As young adults, they felt his behaviour was off but were uncertain if it was inappropriate, illegal, or they did not know how to respond. After having understood that it was indeed abuse, they say they are speaking out now to protect others.&nbsp;
Amina Singh, a visiting faculty member at Kathmandu University, says there is no clause against sexual abuse in contracts of teachers, and there is no formal grievance handling mechanism for the students.&nbsp;
“So the only way students can to deal with sexual abuse is approach someone they trust,” she says.
Eight other former art students of Lalit Kala Campus and Srijana College of Fine Arts of Tribhuvan University and other private art studios in Kathmandu say they were also sexually abused by their art teachers. Three faculty members interviewed from these institutions said they saw the abuse, but felt it was futile to report it given how powerful the teachers were.
In the absence of a formal system, some longtime women artists warned each other about “problematic” artists. They shared &nbsp;a “heads-up” to be more cautious when collaborating with them, and avoided responding to their calls and texts after work hours.
To ensure art institutions are safe for all, galleries, museums, artist studios, and smaller art spaces need to develop policies on sexual harassment. This would include a code of conduct or studio policies that hold the leadership accountable and outline the principles of professional ethics.&nbsp;
Students and employees should inquire about accountability mechanisms for raising concerns, both formally and informally, advocates say.
Three years after Ekta left the ceramics studio, she learnt that Kalapremi had harassed many other women. Still trying to get a footing in the art industry, she attended a workshop in Kathmandu where women artists discussed ways to stay safe in the art sector.&nbsp;
Since it was a close-knit group Ekta opened up about how she felt violated and realised she was not alone, he had been abusing underprivileged students for years, and this was common knowledge among artists in Nepal.
Ekta says that even after she quit, Kalapremi continued sending her text messages like ‘I am thinking of you’, ‘Why have you stopped speaking with me’, or ‘I am waiting for your call’.&nbsp;
But what really forced her to act was when Ekta found out that he was sending similar texts to her younger sister.&nbsp;
“I’ve had enough,” she told us. “He abused me all these years but I won’t let him abuse my sister.” &nbsp;
Ekta, Rajiv and Luna are not the real names of the students.&nbsp;

‘Art Lover’ accused of sexual abuse

It was 8:15 in the evening of 25 March 1968 when everyone in the village of Batulechaur near Pokhara heard a deafening sound like thunder as a bright flashing object hurtled down to land in a field.&nbsp; That field belonged to Kul Timilsina, and the next morning he retrieved a sheet of metal about 2m by 1m and carried it home with the help of a few others, thinking it would be useful for his buffalo shed.&nbsp; Before he died at age 83 three years ago, Timilsina had told photo archivist Sunil Ulak that the black metal sheet was not rectangular and had rounded corners. There are a few witnesses still alive who have a clear recollection of the object that fell from the sky that night.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024120707128_75cc85aac56b9cc4a77366471f058d7b3eb6868776811b0923845c2d0a61f014.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2024120707128_75cc85aac56b9cc4a77366471f058d7b3eb6868776811b0923845c2d0a61f014" data-rendition-name="original" width="1170" height="601" loading="lazy" alt="UFO over Pokhara"> <figcaption>The field in Batulechaur belonging to Kul Timilsina where fragments of a flying object fell from the sky in 1968.</figcaption> </figure>  One of them is Timilsina’s wife Gyanu, who was 22 at the time. She had been at home, and remembers hearing the big bang and the sky becoming very bright. “We saw the thing in the field in the morning,” she told us. “It looked like a lid, a covering of some sort. The way it was stuck in the ground, it must have fallen from the sky. We thought we could use it to dry clothes on, and took it home.”&nbsp; Another witness is Kul Narayan Paudel. “I was only eight then. We ran to the field to see what had fallen. It was a four-sided metal sheet. The elders took it away, and I don't know what happened to it.” &nbsp; Ram Bahadur Baniya, a teacher at the local school, says he had heard the sheet had been brought to the school, and later handed over to the Zonal Commissioner at the time, Nanda Prasad Malla. “But that is all hearsay,” he says.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024120707128_0bf207a12063fb8155b3c8d9a00a94887b126380c9e0627527c84cf5e1101f54.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2024120707128_0bf207a12063fb8155b3c8d9a00a94887b126380c9e0627527c84cf5e1101f54" data-rendition-name="original" width="1170" height="610" loading="lazy" alt="UFO over Pokhara"> <figcaption>Gyanu Timilsina, wife of Kul Timilsina.</figcaption> </figure>  There are two versions of what happened to Kul Timilsina’s metal sheet. One is that an American Peace Corp Volunteer teaching at the nearby Bindyabasini School took it, and another is that it was handed over to the government. Recently declassified Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and US State Department documents from the time say that the US Embassy in Kathmandu tracked down the object two years later and had it shipped back to the US. A telegram from the Department of State and Department of Defense tagged as ‘MOON DUST / Space Fragments’ dated 1 March 1972 stated: ‘1. Restored space fragment will be on board Embassy support flight 115 arriving Kathmandu on or about March 10. Fragment is packed in shipping crate (cargo no. 72-33365) marked in care of DAO.&nbsp; 2. State and Defense representatives examined fragments prior to shipment finding restoration acceptable.’  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241207071212_929d903ee06d41baa4f6040e981cd7c7d7bd75cc9c37c9b617d307fc8538d2df.png" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20241207071212_929d903ee06d41baa4f6040e981cd7c7d7bd75cc9c37c9b617d307fc8538d2df" data-rendition-name="original" width="856" height="568" loading="lazy" alt="UFO over Pokhara"> <figcaption>Declassified CIA documents about the investigation into the object sighted in Pokhara. </figcaption> </figure>  The documents show that the US government, military and intelligence agencies investigated this incident thoroughly when it occurred, and have continued to revisit it ever since, as recently as five years ago. What is even more intriguing is that the object that fell in Pokhara was not the only unidentified space object that fell to earth that year. There were similar sightings of objects falling from the sky in Ladakh, Sikkim and Bhutan between 19 February and 25 March 1968.&nbsp; These mysteries were the subject of a CIA investigation in 1968 titled ‘<a href="https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP81R00560R000100070007-8.pdf">Sighting of Unidentified Flying Objects in Ladakh, Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan</a>’, and the report is part of the recent online declassification of 800,000 top-secret documents from the period.&nbsp; &nbsp;Although unidentified flying objects (UFOs) have a connotation now of being alien craft, it could be pieces of satellite, missile, rocket or even aircraft. The CIA report documents six sightings in 1968 and quotes local sources as describing all of them having similar characteristics: bright blue or red streaks in the sky accompanied by loud sounds like lightning and thunder and objects falling to the ground. Aside from the metallic object that was found in Batlechaur, there were other items also found nearby in Tallakot, Tureypasal, Armalakot and Maidan. Whatever the object was, it seems to have disintegrated even before it hit the ground.&nbsp; The CIA report records the first sighting on 19 February 1968 in various parts of Sikkim and Olangchung Gola and Ghunsa in eastern Nepal. The light was said to be ‘long and thin’ and giving out ‘green and red light’. &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241207071212_c3c825027d966a2aedc846970390eebe063957503c7eacc8e01e0517843f9bbb.png" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20241207071212_c3c825027d966a2aedc846970390eebe063957503c7eacc8e01e0517843f9bbb" data-rendition-name="original" width="892" height="596" loading="lazy" alt="UFO over Pokhara "> </figure>  Two days later on 21 February, a soundless blue object was seen traveling fast across the sky above Thimphu in Bhutan. Then on 4 March there were multiple daytime sightings or white streaks in the sky at Chang La Pass, Fukche and Koyul in Ladakh. There were more sightings in Ladakh on the very day fragments fell near Pokhara on 25 March 1968.&nbsp; After the sightings in Pokhara, rumours started flying in Kathmandu that these were aliens trying to land on Earth, it could be Russian or Chinese spy planes or satellites, and some even say it as a sign from heaven that the end of the world was near. This was at the height of the Cold War. The Russians and Americans were testing their thermonuclear devices as well as intercontinental ballistic missile delivery systems. The Washington-Beijing rapprochement had not yet happened, and China was making quick progress testing atomic bombs. Within two years after its first atomic test, in 1966 China exploded its first hydrogen bomb at the Lop Nur site in Xinjiang, 3,000km to the north from Nepal. After neary six decades, what is still intriguing is that all the sightings within a few months of each other in 1968 were along the Himalayan arc bordering Tibet: from Bhutan, Sikkim Nepal, to Ladakh. The US military intelligence seems to have concluded that this was not a coincidence and there were frequent research trips to the site in Pokhara by American officials in the months after the incident. With the help of the Royal Nepal Army, the region north of Pokhara was thoroughly searched.&nbsp; A confidential memo dated 25 June 1968 by Jerry C Trippy to a ‘Mr Farley’ mentions that the US Air Force’s Foreign Technology Division had decided that the debris could be important because it may be related to a Chinese missile test or a Soviet ‘Vehicle Venik’ rocket.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241207071216_feb5425692dc36b20187de4e4fcc2ce9fd12b6d9e1b8724398e50bcdbf9032fe.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20241207071216_feb5425692dc36b20187de4e4fcc2ce9fd12b6d9e1b8724398e50bcdbf9032fe" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="UFO over Pokhara"> </figure>  On 28 August 1968 the US Embassy in Kathmandu sent a letter to Washington DC saying that the object could be of Soviet origin, possibly from when the rocket carrying the ‘Kosmos 208’ satellite re-entered the atmosphere. But why were the fragments falling to earth several weeks apart, and in the same region? No one knows where the metal sheet that Kul Timilsina recovered is now. It was definitely packed in a crate and taken to the US, and although it is rumoured that it was returned that is not very likely. Archivist Sunil Ulak heard from the Timilsina family that CIA officials had returned to the site five years ago. &nbsp; Interest in UFOs peaked in the US in the 1950s, with the Cold War space race and tests of atomic weapons and delivery rockets. CIA and scientists were being sent to investigate sightings, both publicly and privately. Could the Pokhara fragments as well as the sightings in Ladakh and Bhutan actually be alien craft falling to earth? The renewal in interest in space travel in large part due to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, UFOs and sightings are again subjects of public interest.&nbsp; Even 57 years later, even if there was definitive proof about whether the Batlechaur fragment was from a Chinese missile or a soviet rocket, it has not been made public in documents declassified so far. We may never know.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241207071216_b6938795f40731e7657fd6dcbb3cf460a326186a15eb11d4f832f602201ff598.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20241207071216_b6938795f40731e7657fd6dcbb3cf460a326186a15eb11d4f832f602201ff598" data-rendition-name="original" width="642" height="320" loading="lazy" alt="UFO over Pokhara"> </figure>  Sunil Ulak speculates if the debris actually came from an American aircraft, perhaps on an intel mission upon China. “Which could explain why they were so thorough in collecting the fragments in Pokhara,” he says. But that still does not explain the multiple sightings weeks apart in 1968.&nbsp; Indeed, US military aircraft were at that time flying frequent night-time missions from air force bases in India to supply weapons to Khampa guerrilla camps in Nepal located north of Pokhara in Mustang. It could very well be that the Chinese shot down one such aircraft. The other sightings could have been contrails of US spy planes, or Chinese anti-aircraft missiles.&nbsp; There were quite a few developments regarding UFOs in 2024. In a US congressional hearing in July, former intelligence officer David Grusch claimed that the government had long been involved in a program to investigate and retrieve non-human craft crashes, and then try to reverse engineer them. However Grusch did not show any evidence.&nbsp; The UAP Disclosure Act of 2024 was signed into law by Joe Biden in December 2023. It plans to oversee the public disclosure of UFO information. However, there is a clause in it that prevents disclosure if it would cause threats to military defense, intelligence operations or foreign relations.&nbsp; It is unlikely that the declassified documents about sightings in the Himalayan will cause any real surprise about definite evidence of alien life even if it was found. It seems humanity will continue, at least for now, to wonder about curious lights in the sky and whether there is anybody out there.&nbsp;

UFO over Pokhara

When Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) president Rabi Lamichhane was arrested in October on charges of defrauding depositors of cooperatives, the party’s vice president Swarnim Wagle gifted him Fareed Zakaria’s book, Age of Revolutions.
Since then, Lamichhane has been shunted around from Kathmandu to Pokhara to Chitwan and back to Pokhara to attend police investigations and court proceedings. He was being flown to Birganj via Kathmandu on Buddha Air on Monday. There is another pending case in Janakpur.
Human rights groups and civil society have criticised the government for hounding Lamichhane with inhumane treatment that borders on physical torture. The two parties in the coalition, Nepali Congress (NC) and the UML, see Lamichhane’s RSP as a potentially formidable challenge to their power.
Even if the fraud charges against Lamichhane are true, the Nepali public is increasingly looking at the government’s actions through the police and courts as political vendetta.
Despite all the travelling, sometimes by plane and often by road at night, Lamichhane appears to be in high spirits, waving to supporters who often gather if they know he is going to be driven around. A social media video shows him giving high fives to fellow passengers on a recent flight to Pokhara.&nbsp;
In the past weeks, streets in Pokhara have erupted with parallel protests by Lamichhane’s supporters as well as depositors of cooperatives who lost their savings to the scam.&nbsp;
Although family visits are allowed, prison officials in Pokhara told Nepali Times that not many people visit Lamichhane these days. He added, “When he does get visitors, he asks them to bring him books.”
Lamichhane is currently Nepal’s most high-profile public figure in custody, and highlights the stark difference between how influential prisoners are treated compared to ordinary inmates.
There are six prison cells at Kaski District Police Office’s two-story detention centre, three on each floor. And while authorities pack prisoners into already overcrowded cells, Lamichhane has an entire room on the second floor to himself.&nbsp;
He has also been allowed to call his family every few days. Other prisoners are not permitted phone calls except for emergencies.
Meanwhile, Lamichhane’s former business partner Chhabilal Joshi, an ex-Deputy Inspector General of Police with whom he established his Gorkha Media Network, is in custody under the same charges in the prison cell next to him.
Lamichhane is accused of siphoning off depositors' money to the tv network in which he was part-owner and anchor. &nbsp;
Both Lamichhane and Joshi are able to buy food from the police canteen instead of being served the regular meal like other prisoners. Joshi has also given his statement to authorities in Rupandehi and Kathmandu for his alleged role in the scam. Lamichhane is yet to be presented in Kathmandu for questioning.
While he was in custody at the Kathmandu District Police Complex, Joshi expressed his desire to sleep in a police officer’s office, reportedly assuring authorities that he would not run away and he was entitled to certain facilities as a former officer of the law.
“He seemed to be under the impression that he is still a police officer,” says a source at the Kathmandu District Police. “We made it clear to him that as someone accused of a crime, he was not entitled to special treatment.”
Former ministers Balkrishna Khand and Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, and ex-home secretary Tek Narayan Pandey, who were arrested in connection with the fake refugee scam last year, were similarly housed in the offices of law enforcement officials instead of prison cells. Khand has since been released after six months in jail.
While there is no legal provision to keep high-ranking officials in separate detention centres when they are arrested, authorities granting them special facilities is not uncommon. Law enforcement officials say VIP detainees expect preferential treatment while in police custody.
Among those is former Kosi Province minister Lila Ballav Adhikari, who was arrested from Biratnagar on 10 November over his alleged involvement in human trafficking and brought to Kathmandu. Adhikari had flown to Japan without government approval with three individuals on 29 October to attend a cultural conference, but had been sent back to Nepal from Narita.&nbsp;
His three companions were arrested at Kathmandu airport upon their arrival, but Adhikari was able to exit unscathed from the VIP lounge. Adhikari had resigned as the Kosi Province Minister for Internal Affairs and Law when it became public that his companions had been taken into custody, and was himself arrested shortly after. He has since been cleared by the courts.
Throughout his detention, Adhikari was kept separately from other inmates. Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Basant Rajouri, head of the Bhadrakali complex, says that while there is no separate detention area for VIPs, some detainees are kept separately depending on the nature of their crime.
However, sources say that arrangements were made for retired judges and others to visit Adhikari frequently worked at the office of a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) during his time in custody.&nbsp;
“He used to constantly pester the authorities to let him sit outside in the sun, and to be able to use the police officer’s shower area,” added an officer.
Adhikari was released on 25 November after the government prosecutor’s office decided not to charge him in a move that was seen to expose the government’s double standards.
Over at Kathmandu’s Dilli Bazar Prison, former Kist Bank CEO Kamal Gyawali emerges from his prison cell into the courtyard of the prison’s ‘Ka (क)’ block every morning with a thick book in his hands, ready to give his daily sermon.
With his long beard, Gyawali, who is serving a prison sentence for banking fraud, looks the part of a religious guru as he implores his rapt listeners to “walk the right path, abandon bad thoughts and turn to scripture and spirituality”.&nbsp;
Afterward, the attendees gather to discuss politics and current affairs. Inmates at his daily sermons at the prison include other high-profile detainees, including former MP Ichchha Raj Tamang, who is in jail for money laundering and cooperatives fraud, former joint secretary Chudamani Sharma, who was convicted of corruption, as well as NC leader Chandra Bahadur Lama and Krishna Bahadur Upreti of the UML both of whom are on trial for embezzling billions of rupees.
Victims of the cooperatives scam that former lawmaker Tamang was involved in have made trips to the prison and requested visits, but he has refused to meet with any of them.
“Tamang often complains that the state has prevented him from returning the money to the victims by locking him up,” says a police officer at the Dili Bazar jail.
“All you hear every day from the VIP prisoners is that they have been framed,” adds the officer. “No one admits that they were involved in misdeeds.”
But while most high-profile prisoners complain about prison conditions, one exception is former provincial lawmaker Deepak Manange, who is serving a sentence at Dilli Bazar Jail for attempted murder.
“He is the happiest prisoner here,” says a warden. “Unlike the others, he doesn’t claim to have been framed, in fact he doesn’t seem to care that he is in prison.”
Manange is detained in the ‘Kha (ख)’ block of the prison complex, which he renovated at his own expense. The block previously housed female prisoners, but Manange used his influence to transfer them elsewhere. He faces no shortage of visitors, who range from political leaders to people from the underworld.
Along with Manange, other well-known prisoners in this block include Nepal Telecom Managing Director Sunil Poudel, and former executive director of the Surakshan Printing Centre Bikal Poudel, who are serving time for corruption.
Former prisoners at Dilli Bazar prison include ex-ministers Khum Bahadur Khadka and Shyam Sundar Gupta, NC leader Ganesh Lama, Maoist MP Balkrishna Dhungel, Nagarik Unmukti Party leader Resham Chaudhary, as well as former IGs Ramesh Chand Thakuri, Om Bikram Rana, and Hem Bahadur Gurung.
Section 54 of Nepal’s Prison Act assigns each prison’s internal administration the
responsibility of governing its prisoners, which means the more favourable the jail management is, the more comfortable it is for prisoners.
Dilli Bazar prison has been the prison of choice for many high-ranking prisoners, especially those convicted of white collar crimes, due to its more accommodating administrators. The prison, which has the capacity to house 700 inmates, is also less crowded than other jails.
Anuj Bhattarai, spokesperson of the Department of Prison Management, says that there is no legal classification in Nepal for felons to be assigned prisons based on the nature of their crimes.
“That Dilli Bazar Jail has a higher number of prisoners convicted of crimes like corruption is most likely a coincidence,” says Bhattarai. “There is no provision for influential people to be able to choose where they will be incarcerated.”&nbsp;
Translated by Shristi Karki from the Nepali original published in himalkhabar.com

What Nepal’s VIP prisoners do in jail

If you were raised in Nepal, you must have picked up its unique set of vocabulary: आन्दोलन, चक्का जाम, बन्द, राँके जुलुस, आफ्नो मान्छे, हाम्रो दल, कर्फु and many more words connoting political protest.
We became familiar with the acrid smell of burning tyres, and eyes smarting from tear gas. And yet, everyone speaks of another revolution in the making. Not by desire, but by suffocation.
We heard speeches about नयाँ नेपाल, but the New Nepal never arrived. The governance system changed, but it did not reflect on people’s lives — except for those close to centres of power. The state is still unreachable and is not bothered about <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/matter-of-life-and-debt">victims of loan sharks</a>, cooperative scams and other injustices.
Politicians continue to speak in sound bites, but fail to deliver. They have mastered the game of pointing fingers towards an external enemy and convincing people that they are never at fault. The political narrative is so disconnected from the actual analysis of the problem that suffocation doesn’t go away after every revolution.
No genuine effort has been made to deliver at all, which is why there is a palpable sense of disillusionment in the air forcing us to seek another revolution, even if Nepal may not be able to afford it.
How has the current system successfully held power, even if the public is deeply frustrated? How is it that for three decades we continue to be led by the same faces, who have time and again, proved to us that they may be great politicians but not national leaders?
<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/improving-internet-governance-in-nepal">My experience at the epicentre of politics</a> has led me to identify three cultures that have enabled political parties to keep a tight hold on power: acceptance, silence and dependency.
We accept things the way they are. We use fatalistic phrases like “नेपालमा यस्तै हो” or “नेपालको कानुन दैब जानुन”. While this resilience enables us to rise back up from devastating calamities, it is also a reason for our compliance with the status quo.
Despite so many ‘revolutions’ that have led to significant reforms, these phrases keep getting reinforced, to the point that the upcoming generations have made it their lingo.&nbsp;
This acceptance is not a symbol of law-abiding citizens, but citizens living in fear of those in power, unable to ask the whys and why-nots.
Innovation suffocates in this culture of acceptance of the status quo. This is manifested in remarks like “but we don’t have any laws for this,” or “we don’t have the capacity to implement this”. An innovator or entrepreneur therefore has to spend that energy to become a political lobbyist, often educating and convincing the bureaucracy.&nbsp;
Remember when locally assembled <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/designed-and-made-in-nepal">Yatri motorbikes</a>, despite having willing customers, had to suffer to secure license numbers because of a lack of regulations? Instead of creating new laws, the government kept chanting the “We will promote Nepal-made goods” mantra, leaving entrepreneurs in a labyrinth of bureaucracy. The weight of acceptance of the law lies heavily on innovators. Fatalism is a tactic used by those in power to generate mass fear in society.
When we accept, we become silent. This is a pervasive phenomenon. We are trained to keep quiet, lest we ruffle feathers, burn bridges, or not get the help we need in future. We know, yet we don’t speak.
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/bureaucratic-hurdles-in-researching-nepals-bureaucracy">Bureaucratic hurdles in researching Nepal's bureaucracy</a>, Daniel W Edwards
Here is one example: the 2021 census shows that the number of baby boys born for every 100 baby girls is 112. This is a clear indication of female foeticide because of boy preference in society.
Despite such horrifying realities, there is finger-pointing within the government between the Ministry of Health and Population with the Ministry of Home Affairs. At the citizen level, we know those who are involved in killing girls. Yet, we don’t speak up. The Nepal Medical Council reports state that despite this gender imbalance at birth, there is no indication of any action.
But why would anyone speak against one's own fraternity, no matter how vile the act is?
When we accept and keep quiet, we become dependent on those who yield power. From getting our government procedure completed on time to getting transfers, to accessing any of our legally protected rights as well, we are forced to depend on our networks of चिनेको मान्छे people we know by blood, village, relations, political affiliation.
The culture of dependency has been the established way in Nepal. If you drive a two-wheeler or four-wheeler, and you get into a small accident, you will be asked to sort it yourself, dialing up the most powerful person you know. It becomes a competition of who knows who.
Recently I was told that there were calls from the Ministry of Health and Population and another from the Prime Minister's Office for just one medical position in a private hospital. Each was pushing its own candidate. Guess which candidate got the position.&nbsp;
The dependency of people is not on the laws or the state, it is with people in power, a reliance on the network of somebody who knows somebody, including those not officially in power.
These cultures are deeply ingrained in our heads, and in society. Collectively they form a vicious circle that helps those in power to retain power. This is not the society we want to live in.
Then, what do we do as a collective to break away from this? How do we break away from the cultures of acceptance and silence that have created this dependency? What can we do to ensure that our children do not have to learn the jargon of आन्दोलन before they learn about the state?
These are the cultures political parties need to shed rather than use them to perpetuate their power. This is what <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/an-alternative-to-alternative-politics-in-nepal">alternative politics</a> needs to be about.
Sumana Shrestha is a member of Parliament’s Education, Health and Information Technology parliamentary committee and represents the Rastriya Swatantara Party.

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A Biden presidency, climate and the Himalaya

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Tracing past glacial floods in Kangchenjunga

‘Art Lover’ accused of sexual abuse

UFO over Pokhara

What Nepal’s VIP prisoners do in jail

Why Nepal is stuck