<ul>
 <li>BREAKING: Seven people were killed and 30 injured when a bus collided with a parked truck on the East-West Highway in Banke at 9pm on Friday night.</li>
 <li>A Beni-bound bus veered off the Prithivi Highway on 23 August and plunged into the Trisuli River, killing eight passengers and injuring many more (pictured above).&nbsp;</li>
 <li>Less than 24 hours later a bus carrying Indian pilgrims from Kathmandu to Janakpur swerved off the road in Bara district, killing seven passengers.</li>
 <li>A week earlier a jeep heading towards Butwal was hit by a rockslide in Palpa. Three people were killed.</li>
 <li>On 3 September, a jeep heading to Mugu from Jumla fell off the road, and rolled 300m down the steep mountainside. The driver and a passenger were killed.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
These deadly accidents all took place within a fortnight across Nepal, and do not include pedestrians killed by vehicles. They have become so frequent that the mishaps do not even make headlines anymore.&nbsp;
Road Traffic Accidents (RTAs) <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/nation-nepal-highways,622">take more lives annually in Nepal </a>than floods, landslides, plane crashes, and other accidents and natural disasters combined.
A total of 2,320 people lost their lives in road traffic accidents between April 2022 and April 2023, while 28,856 people were injured, many of them impaired for life. &nbsp;
In that same time frame, floods killed 19 people and injured 17, while landslides took the lives of 96 people and injured 88. There were two aircraft accidents in that period that killed 79 passengers and crew. &nbsp;
Most RTA are concentrated in the Kathmandu Valley and the Tarai, where urbanisation and better quality roads and expressways have led to over-speeding and reckless driving. But in accidents in the rural mountains it is usually the poor condition of the roads that is the main factor. &nbsp;
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/dying-to-travel">Dying to travel</a>, Editorial
Nepal’s topography and weather make it difficult to build and maintain roads. Highways and rural roads wrap around mountains, traverse cliffs, follow narrow river gorges. Entire sections of Nepal’s arterial highways are in a permanent state of disrepair during the monsoon, like the landslide-prone Mugling-Narayanghat Highway.&nbsp;
Poor highway engineering is a major factor in deadly accidents, says transport expert Chandra B Shrestha, now a consultant with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. The rockslide in Palpa, he notes, was caused by an inability to properly stabilise the slope.
“Most accidents happen when the curves on the road and the speed of vehicles do not match,” adds Shrestha. “We also have a lot of blind spots along our highways which makes driving difficult.” &nbsp;
Nepal’s <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/the-women-connecting-nepal">motorable roads</a> are classified into Strategic Road Networks, which include major highways under the purview of the Department of Roads, and Local Road Networks which are built and maintained by local governments.&nbsp;
While the main highways have to follow engineering parameters to be approved for construction, local roads are built without adequate engineering, making them more dangerous.&nbsp;
“Local governments have taken charge of the construction of rural roads without fulfilling any of the required technical criteria,” says transport expert Madhu Sudan Acharya, adding that they are built without an understanding of road geometry or slope geology.&nbsp;
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/deadly-dasain-on-nepal-s-highways">Deadly Dasain on Nepal’s highways</a>, Nepali Times
<div class="embed-block"><iframe title="Deaths on the roads and injuries between 16 July 2021-17 July 2023" aria-label="Multiple Donuts" id="datawrapper-chart-xI5Rd" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/xI5Rd/1/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border: none;" width="600" height="339" data-external="1"></iframe></div>
Shrestha agrees that rural road networks are not only <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/from-nowhere-to-nowhere">sub-engineered</a>, but are being dug across fragile slopes by excavators at breakneck speed on a massive scale without oversight. “Such roads have become death traps,” he warns.
Political interference and collusion between local contractors and their governments (in many cases the same person) to haphazardly build roads near private property has not helped matters.
Some major highways face similar problems. The Nepal Road Standard 2013 stipulates that highways, feeder roads, and district roads must have a Total Right of Way of 50m, 30m, and 20m respectively, but that rule has not been followed. &nbsp;
As land value increases, encroachment along Prithivi, Siddhartha and Arniko Highways by buildings is rampant and that increases the chances of human-vehicle collisions.
“Nepal’s highway network does not have Right of Way, and the concept is not even discussed during the construction of projects,” says Shrestha. “There should be extensive study into the road and land-use interface, and guidelines must be followed.”
Yet, driver negligence and poor vehicle maintenance play a bigger role in road accidents than climate, weather, or the way Nepal’s highways are constructed. Reckless driving on poorly built roads then turn things deadly.
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-deadly-roads-take-their-toll">Nepal’s deadly roads take their toll</a>, Gopal Gartaula
Acharya is part of a seven-member task force created by the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport earlier this year to study vehicular pollution, safety and accident reduction.
He says, “Nepal’s highways would be much safer if drivers were properly trained or if vehicles were better maintained. But they have little understanding of highway traffic rules, reading signage or basic mechanical knowledge.”&nbsp;
The Land Transportation agency has also been lax in licensing and training drivers, especially those who seek to operate trucks, buses and long-haul four-wheelers. Fines for speeding and other traffic infractions, especially for two-wheelers, have not brought down the fatality rate. Motorcycles cause most of the road accidents in Kathmandu Valley and the Tarai.&nbsp;
In a recent example in Kathmandu, two people died and several were injured when a speeding bus collided with a Bolero as it swerved to avoid a motorbike coming from the opposite direction.&nbsp;
“Nepal’s existing road safety practices and protocols make it pretty clear that transport management authority is unable to govern properly, and needs massive overhaul,” Shrestha explains.&nbsp;
Acharya adds: “The result is that the wrong people are behind the wheel.” &nbsp;
Read also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/maps-showing-increase-in-road-accident-fatality-rates">6 years of road traffic accidents</a>, Sunir Pandey
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<h2>Treating trauma</h2>
A motorcycle was hit by a car along the East-West Highway one recent evening, and the driver was writhing on the road, bleeding profusely.&nbsp;
Bystanders gathered, taking videos of the injured man with their mobiles to post on TikTok. No one helped for fear of being involved. Police took an hour to arrive. The driver bled to death while being taken to hospital.
In a similar case, a motorcyclist was hit by a car on his way to work and he felt pain in his arms, legs, and neck but it did not seem too severe. Bystanders gathered and carried him to hospital on their back.&nbsp;
Well-meaning as they were, they were not trained in handling the injured. The patient was eventually examined by Raju Dhakal of the Spinal Injury Rehabilitation Centre in Sanga, but the rescue attempt itself worsened the trauma and he will now suffer life-long physical complications.&nbsp;
<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/it-s-an-emergency-nepal-needs-to-improve-trauma-care">Trauma care</a> is inaccessible to a larger number of Nepalis as the road network expands across the country. Specialised surgery and emergency treatment are centralised in Kathmandu or main cities, and the cost of rescue, ambulance, airlifting and treatment are too costly for most.
But even at hospitals, there is a lack of trained rescue and emergency first responders, which means untrained bystanders step in and inadvertently make injuries worse.&nbsp;
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/nepal-s-other-pandemic-road-fatalities">Nepal’s other pandemic: road fatalities</a>, Anita Bhetwal
“There is a weakness in the life-saving mechanism that brings patients from accident sites to hospitals, and there are not many trained emergency responders,” says Dhakal. “Even not-critical injuries become life-threatening because police and rescuers do not reach accident sites on time.”&nbsp;
Traffic authority Sitaram Hachhethu agrees that the<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=18715"> role of traffic police and police personnel</a> in case of road accidents on highways is limited to reaching the site which itself takes time due to distance and road conditions, adding to the number of casualties.&nbsp;
Moreover, the police do not even have proper equipment to rescue those who have been in accidents, such as metal and seat cutters. Says Hachhethu: “We use whatever we have to get them out, all the while not knowing the protocol of rescuing an injured person.”
He adds: “90% of RTA deaths would be prevented if we had proper emergency and first response services and trained medical professionals on standby. Until then traffic police, police and rescue personnel need to be trained to provide first aid and basic emergency medical care.”
The state needs to identify which hospitals are primary, secondary, or tertiary to help doctors to direct trauma patients to relevant hospitals. That way, first responders can triage so that the resources of tertiary hospitals can be directed towards the critical patients. Additionally, basic first aid and emergency training can also be provided at the local levels so that people seeking to help accident victims have a basic knowledge of what to do and what not to do.
Read also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/lack-of-trauma-centres-along-nepal’s-highways-worsened-fatality-rate,1383">Highways of death</a>, Sunir Pandey
A 2023 study by the Emergency Department of the College of Medical Sciences and Teaching Hospital over a six-month period from January to June 2022 revealed that 9.58% of the 7,654 patients had been admitted to the emergency unit for Road Traffic Accidents, and 65% of the cases had occurred along highways.
The study in the Journal of the Nepal Medical Association found that 38% of total patients admitted for RTA had soft tissue injuries, while 31% had suffered head injuries.
The situation is dire in the remoter parts of Nepal where medical facilities are few and far between, and the roads are all sub-standard. At <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-rural-lifeline">Achham’s Bayalpata Hospital</a>, orthopaedic surgeon Mandeep Pathak has seen an increase in mass casualties from bus and tractor accidents.
“Hospitals along highways need trauma centres and ICUs so serious patients do not need to be referred to the city,” Pathak says, adding that many do not survive the long bumpy journeys in poorly equipped ambulances. &nbsp;
People are also not aware that the healing process does not end after hospital treatment. Rehabilitation is just as crucial to ensuring there are no long-term complications.&nbsp;
Says Dhakal: “Deaths, critical injuries and long-term disabilities can be prevented provided emergency services and trained professionals reach accident sites on time, identify what level of care victims require, and there is rehabilitation after hospital treatment.” &nbsp;
Read also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Nation-road-kill,621">Road kill</a>, Duncan Maru

Shristi Karki

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Highway accidents are no accident in Nepal

<figure><img width="800" height="464" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161124/636d184e9c7e80680e0ac7bajpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photos: ACHYUTRAJ BHANDARI</figcaption></figure>The death toll in a bus plunge in Mugu has reached 32. Twenty-four people died on the spot and eight more during rescue and treatment. The rest, 11 passengers airlifted by helicopters for <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/its-an-emergency-nepal-needs-to-improve-trauma-care/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">treatment</a> in Nepalganj, are in critical condition.The overloaded bus lost control and plunged down a steep slope near Rara Lake at about 12:30PM on Tuesday. Initial investigation points to brake failure as the cause of the accident. Most of the 43 passengers were travelling from Nepalganj to Mugu’s Gamgadhi to celebrate Dasain with their families.Also on Tuesday, a passenger bus from Dhangadi to Bajura also fell off the highway, injuring 16. On Monday, another jeep careened off the road and fell off a cliff killing at least eight. It was carrying passengers from Kathmandu travelling to Ghandruk to celebrate Dasain holidays.Nearly 50 people have died on <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/lack-of-trauma-centres-along-nepal’s-highways-worsened-fatality-rate,1383" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepal’s highways</a> in the last two days. The causes range from overloading because of the festival, negligence of drivers, mechanical failure, over-speeding, poor road condition because of a very wet monsoon, and an increasing number of unregulated private vehicles.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/traffic-accidents-continue-to-increase-worryingly-in-Nepal,2799" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Road Traffic Accidents</a> (RTA) in Nepal’s highways are so commonplace that most Nepalis are desensitied by the numbers. An average of seven individuals die in road accidents a day in Nepal and 40 are injured. In fact, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepals-other-pandemic-road-fatalities/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">more people die on Nepal's highways every year </a>than in all natural disasters combined.In 2019, there were nearly 13,000 highway and road accidents in which 2,736 people lost their lives and 10,731 were seriously injured. Those who survive more often than not have traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries, requiring long-term or life-long rehabilitative care.The total accidents had come down in 2020-2021 because of the pandemic and lockdowns, but is rising again as things get back to normal. <img width="1205" height="741" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161124/636d18509c7e80680e0ac7bbjpeg.jpg" alt="">According to the <a href="https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241565684">WHO Global Status on Road Safety 2018</a>, only 8 in 100,000 people die of highway and road accidents in developed countries, but the ratio is 27.5 in low-income nations like Nepal.Most of the accidents in Nepal can be prevented by just maintaining the roads and avoiding reckless driving. According to the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport study, 76% of highway accidents are caused by drivers who do not follow traffic rules or are speeding.To control over-speeding and reckless driving, traffic police at the accident-prone Satdobato-Gwarko road have now deployed speed guns. They penalise up to 100 commuters a day, many of them in motorcycles that are going at 90km/hour on the road with a speed limit of 50km/hour.   <img width="1040" height="556" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161124/636d18539c7e80680e0ac7bcjpeg.jpg" alt="">A parliamentary committee that had studied RTAs in Nepal two years ago and concluded it as the ninth biggest killer in the country has also given directives to mitigate the problem. But the state of Nepal’s accident-prone roads remains the same. Adding to the challenge are <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/monsoon-hits-nepal-with-a-bang/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">floods and landslides during monsoon</a>,  made more frequent and destructive by <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-doubles-its-carbon-footprint/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">climate change</a>. Sections of major highways have been washed off, cutting off parts of remote Nepal from the rest of the country. Several accidents here don’t even make it to the news or after many days.From July 2014-July 2019, there were a total of 54,000 road accidents in Nepal resulting in 12,000 deaths of people mostly in the age group 15-40 years. <figure><img width="1001" height="546" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161124/636d18559c7e80680e0ac7bdjpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Relatives of those injured or casualties at the Mugu District Hospital in Gamgadi on Wednesday. Photo: NRIPENDRA MALLA </figcaption></figure><a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/maps-showing-increase-in-road-accident-fatality-rates" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Available studies</a> reveal that in the last decade, the death rate due to traffic accidents has increased by a whopping 142% and accidents by 178%. Nepal is far from meeting the target set by the United Nations General Assembly to halve the number of<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-other-global-pandemic-road-fatalities/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> road fatalities and injuries </a>by 2030.Last year’s annual report by the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) found that road traffic accidents in Nepal have increased by an annual average of 7% in 2017-18, 22% in 2018-19 and 17% in 2019-20.  <img width="1636" height="942" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161124/636d18589c7e80680e0ac7bejpeg.jpg" alt="">The<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/how-covid-19-saves-lives-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> slight dip in 2019-20</a> is attributed to five months of Covid-19 lockdown when road fatalities declined by half to less than 700 in March-August 2020, compared to the same period last year. Ironically, hundreds of lives may have been saved by the pandemic.But by the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/this-years-dangerous-dasain/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Dasain-Tihar festival in November 2020</a>, with restrictions removed, the number of deaths on the roads again spiked to 242 after falling to 52 in May, much like this year.For a country where roads are synonymous with development, more people lose their lives on the highways than by infectious diseases. The reason is the focus on quantity over quality, bad engineering and lack of maintenance.

Deadly Dasain on Nepal’s highways

<figure><img width="1419" height="630" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915118/636bb51a9c7e80680e07bbe3jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>FISHING OUT: Armymen try to pull out the bus that fell into the Madi River in Tanahu in 2013. Photo: PAWAN PAUDEL</figcaption></figure>The Covid-19 crisis has dominated news bulletins in Nepal for the last six months, and in the past week the headlines are about rising cases and fatalities. But what is missing from the news is that the pandemic has also helped save lives.Police statistics show that about 1,400 people were killed in Nepal in road traffic accidents between March-August 2019. This year, the figure dropped to 707 in the same period. Meanwhile, 390 people have died with Covid-19 across the country since the lockdowns began. In those six months last year, more than 5,000 people were seriously injured in highway accidents. This year, the number of wounded was down to 1,978 between March-August. Because of the pandemic, there are therefore far fewer trauma patients in hospitals, and many of them have been saved from lifelong physical disabilities.Besides lives saved in road traffic accidents studies have shown that improved air quality in the cities of north India during the lockdown has saved many thousands of lives.The <a href="https://energyandcleanair.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/CREA-Europe-COVID-impacts.pdf" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://energyandcleanair.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/CREA-Europe-COVID-impacts.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1600526831303000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEaep49FFrKVnsBp1buzFoFhtJbtQ">Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA)</a> estimates that improved air quality since Covid-19 has saved 15,000 lives in 12 of India’s big cities. In New Delhi alone, 4,600 people who may have died of acute respiratory distress have lived because of the cleaner air. A similar study in Nepal is not available, but since Kathmandu Valley’s air quality at certain times of day is as bad as New Delhi, and much of the suspended particulates from north India is carried by prevailing winds into Nepal in winter, there could also be a correlation here between improved health and better air quality during the lockdown. <img width="1402" height="780" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915118/636bb51d9c7e80680e07bbe4jpeg.jpg" alt="">To be sure, the pandemic has led to other hardships, often adding to unnecessary fatalities. Many more women have died this year than in 2019 during the lockdown because they have not been able to get to hospital for delivery. Child mortality is similarly up 30% compared to pre-lockdown months because of delayed vaccinations, and parents unable to get sick children to hospital in time. Patients with chronic ailments have also been deprived of treatment. Jobs losses have increased hunger and susceptibility to disease.The dramatic drop in highway fatalities, however, reveals just how dangerous Nepal’s roads are, and has provided the government an opportunity to take concrete steps to improve road safety even as the government decided to allow long-distance buses to resume their services this week.The fact that 707 people were killed on Nepal’s roads even despite an almost complete ban on vehicular traffic in cities as well as on inter-district highways between March till August this year shows just goes on to show how deadly Nepal’s highways are. A paper in the <a href="https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/early/2020/02/18/injuryprev-2019-043309" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/early/2020/02/18/injuryprev-2019-043309&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1600526831303000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFw67kURQsjGTpdjwgy0yMJObRYPg">British Medical Journal</a> shows that even before the pandemic in 2017, transport injuries killed more young people in Nepal than from tuberculosis, malaria and HIV combined. Seven Nepalis died every day in road and highway accidents in Nepal before the lockdowns, and on average, 40 people were injured. Last year, there were nearly 13,000 road accidents in which 2,736 people lost their lives and 10,731 were seriously injured.But at the same time, Covid-19 has seen rapid spread in the past weeks. Nepal registered the highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases on Friday with 2,020 new cases out of 11,158 PCR tests conducted across the country, Kathmandu Valley alone accounted for 859 positive SARS-CoV-2 cases, also the highest so far. But the last 24 hours also saw 871 people returning home after a successful treatment, bringing the total recoveries to 43,820 and the recovery rate to 71%, up from 55% in August. Nepal now has 17,383 active cases.While the government has decided to further relax the lockdown by allowing domestic airlines to operate, hotels and restaurants to reopen and intercity bus services to resume, the odd-even rule for vehicles is still in force. <figure><img width="640" height="480" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915118/636bb51f9c7e80680e07bbe5jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Wreckage of the bus accident in Dhankuta in 2016 that killed 15 people, including ex-Minister of State for Finance Hari Khewa.</figcaption></figure>This could help contain the spread of Covid-19 somewhat, but it will keep traffic accidents and fatalities low -- especially during the monsoon when roads are even more treacherous in the mountains with additional risk of landslides and flash floods.  Highway accidents are now among the biggest killer in Nepal, right after heart diseases, diabetes, tuberculosis and renal ailments. Age-adjusted death rate at 21% is among some of the highest in the world.The cause of accidents in Nepal is usually carelessness and speeding, and poorly-maintained roads and vehicles. The number of accidents is rising faster than the increase in the number of vehicles.Those who survive often have traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries, requiring long-term or life-long expensive rehabilitative care, available in only few institutions in Nepal and in limited capacity.

How Covid-19 saves lives in Nepal

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101132/636b73f19c7e80680e062367jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1016"/><figcaption>Photo : MONIKA DEUPALA</figcaption></figure>Last November, a speeding bus in Argakanchi lost control and tumbled down a mountain, killing 19 and injuring 18 passengers. Three weeks later, another bus careened off a serpentine road in Sindhupalchok, killing 16 and wounding 18.Seven Nepalis die every day in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-deadly-roads-take-their-toll/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">road and highway accidents</a>. Shocking though that statistic might be, the number of injured is much higher. On average, 40 people are injured on roads across the country each day. Last year, there were nearly 13,000 road accidents in which 2,736 people lost their lives and 10,731 were seriously injured.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=40237&amp;preview_nonce=7ab9966f81&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">It’s an emergency: Nepal needs to improve trauma care</a>, Sanghamitra Subba<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/accident-prone-Mugling-Narayangadi-highway,3828" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Highway accidents</a> are now the biggest killer of young men and women in the country. The causes are usually carelessness and speeding, and poorly-maintained roads and vehicles. The number of accidents are rising faster than the increase in the number of vehicles.Those who survive often have traumatic brain and <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=6946" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spinal cord injuries</a>, requiring long-term or life-long rehabilitative care. But the state of rehabilitation in Nepal is nearly non-existent. There is no government rehabilitation centre, and while some private hospitals do offer inpatient physiotherapy, none have dedicated acute rehabilitation units and none employ physical medicine and rehabilitation consultants.“Forget about prioritising it, rehabilitative medicine is not even included in the healthcare system of Nepal,” laments Raju Dhakal, the only physical medicine and rehabilitative doctor registered in Nepal. “Every hospital has a cardiology unit, intensive care unit and even physiotherapy but no rehabilitation unit. This should be integrated in the healthcare system rather than treated as a separate entity.”The <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SpinalNepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Spinal Injury Rehabilitation Centre</a> (SIRC) in Sanga, founded in 2002, is Nepal’s largest inpatient rehabilitation centre and the only one specialised in spinal cord injury. The 51-bed hospital treats patients from all 77 districts and provides inpatient rehab for 300 individuals a year.It also conducts outpatient care, home follow-up visits, community outreach programs, and a residential vocational rehabilitation program to help people with disabilities integrate back into society and to better equip thier families to deal with their special needs.The only other facilities with dedicated inpatient rehabilitation beds are <a href="https://gphospital.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Green Pastures Hospital</a> in Pokhara and the <a href="https://www.hrdcnepal.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hospital for Rehabilitation and Disabled Children</a> in Kavre.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101132/636b73f49c7e80680e062368jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1065"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>“Usually two physical medicine and rehabilitation specialists are needed for every 100,000 people. This means we need 500 specialists in Nepal, and instead we have one,” says Manoj Sivan, associate professor of rehabilitative medicine at Leeds University in the UK, who says the gap in rehabilitative care can be bridged with telemedicine.“Tele-rehabilitation can link the people in the community with specialists to provide necessary interventions remotely, allowing them to the save time and money spent travelling to the centre,” adds Sivan, who was in Nepal last month with a team of researchers to launch a six-month pilot project called Tele-rehabilitation Nepal (TERN) in collaboration with SIRC (above).Unlike <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/long-distance-medicine-in-nepal,3521" target="_blank" rel="noopener">other telemedicine consultations</a> where a patient has to visit a health post to connect with doctors based in cities, in tele-rehab a social worker from SIRC visits patients, finds out their needs and then connects them with a specialist team that consists of a physician, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, nurse and  psychologist.Patients with long-term disabilities and their families learn about better management of bladder, bowel and pain, as well as exercise techniques to help mobility.The idea for e-rehab first came to Dhakal when a paraplegic patient from Surkhet visited SIRC and was unable to pay a minimal consultation fee. She had spent Rs45,000 to hire a jeep and had to pay for extended hotel stay for herself and two relatives. “It hit me hard,” Dhakal recalls. “This country’s topography makes accessing healthcare stressful for most Nepalis.”Besides those with <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/paraplegic-ram-bahadur-tamang-travels-from-namo-buddha-to-lumbini,1303" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spinal injuries</a> caused by highway accidents, tele-rehabilitation is useful for those recovering from other medical emergencies like strokes and also for general medicine.The Nepal Government’s 2016 Policy, Strategy, and Ten Year Action Plan on Disability Management plans for every province to have at least one fully equipped rehabilitation centre and established orthotics/prosthetics workshop in the next ten years. SIRC is also working with the Ministry of Health to develop another 100-bed hospital to provide specialised rehabilitation care.Added Dhakal: “Sooner or later the government has to take responsibility and decentralise rehabilitative care. This will allow us to train more people and supervise other centres to decentralise rehab.”<h2>Wheelchair doctor treats patients in wheelchairs</h2>As the only physical medicine and rehabilitation doctor in Nepal, Raju Dhakal (left) has a lot on his plate. His days are packed with back-to-back consultations with rehabilitation patients. The 37-year-old does this with ease as he moves about in his wheelchair greeting patients at Spinal Injury Rehabilitation Centre (SIRC) at Sanga, Kavre.Dhakal himself was diagnosed with poliomyelitis when he was two-and-half years old. Originally from Gorkha, he came to Kathmandu and lived in SOS Children’s Village while undergoing treatment. He started school at age seven, and learned to read and write at the same time as he learned to use crutches.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/new-life-for-khagendra-b-basnyat/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New life for Khagendra B Basnyat</a>, Sewa BhattaraiWith an MBBS from Kathmandu Medical College, Dhakal went on to receive an MD in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in Dhaka.“At daily rotations during my internship, there was one patient that every doctor skipped. He was undergoing rehabilitation after treatment for a spinal injury. No one could do anything for him so he remained there in a corner of that ward,” recalls Dhakal. “This opened my eyes to a gaping hole in medical care in Nepal.”Dhakal went on to become honorary clinical fellow at the Department of Rehabilitative Medicine at the <a href="https://medicine.unimelb.edu.au/research-groups/medicine-and-radiology-research/royal-melbourne-hospital" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Royal Melbourne Hospital</a> in Australia. He trained in Spinal Cord Medicine and Rehabilitation in Ireland, Canada and Switzerland.“In Nepal we are still very focussed on diagnosis and acute treatment. But what about residual paralysis in case of trauma, traumatic brain injuries and spinal injuries?” asks Dhakal. “Long-term rehabilitative care for patients with disabilities is severely lacking. We need more facilities for specialised rehabilitation care.”

Sonia Awale

Injured use Internet to get rehab care

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110815110/636a61059c7e80680e056eadjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1012"/><figcaption>Photo: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption></figure>The first thing one notices these days while travelling by road in the Tarai are hundreds of cattle blocking the East-West Highway, mainly at intersections like Atariya or Kohalpur.The ‘cow emergency’ hit the headlines in September, when 24 cows were found dead below the highway in Surkhet and hundreds of others were wandering in the jungles. Police investigation revealed that the cattle were being transported from Nepalganj to Dailekh as part of an effort by the municipality to reduce the population of street livestock.Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=35036&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Creatures of culture</a><a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=35062&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">In an animal farm,</a> EditorialWhat few people know is that dozens of cattle had died earlier this year when Sukla Phanta Municipality near Dhangadi spent Rs5.5 million to round up cattle and put them in shelters, where most of them died of starvation and lack of care.There is no estimate of the number of cattle on the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/east-west-city/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">highways near border towns of the western Tarai</a>, but on a recent trip reporters counted hundreds just on the stretch between Dhangadi and Atariya. Locals said there were a lot more street cattle previously, and the numbers had actually gone down.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF0y09GnNVwLocal officials said the main reason for the cattle crisis was the ban on beef in north Indian states, especially after the election of high priest and Hindu nationalist politician <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/saffron-surge-politics,3619" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Yogi Adityanath</a> as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in 2017. Media reports of lynchings by religious extremists of Muslim traders suspected to be transporting cows put a stop to the unofficial ‘export’ of cattle from Nepal to India.Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=35133&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Saving Nepal's last wild dogs,</a> Yadav Ghimirey<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=35155&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A dog with altitude,</a> Sonam Choeyki LamaThere used to be a thriving crossborder trade in aged oxen and cows that had stopped giving milk. But sensitivity about cow slaughter in India after the rise of the BJP, as well as the new border fence on the India-Bangladesh border, has meant that the cattle are abandoned on the streets.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/rana-regime-restored-in-nepalganj/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepalganj Mayor Dhawal Rana</a> thought he had solved the problem by finding communities in the mountains willing to take the cows, however the transporter contracted to take the cattle to Dailekh let the cattle loose in the jungle near Surkhet in September.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45vQlWqfPW8https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD4iyOyafOcThere are other factors at play: increased <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/productivity-empowerment-and%20job-with-mechanization-and-cooperative-in-agriculture,2378" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mechanisation of agriculture</a> and the use of threshing machines, disc ploughs and the replacement of ox carts with tractors means that bulls are no longer in high demand in the Tarai.“Ten years ago I sold my bulls for Rs50,000 — now there are no buyers. I can’t even pay someone to take the bulls away,” says Biru Ram Chaudhari of Lalitpur village of Kailali.Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/guy-jatra/">Guy Jatra</a>, The Ass<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/kathmandu-traffic-faqs/">Kathmandu traffic FAQs</a>, The AssThe <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-and-malaysia-rewrite-rules-for-migrant-labour/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">outmigration of Nepali youth</a> to India, the Gulf and Malaysia has meant that <a href="https://nepalitimes.atavist.com/back-to-the-land" target="_blank" rel="noopener">agriculture</a> in general has seen a downturn, and there are fewer households keeping water buffalos and cattle at home. The urban expansion of Dhangadi and Nepalganj municipalities has also forced households to abandon home dairies.The stray cattle are now grazing in jungles by the highways, munching away at the undergrowth. Forests planted for flood control have also been affected. Sugarcane and paddy farmers have lost their entire crops as the cattle move through the fertile farms of the western Tarai.Says local farmer Gayadin Chaudhari: “It used to be <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/how-humans-can-live-with-wild-elephants/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">elephants and wild animals</a> that destroyed our crops, now it is the cattle. In Mohanpur they lost 8 bigha (1.5 hectares) of sugarcane to stray cows.”In Attariya, police say there has been an increase in highway accidents and fatalities because of collisions of vehicles with stray cows at night. They say the only solution is to tag cows so that they can be traced back to their owners, who will then be forced to be more responsible.

Kunda Dixit

Waiting till the cows come home

Fenerbahçe Beko won the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague finals in Abu Dhabi, held 23-25 May, defeating Monaco 81-70 in the final. Olympiacos, who defeated Panathinaikos 97-93, finished the series in third place. The Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the final match, Nigel Hayes-Davis from Fenerbahçe Beko, received a prize of 1,000,000 Miles&amp;Smiles from Turkish Airlines’ Chief Commercial Officer Ahmet Olmuştur. The carrier has been the title sponsor of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, a top tier tournament, since 2010.

Turkish Basketball

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

The Everest Industry

While Nepal marked <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/mt-everest-pvt-ltd">Mt Everest</a> Day on 29 May, on the other side of the planet in the US state of Colorado dozens of Nepalis who have climbed the world’s highest peak multiple times were busy working as chefs and Uber drivers. Among them is Nima Doma Sherpa, who climbed Mt Everest in 2019 after her husband Tshering Wangchu was among 16 crushed by an avalanche on <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/on-thin-ice-in-the-khumbu">the Khumbu Icefall</a> five years earlier. A large serac broke off the West Shoulder of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-everest-industry">Mt Everest </a>and fell directly on a group of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/more-porters-sick-on-everest-trail">porters and guides</a> making their way up the Icefall at 5,800m. Their bodies were flown by helicopter to Khumjung where Tshering Wangchu was born. He was excited about climbing Mt Everest for the first time.&nbsp; In Khumjung, Nima Doma felt like her own life had also ended. This was the kind of news Sherpa wives, mothers and sisters dreaded every <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/peak-climbing-season-2025-s4abrxny">mountaineering season</a>. She stayed home for more than two years grieving, but ultimately gathered up all her emotional strength to take care of her 6-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter. Nima had grown up in Khumjung hearing <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/stories-of-nepal-s-summiteers">tales of adventure on the mountains </a>from their father, Ang Chubi Sherpa who had climbed Everest in 1993. He used to bring her and her sisters and brother European chocolates after every expedition, and used to tell them that the chocolate bars grew on the mountains. “It was only after we got older did we realise that he told us that chocolates grew in the mountains so we would not worry about him putting himself in harm's way,” Nima Doma recalled with a faraway look at her home in Boulder this week. Nima went to the school that <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/commemorating-edmund-hillary-in-nepal,4145">Edmund Hillary</a> opened in Khumjung till Grade 8, and then dropped out to help in the kitchen and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/when-yaks-go-so-does-culture">tend yaks</a>. She was married off to Tshering Wangchu, who was also a high altitude guide. When Tshering went on expeditions, Nima also started working as a porter from Namche to Base Camp. It was perhaps her father’s tales of mountains of chocolates that had always attracted her to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/knowing-our-mountains-43v4iyvo">the peaks</a>. After her husband was killed ten years ago this month, being a widow with children was not easy for Nima Doma. But she was not alone: there were at least 200 single mothers in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/khumbu-since-1950-jaww4qn0">the Khumbu</a>, and 20 of them just in Khumjung whose husbands had been killed in <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/tragic-start-to-himalayan-spring-nepal,3695">mountaineering accidents</a>. Some were not even 20 years old, and had children growing up without fathers. But there were also women in the 50s whose husbands had been killed in the 1980s. Nima found sponsors for her children’s education, and moved to Kathmandu. In the capital, Sherpa widows used to meet to help each other. Some of them had joined the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) training for rock and ice climbing. “I decided that it was no use sitting home and crying anymore, after meeting other single mothers I felt less alone,” remembers Nima, who joined the Juniper Foundation and enrolled in an NMA training camp in Manang. There she climbed Chulu East (6,584m) and met Furadiki Sherpa, whose rope-fixing husband had also been <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/on-mt-everest-s-70th-records-and-fatalities">killed on Everest</a> in 2013. They set themselves the goal of climbing Everest one day, and started a fund-raising drive.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250530090544_621be0724b9182c8e3594b2c562a71ec32ac01d985a71d0cf31646de9d51e15a.png" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20250530090544_621be0724b9182c8e3594b2c562a71ec32ac01d985a71d0cf31646de9d51e15a" data-rendition-name="original" width="2678" height="1274" loading="lazy" alt="Everest summiteers find new life in the US"> </figure>  “We decided we had to overcome society’s stigma of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/widows-personal-happiness-comes-last-in-face-of-social-financial-hardships,1855">widowhood</a> and prove that <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/remembering-junko-tabei">women could also climb mountains</a>,” Nima said, adding that she was inspired by Nepal’s first woman Everest summiteer Pasang Lhamu Sherpa, who died during her descent in 1993. Nima Doma and Furdiki climbed the technically-difficult Ama Dablam (6,812m) and then arrived at Everest Base Camp in April 2019 as part of their Two Widows Expedition with the motto, ‘So Can We’. While climbing up the Icefall Nima passed the spot where her husband had been killed. It was a jumble of constantly-shifting ice blocks bigger than houses. She closed her eyes and said a prayer. “I remember thinking, this is so difficult and dangerous. This is what my husband had to do to support our family,” Nima Doma said. “I was determined to fulfil my husband’s dream of climbing Chomolungma, and to prove to ourselves that we two women could do it.” It was 23 May 2019 when <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/world/two-sherpa-widows-scale-everest-and-smash-stigma-idUSKCN1SU0MV/" target="_blank">Nima and Furdiki stepped on the summit</a> and looked over into Tibet, and down at Tengboche Monastery to the south.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250530090544_6b822582b5d88ba5e972db084f184690b40653c6efd9901b2dd082ffba2a263b.png" data-media-id="editor_16" data-image-id="20250530090544_6b822582b5d88ba5e972db084f184690b40653c6efd9901b2dd082ffba2a263b" data-rendition-name="original" width="2700" height="1522" loading="lazy" alt="Everest summiteers find new life in the US"> </figure>  Nima Doma hugged Furdiki, took off her mask and wept. But for the first time in five years, it was not from grief but relief — relief for being free of all the sadness and sacrifices and for fulfilling her husband’s dream. They had found <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/life-after-death">life after death</a>. “I felt this immense joy to be on top of the world, it was indescribable,” Nima Doma said, “I have wept only twice in my life. Once when my husband died, and once there on top of Everest.” The tears had frozen on Nima Doma’s cheeks, as she and Furdiki headed back down the mountain.

Everest summiteers find new life in the US

At the edge of the dense forest overlooking Bhaktapur, the sound of chirping birds and the wind rustling through the trees have been replaced by the growl of dozens of bulldozers. This Kakrabari Community Forest behind Suryabinayak shrine was c<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/reviving-nepals-community-forestry-success-story">arefully protected and managed </a>by the local Tamang community for centuries. Today, heavy earthmovers claw noisily at the slope, opening it up like a big red wound. With little land left in the densely populated city, developers are venturing further afield to the valley’s rim and forcibly taking over forests that <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-unsung-heroes-of-conservation">local communities </a>have depended on for fodder, firewood and to protect their watershed.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250530180528_acd2eb20a4839a83f3a15b4c8587dbf82c5b96534f2184043edeaf0f5165145f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20250530180528_acd2eb20a4839a83f3a15b4c8587dbf82c5b96534f2184043edeaf0f5165145f" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="562" loading="lazy" alt="Plotting to plunder NT"> </figure>  This project of Nic Vujicic Housing Company in Suryabinayak’s Kakrabari Bhanjyang is just the latest and most blatant example of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/who-now-owns-nepals-forests">encroachment of forests </a>by real estate developers in collusion with local government officials. “One day, they just came and bulldozed my house,” says Shanta Lama of Ghising Danda, whose family has been living in a tent since March. “Company workers gathered my belongings, deposited them in this tent and demolished my house.” Unlike some of her neighbours, Lama refused to give up her home, but stood no chance against the heavy machines and strongmen mobilised by the company.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250530180528_ff88453001e3dc521406bda7b6cb06b9e5b70d6821e67251b92257e60e72232a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20250530180528_ff88453001e3dc521406bda7b6cb06b9e5b70d6821e67251b92257e60e72232a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="562" loading="lazy" alt="Plotting to plunder NT"> <figcaption>Shanta Lama of Ghising Danda whose house was bulldozed last month. She and her family are now living in makeshift huts nearby.</figcaption> </figure>  Adds Shanta: “I have not signed any document of agreement, the company keeps telling me that they will settle the paperwork later.” Her neighbour Bal Bahadur Tamang, says a<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/ordinary-nepalis-extraordinary-sacrifice"> bulldozer razed his house</a> while he was out grazing goats in the forest. He recalls: “My wife shouted to the neighbours for help, but no one heard her.” &nbsp; The company used strongarm tactics to try to force Bal Bahadur to sign away his small plot at the edge of the forest that the housing company needed. The family refused, so the property was simply taken over. “Many families have been forcibly evicted from their homes and moved elsewhere to make way for the new housing colony,” says Bal Bahadur. But such is the fear of the young vigilantes employed by the company, that they are afraid to speak out.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250530180528_b7d1a94af95a0b17703f61397d65fe879c4c9b3b02681706b9104114a5c4e5cd.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20250530180528_b7d1a94af95a0b17703f61397d65fe879c4c9b3b02681706b9104114a5c4e5cd" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="562" loading="lazy" alt="Plotting to plunder NT"> <figcaption>Many families this one have been forcibly evicted, and do not want to speak openly because of the fear of vigilantes. </figcaption> </figure>  But there appears to be a generational divide among the local community in Ghising Danda. Many <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/no-country-for-young-men">young men have migrated</a> to the city or abroad, but those that remain have been promised jobs and a piece of land by the company, and support the project.&nbsp; For centuries, Suryabinayak communities have tended to the land, and the land has tended to them. The protected trees provide them with livelihood,<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/multipronged-response-to-nepal-s-multi-hazards"> prevent landslides</a> on the slopes above and recharge ground water so the springs do not go dry. But this historic connection was severed in January when the excavators arrived to chop down trees and dig up the hill, razing 1.1 hectares of the community forest and surrounding settlements.&nbsp; Much of the forest is now gone, and recent rains have washed the red mud down the mountain like a bleeding gash. On a recent visit excavators were levelling the slope.&nbsp; Nic Vujicic Housing is owned by Purna Bahadur Limbu, Prabin Kusma and Dillidhwaj Baraili. It had parcelled 14.6 hectares in the neighbouring Palanse village three years ago, and was even awarded by the municipality for the project.&nbsp; Now, the company is clearing 27 hectares of private property and community forest in Ghising Danda without a planning permit either from the municipality or the Kathmandu Valley Development Authority (KVDA).&nbsp; In fact, its application has been pending at the Authority since last October. The company has dangled a lollipop by promising 21 out of the 451 private plots to the government.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250530180528_08bcc863a21fd35364086877e1f8152d6c470b5fcd4fd650c555577a824c77c6.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20250530180528_08bcc863a21fd35364086877e1f8152d6c470b5fcd4fd650c555577a824c77c6" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="562" loading="lazy" alt="Plotting to plunder NT"> </figure>  Nepal’s 2015 Basic Standards for the Development of Settlements, and Urban Planning and Building Construction by-laws stipulate that land transactions, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepali-building-bridges-in-tasmania">construction projects</a>, and housing development via land consolidation require approval from either the KVDA or local government.&nbsp; Projects involving land up to 0.1 hectares require permission from the local level, and those of up to 2.5 hectares require approval from the district authorities, and plans exceeding that area need a permit from the KVDA.&nbsp; Nic Vujicic Housing’s director Dillidhwaj Baraili, is a member of the Federation of Nepalese Industries and Entrepreneurs (FENIE), and close to the ruling UML party.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250530180528_2016ffcd828fda3535798e7534067519e9c346e64371866c9a61c571ce70b1b4.jpg" data-media-id="editor_11" data-image-id="20250530180528_2016ffcd828fda3535798e7534067519e9c346e64371866c9a61c571ce70b1b4" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="562" loading="lazy" alt="Plotting to plunder NT"> </figure>  While the company did consult with locals, conduct an EIA, tested soil quality, and conducted a hydrological study of the area, these were perfunctory and incomplete for a proper permit application. The approval of<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/mind-the-gap-6liiyw5w"> private landowners </a>and the municipality as well as project details were missing.&nbsp; The company had excavated half of Ghising Danda without permission when the local community started raising questions. Only then did it seek permission from the ward, which directed it to apply for a planning permit from the Suryabinayak Municipality.&nbsp; “We are yet to verify whether all the documents submitted by the company are in order, which is why the application is still pending,” Rajendra Prasad Nepal, the municipality’s information officer, told Nepali Times.&nbsp; But the lack of a permit does not seem to deter company director Dillidhwaj Baraili, who uses convoluted semantics to justify using excavators on private and community land. &nbsp; “It is the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/kathmandu-s-unreal-real-estate-prices">plotting of the land</a> that requires approval from the KVDA, we do not need permission from local authorities to operate heavy machinery on the project site,” Baraili told us. However, Ward 9 Chair Bhagwan Khatri says no such permission to use excavators and bulldozers have been given without first obtaining a planning permit. “The housing project is illegal because it has moved forward without a planning permit,” says KVDA’s District Commissioner for Bhaktapur, Safal Shrestha. When the bulldozers started felling trees in the community forest in March, a joint task force of four local guthi put up a resistance, and demanded that the housing company ensure that there would be no mudslide danger downslope <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/before-the-next-monsoon">during the monsoon</a>.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250531030528_44bd6a61a1c81d07ee19e790a51929a9fd13c1db2da7ede2b7ef4d99b8c6c32a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_15" data-image-id="20250531030528_44bd6a61a1c81d07ee19e790a51929a9fd13c1db2da7ede2b7ef4d99b8c6c32a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="562" loading="lazy" alt="Plotting to plunder NT"> <figcaption>Dozens of heavy earthmovers were at work at this site one morning earlier this month. With an early monsoon, residents fear mud slides.</figcaption> </figure>  It also wanted the company to make sure the flow of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/the-heat-beneath-our-feet">water in springs</a> were not affected, and to set up a boundary along the community forest to prevent further encroachment. It also demanded compensation to displaced homeowners.&nbsp; But Nic Vujicic Housing paid no heed, and sent in excavators. Last month, the Kakrabari Community Forest Users Struggle Committee wrote to the Bhaktapur District Administration Office, Suryabinayak Municipality, and the Division forest Office to halt the project. In response, the housing company put out a press release accusing residents of spreading rumours, but the statement presented contradicting information about the status of its planning permit at various levels of the government. &nbsp; It has taken a month for the local government to even send an inspection team to the site. But the team concluded that the forest had been encroached upon and asked the housing company to halt its activities immediately.&nbsp; The company refused to comply, and on 9 May the Police was sent to shut down the project. Baraili maintains the forest was levelled with the consent of all four Guthi as well as Ram Krishna Tamang of the Kakrabari Community Forest User group. Tamang told us he has given no such go-ahead.&nbsp; “How could we have permitted the operation of construction machinery in the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/safeguarding-the-soul-of-sal">community forest </a>when the Nepal government itself does not allow the destruction of public property?” adds Tamang. Because of the controversy, the company is now trying to use a carrot and stick approach by placating the local community, while also intimidating those who speak out. “Even though we had obtained permission, perhaps we should have not started using our heavy machinery yet,” Baraili admitted. However, the company is trying to silence dissenters in the community with threats. The company has deployed local youth who have been promised jobs to convince and cajole outspoken community members in Ghising Danda. &nbsp; One of them is Chewang Tamang, who says jobs are more important, and lashes out at locals for being “anti-development”. He says: “There is no point sitting around complaining that a few trees have been cut. The only people who are opposed to this project are those who do not want this place to develop.” &nbsp; <div class="embed-block"><div><div style="left: 0; width: 100%; height: 0; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%;"><iframe src="https://cdn.iframe.ly/api/iframe?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2F6TRxyQjbo50%3Fsi%3DjMRyrgfB9tTX8pP8&key=87ca3314a9fa775b5c3a7726100694b0" style="top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; border: 0;" allowfullscreen scrolling="no" allow="accelerometer *; clipboard-write *; encrypted-media *; gyroscope *; picture-in-picture *; web-share *;"></iframe></div></div></div>

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