<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230112100136/63bfd48e9c7e80680e0d30afjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="591" height="431"/><figcaption>Using oxen to plough a field in 1979 and in 2010 (right). All photos: ZDENĚK THOMA AND TOMÁŠ BERÁNEK</figcaption></figure>The Prague Spring democracy uprising had just been crushed by Soviet troops in 1968, and many Czechoslovaks fled the country. Photographer Zdeněk Thoma also left, but not as a refugee – he travelled overland to Istanbul, Tehran, Kabul and Kathmandu to discover the world.He went on to Calcutta, and in Singapore hitched a ride on a Polish cargo ship to Osaka. Thoma’s life-long love affair with Japan began then. He has been to the country 12 times and has since published three photo books, the latest on Japanese gardens.But after Japan, it is Nepal that Zdeněk Thoma is most fond of, and especially the valley of Manang which he first trekked to in 1979. He spent three weeks photographing the scenic trans-Himalayan valley and on return to Prague, held a photo exhibition ‘Village in the Shadow of Annapurna’.Czechoslovakia was still one country then, and the Communist regime had made it difficult for citizens to travel abroad. Which is why the dramatic photographs from an exotic corner of the Nepal Himalaya was an instant hit, were exhibited in galleries and museums in Czechia and Slovakia, inspiring a generation of mountaineers.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230112100136/63bfd4919c7e80680e0d30b0jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="919" height="686"><figcaption>Three self confident girls Thoma encountered while trekking Manang Valley in 1979. Right: Nearly 40 years later the women are now in Kathmandu.</figcaption></figure>If it was any other photographer, that would have been the end of the story, and Thoma would have gone on to explore and photograph other parts of the world. But in 2008, he got his son Michal to retrace his steps to Manang, carrying with him an album of black and white photographs taken thirty years earlier.“The idea was to document and interpret the changes that had happened in Manang in the intervening years,” Zdenek Thoma, now 84, said during another visit to Nepal this week. Thoma went back to Manang on this trip, and the transformation has been even greater. In 1979, he had to walk for two weeks from Dumre up the Marsyangdi to Manang, today there is a road right up to Manang village.The road is rought, but has further altered the livelihoods and architecture of this once-quaint valley at the edge of the Tibetan Plateau. Even so, a lot of things have also remained the same.“When my father first came to Manang in 1979, I was just six months old,” says Michal. “I grew up listening to his stories about Nepal instead of fairytales. The photographs were imprinted in my mind, so when I finally got to Manang myself in 2008 I was already familiar with the place.”<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230112100136/63bfd4949c7e80680e0d30b1jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="501" height="409"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>Michal went house-to-house in Manang and surrounding villages trying to locate some of the people in his father’s photographs. A young Dalit girl carrying her baby brother on her back in 1979 was a young woman. Already in 2008, there were a couple of motorcycles in Manang that had been carried over since the road to Besisahar had not yet been built.Before the road (and concrete) got there, the terraced houses of villages like Braga, Chame, Humde looked unchanged in 30 years. But it has been 14 years already since 2008, and that is not the case anymore. In 2008, mobile phones had already got to Manang and Michal has a photograph of women carrying a load of buckwheat on their back, and one of them is texting while she walks.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230112100136/63bfd4979c7e80680e0d30b2jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="525" height="760"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>The mountains seem eternal, and do not change much. But the impact of the climate crisis are now visible. The Gangapurna Lake at the terminus of the glacier did not exist 50 years ago. By 1979 it was a large pond. In another 30 years, the lake had expanded and the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Repeat-photography-of-Gangapurna-glacier-shows-glacial-retreat-over-32-years-A-A_fig5_281320415">glacier has retreated</a> up the north face of Mt Gangapurna. Today, the lake is gone -- covered by debris after heavy monsoon rains in 2000 washed down fragile glacial deposits no longer held together by permafrost.When Michal returned to Prague in 2008, he organised another exhibition ‘Manang: 30 Years Ago’ with before and after pictures by his father and himself. In 2010, Zdenek and Michal exhibited the photographs at the<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230112100136/63bfd49c9c7e80680e0d30b3jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="460"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival (KIMFF), and after that father and son <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=18132#.Y3mbqnZBy3A">took the photographs to Manang</a> where the photos were entrusted with a family to be exhibited.“When I first came to Manang, the people I photographed said they felt like the yaks that tourists took pictures of,” recalls Zdenek. “So we wanted to give the photographs to the people there. People there could see how much their villages had changed, sometimes for better sometimes for worse, so that Nepalis could decide how its remote mountains valleys should be developed in future.”<h2>Kathmandu Calendar</h2>1979 – 2023<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230112100136/63bfd4a09c7e80680e0d30b4jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3372" height="2619"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>Czech photographer Zdenek Thoma first visited Kathmandu in 1979 in his overland travel from Prague to Singapore. But that brief visit to Kathmandu Valley fascinated him, and he returned several times after that.The photographs he took of Manang are part of a father-son exhibition with his son Michal of the transformation of the HImalaya (see main story). But the Kathmandu photographs represent a valuable archive of the Valley then and now. The changes in the architecture, the skyline, the people’s attire and livelihoods is documented in black and white photographs.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230112100136/63bfd4a69c7e80680e0d30b5jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="1415"><figcaption>Bhaktapur’s skyline in 1979 and today. Tile roofs have been replaced with concrete, terraced farms with terraced roofs.</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230112100136/63bfd4ac9c7e80680e0d30b6jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="1422"><figcaption>Nyatapola Temple Square in Bhaktapur has not changed much in 43 years, on the dresses of people.</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230112100136/63bfd4b09c7e80680e0d30b7jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="1415"><figcaption>An all-purpose pond in Bhaktaphur in a span of nearly half-a-century.</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230112100136/63bfd4b69c7e80680e0d30b8jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="1421"><figcaption>An ancient Hiti in 1979 and today where the water still flows.</figcaption></figure>Now, Thomas has brought out a 2023 calendar where he has juxtaposed some of the photographs with more recent colour images of the same places or street scenes by Tomáš Beránek and Jan Zalud. Proceeds from the sale of the calendars will go to <a href="https://www.namastenepal.cz/kontakt/">Namaste Nepal</a>, a Czech non-profit that focuses on development aid to Nepal and helps underserved children with education. It has also helped with rebuilding primary schools after the 2015 earthquake.

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Back to Manang after 43 years

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131156/63723bc89c7e80680e0c95e1jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2296" height="1384"/><figcaption>Satellite radar image showing position of the heaviest rainfall on Thursday morning. The system is now moving north, and will bring more rain to the central Himalaya.</figcaption></figure>Unseasonal late monsoon rains across Nepal are causing floods, damaging paddy fields ready for harvest, and early snowfall in the Himalaya has stranded trekkers and festival travellers.<p style="background: white; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; widows: 2; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 16px; word-spacing: 0px; margin: 0in 0in 8.05pt 0in;">Relentless rain battered Kathmandu and other areas in the middle of the Dasain festival season, when many people are on the road or at airports travelling to their home districts.<p style="background: white; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; widows: 2; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 16px; word-spacing: 0px; margin: 0in 0in 8.05pt 0in;">A highway accident in Bara on Thursday morning which appears to have been caused by the bus brakes failing due to aquaplaning in heavy rain killed 18 people. Landslides and muddy roads cut off other areas of the country. There have been no flights to and from Pokhara since Tuesday.<p style="background: white; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; widows: 2; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; font-stretch: normal; word-spacing: 0px; margin: 0in 0in 8.05pt 0in;">The Department of Hydrology and Meteorology Early Warning Centre forecasts more rain for at least two more days, mainly concentrated in western and central Nepal. The monsoon front that brought this precipitation is being pushed back by a westerly, bringing more snow to the central Himalayan areas.<p style="background: white; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; widows: 2; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; font-stretch: normal; word-spacing: 0px; margin: 0in 0in 8.05pt 0in;">Kathmandu got 70mm of rain on Thursday, with the heaviest in Rupendehi and Chitwan which recorded 200mm in 24 hours, and 80mm in Dang. Kathmandu is expected to get more rain by mid-day Friday and into the evening.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131156/63723bcb9c7e80680e0c95e2jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="450"><figcaption>Manang on Thursday afternoon was blanketed in unseasonal snowfall, trapping trekkers on their way to Thorung La and Tilicho. Photo: RSS</figcaption></figure>The Babai and West Rapti Rivers were flowing above the danger mark on Thursday evening, while the Narayani in Devghat was rising up to its 9m danger threshold. The Department has warned people living close to the Narayani in Nawalparasi and Chitwan to take extreme care.<p style="background: white; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; widows: 2; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; font-stretch: normal; word-spacing: 0px; margin: 0in 0in 8.05pt 0in;">Meanwhile, the monsoon depression dumped more than 2m of snow in the Himalaya, forcing mountaineers on Manaslu, Dhaulagiri and Mt Everest to cancel their expeditions. Two Nepalis were killed in avalanches on Manaslu, while an American extreme skier was killed after she fell to her death from near the summit of the world’s eighth highest mountain.<p style="background: white; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; widows: 2; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; font-stretch: normal; word-spacing: 0px; margin: 0in 0in 8.05pt 0in;">Humla, which had got the first unseasonal snowfall of the season at the end of September, got more of it on Thursday. In Manang, the blizzards this week blanketed Ngisyang and Narpha, trapping yak herders and trekkers.<p style="background: white; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; widows: 2; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; font-stretch: normal; word-spacing: 0px; margin: 0in 0in 8.05pt 0in;">"There was only snow from Wednesday night, now it is sleet and snow in Humde,” said  Kancha Ghale, Chairman of Manang Ngisyang Rural Municipality.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131156/63723bce9c7e80680e0c95e3jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2406" height="1502"><figcaption>Rainfall map of Nepal with heaviest precipitation on Thursday reported in Nawalparasi, Rupendehi and Chitwan, where rivers are flowing above the danger mark.</figcaption></figure>The head of Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) Area Office in Manang, Lekhnath Gautam, said 60 trekkers headed up to Thorung La (5,416 m) and Tilicho Lake (4,919 m) were stuck in the town waiting for the snowfall to stop.<p style="background: white; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; widows: 2; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; font-stretch: normal; word-spacing: 0px; margin: 0in 0in 8.05pt 0in;">Another 150 trekkers are at Yak Kharka, Ledar, Thorung Phedi and High Camp on the way to the Thorung pass. There are also trekkers in  Khangsar and Srikharka on the trail to Tilicho.<p style="background: white; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; widows: 2; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; font-stretch: normal; word-spacing: 0px; margin: 0in 0in 8.05pt 0in;">Manang’s Chief District Officer Rabindra Prasad Acharya said that trekkers have been asked to stay where they are as there are risks of landslides and avalanches due to heavy rain and snowfall higher up the mountains.<p style="background: white; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; widows: 2; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; font-stretch: normal; word-spacing: 0px; margin: 0in 0in 8.05pt 0in;">Floods have also damaged the Besisahar-Chame road, which was rough even at the best of times. Landslides at Khotro, Dharapani, and Timang had blocked traffic since Wednesday.

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More rain and snow forecast for Nepal

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131124/637234459c7e80680e0c4925jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"/><figcaption>A typical landscape of yarsa, alpine meadow above treeline and below snowline. Pictured here is Manang’s Chuli Peak. All photos: ACHYUT TIWARI</figcaption></figure>A young girl in the Ray-Ban sunglass is singing along to the tune of a song playing on a portable woofer she is carrying. She has just come out of Yak Kkharkha lodge in Upper Manang and is on her way to collect yarsagumba for the day.Throughout the yarsa-picking season from March to June, Tashi Gurung has been going to the meadows daily to pick the valuable caterpillar fungus. She is happy about how much she has collected this season.“I feel energised and happy when I manage to gather 50 or more pieces a day but when we pick only a few, me and my friends have to go hungry,” says Gurung.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mushroom-trekking-in-the-himalaya/">Mushroom trekking in the Himalaya</a>, Sarah Watson<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131124/637234489c7e80680e0c4926jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1126"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Highly prized in traditional Chinese medicine, yarsagumba is supposed to have health benefits and can fetch up to $110,000 per kg in Beijing. It is extensively hunted across the Himalayas and in Nepal, caravans of people from rural villages move to the higher elevations to follow the pre-monsoon yarsa gold rush every year. Demand has gone up during the pandemic due to the belief that the fungus has therapeutic properties.They do not get anywhere near international prices, but the lucrative hunt has largely lifted many parts of rural Nepal from poverty, allowing them to afford food, healthcare and education.This year the price of yarsa at the collection site is Rs300-350 per piece depending on the quality, but the caterpillar fungus can get harvesters up to Rs1,000 if it’s larger and golden yellow in colour.Local contractors usually buy the fungus from collectors as soon as it is picked. This rids collectors from having to clean and dry it as well as prevents theft and bargaining.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/eastern-nepals-mundum-landscape/">Eastern Nepal’s Mundum landscape</a>, Achyut Tiwari and Ramesh Kumar Rai<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131124/6372344b9c7e80680e0c4927jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="624"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>“We have more than 1,000 collectors this season in this area and over half of them are from Gorkha,” says another collector Dhan Bahadur Gurung.Dwindling harvests of the 'Himalayan viagra' can lead to conflict. In 2009, seven pickers from Gorkha were killed in Manang's Nar Phu region in a dispute with locals. Six local people were convicted of the murders.Tashi Gurung of Manang’s Nagawal is among more than 20 local contractors involved in Yarsagumba trade from Upper Manang and has a target of trading 10kg of yarsa worth Rs20 million this season.But over-harvesting and rapid environmental change in higher elevation areas of the Himalaya have meant that this unique Himalayan fungus is in steep decline.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/its-yarsa-picking-time/">It’s yarsa-picking time</a>, Alton C Byers<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131124/6372344f9c7e80680e0c4928jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1126"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131128/637234539c7e80680e0c4929jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1998"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>As it is, very little is known about the life cycle of this composite species which is a fungus that grows out of a caterpillar hibernating underground. Now, intensified human activity during collection such as digging and trampling, and increasing day temperature and early melting of snow have affected the regeneration of the fungus.Unseasonal spring blizzards due to climate change could also be affecting the life cycle of the fungus, which is sensitive to the duration and extent of snowfall.For example, heavy snowfall on the last week of May at Upper Manang earlier this year was unusual for the season and halted the yarsa hunt of over a thousand local collectors who were stranded in their shelters.Yarshagumba Ophiocordyceps sinensis is commonly called the Chinese Caterpillar Fungus. The formation of Yarsagumba is due to the parasitism of larvae of swift moths, resulting in the development of fruiting bodies which is a highly popular herbal remedy.After the germination of larvae by a fungus, the latter kills the insect and mummifies it. From the fruit body, a dark brown colour emerges from the dead insect and stands upright, taking the form of yarsagumba.Yarsagumba is found at 3,500-5,000m above sea level in Himalayan meadows of Nepal, Bhutan, India and Tibet. In Nepal, it is collected from more than 12 districts including Darchula, Dolpa, Jumla, Mugu, Bajang, Rukum, Myagdi, Manang, Gorkha, Rasuwa, Sindhupalchok and Sankhuwasabha.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/why-is-it-vital-to-protect-the-chure/">Why is it vitall to protect the Chure?</a>, Achyut Tiwari<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131128/637234579c7e80680e0c492ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="751" height="1000"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Yarsa from Nepal is exported to the high demand countries such as Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Burma, Thailand, Singapore, and Japan.Harvesting and selling of yarsagumba was banned until 2001 in Nepal. But the government later re-allowed it as long as collectors paid a royalty. it can now only be collected and traded after getting annual local and national approval.This year there was a steep increase in the number of registered collector in the Annapurna Conservation Area Project with 1,000 permits issued. The steep increase in the numbers is due to a pause during the last two years of the pandemic.Achyut Tiwari is plant ecologist at the Central Department of Botany at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu

Giving yarsagumba a chance for regrowth

https://youtu.be/etwE_snoB7AWhile Nepal’s Members of Parliament are <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-human-cost-of-nepals-political-deadlock/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">squabbling among themselves</a> chasing contracts and lobbying for ministerships in Kathmandu, Polden Chopang Gurung is busy tending to his apple orchard in Ngisyang village of Manang district, and arranging relief for flash flood survivors in the region.Gurung is the chairperson of the Manang chapter of the UML and was elected to the House of Representatives after he broke into the district’s Congress stronghold during the 2017 elections.“I am a representative of the people of Ngisyang, so there is no reason I have to be in Kathmandu in order for me to do my job,” says Gurung with a shrug, “I can serve my constituents from right here.”<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110151156/636d11b89c7e80680e0a989djpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3073" height="2048"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>Gurung’s home district of Manang has been plagued by disasters of late, with the region seeing a seven-month winter drought last year, followed by <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/wildfires-ravage-nepal-mountains/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wildfires</a> in the spring that burnt entire mountainsides near Chame for three months. Then the monsoon hit the semi-arid district in the Himalayan rain shadow with 300% above average precipitation resulting in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/himalayan-floods-a-sign-of-worse-to-come/">devastating floods and landslides</a> in mid-June.In the wake of the disaster, Gurung has been actively involved in helicopter rescues of his constituents trapped by the landslides, as well as in the rebuilding of Manang’s disrupted road infrastructure.But even during more normal times, when Parliament is not in session in Kathmandu, Gurung can be found tending to his apple orchard at his home in Ngisyang. “I use whatever free time I have to take care of my apple orchard,” he says.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110151156/636d11bd9c7e80680e0a989ejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3073" height="2048">Gurung credits his father for inspiring him to come back to Manang despite having the opportunity and reason to stay in the capital. Like him, his father Pema Chhiring Gurung was an MP and an Assistant Minister for Local Development during the Panchayat era.But Pema Chhiring was first and foremost a farmer, and had started an apple orchard in Manang 45 years ago.“My father always told us that he had tried his best to raise us and to be of help in his community,” recalls Gurung. “He asked that we continue to do the same for our village that he had devoted his entire life to.”Pema Chhiring had built his apple orchard out of land collectively owned by seven Manang villages. Residents of the villages worked in the orchard and distributed the profit amongst themselves.Eventually, the work ceased to yield any profit, and the land was rented out.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110151156/636d11c29c7e80680e0a989fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3073" height="2048">Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/growing-apples-on-a-war-footing/">Growing apples on a war-footing</a>, Mukesh PokhrelNow, his son’s apple orchard is spread over 37 hectares of land in Manang. Gurung obtained the plot when his Manang Agro Company won an open competition six years ago that allowed him to lease the land by paying a yearly sum of Rs5.8 million.Gurung’s orchard is crammed with apple trees, saplings of which were brought from Italy and Serbia. And the yield is plentiful, with 600,000 kgs of apples expected to be harvested this year. Over the next three years, Gurung’s target is to produce 1.7 million kgs of apples annually.Nepal spent Rs243 billion in food imports in the fiscal year 2019/20, an increase of Rs19 billion from the previous fiscal year. Two-thirds of Nepalis depend on agriculture, but Nepal’s annual food imports are increasing exponentially due to a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-less-and-less-able-to-feed-itself/">growing population and rising income</a>.Of total food imports, Nepal spends upwards of Rs13 billion annually on apple imports. Which is why Gurung believes that there is a huge domestic market for Manang's apples, provided supply can meet demand and there is access to markets. If the fruits themselves do not sell, there is significant demand for products like apple juice, wine and candy.In fact, the demand for apple seedlings from other mountain districts of Jumla, Huma, and Mugu has gone up ever since Gurung began buying better quality saplings that resulted in higher yields.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110151156/636d11c59c7e80680e0a98a0jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3073" height="2048">Gurung tells us that he would rather be recognised as an apple farmer from Manang than an MP in Nepal’s political arena.He adds: “My father told us not to forget our roots, and that individual wealth and happiness held little meaning in the grand scheme of things. So I decided to return home, and build on his legacy.”Translated by Shristi Karki from <a href="https://www.himalkhabar.com/news/126267">the Nepali original</a> published on himalkhabar.comRead also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mixed-blessings-in-mustang/">Mixed blessings in Mustang</a>, Mukesh Pokhrel

A parliamentarian’s apple grove

<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161128/636d18a39c7e80680e0ac7d8jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="464"/>Nepal’s trans-Himalayan district of Manang is located in the rain-shadow, and is a high altitude desert. Its average annual rainfall is barely 300mm, but it got nearly double that <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/monsoon-hits-nepal-with-a-bang/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rain in just one week</a> in June.The region had seen a seven-month winter drought, and was <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/wildfires-ravage-nepal-mountains/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ravaged by wildfires this spring</a> that burnt for three months. Then came the monsoon: dumping 300% more rain than the average for June-July.The steep slopes scorched by wildfire could not absorb the heavy rain, and a wall of water, mud, boulders and logs washed down the Marsyangdi River, washing away highway, bridges, settlements and other infrastructure.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161128/636d18a59c7e80680e0ac7d9jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="639">Three and half months later, the scars of that devastation are still seen everywhere in the towns of Chame and Taal. Residents are still waiting for help from the government, while charities and activists have provided relief material.Scientists are reluctant to blame a single weather event on the climate crisis, but there is a growing consensus that <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/human-face-of-a-himalayan-climate-crisis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a hotter Himalaya </a>is leading to more erratic monsoons, droughts, floods and wildfires. The 2021 monsoon was proof of that.Minrasi Gurung and his family in Naso village of Manang used to have his hands full all year round growing vegetables in a large patch by the river. Income from selling potatoes, chilli and tomatoes to trekking lodges supported the entire household.But the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/drones-to-the-rescue-in-melamchi/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">flood on the Marsyangdi River</a> on 15 June swept away the family’s farm, and the river is now flowing through a boulder-strewn debris field where the farm used to be.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161128/636d18aa9c7e80680e0ac7dajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1368" height="912"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161128/636d18ad9c7e80680e0ac7dbjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161128/636d18b19c7e80680e0ac7dcjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000">“We have been tilling this land since the time of my great grandfather, never before has there been such a disaster,” he says.Minrasi has now moved with his wife Masini to Myagdi River on the border of Lamjung and Manang districts to open a tea shop. “The floods and landslides displaced us,” they say.The scenic town of Taal used to be a popular stopover for trekkers on the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-other-abc-trek/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Annapurna Circuit</a>, and there were many lodges on a ledge overlooking the Marsyangdi. The water rose so high on 15 June that it washed away the lodges, and seven of the 57 houses in the village are still liveable. None of the hotels survived however, one would be hard-pressed to even locate their ruins.Keshav Gurung of Taal spent much of his life in the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/where-have-all-the-guides-gone/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">tourism business</a>, and he ploughed his earnings to upgrade his hotel, never thinking of investing elsewhere because trekking brought good income.But the flood swept away his Rs40 million hotel, and he is now living in a tent in a plot owned by his neighbours. He used to make Rs1.6 million a year in profit from the 21-room hotel.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161128/636d18b59c7e80680e0ac7ddjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000">Golamaya Gurung in Sirantal had a 10-room hotel, a house and half a hectare of land. All of this is now gone, she barely managed to save her own life as the floodwaters rose.A helicopter rescued Golmaya and her neighbours two days after the disaster from a cave they had fled to. Since then, she has not been able to return to what used to be her home.“There is no way I can get there at the moment. From a distance, I can see the river flowing where my house once stood, I can identify the general location of my house because of a tree that is still standing,” says Golmaya.The floods on the Marsyangdi River and its tributary, Thada Khola, caused the most damage in <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Off-the-road,237" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Taal</a> and Dharapani municipalities. The district headquarter at Chame is still cut off because the road was washed away by the flood and numerous landslides.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161128/636d18b89c7e80680e0ac7dejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000">Kamarkali Gurung owned Hotel Heaven in Dharapani, popular with trekkers. There is no sign of it now. She put in all her savings and spent Rs20.5 million on the hotel, and had been running it for eight years.“I invested everything in that hotel, what happened is so unexpected, so shocking, I still cannot believe that I have lost it all,” she says.Bhuturam Gurung of Chame had also been running a hotel for 15 years, but both his house and hotel were washed away by the Marsyangdi that fateful day. “I had never seen an angry river like that in my life,” he recalled. Bhuturam’s families and three others are now living in Manang’s district prison, which has been converted into a shelter.There is no exact estimate of the damage wrought by the 15 June flood yet. But according to Chief District Officer Bishnu Prasad Lamichhane, the disaster cost at least Rs1.1 billion. A municipality investigation showed a much higher number.“The government observation doesn’t match the ground situation, we estimate over Rs4 billion in damage,” says Palden Chopang Gurung, MP from Manang district. “Chame and Naso alone suffered over Rs3 billion in damaged private buildings, schools, electricity lines and roads. But that is just two municipalities, more bridges and roads have been affected.”A recently completed track from Manang to Bhartang is badly damaged with a 2km-long stretch washed away by the floods. While a new route is under construction, the terrain poses a challenge and the progress has been slow. The landslide-damaged road between Dharapani and Chame also poses risks for travellers.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161128/636d18bc9c7e80680e0ac7dfjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1440" height="664"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161128/636d18bf9c7e80680e0ac7e0jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1440" height="664">“It’s impossible to resume smooth transport like anytime soon, we have settled for a temporary road for now,” says Chairman of Chame Village Municipality Lokendra Ghale.Following the floods, the chief minister of Gandaki Province Krishna Chandra Pokhrel has visited the disaster site three times in a helicopter, he also announced Rs200,000 in relief for each family. But three and a half months later, locals are yet to receive any help.Earlier this year,<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-govt-fills-cabinet-after-3-months/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s government</a> declared Manang as a high-risk district, following which Home Minister Bal Krisha Khand and Energy Minister Pampha Bhusal also choppered in to make more promises that have not been kept.“We haven’t received any help from the central government, the only relief has been from Manang people living in Kathmandu or abroad,” adds Ghale. “All these experts in Kathmandu who have linked the disaster to climate change are also all talk and no action.”Located in the Himalayan rainshadow, Manang gets only about 300mm of rain a year. But on 15 June, it got 212mm of rain in just 24 hours. The average rainfall for March-June in Manang is about 40 mm, but this year it got 135 mm in that period.“The soil in high mountains can be easily washed away by the rain as they are not as firm,” says geography professor Subodh Dhakal at Tribhuvan University. To make matters worse, Manang saw fires burn continuously for three months last winter. Monsoon cloudbursts then hit slopes where the soil’s absorptive capacity had been reduced by previous wildfires. The runoff disgorged itself into the Marsyangdi River.“Due to the rise in average global temperature, there is more moisture in the monsoon system, and these have managed to find their way to the other side of the mountains, this is a clear link to global warming,” says climate scientist Ngamindra Dahal.The average increase in temperature in Manang is also higher than other districts at lower elevations, and is 0.09 Celsius higher than elsewhere, according to the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology.This is in line with the finding that the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/a-hotter-himalaya/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Himalaya is getting 0.3-0.7 Celsius warmer </a>than the global average, and is a warning for a much hotter Subcontinent and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/weve-seen-fire-and-weve-seen-rain/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">more frequent disasters</a> in the coming days.

Himalayan floods a sign of worse to come

<figure><img width="1200" height="675" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110101152/636cca709c7e80680e08bb68jpeg.jpg" alt="Snowfall in Jajarkot"/><figcaption>Photos: RSS</figcaption></figure>After suffering a four-month drought since the end of the monsoon last year, a westerly front finally dumped snow in the higher reaches of the Nepal Himalaya on Friday.At lower altitudes, farmers greeted the welcome rain which moistened wheat, mustard and other winter crops. The rain also cleared the thick fog that had engulfed the Nepal Tarai for the past month.The precipitation was not heavy, but it doused some of the devastating wildfires that had ravaged forests across central and western Nepal since December. A forest fire in Manang had been raging for two months.  There was nearly 1m of snow overnight in Khaptad National Park, and the flurries down to 2,800 m in Mustang, Manang and Kaski. Ghorepani viewpoint on the Annapurna Trek also got heavy snowfall overnight. Humla started getting snowfall on Thursday evening itself, and it continued all night and into Friday. <img width="800" height="450" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110101152/636cca739c7e80680e08bb69jpeg.jpg" alt="Snowfall at Ktaptad National Park"><img width="966" height="711" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110101152/636cca759c7e80680e08bb6ajpeg.jpg" alt="Snowfall at Myagdi"><img width="991" height="718" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110101152/636cca779c7e80680e08bb6bjpeg.jpg" alt="Snowfall in Simkot">The Department of Hydrology and Meteorology has predicted more precipitation over central and eastern Nepal into Saturday, with the weather clearing up after that.  The frontal system is moving eastward, and is expected to bring rain to Kathmandu Valley by evening. The rain had not arrived in the capital while Prime Miniter K P Oli’s political rally was going on in Darbar Marg on Friday afternoon, although there was a stiff breeze. <figure><img width="640" height="452" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110101152/636cca799c7e80680e08bb6cjpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Satellite radar image of the subcontinent traken on Friday at 1500 local time showing precipitation over Nepal in green.</figcaption></figure>Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/wildfires-ravage-nepal-mountains/">Wildfires ravage Nepal mountains,</a> Nepali Times

Rain ends 4-month Nepal drought

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111124/636cd20e9c7e80680e08f8edjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1800" height="1200"/><figcaption>The fire in Manang started on 26 November and is still raging as seen in these pictures taken on Tuesday. Photos: NABIN LAMICHHANE/RSS</figcaption></figure>A three month drought in central and eastern Nepal has sparked <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-sees-drop-in-wildfires-during-lockdown/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wildfires</a> across the Himalaya which has shrouded the mountains in smoke, adding to the urban and crossborder pollution.The big forest fires <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/kangchenjunga-wildfire-visible-from-space/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">in Pathibhara in eastern Nepal</a> and below Mt Machapuchre in Kaski raged for a week, and spent themselves. But major fires are out of control in Manang, Rasuwa, Lamjung and Sindhupalchok, destroying huge tracts of high montane forest.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111124/636cd2119c7e80680e08f8eejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="720"><figcaption>An entire forest in Gatlang of Rasuwa was reduced to ashes in a wildfire on Monday-Tuesday. The fire only extinguished itself after there was no more forest left to burn. Photo: BIBI FUNYAL</figcaption></figure>The most serious and widespread are the fires in Manang Valley around Chame. The vegetation on the slopes and undergrowth in the forests are tinder dry, and the authorities say they have caught fire accidentally because of people grazing livestock, or gathering firewood.The fire in Manang started as far back as 26 November, and has since spread into the Marsyangdi and Dudh Khola valleys.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111124/636cd2139c7e80680e08f8efjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1800" height="1200"><figcaption>Under-equipped Nepal Police and Army officials have been largely unsuccessful in controlling the fire, which is whipped up by high winds.</figcaption></figure>Efforts by local volunteers, Nepal Police, Nepal Army and Nepal Armed Police have been largely unsuccessful in controlling the fire whipped up by high winds because of lack of equipment, and because the blaze is fanned by strong up-valley afternoon winds.Forest fire in Manang has been raging for over a month, after an unusually dry and warm winter.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111124/636cd2169c7e80680e08f8f0jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1800" height="1200"><figcaption>Part of the rapidly spreading forest wildfire near Chame on Tuesday. In the past months it has destroyed over 700 hectares of forests rich in endangered wildlife and Hiamalayan plant species.</figcaption></figure>The fire has destroyed over 700 hectares of forest rich in endangered wildlife and Himalayan plant species.The effect of the fires is visible even in satellite images. This NASA image (pictured below) taken at noon on 12 January shows <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/kathmandu-air-pollution-hits-record-high/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">smoke shrouding</a> the river valleys of the Marsyangdi, Budi Gandaki, Bhote Kosi, Sun Kosi and the Arun.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111124/636cd2199c7e80680e08f8f1jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="824"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>The above image is a composite based on <a href="https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/?v=73.05432164103755,20.9895954810804,96.86111430117901,34.3528423044617&amp;l=Reference_Labels(hidden),Reference_Features(hidden),Coastlines,VIIRS_SNPP_CorrectedReflectance_TrueColor(hidden),MODIS_Aqua_CorrectedRe" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/?v%3D73.05432164103755,20.9895954810804,96.86111430117901,34.3528423044617%26l%3DReference_Labels(hidden),Reference_Features(hidden),Coastlines,VIIRS_SNPP_CorrectedReflectance_TrueColor(hidden),MODIS_Aqua_CorrectedRe&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1610539171776000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHyjBHjdeFLoVx52Le4KkM9CE8xXw">NASA Worldwide</a> image and the <a href="https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/map/#d:2021-01-11..2021-01-12;l:noaa20-viirs,countries,protected_areas,protected_areas_regional;@132.8,15.7,3z" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/map/%23d:2021-01-11..2021-01-12;l:noaa20-viirs,countries,protected_areas,protected_areas_regional;@132.8,15.7,3z&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1610539171776000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGx9Lq-WrX2bhCV-0g0j3oTHn-5mw">Fire Information Resource Management System (FIRMS) both from 12 January.</a>The smoke is also blowing into Kathmandu Valley and it combined with the city’s own pollution and cross border smog on Tuesday afternoon to send <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/dirty-politics-dirty-air/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the Air Quality Index soaring</a> to above 200 in the ‘Very Unhealthy’ zone.The satellite images also show ground fog covering the Tarai and Chitwan on Tuesday morning.

Wildfires ravage Nepal mountains

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109171140/636bd8bb9c7e80680e0801d8jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="1200"/><figcaption>Binod Gurung outside Yeti Hotel in Manang which has not seen a single guest since March.</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109171140/636bd8be9c7e80680e0801d9jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="1600"><figcaption>And empty trail in Manang on Thursday at a time when it used to be full of trekkers. Photos: BINOD GURUNG</figcaption></figure>Although the Nepal government is allowing foreign trekkers to fly to Kathmandu from 17 October, some mountain districts along the trekking trails are sealing themselves off for fear it will bring in Covid-19 infections.Manang and Mustang districts on the Annapurna Circuit have announced restrictions for outsiders, which may also affect many Nepalis planning to head out to the mountains for the Dasain Holidays after months of lockdown.<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Manang-will-prosper-from-its-new-road,2749">Manang</a> has decided to seal itself off completely, and will only allow Nepali and foreign trekkers if they have PCR negative tests, and the district has made it mandatory for them to spent two weeks in quarantine at Nishang.“We decided that since there were only a few weeks left in the autumn trekking season anyway, there was no point opening ourselves up to the risk of bringing in the virus,” said Binod Gurung, Chair of the Tourism Entrepreneurs Association of Manang, and owner of Hotel Yeti.At a stakeholder’s meeting in Manang last week, some lodge owners had hoped that Nepali hikers could salvage what has been a ruinous year for trekking in the region, but a majority felt it was not worth the risk. The meeting decided to open up Manang only in March 2021.This time of year, there would be up to <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=4995#.X3WV9MIzaUk">700 trekkers in Manang</a> every day, acclimatising before they went climbed on to Tilicho Lake or crossed the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/annapurnas-avalanche-and-blizzard-early-weather-warning-systems">Thorung La</a> to adjoining Mustang district.In Mustang itself, there was also a meeting this week between district administration,  municipality office bearers as well as local lodge owners which recommended PCR tests for outsiders coming into the district, however there is confusion about the guidelines.“In the absence of public health experts, the local government has not been able to balance the need to revive tourism with the health risks,” explains Tripple Gurung of Om’s Home in Jomsom. “We are being flooded with inquiries for reservations, but for the moment we cannot take bookings, we just have a wait-and-see approach.”Gurung hopes that the protocols will be made clearer so that Mustang can at least see some foreign and Nepali visitors for the remainder of the year. The shrine at Muktinath remains closed as per the order of the federal government putting all religious sites out of bounds for now. For the past few months, Mustang has been cut off not just because of the lockdown, but also a massive landslide at Rupse and flight cancellations during the monsoon.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109171140/636bd8c29c7e80680e0801dajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="4032" height="3024"><figcaption>The Everest region is open for trekking, but visitors need PCR negative reports for their Lukla flights. Photo: NEPALI TIMES ARCHIVE/POOJA RIJAL</figcaption></figure>Over in the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/more-trekkers-more-trees/">Everest region</a>, a meeting of hoteliers in the Khumbu had decided to restrict outsiders, but changed its mind and is now allowing foreigners and Nepali trekkers to land at Lukla as long as they have a RT PCR negative tests report not older than 72 hours for themselves and their guides and porters.“Many lodge owners are hoping that in the absence of foreign trekkers the loss of business will be somewhat compensated by Nepali hikers, some of whom have already started flying into Lukla,” says <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/saving-gokyo-from-itself/">conservationist Ang Rita Sherpa</a>. “The lodges are mostly open in Lukla, Namche, Tengboche and Pheriche, but not those near the high passes.”Solu Khumbu district in the Everest region has reported 13 cases of Covid-19 so far, and there is only one active case there at the moment. Manang had four confirmed cases, and Mustang had one – neither district now has any active cases.The Annapurna region received 70,000 trekkers last year, while another 50,000 went to the Everest trail. Trekking and mountaineering were closed in March as Nepal went into lockdown and tourists hurried to Kathmandu to catch the last flights out.Trekker traffic had just started picking up in Langtang Valley after the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-reincarnation-of-a-holy-valley/">earthquake and avalanche in 2015</a>, with 15,000 visitors last year. But this year it is nearly zero. Many families which had taken large loans to rebuild their lodges are now deep in debt because there have been no trekkers since March.There have been 19 Covid-19 cases in Rasuwa district near the Chinese border, and none of them have been in Langtang Valley. Rasuwa now has only one active case.“The ward office had decided last week to keep Langtang Valley sealed to protect people from the pandemic, but locals have now decided to allow trekkers in so there is some income,” <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-story-of-langtang-cheese/">Gyalbu Tamang</a> at the Langtang Cheese Production Centre in Kyangjin told Nepali Times in a phone interview. “Even if foreigners do not come, we home domestic tourists will visit from Kathmandu.”

Hiking in the Himalaya during Covid-19?

[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

Here in Dho Valley, in the arid mountains of northwestern Nepal, the only sounds used to be tinkling yak bells and the flapping of wind on prayer flags. Now, there is another one: the throb of internal combustion engines.
Chinese motorcycles roar down the dusty trails of once quiet Dho, and the growl of an excavator can be heard from across the valley. It will not be long before the Sumo pickups arrive from the district headquarter in Dunai, which itself was recently connected to Nepal’s road network.
During his <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/president-xi-in-kathmandu/" target="_blank">state visit to Nepal last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping</a> said Nepal would go from being landlocked to‘land-linked’, and promised to help build better road access across the Himalaya from Nepal to China. This is what ‘better connectivity’ looks like here at ground zero in Dolpo.
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One of Nepal’s priorities for trans-Himalayan connectivity is the Kali Gandaki Corridor from the Tarai, through Mustang to the Korala checkpoint at the Chinese border. The new road from Marim Pass on the Tibet border to Dunai has now reached Dho and Chharkha.
On parts of the road that are already motorable, motorbikes &nbsp;noisly overtake trekking groups spewing clouds of dust as they climb the trails. Neither the trekkers nor lodge owners are happy.
“They go so fast, they are noisy and irritating. It is dangerous for school children and older people — it will kill someone one day,” grumbles Tenzin Gurung, a monk at the Sitcho gomba.
Across the road however, a younger trader is excited about the road since it will provide easier access to the market and bring down the cost of food.
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Such ambivalence has accompanied Nepal’s rapid road-building spree in other parts of the country like <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Nation-road-from-nowhere-to-nowhere,549" target="_blank">Tsum</a>, Manang and Mustang. But perhaps nowhere has the change from no-road to road been as dramatic as here in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/dazzling-dolpo/" target="_blank">Dolpo,</a> which was the last district in Nepal &nbsp;not linked by road.
Over on the other side of Mo La pass, at 5,021m, an excavator is clearing a switchback down the rocky slope that follows the trekking trail, which itself followed the ancient trading route from Dolpo to Mustang.
Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/bon-voyage/" target="_blank"> Bon voyage,</a> Sonam Choekyi Lama
“The weather is challenging, it is windy and cold on the pass, and we have to bring the diesel up by mule from Mustang,” says excavator operator Padam Bahadur.
Those who own lodges and depend on trekking groups for income are opposed to the road. Even if it is built, they say it should not destroy the traditional trading routes and trekking trails.
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Says Sonam Lama, an architect who fought a losing battle to prevent the road to his native Tsum Valley: “These hiking trails should not be replaced by roads. We should try to find an alternative motorable road.”
The dozers are also ploughing across holy chorten and mani walls. The excavator driver, who is from Piuthan, says he had to “relocate” a mani wall because it was obstructing the road alignment determined by the surveyor.
Read Also: &nbsp;<a href="https://nepalitimes.atavist.com/stairway-to-heaven" target="_blank">Stairway to Heaven</a>, Kunda Dixit
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Villagers in Chharkha ask why Dolpo should not follow the example of Kagbeni, where the road to Lo Manthang bypassed the old cobble-stone streets of the town to preserve its heritage. Indeed, Dolpo seems to be making the same mistake as other parts of Nepal.
With little oversight by local or national governments, it looks like change is too big and too quick for Dolpo to handle.
“There is no reason why the road had to follow the trekking trails, go through the villages and destroy our holy shrines,” says Ramprasad Sherchan, owner of the Muktinath Hotel in Kagbeni. However, Sherchan now sees potential for more trekkers going to Dolpo via Mustang since the district will be more accessible.

New High Way to Dolpo

The daily 10-hour curfew at Tribhuvan International Airport from 8 November that will last five months has affected tourism during Nepal’s peak season, with some hotels and trekking agencies here reporting cancellations into spring next year. The reduced hours at Nepal’s main aviation gateway till 31 March means that a third of all flights have been cut. This has also caused ticket prices to surge by up to eight times of normal fares. For example a Kathmandu-Delhi ticket that used to cost Rs12,000 is now listed at Rs50,000, and even then seats are not available.&nbsp; “Especially if they are here to trek, change in flight dates can cause tourists to miss their connections,” says Jagan Timilsina, who runs a trail running and outdoor education business. &nbsp; Pokhara is feeling the brunt as hotels report last-minute cancellations for November because of flight disorders. Some hoteliers also say although there have been some cancelled trips, most itineraries have been rescheduled.&nbsp; Hari Prasad Sharma Gaire of the local chapter of the Hotel Association of Nepal says the Kathmandu airport closure should have been timed for the off-season. He told us: “Starting construction during the peak tourist season was a mistake and will cause the tourism industry to lose a lot of business. The upgrade could have been spread out over a longer time but closed for fewer hours at night so that disruption was minimal.”&nbsp; Nearly a third of the 1.2 million tourists who visit Nepal annually come to Pokhara, which is also the gateway to Mustang, the Annapurna treks and pilgrimage tourism to Muktinath. Located by scenic lakes with a range of adventure sports like hot air ballooning, paragliding, canyoning, bungee and ziplines, Pokhara is also popular among diaspora Nepalis. “Besides its own attractions, Pokhara is really the hub for central Nepal, and we have been trying to get visitors to extend their stay here,” says Timilsina, who started out as a trekking porter and rose up the ranks to be an expedition guide and entrepreneur. &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024111603114_0e071ce63ea9b0a9a7ee76f8c3cea0ff08c6767c41dd09f6bc4413d2db067a60.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2024111603114_0e071ce63ea9b0a9a7ee76f8c3cea0ff08c6767c41dd09f6bc4413d2db067a60" data-rendition-name="original" width="3500" height="2333" loading="lazy" alt="Pokhara's tourism woes NT"> <figcaption>Tourist arrivals in Pokhara have slumped since the disruptions at Kathmandu airport due to upgrading work. Photo: KRISHNA MANI BARAL/NEPALI TIMES ARCHIVE</figcaption> </figure>  Even without the Kathmandu airport closure affecting tourist arrivals, Pokhara was already suffering from a decline due to many factors like the poor state of the Prithvi Highway, the shortage of luxury accommodation for high-end tourists, and the reluctance of international airlines to start direct flights to Pokhara despite an expensive new airport that was inaugurated two years ago.&nbsp; “There was a lot of initial excitement on the construction of the international airport,” says Timilsina, “but it hasn’t delivered as expected due to politics. People have invested in nearby businesses, and have faced losses.” India has blocked direct flights from its cities to Pokhara because the facility was built by a Chinese company. Although tourists and pilgrims from India hit record levels this year, the poor state of the highways and the Indian bus accident on the highway to Kathmandu in July that killed 27 pilgrims from Maharashtra state dampened arrival figures. Gaire says, “While tourist arrivals to Pokhara are now approaching pre-Covid levels, we haven’t seen the improvement we were expecting. We need a better marketing strategy. What are our embassies abroad doing?”&nbsp; Indeed, Pokhara used to be a favourite destination for Chinese tourists. There was a boom in arrivals from China before Covid, especially after a popular Chinese tv serial was shot on location here. But arrivals from China have not really recovered since the pandemic because of the economic slowdown there. Promoting Pokhara airport to handle direct flights from Chengdu or Kunming could revive Chinese arrivals.&nbsp; Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAAN) has used the Kathmandu airport closure as an excuse to arm-twist international airlines to start flying to Bhairawa, which has barely been in operation for two years since it was inaugurated. So far, Fly Dubai, Thai AirAsia, Jazeera and Qatar are flying to Bhairawa, but most use it as a hop before flying on to Kathmandu, which does not reduce congestion at Kathmandu.&nbsp; An ideal situation could have been to get Pokhara to run to full capacity while Kathmandu is partially out of action. Pokhara entrepreneurs are puzzled why the CAAN and the national government have not taken more interest in promoting Pokhara as an alternative to reduce the congestion in Kathmandu. Nepal’s football team that was flying to Dushanbe this week couldn’t get tickets via Delhi, and took a domestic flight to Bhadrapur, crossed over to Bagdogra and flew on to Delhi to catch their flight to Tajikistan.

Pokhara’s tourism woes

An excerpt of a conversation between an anthropologist and linguist Mark Turin, PhD and Lava Deo Awasthi, PhD, the first Chairperson of the Language Commission of Nepal. Nepali Times: What is the role of Nepal’s Language Commission and when was it formed? Lava Deo Awasthi: The Constitution of Nepal (2015) created a Language Commission (LC) with the following four core mandates: (a) to develop eligibility criteria for gaining status as an official language and offer recommendations to the Government of Nepal about the official language(s) in each province; (b) to offer recommendations to the Government about measures to be taken for the conservation, promotion, and development of languages; (c) to suggest possible ways of using mother tongues in education by assessing their stage of development; and, (d) to conduct studies, carry out research and perform monitoring functions about the response to the constitutional provisions for the federalisation of languages in Nepal. The Commission was founded in 2016 and I was appointed as the Chairperson of the Commission in September of the same year by the Cabinet of Ministers. What in your own professional and educational background helped to prepare you for the role? I have worked with the Government of Nepal for about 30 years, alongside holding teaching appointments at universities in Nepal. Prior to assuming the role of the Chairperson of the Commission, I served as permanent Secretary to the Government of Nepal and worked as the Chief Administrator of the Central Development Region. I was appointed as Director General of the Department of Education and completed my assignments as Joint Secretary at the Planning, Monitoring and Educational Administration Divisions of the Ministry of Education.&nbsp; In addition, I have taught courses as a visiting professor at Tribhuvan University and Kathmandu University for more than three decades. Later, I also started supervising MPhil and PhD students at the Far Western University in Mahendranagar, Kanchanpur. My PhD project from the Danish University of Education was dedicated to making sense of Nepal’s social construct and commitment to multilingualism, exploring the persistence of monolingual school practices in the face of constitutional promises and state commitments to multilingualism. I conducted a survey of Nepal’s languages and carried out a qualitative study of the Tharu language in the district of Bardia. I analysed language policy statements and explored classroom pedagogies in schools. I documented how teachers showed a tendency to resist change and maintain the status quo because they were not consulted when new educational language policies were introduced. Teachers also exhibited a deeply-held adherence to the Gurukul education system which appears to have been harnessed as a way to resist newer pedagogical ideologies imported from the West. Recognising how engrained these rich traditions of knowledge transmission are, I wanted to know how students’ engagement in the learning process appeared to have dwindled, creating a gap between children’s home languages and the language(s) of the school. Whilst statutory provisions for education in the mother tongue were oriented towards promotion, classroom pedagogies remained resolutely monolingual and exclusionary. The result was that multilingual education policies that had been introduced in Nepal did not result in meaningful changes in classroom practices. My research was also a reflection of childhood traumas I had experienced at the earliest stage of formal education. My home language, Baitadeli, has a strong oral tradition and no written literature. English is my fifth language in terms of exposure and competence, and my home district of Baitadi is well-known for its loyalty to the local language. I had to drop out of school after completing my sixth grade. Staying at home, I received much attention from my family and had much greater exposure to my native language, culture and environment. My overall impression is that dropping out of school had a surprisingly positive impact on my life. The opportunity offered a surprising dividend for me as I gained mastery in my mother tongue and received extensive exposure to folk literature and Indigenous knowledge and survival skills, cultivating my interest in language, culture, literature and local cosmologies.&nbsp; Now that I reflect on it, I appreciate how language has always played a key role in my life. I grew up in a multilingual environment: brought up with Baitadeli, Hindi, Sanskrit, Nepali and English. Language played a major part in my decision to leave school and my later success is closely linked to my competence in several languages. It was rewarding to be at home with my family as I deepened my understanding of native language and culture, which in turn helped me to harness and refine my art of living. Languages matter so much to me because they are both software and hardware. Later, when I was in secondary school, I realised that my command of my home language contributed significantly to enhancing my Nepali and English. I used my mother tongue as a form of linguistic capital to strengthen my competence in both English and Nepali.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024111811110_5400ba54792bf9e4854e1c1effde8bf09804e99647f23513700b450cc49adc4a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2024111811110_5400ba54792bf9e4854e1c1effde8bf09804e99647f23513700b450cc49adc4a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="1500" loading="lazy" alt="Dr Lava Deo Awasthi"> </figure>  In your term as the Commission’s first Chairperson, what were your strategic goals and objectives? My first strategic goal was to create an environment conducive to implementing the provisions of the Constitution of Nepal in relation to language. My priority was to prepare a detailed action plan for my six-year tenure in consultation with language stakeholders, including language experts, professionals, activists, Indigenous community members and representatives of relevant national and local-level institutions. The Commission formed a body of high-level advisors to ensure that the Chairperson’s work was well-informed and credible. The advisors to the committee had highly visible professional and social reputations in Nepal and had much experience in the field of language conservation, promotion, research and development. Another strategy we adopted was to establish close institutional linkages with federal, provincial, and local level governments for collecting opinions and disseminating information widely.&nbsp; What critical issues did you have to consider while discharging your duty? When Nepal’s new Constitution was drafted, a number of concerns could not be adequately addressed. These related to the conservation of languages, the recognition of official languages at the provincial level, and the use of mother tongues at federal, provincial, and local levels. These unresolved issues and matters pertaining to the federalizsation of Nepal’s languages were passed on to the Language Commission to address and resolve.&nbsp; Regarding the recommendations for official languages, a five-year timeline had been set by the Constitution. With great effort, we succeeded in having all provinces agree to recognise their official languages as per the recommendations of the Commission.&nbsp; What were your greatest achievements during your term? One of the greatest achievements was that we succeeded in setting a language agenda at all levels. Nepal’s language communities and other stakeholders expressed the view that this was the first time their languages were recognised and their voices heard by the state. People participated in debates and discussed issues relating to language that in all likelihood had never before happened in their lifetimes, at least not in ways that were supported by the state. We encouraged people to speak in their own language(s) and provided translators during plenary sessions and group discussions. Another major achievement was developing criteria for the status planning of languages at federal, provincial, and local levels, and to recommend 11 province-level official languages, in addition to the Nepali language. Similarly, a notable achievement was recognising Indigenous languages spoken by smaller communities, all of whom faced ongoing marginalisation and high levels of endangerment. The Commission identified 9 new languages that had not been reported in the 2011 census, and provided a framework for recognising official languages within a municipality. The commission emphasised the need for documentation and digitisation of languages for developing corpora and archives at national and sub-national levels.&nbsp; Languages of historical importance as well as classical languages were given recognition for their protection, growth, and development. Recommendations were made for the conservation, promotion and development of Nepal’s marginalised languages that are threatened by majority languages and for those languages that hold particular power at local and global levels. Recommendations were also made for how best to safeguard Nepal’s languages from the ever-growing spread of English and other powerful, globalising languages.&nbsp; A further important aspect of the Commission’s work was to emphasise mother tongue medium instruction in schools across the nation. Recognising the role of language in children’s cognitive, socio-emotional and academic development, the Commission suggested strategies for linking schools with ward-level language clusters for use in the classroom. The importance of nurturing and respecting a child’s first language was reiterated in the Commission’s recommendations for children’s learning and all-round development. By the end of my term, a remarkable change could be observed in terms of building trust within and across Nepal’s diverse language communities. A network of language groups and stakeholders across the country proved to be a powerful way of bringing all language communities under one roof for a collective review of and response to the process of federalising language policy. The many language stakeholders across Nepal appreciated the opportunity to work within a coordinated framework, and—feeling empowered by this—seemed genuinely enthusiastic about the initiatives taken by the Commission.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024111811114_b45297fdd2fedf17bdb6313e495a1062c0d87f1a19fa5349f871f220b75f93ab.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2024111811114_b45297fdd2fedf17bdb6313e495a1062c0d87f1a19fa5349f871f220b75f93ab" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Dr Lava Deo Awasthi NT"> </figure>  What were the most significant challenges for you as Chairperson? One of the major challenges was winning people’s trust in advocating for the mission of the Language Commission. I faced considerable resistance as I sought to emphasise the use of native languages in families and communities. While the Commission advocated for multilingualism and promoted linguistic diversity, the prevailing policy circles and central level institutions had been deeply influenced by a one-language discourse and ideology of Nepali only. The spread of English also poses a huge threat to Nepal’s languages. However, people in power do not seem to see this as a problem. They tend to abandon their own languages in preference for English. The way that Nepal’s municipalities are increasingly introducing English as a medium of instruction at the earliest stage of a child’s school-based education has proven to be detrimental to their cognitive development, socio-emotional wellbeing and academic success. Most of Nepal’s elites have been heavily influenced by the spread of English and remain unaware about its impact on their home languages as well as on the inter-generational transmission of Indigenous languages in the country. I wish that we could have produced more compelling evidence to show the consequences of making poor policy choices for our children’s education. Demystification calls for a collective response. To make change happen across this entire, complex and federalising country was daunting work and left like a race against time. I feel that I could have done more to offer concrete examples in favour of using the mother tongue as a medium of children’s education at the earliest stages of a child’s education. What do you see the Language Commission achieving in the next 5-10 years? The Language Commission will have to ensure that all of its key recommendations are implemented at all levels of government. In 10 years’ time, all seven of Nepal’s provinces will have their official languages in place. These languages will also be recognised as languages of federal business, alongside Nepali. I anticipate that all official languages in the federal and provincial systems will have a national portal for inter-language corpora using machine translation to fulfil their federal, provincial and local level language functions, and that all languages spoken in Nepal will be represented through a digital database in the national archive. The Office of Statistics will monitor the status of Nepal’s languages over time. By the end of the next decade, each municipality in the country will have recognised one or two official languages at the local level, based on speech populations. Other local languages will have received community-level legal recognition and official status to fulfil their functional roles. Languages that are highly endangered or at risk will be entitled to receive state grants for enhancing local level capabilities to encourage families and young learners to speak the language. Incentive schemes will be introduced in municipalities that promote language within the family and at home. Inter-generational transmission of languages will have received welcome and timely attention across Nepal. It is my hope that all schools—public and private—will have introduced mother tongue medium instruction at the earliest stage of school education, at least up to class five. Nepali, English and other national as well as classical and foreign languages will be taught as subjects. The existing policy of English medium education at the early stage of education will be abolished. The Government of Nepal will be held accountable if the number of speakers of any language decreases or if local communities face language loss and greater endangerment. Under the aegis of the Language Commission, a Centre for Language Research and Innovation will be created with world-class facilities for language documentation and archiving in collaboration with Tribhuvan University’s Central Department of Linguistics and other relevant institutions. Harnessing the vastness of Nepal’s linguistic diversity, the Language Commission will morph into a centre of excellence for national and international communities to engage in collaborative language research, to share experiences and document best practices at in service of global linguistic diversity and Nepal’s many Indigenous languages.

Languages are both software and hardware

Nearly 750,000 Nepalis went abroad for employment in the past year, and more than 100,000 left on student visas. Most of them were young Nepali men and women, and the number has been increasing every year. As with other sections of society, Nepal’s security agencies also face a recruitment crisis. Nepal Police opened recruitment for 64 inspectors in September, and received 2,239 applications, compared to 2,718 candidates last year. Police also invited candidates for 256 assistant sub-inspectors this year for which it received 17,756 applications – down from 19,932 last year. It is the same story in the Nepal Army, the number of applicants for the post of Officer Cadet (Second Lieutenant) went down from 6,144 for 400 open seats in 2019 to 4,390 in 2020. Meanwhile, applicants in the paramilitary Armed Police Force went down from 857 applications for 75 posts in 2021 to 536 applicants for 99 posts last year. While the number of applicants appears higher than the demand, the data shows a significant decrease in applications for vacancies in Nepal’s law enforcement agencies. Security personnel are recruited on the basis of rank and age in Nepal, and the age cutoff for entry into Nepal’s security agencies is typically 25 years. Sociologist and migration expert Ganesh Gurung says that the demographic of young, physically fit Nepalis emigrating abroad in search of better opportunities has impacted recruitment into law enforcement and the military here at home. “The returns from working in Nepal’s police and army are minimal, whereas overseas job opportunities are more attractive,” Gurung says. “The work may be physically demanding abroad, but the pay is a lot higher.”  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241116041148_a7e477e0ee2f56acf16c2559fdb24d8f0377f7bc1f9e56138bc40108fc4fa33f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20241116041148_a7e477e0ee2f56acf16c2559fdb24d8f0377f7bc1f9e56138bc40108fc4fa33f" data-rendition-name="original" width="800" height="534" loading="lazy" alt="Nepal Police"><figcaption>Nepal Police</figcaption></figure>  Nepal Police spokesperson DIG Dan Bahadur Karki agrees that the physical and mental demands of a law enforcement job is incomparable to the income that security personnel earn. “A young Nepali who works in Dubai earns enough to build a home in the village within four years, while a Nepali with the same qualifications and physical ability in a security agency here barely makes enough to survive,” says Karki. “Obviously the youth prefer foreign employment.” Security agencies are now worried about the quality of inducted manpower. “There is a difference in work ethic between an applicant chosen from a competitive pool of 50 candidates versus one chosen from a pool of three candidates,” explains Gurung. “Unmotivated employees hamper the overall performance of the state apparatus.” Nepal Army spokesperson Brigadier General Gaurab Kumar KC says recruitment has not been hampered by outmigration: “We have still been getting more than three times the applicants than there are open posts, so we are not yet worried.” Even so, the passing rates of aspirants have gone down for security forces after the Public Service Commission began examinations for military recruitment in 2015. In fact, the Nepal Army complained about the Commission’s involvement in recruitment. Still, the number of vacant military posts tends to exceed the number of passing candidates. Nepal Army’s KC says that the military will not compromise on intake criteria even if there are fewer passing applicants. “Unqualified persons will not be admitted even if there are less-than-required passing candidates. We will re-advertise if that is the case.” But Nepal’s security forces now also have to worry about retention of existing personnel. About 900 Nepal Army, 600 Nepal Police, and 300 Armed police personnel resign every year before the completion of their tenure.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241116041148_b8cd62f70eea3aac7d3d3778615a5b70b1e20550c9bd76321f051f9c766fd2a9.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20241116041148_b8cd62f70eea3aac7d3d3778615a5b70b1e20550c9bd76321f051f9c766fd2a9" data-rendition-name="original" width="750" height="378" loading="lazy" alt="Armed police forces"><figcaption>Armed Police Force</figcaption></figure>  In 2020, Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa recalled almost 1,000 police personnel who had been deployed for the security of VIPs after long-standing criticism that security forces were being misused to cater to political and bureaucratic leadership. However, security personnel have continued to be assigned to high-ranking officials as glorified housekeepers. In December 2022, Rabi Lamichhane’s Home Ministry had instructed its offices to recall unauthorised security personnel assigned to high-ranking officials, following which 500 officers from Nepal Police and Armed Police Force were withdrawn from their details. But the Nepal Army does not have to follow such rules, and the practice of army personnel serving high-ranking active-duty and retired military personnel remains. Conditions here are dire enough that many active duty officers in Nepal’s military and police forces have chosen to leave their jobs to serve in the Russian Army to fight in the Ukraine war. The hierarchical culture and chain of command of politics, bureaucracy, law enforcement and military has also meant that abuse and mistreatment of subordinates is rife in Nepal’s security forces. “Feudalism is alive and well within our security institutions,” says Gurung. “When soldiers and security forces who swore to protect and serve the nation are made to be at the beck and call of politicians and bureaucrats, it is easy to understand why they are disillusioned with their jobs and why they choose to quit and find jobs abroad.”

Job insecurity in security forces

Earlier this month, Nepal received Rs1.6 billion from the World Bank as part of its <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/will-nepal-ever-be-paid-for-saving-trees">Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF)</a>, rewarding the country for increasing its carbon sink capacity. Nepal is the first in South Asia to benefit from this facility, and it is specifically to recompense the country for increasing forest cover in 13 Tarai districts between 2018-2024. “We are also trying to get another Rs13 billion from the facility while also preparing for free market-based carbon trading in the international market,” says Nabaraj Pudasaini of the REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries) Implementation Centre. Big emitters of greenhouse gases are under pressure to reduce their carbon emissions, and many have signed agreements to do so by investing in decarbonisation projects in developing countries. Countries that emit more than a specified amount of carbon would be able to buy emission rights from countries that emit less. Nepal is internationally known for its community forestry program which has been largely credited for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/tree-mendous">increasing tree cover to over 45%</a> in less than three decades. But this achievement had not been adequately recognised or rewarded internationally before. Forests, especially in the tropics, absorb and store large amounts of carbon while releasing oxygen in a process known as photosynthesis. <a href="https://www.fao.org/forest-resources-assessment/en/">Preventing deforestation</a> and increasing canopy cover is considered a much more achievable goal than reducing emission in the scale necessary to limit global average temperature to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. COP11 in Montreal in 2005 first proposed reducing carbon emissions by improving forest quality by halting degradation. By 2015, a new mechanism of financial assistance was created to help less developed countries with sustainable management of forests <a href="https://www.un-redd.org/">(called REDD+)</a>. Under this new mechanism, countries receive aid based on their efforts to prevent forest degradation and increase carbon sink, and in 2021 the World Bank was entrusted with implementing it. Nepal’s FCPF receipt this month was calculated on the basis of 2.4 million tons of carbon stored at a rate of $5 per ton. In the second phase, Nepal will receive more than Rs4 billion within the next year for storing an additional 7 million tons of carbon. Eighty per cent of this amount obtained from carbon trading needs to be spent on local beneficiaries and indigenous communities.&nbsp; But carbon trading is not easy, Nepal needs to prove that protected forests will not be destroyed in future.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241121091132_c8a381c9a95aa86fec558951650d97bb87914741f01766982ba2b086af001f16.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20241121091132_c8a381c9a95aa86fec558951650d97bb87914741f01766982ba2b086af001f16" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="999" loading="lazy" alt="Greenbacks for greenery NT "> <figcaption>Photo: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption> </figure>  Explains carbon trading expert Yugan Manandhar. “Forests should be handed over to the community and shown that they are managed sustainably. Proving this will be particularly challenging; forest encroachment and degradation is rife in the Tarai.” <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/nepal-is-going-up-in-smoke">Deliberate forest fires</a> have also added to the challenge because they increase carbon emissions and reduce the sink capacity of forests. The basis for the amount that Nepal received was set five years ago by calculating the carbon reserves of forests in the 13 Tarai districts. In the meantime, sustainable forest management, tree plantation, forest destruction and erosion control were prioritised to increase carbon reserves in those forests. Nepal is signing another carbon trading agreement during the ongoing Baku climate conference. The <a href="https://www.leafcoalition.org/">Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest finance (LEAF Coalition) </a>proposes to sell the carbon stored in the forests of Bagmati, Gandaki and Lumbini provinces. For this, Nepal signed the letter of intent three years ago at COP26 in Glasgow. The target is to store 70 million tons of carbon in 32 million hectares of forest in the three provinces per which Nepal will receive Rs13 billion in four years at $10 per ton with provisions to increase the rate if various conditions are met. However, the agreement in itself doesn’t guarantee the amount. According to the targets set by Nepal, forest degradation should be stopped and carbon reserves increased by protecting tree cover. Preparations are also underway for clean air carbon trade because it has offset fossil fuel use by introducing 30,000 electric vehicles. Nepal has been selected for the first round to receive $40 million within one and a half years through the Clean Air System of the World Bank. Given that most of Nepal’s energy mix is from biomass, replacing them with electric stoves can significantly improve health by reducing indoor pollution as well as strengthen the country’s capacity for carbon trade. “Nepal's goal now is to sell carbon in the free market where carbon credits are bought and sold based on supply and demand in an open and transparent manner,” adds Pudasaini of the REDD Implementation Centre. “Nepal can now set its own price and bargain with interested buyer countries and organisations.” Lately, India has been discussing setting up a carbon market. Nepal has exported Rs12.72 billion worth of electricity to India so far this fiscal year, which can be traded under Nepal’s carbon market. “Carbon trading can create significant economic benefits for Nepal, which will help reinvest in development and environmental protection projects,” says Manandhar. “But we must prioritise sustainable management of forests, cutting older trees and allowing regrowth as well as promoting electric stoves and electric vehicles.”

manang