Every earthquake, even a minor one, shakes <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/clash-of-cultures-in-bhaktapur">Bhaktapur</a> more severely than other parts of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/time-capsule-of-kathmandu">Kathmandu Valley</a>, and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-traditional-seismic-resistant-designs">seismologists</a> attribute this to its soil structure. It was no different<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/lessons-not-learned-from-2015-o2etq6zu"> in 2015 when a 7.8M earthquake rocked central Nepal</a>. Brown dust from collapsed buildings blanketed the town like a sand storm. Even 10 years later, the scars of that disaster are all around, even though most of the monuments have been rebuilt.&nbsp; At the entrance to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/clash-of-cultures-in-bhaktapur">Bhaktapur Darbar Square</a> is the Rameswar temple, where workers are lifting bricks to repair the damage. The Vatsala Durga temple inside the palace complex collapsed, but the all-stone structure has been masterfully restored.&nbsp; The Yaksheswar Mahadev temple is encased in a bamboo scaffold. Piles of bricks and tiles &nbsp;are stacked below it. Some workers are on top of the temple, while others work on the ground mixing mortar. To the north of the Darbar Square is the Fasi Dega temple which has been rebuilt. The 55-window palace and the art museum which were damaged have also been repaired.&nbsp; The <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nyatapola-alight">five-storey Nyatapola</a>, which survived both the 1934 and 2015 earthquakes, just underwent a $6.3 million renovation. In Taumadhi Square below, the Biska Jatra chariot is under construction for upcoming festivities. Some tourists are on it, posing for pictures.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250407090432_8da447f3cf32a67ba22eedda74af74a6636cd001b544a303eb8e5f8adf3115e3.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20250407090432_8da447f3cf32a67ba22eedda74af74a6636cd001b544a303eb8e5f8adf3115e3" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1284" loading="lazy" alt="Bhaktabur rebuilt 10 years after Nepal earthquake NT 1"> <figcaption>All photos: AJAY HAKAJU</figcaption> </figure>  Read also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Monumental-loss,2215">Monumental loss</a> At Pottery Square, three workers sit atop an under-construction structure whittling away with chisels. Nearby houses are still supported by wooden beams. Dattatreya Square was also damaged during the earthquake, but has been renovated.&nbsp; <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/born-again-after-the-earthquake">After the earthquake</a>, the international community rushed in with offers of help. Kathmandu’s Hanuman Dhoka was restored by the Chinese, Gaddi Baithak by the Americans and various countries ‘adopted’ other monuments. But Bhaktapur declined assistance. UNESCO wanted to be involved since Bhaktapur had been a World Heritage Site since 1979. Germany wanted to help with a €10 million grant, since it had spearheaded the Bhaktapur Development Project 40 years ago.&nbsp; “We believed that we should be able to reconstruct our monuments ourselves,” says Ram Govinda Shrestha, an architect with the municipality. Indeed, Kathmandu Valley has historically rebuilt after every major earthquake with its own resources. Architect and conservationist Rabindra Puri says, “It is shameful to let someone else come in and do the reconstruction for us, especially since the manpower and material would be ours anyway. Why use money from elsewhere?”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250407090436_7f19bc8a185c9f71404db44fba086438d6c29a3acb63a63d027cbdd4053e1b4f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20250407090436_7f19bc8a185c9f71404db44fba086438d6c29a3acb63a63d027cbdd4053e1b4f" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1123" loading="lazy" alt="Bhaktabur rebuilt 10 years after Nepal earthquake NT 1"> </figure>  The budget for reconstruction came from the government, town entry fees, taxes, and donations. That was the easy part. But this was followed by multiple discussions between the municipality, the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA), the Department of Archaeology, and multiple stages of proposals, designs, estimations, and building. New committees had to be formed at every step. “Part of the reason why there were so many steps is because we have to let the government know that we were working as frugally as possible,” recalls Shrestha. It cost more than $200 million to rebuild the 116 heritage structures that were destroyed and damaged.&nbsp; Nevertheless, Bhaktapur stands as a model of locally sourced reconstruction in every way. Community people themselves got their hands dirty along with domestic workers and learned various aspects of reconstruction. “We showed what is possible when locals feel a strong sense of responsibility,” adds Shrestha. Read also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/tourists-trickle-back-to-Bhaktapur">Bhaktapur is waiting for you</a>, Peregrine Frissell But while the monuments were rebuilt, it was not the same with residential buildings. Many of them still have cracks running down their brick façades, and some neighbourhoods are still in ruins with small trees and bushes growing from the rubble.&nbsp; More than 300 people were killed and over 2,000 wounded in house collapses in Bhaktapur. There were some dramatic rescues, including of a baby Sonish Awal who was rescued by an APF team 24 hours after being buried under the rubble.&nbsp; Sonish is now 10 years old, and his house has been rebuilt. The government vowed to ‘Build Back Better’ as fast as possible, by removing bureaucratic hurdles and grant Rs300,000 in three instalments, as well as access to loans at low interest. But things did not go smoothly.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250407090436_d503e5c966f33978abf99a0fa8307369d81bcc6a6e5d768cf88b7dee273cb6cf.jpg" data-media-id="editor_11" data-image-id="20250407090436_d503e5c966f33978abf99a0fa8307369d81bcc6a6e5d768cf88b7dee273cb6cf" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1123" loading="lazy" alt="Bhaktabur rebuilt 10 years after Nepal earthquake NT 1"> </figure>  “Bhaktapur is very dense, so there was a lot of confusion about where property lines ended, and where walls were,” says Biswanath Sujakhu, a municipality engineer. There were also disputes in families with multiple sons who had stakes in the house, as the act treated them as a single household.&nbsp; Many of the disputes have not been resolved yet, which is why there are so many ruins. &nbsp;Homeowners who chose to remake their houses to look traditional were promised further subsidies of up to Rs300,000, but even that was not enough to pay for the Rs5 million or so needed to build a multi-storey cement structure.&nbsp; Banks weren’t giving loans easily, and multiple changes to the NRA chief meant the grants were not easy to access. Many residents took high-interest loans from local cooperatives. Or they were forced to undersell their land plots. “Bhaktapur also had restrictions about the styles and height of buildings, but many houses didn’t comply as people could only work with the money they had at the time,” adds Sujakhu. Nepal Vocational Academy, established by Rabindra Puri two years before the earthquake in 2013, played a crucial role. The academy produced enough masons, woodcarvers, and stone carvers so that there wasn’t a shortage. The students were also involved in <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/guest-editorial/guest-editorial-better-late-than-never,891">reconstruction efforts</a> across the country. Puri has just one gripe: “A lot of old houses that were perfectly fine were torn down for no reason. Those houses are 200-300 years old and could have been restored instead of being reconstructed.” &nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/in-with-the-old-in-nepal">In with the old in Nepal</a>, Shriluna Shrestha

Vishad Raj Onta

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Bhaktapur 2.0

It has been three days, and survivors of the 3 November earthquake in Kolchaur village have been waiting for kin to return from abroad so they can perform the cremation rites of those who died. When the earthquake hit just before midnight on Friday, six people all from the same family, lost their lives here, buried when their home collapsed. On Sunday morning, villagers gathered in front of what used to be the home of Hasti Kami. Some stacked logs while others made bamboo stretchers for the bodies to be taken down to the river for the collective cremation.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231107071124_5a9799ea01f377783e5e6a0f50d75c8d729fb2e9343b36885a5d547c32ee9424.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20231107071124_5a9799ea01f377783e5e6a0f50d75c8d729fb2e9343b36885a5d547c32ee9424" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1366" loading="lazy" alt="Kolchaur 3"></figure>  They had been waiting for the bodies of five of those killed to arrive from the morgue at Jajarkot Hospital where they had been kept until Hasti’s son Uday who is a migrant worker in Malaysia arrived. On Friday, Hasti, 62 along with nine of her family had gone to bed after dinner. Hasti only found two of her grandsons, Bikram and Ujwal still alive. Neighbours helped dig out the bodies of the other six members in the darkness. Read Also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/deadly-earthquake-hits-w-nepal">Deadly earthquake hits W Nepal</a>, Nepali Times Hasti lost her daughter-in-law Januka, 30, granddaughters Sharmila, 13 and Anjali, 9 and her four-year-old grandson Ujjwal. They are the wife and children of Uday who arrived from Malaysia on Sunday. Hasti also lost two other granddaughters Niruta, 11, who is Uday’s brother’s daughter and Bishnu Tiruwa, 8, who is the daughter of Uday’s sister Lalmati.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231107071124_768cb55c68c94665ed5087d9f8c1b4a0bc79b7d90e290e8082a0ea92d1b497b0.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20231107071124_768cb55c68c94665ed5087d9f8c1b4a0bc79b7d90e290e8082a0ea92d1b497b0" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1366" loading="lazy" alt="Kolchaur4"></figure>  Read Also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/mass-cremations-for-nepal-quake-victims">Mass cremations for Nepal quake victims</a>, Sagar Budhathoki and Gopen Rai Lalmati had left her daughter in the care of her mother when she went to work in Kuwait. Bishnu’s body is still in the hospital waiting for her mother’s return.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231107071132_ff0c4f1aa39076721cf50e5969df82478fa311556a994b761ca9ed9cbe2c0259.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20231107071132_ff0c4f1aa39076721cf50e5969df82478fa311556a994b761ca9ed9cbe2c0259" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1512" loading="lazy" alt="Kolchaur 7"></figure>  Around 1pm, the bodies arrived from the hospital wrapped in white cloth. As the five were laid in front of the house, Hasti folded her hands and started weeping, asking for forgiveness for not being able to save her family. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/demographics-of-disaster-in-nepal-quake">Demographics of disaster in Nepal quake</a>, Nepali Times Uday arrived at the ruins of his home amidst the cry of mourners. He was in shock, and could not say anything as he knelt next to the bodies of his wife and children. He could not even shed a tear. A relative said, “At least look at your son’s face.” Uday finally spoke: “What is there to look at? There is nothing left anymore.” Another relative removed the cloth around the face of his four-year-old son. Uday could not control himself and finally let out a cry, saying: “God! Why did you do this to me? Why should I live when the ones for whom I worked to take care of are no more?”  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231107071124_63357999c6d9a5f511b3613d632b393d49129262af965df2d5faf972188644f0.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20231107071124_63357999c6d9a5f511b3613d632b393d49129262af965df2d5faf972188644f0" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1366" loading="lazy" alt="Kolchaur"></figure>  His hands trembled as he smeared vermillion on his son’s face. He still could not bring himself to look at his daughters and wife’s face. “Look at them one last time,” relatives urged him.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231107071128_00fb13718135495d6c154f3ab577ddd4455d5845ef8bf304c30dbf03b7735688.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20231107071128_00fb13718135495d6c154f3ab577ddd4455d5845ef8bf304c30dbf03b7735688" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1402" loading="lazy" alt="Kolchaur 5"></figure>  Neighbours then carried the bodies and headed down to the cremation site by the river. Hasti followed, stopping midway with other women from the village. Today, she bid farewell to five of her family members, she still has to see off her youngest granddaughter whose body was waiting for her mother to arrive from Kuwait.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231107071124_7725358b5fe46e7028ac055686b0c15829332a3856f79502d4cca9c1fd5c248f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20231107071124_7725358b5fe46e7028ac055686b0c15829332a3856f79502d4cca9c1fd5c248f" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1372" loading="lazy" alt="Kolchaur 2"></figure>  Read Also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/grief-stricken-survivors-are-cold-and-hungry">Grief-stricken survivors are cold and hungry</a>, Sagar Budathoki

Nepal quake survivors wait for kin to return

Shock turned to grief, and now it is accompanied by hunger and cold. Complicated logistics and bureaucracy has meant that relief material has not yet reached <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/mass-cremations-for-nepal-quake-victims">the village of Chiuri in Jajarkot</a> that was devastated by the midnight earthquake of 3 November. &nbsp; Thirteen of those killed in just this one village were cremated in a collective funeral by the banks of Bheri down the mountain on Sunday. It was nightfall, and the mourners had still not returned.&nbsp; The survivors were spreading out freshly harvested straw under a plastic sheet to make a bed for their second night out in the open. It gets chilly after sunset here, and the families have rolled up some tattered blankets they have retrieved from the ruins of their homes. Even in Chiuri, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/demographics-of-disaster-in-nepal-quake">the worst affected</a> part was the predominantly-Dalit Imle neighbourhood where four members of the Hire Kami family were killed in their sleep when their house collapsed. Only eight-year-old Premkali was pulled out alive from the rubble. She lost her parents and two siblings.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231106081124_065db8f5b0483b79bfe42352dd38d28c1f55b77f460417de1aa9539453e0d7ec.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20231106081124_065db8f5b0483b79bfe42352dd38d28c1f55b77f460417de1aa9539453e0d7ec" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1366" loading="lazy" alt="Jajarkot Nepal earthquake"> <figcaption>Eight-year-old Premkali lost both of her parents and her two older brothers in the earthquake.</figcaption> </figure>  The underserved Dalit community in these mountains of northwestern Nepal usually have the flimsiest houses made of stone and mud, and nine of them in Imle immediately collapsed when the first jolts of the<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/deadly-earthquake-hits-w-nepal"> shallow 6.4 magnitude earthquake hit</a>. Premkali herself was hurt in her head finger and back by a falling beam, and had just been brought back from hospital. She was staring into the distance outside her collapsed home, wincing in pain.&nbsp; The eight-year-old seemed to be in complete shock, and would even be startled by neighbours consoling her. “Poor thing, you have no one now, who will look after you,” one neighbor Debmaya BK said to Premkali. Tears streamed down both her cheeks, the girl could not say anything. One of Premkali’s elder brothers went to India a few years ago, and there is hope that he will return to take care of her. She does not even remember her brother’s face since he left when she was very young.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/mind-the-gap">Mind the gap</a>, Editorial  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231106081116_dbe8c7fb138e6ecd53c8e9b13f9d847cbdecd482c61c83f23e437b6b33560bf8.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20231106081116_dbe8c7fb138e6ecd53c8e9b13f9d847cbdecd482c61c83f23e437b6b33560bf8" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1328" loading="lazy" alt="Jajarkot Nepal earthquake"> <figcaption>Chiuri Village in Jajarkot.</figcaption> </figure>  On Friday night, Hire Kami, 55, his wife and their 12 and 14-year-old sons had gone to sleep on the ground floor of their house. Premkali and her friend Rupa were on the upper level. Their floor fell on the floor below where the four were sleeping.&nbsp; Rupa, 14, is also injured, and says she does not remember much. “In the morning I just saw the four of Premkali’s family laid out in front of the collapsed house, they all looked like they were sleeping,” she said. Premkali is in Grade 3, Rupa is in Grade 9 and they go to the same school. Since there was no one except the girl left in the family, the combined cremation for Hire Kami, his wife and two sons was performed by a neighbor, Lal Bahadur Kami. He told us: “They have no one else.” &nbsp; Read also:<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/earthquake-vacates-villages-in-nepal"> Earthquake vacates villages in Nepal</a>, Anita Bhetwal A neighbour Bimala BK who survived had rushed to Hire Kami’s house and heard them shouting for help from under the rubble for about an hour, but soon the voices died out. “We did not have digging tools, and could not remove the stones in time in the darkness to save them,” Bimala said.&nbsp; It is early winter here in the mountains, and the nights are getting cold. Nearly all the 80 houses in Chiuri have been damaged or destroyed, many pots and pans are buried and families cannot even cook a hot meal in the open. There is a bottleneck in supplies reaching these remote villages because the government has decided to coordinate all relief through the Nepal Army base in Surkhet, and there are only a limited number of helicopters.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231106081120_28a779ee783432b14130c2f918b0978c52dafbb849c91ec7d48555e8aa17d8ec.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20231106081120_28a779ee783432b14130c2f918b0978c52dafbb849c91ec7d48555e8aa17d8ec" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1366" loading="lazy" alt="Jajrkot Nepal earthquake"> <figcaption>Survivours huddle together for warmth outside of their partially damanged house. </figcaption> </figure>  Bhagwati BK has prepared the straw beds for mourners returning from the funeral, and says: “If the earthquake did not kill us, the cold will probably kills us. We urgently need shelter, food and warm clothes.” Sabitri B K, 21, from Chapaghat village was inconsolable on the banks of the Bheri on Sunday afternoon as the logs were laid out on the funeral pyres for her five-year-old son who was crushed when their home collapsed. Sabitri and her husband were rescued. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/in-a-disastrous-state">In a disastrous state</a>, Sonia Awale “Oh god, why didn’t you take instead?” she implored, looking up at the sky.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231106081124_90502f8251679cbae4dfa35c7c9d84b8392404086ce702cef81c12b09a868502.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20231106081124_90502f8251679cbae4dfa35c7c9d84b8392404086ce702cef81c12b09a868502" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1366" loading="lazy" alt="Jajarkot Nepal earthquake"> </figure>  Dipa Pariyar, 60, was also at the river side waiting for the joint funeral for her two granddaughters, 16 and 26, and a 18-month-old grandson. Her son was not at home and her daughter-in-law was injured. A relative and her 9-year-old daughter were also killed. Pariyar wept, as she said: “Why did you have to save me, god, and kill them?"&nbsp;

Grief-stricken survivors are cold and hungry

<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/past-disasters-foretold">Himalayan seismologists have been warning</a> that a mega earthquake is long overdue in western Nepal because there has not been a big one to release the tectonic tension there for over 600 years. The estimated 6 magnitude earthquake just before midnight on Friday with an epicentre in Jajarkot was exactly in this region, but not the 8+ magnitude that had been predicted. The official death toll in the remote villages of Karnali Province is now 125 with hundreds injured, but these figures are expected to rise. Friday night’s earthquake rattled Kathmandu and New Delhi, both 500km away and shook the densely populated plains of northern India as well as the Tibetan Plateau. There has been an <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/earthquake-vacates-villages-in-nepal">increase in seismic activity in the region</a>: there was a double jolt of 5.3 and 6.3 magnitude epicentred in Bajhang district in far-western Nepal on 3 October that killed one person. The fact that the Jajarkot quake struck in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/mind-the-gap">the seismic gap in western Nepal</a> may mean that some of the tension that has been building up beneath may have been released, but it could also be a precursor quake to a bigger one.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231104021124_95fc656abd739149dd0e576066da2cc434a7fe4086e1a759b483d25f3a7230cc.png" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20231104021124_95fc656abd739149dd0e576066da2cc434a7fe4086e1a759b483d25f3a7230cc" data-rendition-name="original" width="1770" height="926" loading="lazy" alt="Nepal earthquake Jajarkot NT"> </figure>  The Indian Plate is converging towards the Eurasian Plate at an average rate of 25mm a year, which is what makes Nepal and the region an active seismic zone. The energy is released in periodic earthquakes, but there is <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/in-a-disastrous-state">a large seismic gap in western Nepal</a> which has not suffered a mega quake since the 16th century. This means the accumulated tectonic energy needs to be released. Seismologists say Friday’s earthquake may not have been strong enough to release all that built-up tectonic pressure. There have been predictions that an 8 magnitude earthquake could see horizontal surface displacement of more than 6 metres along the mountains. “<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/ain-t-seen-nothing-yet">The 2015 was not a mega earthquake</a>, that one is still coming,” warned Surya Narayan Shrestha of the National Society for Earthquake Technology (NSET) in an interview with Nepali Times on Nepal’s Earthquake Safety Day on 15 January this year. Written records in monasteries in western Tibet chronicle a big earthquake at 6AM on 1 June 1505, and that could have been the last big one that shook western Nepal. Estimated at 8.9, there are also historical records in Moghul India of destruction in Agra and other cities at the time.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231104021124_d1f4334aaf83e0a8a240166f589e6640f931863288ea67a7d61a3e1df614cc89.png" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20231104021124_d1f4334aaf83e0a8a240166f589e6640f931863288ea67a7d61a3e1df614cc89" data-rendition-name="original" width="2244" height="1076" loading="lazy" alt="Nepal earthquake Jajarkot NT"> </figure>  <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/lessons-not-learned-from-2015-o2etq6zu">The 2015 earthquake</a> was epicentred in Gorkha and did not affect the western half of Nepal. The region is at added risk because of the danger of another big one, as well as because of poorly constructed buildings and lower awareness about earthquake safety. Friday’s earthquake brought down many buildings made of stone and mud mortar in Jajarkot and West <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/caste-aside">Rukum</a>, and although it hit a relatively sparsely populated region of Nepal the casualty rate was high because it struck at night when families were asleep at home. Mobile phone images from the affected areas show that even concrete buildings collapsed in the market towns, indicating the severe intensity of shaking. Because of the outmigration of young men from western Nepal to work in India or abroad, most of the casualties are said to be women, children and the elderly.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231104021124_d4435d1b7abdf56b73b4eea6783fd357a6236e9128f0277568c7e92b8525ec97.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20231104021124_d4435d1b7abdf56b73b4eea6783fd357a6236e9128f0277568c7e92b8525ec97" data-rendition-name="original" width="1200" height="900" loading="lazy" alt="Nepal earthquake Jajarkot NT"> <figcaption>The earthquake in Jajarkot was felt even in Kathmandu and New Delhi, and destroyed properties in West Rukum. Photo: RSS</figcaption> </figure>  Nalgad municipality in <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=16988">Jajarkot</a> is said to be the worst affected village, where the deputy mayor Sarita Singh was killed when her home collapsed. Many of the roads leading to these two remote districts are blocked by rockfalls, and there is also reported to be a heavy loss of livestock. Many of the injured are in hospitals in Chaurjhari and Rukumkot, and those more badly injured are being referred to hospitals in Surkhet and Nepalganj.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231104071112_8161e0dc0a1edeb4c7537aa30d329ad931d8ad8052e4e6c1cb95aa5044495996.png" data-media-id="editor_11" data-image-id="20231104071112_8161e0dc0a1edeb4c7537aa30d329ad931d8ad8052e4e6c1cb95aa5044495996" data-rendition-name="original" width="2190" height="1232" loading="lazy" alt="W Nepal earthquake"> <figcaption>Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dhal evacuated a few of those wounded in he earthquake from Jajarkot to to Surkhet in Nepal Army helicopter on Saturday morning. Photo: PMO</figcaption> </figure>  Two Nepal Army helicopters have flown to the affected regions from Surkhet early morning on Saturday with relief material, as well as to ferry the injured. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal is due to fly out in another helicopter from Kathmandu.

Deadly earthquake hits W Nepal

Preserving Patan post-earthquake

Of all the many accomplishments of Primafacie Minister K P Oli in the past three years of his tenure, the most remarkable is his setting a new Guinness World Record on the number of inaugurations he has inaugurated in the past two weeks.But we worry that with all the ribbon cutting, there is going to be a serious depletion of Nepal’s national stockpile of red ribbons.Last week, the Primeval Minister inaugurated the Melamchi Project, which was first mooted during the early Lichhavi Period. The praiseworthy thing is that we did not let a minor issue like the fact that the project is still in the test-phase get in the way of its grand inauguration.But what if Primetime Minister Oli runs out of stuff to inaugurate? What if there is nothing left to declare open? It will be a national embarrassment, with disastrous consequences for public morale.But these fears may be unfounded. On Saturday, Primate Minister Oli inaugurated Bhimsen’s Erection which will stand as a monument to national virility, and proof that the Nepali Can, and the Nepali Will (still do it).I don’t know if you noticed, but the design of Oli’s Folly has been modified to look like an Inter-continental Ballistic Missile on its launch pad. This is to fool enemy spy satellites into thinking that Nepal has nuclear arsenals and urinals to act as a deterrent against any nation that harbours ill intent towards us.The government’s aim is to erect phalli like Dharara all over the country under its ‘One Municipality One View-tower’ campaign. This means Oli will not run out of structures to inaugurate for the rest of his PMship.There are other National Pride Projects in various stages of incompletion that also deserve to be inaugurated by the Primavera Minister in the unforeseeable future.As a service to the nation, the Ass lists below various schemes that are ready for immediate ribbon-cutting:<ol> 	<li> Inaugurate the MCC even if they are still playing political pingpong with it.</li> 	<li> Next week, inaugurate the bridge across the Trisuli River that collapsed of its own accord. After all, it is the thought that counts.</li> 	<li> PM Oli promised that ocean going ships would arrive on Nepal’s shores by December 2018. It’s ok that they didn’t, he can still inaugurate a pretend harbour on the Kosi River and declare Nepal not landlocked anymore.</li> 	<li> The great thing about inaugurations is that some of them can be fast-forwarded so that the projects can be declared opened prematurely. Only 20% of the work on the Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track has been completed, but that should not deter us from officially inaugurating it.</li> 	<li> Inaugurations can also be retroactive, so the prime minister can take credit for projects that have already been inaugurated by a previous prime ministers. For example, Prime Minister Oily can re-inaugurate the Tribhuvan Rajpath all over again.</li> 	<li> Or they can be futuristic. Nothing should stop the Oli government from inaugurating imaginary projects that we have not even dreamed of yet: Nepal’s first nuclear power plant built with fuel rods from Mustang.</li> 	<li> Depends on how desperate we are, but if we really run out of things to inaugurate, the Slime Minister can even inaugurate Nijgad International Aeropolis by ceremonially chain-sawing down the first of 2 million trees amidst enthusiastic applause from logging contractors.</li> 	<li> In its manifesto, The Oligarchy promised piped gas in every home by 2020, and sure enough it can already be inaugurated.</li></ol>It’s just that instead of liquid petroleum gas, what we will have piped into every Nepali home is laughing gas.

The Ass

Inauguration nation

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121152/636ce5ea9c7e80680e096739jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1125"/><figcaption>Kyanjin, at 4,100 metres, is the highest settlement in the Langtang Valley. All Photos: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121152/636ce5ed9c7e80680e09673ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="358"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121152/636ce5f09c7e80680e09673bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="412"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>After attending a night-long vigil for a dead relative, Karma Tamang was taking a nap in a room in his Panorama Guest House in Kyanjin, when he was woken up by violent shaking.He staggered out into the balcony, down the stairs and outside. All around him, stone houses were crumbling in clouds of dust. Then there was another more ominous roar from the cloud-covered slopes of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/five-years-after-avalanche-langtang-is-locked-down/">Langtang</a> Lirung directly above the town.“I knew it was an avalanche, but what we did not expect was a blast of wind so strong that it swept people and yaks off their feet and blew them away,” Tamang, 55, recalls.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4R419Ei6SiEHe ran back to the farthest room in his lodge while the dirty snow blew all around like a blizzard.“There were people with broken limbs, faces bleeding, we rescued whom we could find, and sheltered them in the lodge,” he says.Tamang then remembered that his family was in his other guest house in<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-courage-and-endurance-of-the-langtangpa/"> Langtang village</a>, and ran down the valley. He met hundreds of locals and tourists, some with grievous wounds, fleeing in the opposite direction.When he reached the Army base overlooking the village, there was no village, just blocks of black ice the size of houses that looked like giant rocks. There was no sign of his home, where he had left his wife, sister, son and two nephews that morning.“I had tried to wake up my son to bring him back with me to Kyanjin, but he wanted to sleep, so I had left him there,” recalls Tamang  his face contorted by grief even six years later. They found the bodies four days later, half-buried in ice and boulders, on the other side of the valley.No one knows for sure<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/langtang-destroyed-in-earthquake,2205"> how many people died</a> in Langtang’s co-seismic disaster just before noon on 25 April 2015, but its physical and emotional scars are still visible everywhere.There used to be up to 150 trekkers every day passing through Langtang village before the earthquake, the numbers had started picking up again and lodge owners were so optimistic that they were adding floors, and expanding restaurant space.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121152/636ce5f39c7e80680e09673cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="305"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>That construction spree is still going on as families who survived the disaster rebuild lodges near where the village once was, and in Kyanjin. Every day, there are dozens of helicopter flights ferrying iron rods, cement and plywood in slings up the valley from Syabru.“We had thought we had seen the worst of it after the earthquake, and took loans to rebuild our lodge, improve the facilities, but there have been no trekkers for a year now,” says Sumjo Tamang, 29, as she prepares tea in the immaculate, but deserted, dining area of her Snow Leopard Guest House.Sumjo’s husband was in Langtang village ploughing his potato field with two yaks when the avalanche came down. His body was found 200m away. Up in Kyanjin, Sumjo picked up her baby daughter, and ran out when the house started shaking--only to be blown away by the shock wave.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121152/636ce5f69c7e80680e09673djpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1125" height="1500"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121152/636ce5f99c7e80680e09673ejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1125" height="1500"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>She was knocked unconscious, and neighbours found her baby in a nearby field, unhurt. When she came to, Sumjo could not move her leg which was broken in three places. Her two other daughters also survived miraculously, and the family spent four days in a cave waiting for a helicopter rescue to Kathmandu. It took a year for her leg to heal so she could return to the ruins of her lodge in Kyanjin.“It has been difficult without my husband and with small children, but everyone helped and we were just starting to recover. Now, they say this Covid will go on for another few years, I don’t know how to carry on,” she says.Even if trekking revives, lodge owners here worry that there will be too much competition and rates will go down as lodge owners try to undercut each other. There are 40 tourist lodges in Kyanjin alone, in what used to be a tiny monastery village. Most are padlocked and their owners are away in Kathmandu, but others are using the pandemic to rebuild in anticipation that tourism will pick up again.Alone in his empty Panorama Guest House, Karma Tamang sits by a shrine in his dining area with photographs of his wife, son and nephews who perished in the disaster.“The earthquake was such a shocking tragedy that for a time, people here became spiritual and believed that it was divine retribution for being selfish, and for leaving the path of the dharma,” he says. “But six years later, everyone is now back to building bigger houses, they are heavily indebted, and Covid has killed tourism. There is a lot of anxiety in the people.”Here in Kyanjin, it was mostly the stone structures that came down in the 7.8 magnitude earthquake in 2015. And, as elsewhere in Central Nepal, everyone is rebuilding using reinforced concrete columns, presuming they are stronger. The steel and cement is all flown in by helicopter.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121152/636ce5fc9c7e80680e09673fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="559" height="278">On a ridge overlooking Kyanjin, the town’s Ward Chair Supa Tamang is supervising the installation of a Nepal Telecom mobile tower for which he lobbied two years in Kathmandu. As a Nepal Communist Party candidate, he was elected in the 2017 election, but is far away from the political intrigue and infighting of his party in Kathmandu.“We survived the earthquake, and we will survive Covid as well,” says Supa Tamang confidently. “The new lodges, better facilities and mobile connectivity prove that the people of Langtang are hoping for a better tomorrow.”Read Also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-story-of-langtang-cheese/">The Story of Langtang Cheese</a>, Gyalbu Tamang.

Kunda Dixit

Langtang copes with quake and Covid

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121148/636ce5329c7e80680e0966f1jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"/><figcaption>Photos: AMIT MACHAMASI</figcaption></figure>In a sparse rented room with pink walls, six-year-old Sonish Awal is preparing for his online Nepali class (pictured above) on a smartphone, leaning on a table propped up with a paint bucket.His sister Sonia is coaching the first grader, the baby made famous as <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/bhaktapurs-miracle-boy-at-3/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepal’s ‘Miracle Boy’</a> for having survived 22 hours under the rubble of the family’s home in Bhaktapur that was destroyed in the 2015 earthquake.“He is playful and inquisitive, he keeps asking me when we will rebuild our house,” says Rashmila about her son, whom she describes as a happy child who likes to play with other neighbourhood children and watch tv.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3gZtBiMbP0The family’s single room has a sewing machine in which Rashmila, sews clothes for additional income. She has no answer for her son’s persistent questions about rebuilding their house.Her husband Shyam is a truck driver, but the pandemic and lockdowns have reduced his income.When <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/kundadixit/2015/05/27/a-month-that-felt-like-a-year/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the earthquake struck at 11:56AM on 25 April 2015</a>, Rashmila was out shopping, she rushed back as the ground shook. At their home, Sonia picked up her four-month-old brother, and tried to rush out of the room. A cupboard fell on top of them, and the house came down on top of them.Sonia was unconscious when she was rescued a few hours later, and was rushed to hospital. But <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/awal-family-still-homeless-but-happy-the-children-survived,2349" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sonish could not be found</a>. Nepal Army rescuers had given up, but were called back in the morning when Rashmila heard a faint wail from under the rubble.They found Sonish covered in dust, with just a scratch in his leg. The photograph of soldier Dipak Rai and other rescuers holding the baby got widespread play in the national and international media. In Nepal, the rescue brought a ray of hope to a nation in shock after the disaster that left nearly 9,000 dead and 22,000 injured.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121148/636ce5359c7e80680e0966f2jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="559" height="278"><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121148/636ce5379c7e80680e0966f3jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="481"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Shyam Awal was driving his pickup at Jadibuti, when he felt like he was losing control of the vehicle. He turned around and drove back to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/bhaktapur-shows-the-way-by-rebuilding-itself/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Bhaktapur</a>, and seeing all the destroyed buildings, he feared the worst.There was a heap of rubble where his home used to be, and his son buried somewhere inside. He rushed to the hospital to find his daughter Sonia was still unconscious. His wife Rashmila was inconsolable."The whole neighbourhood came together for the rescue but each time, it was another corpse that we pulled out, we had given up hope of Sonish surviving so long after the earthquake,” recalls 39-year-old Shyam.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121148/636ce5399c7e80680e0966f4jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1966" height="1224"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>When they heard the faint cry from the ruin of their four-storey home late into the night, Shyam at first thought it was a dog. But as it became clear that it Sonish whimpering.“We could hear the baby but pulling him out was another story altogether, I was panicking the whole time, knowing he was down there but we couldn’t do much,” recalls Rashmila. “When they finally pulled him out, he was covered in dust. Today, he just has a scar on his left thigh to remind him of the miraculous survival.”After his online exam this week, Rashmila walked Sonish to the ruin of their house that collapsed six years ago. The debris has been cleared, but the space is empty.After his ancestral home was divided between the brothers, Shyam Awal ended up without a land title, his portion of the property is likely to be acquired by the municipality for a road-widening project. The family is planning to build a one-storey house for now, and save on rent.Amul Thapa, who took <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2015/06/23/the-baby-who-lived/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the now-iconic image</a> of Nepal Army rescuer Dipak Rai lifting Sonish from the rubble, visits the Awals regularly, but is frustrated by the state’s apathy towards the survivors.“The rescue bought the family international fame, even the Prime Minister visited them but they remain where they are, their house is the only one left to be rebuilt in that lane,” says Thapa.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121148/636ce53c9c7e80680e0966f5jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="1500"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Nepal Army that played a crucial role in the rescue of Sonish has been paying for the education of both the Awal children through <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2016/04/24/scholarship-for-miracle-baby/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a scholarship they set up for until they graduate from high school</a>. After finishing his primary school, Sonish will attend the Army’s high school in Sallaghari.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121148/636ce53e9c7e80680e0966f6jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Sonish, who celebrated his sixth birthday in October, does not remember that fateful day, but he has grown up looking at the images of himself. Pointing at a cut-out of his picture from a newspaper from six years ago, he says he wants to become a solider when he grows up.At the site of the rescue, Rashmila asks her son where he was trapped. Sonish has been told the story so often that he points to the spot above a half-buried door, and replies cheerfully: “Right here, I was underneath here.”

Monika Deupala

Miracle Boy, six years after Nepal quake

Even in normal years Nepal has one of the highest fatality rates in the world from landslides and flashfloods. But even by that grim standard, 2020 has been particularly bad.[caption id="attachment_55055" align="alignleft" width="500"]<img class="wp-image-55055" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915118/636bb4a29c7e80680e07bbb3jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="281"/> The latest landslide in Nepal’s Sindhupalchok district on 13 September took the total in the district in the past two months to 105, and the nationwide death toll this monsoon to 334 this monsoon. Photo: Bajir Singh BhandariDisaster management experts were just totaling the number of fatalities <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepals-deadliest-monsoon-in-recent-times/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepals-deadliest-monsoon-in-recent-times/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1600256399940000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF7-yj-fOh1i7o9M3C57jZxEdbG4g">in this deadly season</a>, when news came on 13 September of yet another massive landslide in Sindhupalchok district 60km northeast of Kathmandu that may have cost 31 more lives.This followed huge slips on 8 July and 14 August that had killed a total of 58 people in the same general area of Sindhupalchok near the Chinese border. The total 334 deaths from landslides in Nepal this year surpassed the total of 247 in 2014, of which <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2014/08/02/a-flood-of-floods/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2014/08/02/a-flood-of-floods/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1600256399940000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEYDEXASLIJYv-ks5IFMsndwguMUg">145 were killed in just one massive slide in Jure</a> of the same district.[caption id="attachment_55054" align="alignnone" width="800"]<img class="wp-image-55054" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915118/636bb4a49c7e80680e07bbb4jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="578"> The Lidi landslide in Sindhupalchok on 13 August shows how road building on fragile slopes already made unstable by the 2015 earthquakes compounded the disaster. Photo: RSSThe disasters this year has been compounded by the Covid-19 crisis, which had killed 360 people as of Tuesday. A <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/heavy-monsoon-rains-forecast-for-nepal/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/heavy-monsoon-rains-forecast-for-nepal/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1600256399940000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGwUc01omOxbfVw0zQdWZPABo4OxQ">heavier-than-usual pre-monsoon</a> had already saturated the soil in the mountains of Nepal when the main rains arrived in July.But what makes Sindhupalchok so prone to landslides and flash floods? Disaster management experts point to the after-effects of the two major 2015 earthquakes which killed 8,890 -- 40% of them in Sindhupalchok. They also blame the region’s fragile geology, as well as the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/dont-just-blame-god-for-floods-and-landslides/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/dont-just-blame-god-for-floods-and-landslides/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1600256399940000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHx0G6y2fRo9smVf_mOr7H_eNGzNQ">haphazard digging of poorly-engineered rural roads</a> that destabilise the slopes even further.Five years later Sindhupalchok was still being rocked in Wednesday morning by 6M aftershock.[caption id="attachment_55050" align="alignright" width="400"]<img class="wp-image-55050" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915118/636bb4a79c7e80680e07bbb5jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="225"> The flashflood on a river in Dhorpatan on the night of 2 September, swept away 38 people, only 14 bodies were recovered.To be sure, other districts have also been badly hit this year. A flashflood in Dhorpatan municipality of Baglung district killed 14 people on 4 September, and there has been much loss of life in Myagdi, Tanahu, and Jajarkot after cloudbursts.In a paper, geologist Basanta Raj Adhikari at the Institute of Engineering says that between 1972-2016 a total of 5,190 people lost their lives in 3,419 recorded landslide events – 490 of them in the past three years alone.Relative to its population, Nepal has the highest fatality rate from landslides in the world. The country is one of the most-densely populated mountain regions in the world, and being the youngest mountain range, the Himalaya are inherently unstable as well as being battered by heavy monsoon rains from June to September.“There is a lack of prioritisation and willingness to see the depth of this problem,” says Adhikari. “We found that rainfall-triggered landslides are more than twice as likely to occur within 100m of a road, than landslides generated by earthquakes.”Nepal has built nearly 60,000km of rural roads in the past three decades, and the alignments of most of them are determined by local politicians, and not designed by engineers. They are also poorly maintained, and do not have proper drainage.‘In tectonically active mountains such as the Himalayas, natural landslides play a fundamental role in the evolution of the landscape. But there is a clear anthropogenic influence in the occurrence of landslides in Nepal,’ writes <a href="https://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1600256399940000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF-m6VvYGI3fMkhr2DCyIDbTUpabg">David Petley</a>, a professor at the University of Sheffield in the UK, and a global expert on landslides.<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-55044" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915118/636bb4a99c7e80680e07bbb6jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="622" height="415"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-55045" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915118/636bb4ac9c7e80680e07bbb7jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="622" height="415">VISIBLE FROM SPACE: The Bhote Kosi landslide in an image taken in 13 September 2013 shows smaller precursor landslips, and one taken on 18 September 2014 shows the size of the slide and the impounded lake on the Bhote Kosi. Photos: NASAIn 2017, Nepal imported 12,712 excavators, bulldozers and cranes, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/dozers-and-nepals-development/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/dozers-and-nepals-development/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1600256399940000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHM3-0ucCAvMvnE87HaeG4vGWBEwA">a 30% increase</a> from the previous year. One of the importers, MAW Earthmovers, sold the most JCB equipment in South Asia in Nepal, and the second-highest amount globally.Anil Pokhrel, who heads the recently established <a href="https://www.facebook.com/NDRRMA/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.facebook.com/NDRRMA/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1600256399940000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEBOGo5oX1e2jFDdxKOaGdaXkWhEQ">National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Authority (NDRRMA)</a> under the Ministry of Home Affairs, has been flying around the country with top politicians handing out relief packages to landslide victims. He says: “Everywhere we visited, local leaders blamed haphazard road construction for endangering their lives, but there is pressure from the communities themselves for road access.”There is also evidence that many local leaders are themselves contractors and own heavy earth-moving equipment which they are keen to rent out to themselves. These poorly built roads are often triggers for landslides.Watershed expert Madhukar Upadhya says: “It is not local individuals putting pressure to build roads, it is mostly a nexus between local leaders and contractors.”Geologists say that many villages in Nepal’s mountains are located along the path of old landslides, but people tend to forget quickly and start to grow crops on the debris field and soon new settlements rise on high-risk slopes.Recent landslides also show that many villagers get a false sense of security from the belief that planting trees above the village will protect them from landslides. While community forests have benefits, they are not a panacea.[caption id="attachment_55051" align="alignright" width="450"]<img class="wp-image-55051" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915118/636bb4ae9c7e80680e07bbb8jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="207"> Forest cover does not necessarily prevent landslides as this photograph of Durlung of Parbat district in June shows. Nine people were killed in the disaster.“Heavy monsoon downpours cause mass failure of inherently unstable slopes on a large scale and at depths far below the root zone of trees,” says Upadhyay. “Forest cover, while desirable, plays little or no role in stopping such mass wasting. We covered slopes with forests but forgot about soil management, leading to more destructive landslides.”Indeed, photographs of many of the landslides this year show deep scars that start in forested slopes tumbling down to settlements below. In Durlung village of Parbat district, it was a densely forested slope that failed in June and swept away a settlement killing nine people. Forests also did not protect Jajarkot villages from monsoon cloudbursts.“Nobody would imagine that such a heavily-forested slope could have failed, we should remove this deeply-rooted belief and put other appropriate measures to control landslides,” said Pokhrel, who visited the area after the event.Landslide early warning systems (LEWS) do exist, and have saved lives in pilot projects in Nepal before. The solar-powered equipment can measure land deformation, soil moisture content on slopes and trigger a siren after it crosses a threshold.“This is not rocket science,” says Adhikari. “It can be installed easily, and it will not cost more than a minister’s chopper visit after each of these landslides.”[caption id="attachment_55053" align="alignnone" width="800"]<img class="wp-image-55053" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915118/636bb4b09c7e80680e07bbb9jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="600"> Landslides scar a slope in Jajarkot after a cloudburst in July. Twelve people were killed.More than 90% of landslides in Nepal occur during the monsoon between June and September, peaking in July and August. Several <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S167498711400036X" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S167498711400036X&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1600256399940000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGLROni0PbrAIGDnL8j6kIykvhlXQ">studies</a> suggest the climate change is causing freak storms and more frequent cloudbursts in the Himalaya, increasing the vulnerability of people who live in the mountains.A version of this report appeared in <a href="https://www.thethirdpole.net/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.thethirdpole.net/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1600256399940000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHPHxfBDRpmSHSz5_oDfnrNjB0JlQ">thethirdpole.net. </a>

Deadly monsoon in Nepal turns deadlier

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110914114/636ba5ca9c7e80680e0736e5jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="600"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>It was a quiet Saturday morning, and people were lining up for a blood donation drive inside the historic pavilion from which Kathmandu gets its name.Four minutes before noon on 25 April 2015, the building started shaking. There was a frightening roar as nearby temples collapsed in clouds of yellow dust. Kasthamandap’s ancient timber beams creaked and shook, but they could not withstand the force of the quake.The structure collapsed before the blood donors could scramble out to safety, <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/from-nepali-press/The-fall-of-Kasthamandap,2234">killing 10 of them.</a> For the past five years this imposing pavilion, built on foundations said to be 1,500 years old, had just been a heap of rubble. But it is finally being restored.Kathmandu was then on the historic trans-Himalayan trade route between India and Tibet, and Kasthamandap was the bustling rest house where buyers and sellers from the north and south mingled. The exchanges were not just of goods and commodities, but were also cultural and religious.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110914114/636ba5cc9c7e80680e0736e6jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="430"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Kasthamandap means ‘wooden pavilion’, and legend has it that it was constructed from the timber of single giant tree. It is also colloquially called Maru Satha (empty rest house). Everything happened around Kasthamandap, in the bustling Maru bazaar that exists to this day.“You will still find people here selling old currency from Lhasa and India that have been passed on from one generation to another,” says <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/rebuilding-kasthamandap-nepal,4012">Alok Siddhi Tuladhar</a>, a heritage conservationist and documentarian.After it came down in 2015,<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/righting-heritage-reconstruction-gone-wrong,3670"> there was controversy </a>about how exactly to rebuild Kastamandap. After much debate, restoration was entrusted to the <a href="https://kasthamandapnepal.org.np">Kasthamandap Reconstruction Committee,</a> a citizen-led committee of 55 members made up of heritage experts, architects, government officials and the local community. Caged by its thick bamboo scaffold, the structure is now finally taking its original shape. The construction is targeted to finish three years after the start of the process in 2017 but is being delayed by the pandemic.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110914114/636ba5ce9c7e80680e0736e7jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="427"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110914114/636ba5d29c7e80680e0736e8jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="427"><a href="https://www.rebuildkasthamandap.com/first_documented_mention/">The first documented mention of Kasthamandap </a>is from 1143 CE in a Namasangiti manuscript stored in Tibet’s Saskya Monastery. This discredited the common notion that Kasthamandap was built by Laxmi Narsingh Malla in the 17th century. In fact, <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/archaeology/research/projects/all/?mode=project&amp;id=939">results of an excavation done in 2016 </a>by the Department of Archaeology and Durham University puts the origins of the site even further back to the 7th century CE.Recent carbon dating also proved that a mekh (wooden joint) used in a wooden beam is even older -- from the 5th century. Archaeologists have not found any evidence that there was a structure here from that far back, and more site samples are needed. Archaeological digs have been delayed due to the pandemic and the cost of carbon dating.Says project manager Manindra Shrestha: “Because we only found excavation evidence from just the central foundation, Kasthamandap might have been smaller in size during the 7th century.”This is disputed by Yagya Man Pati Bajracharya, a Buddhist priest who says he is a descendant of the original builders. “The dimensions of Kasthamandap are ordained by religion, and that is supposed to be the way it is. I don’t think it was smaller in the past.”Bajracharya is an authority on the subject and correctly predicted that there would be a nine-celled mandala under the central cell of the Gorakhnath Shrine. Sure enough, the excavations proved there was indeed a nine pit mandap in the foundation.“That information was passed down from generation to generation by my ancestors,” Bajracharya said. “There were written records, but these were destroyed by Jang Bahadur Rana during one of his tantrums.”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UZt1k1quDc&amp;feature=youtu.behttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5paviBHCYWA&amp;feature=youtu.beLike with every other structure in Kathmandu, the origins of Kasthamandap are also shrouded in myth and legend. Bajracharya thinks it was built during the Licchavi era by Lilabazra, a Buddhist priest and his own 43rd ancestor, as a rest house and mandap.Another popular legend suggests that Kasthamandap was built from the wood of a single tree. The tree god Kalpa Brikshya is supposed to have visited Kathmandu once to witness the Machindranath chariot festival in human disguise. One of the Buddhist tantric priests recognised him and imprisoned the sage who promised anything for his freedom. The people of Kathmandu asked for timber to build Kasthamandap, and being the god of trees himself, Kalpa Brichya magically created a massive tree enough to supply the Kasthamandap project.But even after Kasthamandap was erected, there was so much leftover timber that two more buildings were constructed nearby whose names give away their origins: Sin Lyon Sattah (rest house built with leftover wood) and Sin Khon Mu Baha (Buddhist monastic complex built with spare wood).“Kasthamandap’s destruction was to be expected, it was not at all well maintained and past renovations were done in a rush,” says Binita Magaiya, one of the architects involved in the reconstruction.In 1960, for example, Kasthamandap was hurriedly repaired with cement for the visit of Queen Elizabeth without much attention to traditional materials. Due to this, one of the keystones that held the columns was improperly placed, and parts of the timber beam that was underground had rotted. This could not hold the monument’s weight when the 2015 earthquake struck.Says Rajesh Shakya, the head of Kasthamandap Reconstruction Committee, “The traditional methods of construction would not have failed. Every joint and corner was originally designed to withstand earthquakes.”These were traditional seismic-resistant building techniques like having a copper shoe at the bottom of the timber columns to extend the life of the timber columns and stone bases to distribute the weight equally across the base were used, and these technique are being revived.With little to no architectural record of the original Kasthamandap, restoring the great structure from scratch was not easy. When the building came down, many of its elements were lost or mishandled. The Committee has been looking for some of the missing pieces for five years, Most of a priceless 6m wooden frieze with Buddhist-Hindu motifs was recovered, and is being reinstalled.“It was like a 3-D jigsaw puzzle, the picture does not come together even if one piece is lost,” explains Shrestha.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110914114/636ba5d59c7e80680e0736e9jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="267"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Thankfully, German architect <a href="https://kasthamandapnepal.org.np/drawings/">Wolfgang Korn’s architectural drawings of Kasthamandap</a> contained  detailed measurements of Kasthamandap, and these proved invaluable in accurately recreating the structure.Restoration architects also relied on sketches, paintings and old scripts to come up with the blueprint. It was not just getting the design right that was difficult, there were also very few who still had the necessary skill sets for rebuilding.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110914114/636ba5d69c7e80680e0736eajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="244">“There are hardly any workers with traditional skills left in Kathmandu, and we have to bring craftsmen from Bhaktapur,” said Shrestha, adding that each part of the restoration process is being meticulously recorded for future generations.The saying goes in Kathmandu that the temples were for the gods, palaces were for kings, and the satal (rest house) was for ordinary people. And although the valley has many satal, Kasthamandap was the biggest of its kind. Even on 25 April 2015, it was serving as a venue for public charity event.Community effort was necessary in rebuilding a monument that had such great local significance. The resurrected Kasthamandap has also revived Kathmandu’s <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/saving-the-intangible,3303">intangible heritage</a> of a sense of community and perhaps also the ancient cosmopolitanism of the pavilion.Tuladhar sums it up: “Kasthamandap was a home where everyone was welcomed, commoners and nobility, travelers and locals. It still embodies that spirit.”

Resurrecting Kasthamandap from the rubble

Besides multiple <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/republicans-and-royalists-on-nepal-s-streets">street demonstrations </a>that gridlocked Kathmandu’s traffic for the past weeks, public discourse in Nepal has also been dominated by dangerously <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/air-pollution-is-more-dangerous-than-smoking">high air pollution levels</a>. Caused mostly by hundreds of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/wildfire-season-starts-early-in-nepal">forest fires </a>raging across the country, the smoke contains suspended soot particles that harms <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/playing-with-poison">human health</a>. Thursday’s rain have cleared the air somewhat, and many people will soon forget how bad the air quality was. But the time to address the roots of next summer’s fire season is now.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250411060440_d1a119716a9031aadfdd611d299348d436842d376a03e664b8d773957a237524.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20250411060440_d1a119716a9031aadfdd611d299348d436842d376a03e664b8d773957a237524" data-rendition-name="original" width="502" height="540" loading="lazy" alt="Wildfires"> <figcaption>EXTINGUISHED: Forest fires raging all over Nepal in the week after 3 March (above) reduced air quality, creating a public health hazard in Kathmandu and across the country. Each red dot is a fire detected by infrared sensors on the NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) satellite. But the rain on Thursday doused most of the fires (below) with more rain forecast over the weekend.</figcaption> </figure>  The reason everyone was talking about air pollution was because the<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-is-going-up-in-smoke"> smoke from wildfires</a> was visible. But much more toxic are the invisible and odourless <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-doubles-its-carbon-footprint">gases from vehicular and industrial emissions </a>which have always been there. The theme of World Health Day on 7 April this week was ‘Healthy Beginnings, Hopeful Futures’ dedicated to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/saving-more-mothers-and-babies">preventing maternal and newborn deaths</a>. It is estimated that in Nepal, 30% of neonatal mortality can be blamed on air pollution. But that is only part of the story. Harmful as fine particulate matter is to human health, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, ground-level ozone and other gases in vehicular emissions are more hazardous to health. While the concentration of suspended particulate matter tinier than 1.5 microns (PM2.5) is closely monitored, these toxic gases are invisible, not measured much, and the public is not aware about the dangers they pose. Surface ozone is produced by the interaction of various gases found when <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/fossil-fuels-poison-air">burning fossil fuels</a>. Besides being poisonous, ground level ozone contributes up to 0.23°C to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-mountains-are-melting">global warming</a> because it is also a greenhouse gas. A new policy brief by the Clean Air Fund titled The Case for Action on Tropospheric Ozone blames surface ozone for a half a million premature deaths every year, 54.8% of which are in South Asia. Ozone also stunts plant growth and reduces crop yields by 26% globally, and 11% loss in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/economic-benefits-of-saving-the-ecology">forest productivity</a>, the report adds.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250411060456_aa02a923f8b27544ae54d0220162678f5bbb5eeb8fc3c466173c22c49b3e9a85.jpg" data-media-id="editor_11" data-image-id="20250411060456_aa02a923f8b27544ae54d0220162678f5bbb5eeb8fc3c466173c22c49b3e9a85" data-rendition-name="original" width="998" height="724" loading="lazy" alt="Gas Chambers"> </figure>  Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/bad-air-and-polluted-politics">Bad air and polluted politics</a>, Sonia Awale Ground-level ozone is not emitted directly into the air like other gases, but is formed when oxides of nitrogen (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released from automobile tailpipes or industry smokestacks react chemically with each other in the presence of sunlight. The main source of carbon monoxide in Kathmandu Valley are its 1.2 million two-wheelers. “Usually the concentration of carbon monoxide is 200-500 parts per billion (ppb), this has increased up to 3,000 in Kathmandu. Meanwhile, ground-level ozone has gone from 70-80 ppb to 150 ppb,” says Ravi Sahu, regional air quality specialist with the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).&nbsp; Sahu says <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/no-smoke-without-fire-p7vb9dcj">rampant forest fires of the past weeks</a> have also added to carbon monoxide and ozone in the air, not just the fine particles that make up the visible smoke. He adds, “There isn’t much awareness about <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/poisoning-the-air-we-breathe">ground-level ozone and carbon monoxide</a>, we need to urgently look into it.” A distinction must be made between good and bad ozone. Stratospheric ozone protects living beings from harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun.&nbsp; Tropospheric ozone can again be separated into two types: ozone in the free atmosphere which is a greenhouse gas much more potent than carbon dioxide, and ground-level ozone which has adverse impacts on health and agriculture. ‘Cutting tropospheric ozone presents a unique challenge as it requires smart and fast action across multiple greenhouse gases and air pollutants, as well as multiple economic sectors,’ notes the Clean Air Fund's policy briefing. ‘It is a growing and neglected problem that needs an integrated approach on both a local and global level to tackle climate change and air pollution together.’ Dying young There was a time when Nepal made it to international news bulletins only if there were fatalities on Mt Everest. Now, Kathmandu’s bad air frequently makes headlines all over the world. This past week, the concentration of PM2.5 that harms human health was up to 40 times the WHO recommended guideline — adding to the poisonous gases already present from vehicle emissions. The Department of Environment says 40% of the pollution in the past weeks was from wildfires sparked by nearly 6 months without substantial rain over central Nepal. Most of the rest is from vehicular and industrial emissions from Kathmandu itself and across the southern border. NASA’s Fire Information and Resource Management System (FIRMS) which issues daily maps of fires, showed hundreds of blazes raging across Nepal on Wednesday, mainly in Chitwan, Parsa and along the East-West Highway.&nbsp; “If we look at the figures for the last few years, it is clear that wildfires have become the biggest source of air pollution, they are seasonal but have overtaken vehicular emissions,” says urban planner and environmentalist Bhushan Tuladhar. “Forest fires, stubble burning, and open burning of garbage are the bigger problems now. Nepal, India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan are at risk every year, we shouldn’t further delay in finding solutions,” warned air quality expert Bhupendra Das during an event on air pollution organised on 7 March by the Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists (NEFEJ).&nbsp; Indeed, studies have shown that in winter 60% of the air pollution over Kathmandu is transboundary from the south, and in November it is compounded by smoke from crop residue burning by farmers in India and Pakistan blown in by prevailing winds. Forest fires are a regular pre-monsoon occurrence in Nepal, often intentionally set by farmers and herders to stimulate new grass growth for livestock. Winter rains have failed for eight of the past ten years, and this means the fires often spread out of control. The other reason for the increase in wildfires is the doubling of forest fires to 46% of the country’s area in the past 25 years. But this has happened simultaneously with outmigration, with some mountain districts losing 30% of their population between 2011-2021. With less pressure on forests for fodder and firewood, the undergrowth of community forests is loaded with dry fuel just waiting for a spark. The bowl-shaped topography of Kathmandu, Pokhara and other valleys further concentrates pollutants as they are trapped by surrounding mountains. But a year with a high number of wildfires is usually followed by a year or two with fewer incidents. For example: there were 6,537 fires in 2021 but the following year the number was down to 1,528. There were 5,216 fires last year, this year the number has already reached 1,800, and the trend is likely to be broken. Heavy rains forecast for the coming days are expected to douse some of the fires and clean up the air. But the damage has been done: Kathmandu residents of all age groups this week crowded clinics and hospitals with burning eyes, itchy throats, difficulty breathing, headaches, and dizziness. But in the longer term, soot particles that are tiny enough to jump the blood-air divide in lung capillaries do not just cause Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), asthma, but also cancers, heart attacks, strokes, birth defects and other chronic diseases. The latest Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) report by the University of Chicago shows that the annual concentration of PM2.5 in Kathmandu’s air rose from 17.87µg/m3 in 1998 to 31.33µg/m3 in 2022. Air pollution has got worse by 75% in Kathmandu in 25 years. During this time, air pollution has reduced the average life expectancy of Kathmandu’s residents by 3.5 years. According to the Health Effects Institute in Boston, dirty air is among the biggest public health concerns in Nepal killing over 42,100 a year. The adverse impact of high levels of air pollution is not limited to public health, it is seriously affecting tourism. Operators in Pokhara this week said that there were many negative online posts by visitors unable to see the famous panorama of Machapuchre and the Annapurnas even from Sarangkot. Aviation is also affected, as planes have to circle sometimes for hours burning a lot of fuel because of runway visibility being below minima at Kathmandu airport. The higher fuel cost is just passed down to customers, making air tickets in and out of Kathmandu some of the highest in the world. Kathmandu, with a population of four million, has not implemented a concrete policy to curb toxic air despite having formulated various action plans and repeated commitments by the government to protect the environment and control air pollution. The Department of Environment’s 2017 Air Quality Management Action Plan for Kathmandu put forward a policy to reduce air pollution caused by vehicles which was approved by the Cabinet, but has yet to be put to practice. The action included the immediate implementation of the Euro 5 emission standard to reduce pollution emitted by vehicles. However, Nepal has not even been able to implement Euro 4 standards so far. India, meanwhile, has already moved forward with the implementation of the Euro 6 standards. Says Ravi Sahu: “Air pollution in Nepal is not just about air pollution, it has ties to tourism, aviation, the economy so we must be prepared for annual conditions like forest fires, and this requires urgent interdisciplinary collaboration.” &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250411050452_821d09e283d8a590f1369bfb71b9b7fc6d950726e0651ea86c6488d04deb1742.jpg" data-media-id="editor_15" data-image-id="20250411050452_821d09e283d8a590f1369bfb71b9b7fc6d950726e0651ea86c6488d04deb1742" data-rendition-name="original" width="839" height="784" loading="lazy" alt="Silent Killers"> </figure>  &nbsp;

What is invisible is more dangerous

On Tuesday, leader of the monarchist RPP once again gathered on Kathmandu’s streets to deliver fiery speeches, but this time there was no arson and looting and no need for riot police to fire live rounds or tear gas.
RPP leaders demanded the release of their members including vice-president Rabindra Mishra and MP Dhawal Shamsher Rana were arrested during the violent <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/republicans-and-royalists-on-nepal-s-streets">28 March protests at Tinkune </a>which left two dead. 
They denounced the current leadership of the main parties, demanding the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/nepal-party-reincarnating-hindu-monarchy">restitution of Nepal as a Hindu kingdom</a>. They also said the government was responsible for the fatalities on 28 March because it provoked its rally with a tear gas attack even before it started.
It has now been revealed that the police fired at least 100 live rounds from high powered assault rifles at the crowd. Twenty-one of the 120 injured received bullet wounds, and most of them were bystanders and people trying to reach home. 
Tuesday protest on the Ring Road in Balkhu was much more subdued, and comparatively fewer RPP supporters showed up. The arson and vandalism in the previous protest appears to have cost some support for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-ghost-of-monarchy-returns-to-haunt-nepal">former king Gyanendra </a>especially for the anointment of medical tycoon and bank defaulter <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/street-politics">Durga Prasai </a>as ‘commander’ of the Tinkune rally.
Some monarchists acknowledge Gyanendra’s mistakes when was king 2001-2008, but say he has had a lot of time to reflect on his shortcomings and seems more disciplined and committed. His supporters have tried to build on nostalgia among some Nepalis for<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/why-invest-in-nepal"> domestic stability </a>and international respect that <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/if-birendra-was-alive-nepal-could-still-be-a-monarchy">the monarchy</a> commanded. 
“Nepalis were promised better service delivery, opportunities for the underserved, as well as better, more honest use of state resources, but the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=16992">people in leadership </a>have not been able to deliver on their commitments,” says RPP leader Prakash Chandra Lohani. “The gap between their rhetoric and reality has widened, the people feel betrayed, and the respect Nepali people had previously had for them has changed to revulsion.” 
Indeed, many commentators have warned the three main parties and their <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/politics-as-usual">serial prime ministers</a> who have ruled Nepal for much of the past 30 years should address rising public anger with them, and see the writing on the wall.
‘<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-government-changes-again">The UML, NC and Maoists</a> must introspect about their conduct,” warns Gunaraj Luitel, editor of Nagarik, in an op-ed this week. ‘These leaders for life may save themselves from simmering public anger, but they will not be able to save the system. The monarchist wave can only be dispelled when citizens are assured of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-local-election-gives-power-back-to-people">better governance</a> through <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/latest/real-world-training-for-youth-leaders">younger leaders</a>, and reforms.’ 
Rifts between radical royals who are gunning for a return to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/mob-movement-and-mayhem">Panchayat-style absolutism </a>and moderate monarchists who favour a constitutional king have also weakened the movement somewhat. The split between the RPP and RPP-Nepal cost the royalists numbers in Parliament in 2022, and both parties denounced the violence last month, albeit shifting the blame on the government.
The irony is that the same royalists who want to scrap the republican Constitution had formed electoral alliances with the UML during the 2022 elections. RPP-Nepal chair Kamal Thapa contested the 2022 election with the UML. Thapa has not taken part in the last two rallies, saying he will only be a part of a movement under a national flag, and not a RPP party banner.
For his part, the RPP’s Rajendra Lingden is said to be hesitant to censure some of his party’s more radical royalists for fear of fissure within his ranks, despite his aversion to Durga Prasai’s role. 
Analysts have questioned why <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/old-is-still-gold-in-nepali-politics">supporters of the monarchy </a>have decided to reestablish an institution that would not ultimately have executive decision-making power. There are doubts about whether authoritarian-minded Gyanendra will be satisfied being a <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=13957">ceremonial king</a>. 
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-s-deja-vu-on-black-friday">Nepal’s déjà vu on Black Friday</a>, Sonia Awale
"The Nepali people will not accept <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/forgotten-woman-who-sheltered-communist-activists">an absolute monarchy </a>at this point of time, and both the public as well as <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=8371">king Gyanendra</a> are fully aware that there is no other possibility beyond a constitutional monarchy," asserts the RPP’s Lohani. “The traditional monarchy’s institutional capacity might have been enough to meet the needs of feudal Nepal, but an absolute monarchy is impossible both in concept and practice in the context of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/Economic-Class/waiting-for-an-industrial-revolution,784">modern day Nepal</a>.”

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