Just about everything in Nepal happens <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/chiampagne">over a cup of चिया</a>. Generations have grown up with this staple brew that is embedded in the national culture.&nbsp; The history of tea cultivation in Nepal is more than a century-and-a-half old, ever since Gajaraj Singh Thapa planted the first sapling in Ilam in the 1800s. And while across the border, Darjeeling became synonymous with tea, Nepali leaves did not attain such fame.&nbsp; Now, tea connoisseurs across the world are discovering the distinctive aroma and taste of Nepal’s teas. The Nepali company <a href="https://junchiyabari.com">Jun Chiyabari </a>has branded its <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/getting-high-on-high-mountain-tea">High Mountain Tea</a> from the misty mountains of Dhankuta, and its subtle and sophisticated aroma has even found a niche market in countries where tea originated: China, Japan and Korea. Then there are the more traditional strong dark CTC blends with milk and sugar added to be slurped in the morning, or in tea shops with friends. But it is loose-leaf orthodox tea which is catching on even among Nepalis.&nbsp; Almost all of Nepal’s teas are produced in five eastern districts – Jhapa, Ilam, Pachthar, <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=15185">Dhankuta</a>, and Terhathum – where elevation, soil condition and weather are best suited for the bushes to thrive.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230703120732_009d83b7d27bdeba30942a922a3403679df99796e37fc7f2812846d51a0a8786.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20230703120732_009d83b7d27bdeba30942a922a3403679df99796e37fc7f2812846d51a0a8786" data-rendition-name="original" width="817" height="494" loading="lazy" alt="Loose leaf tea Nepal"> </figure>  Most of the leaves are sold wholesale in the Indian market and packaged as Darjeeling tea. As much as 96.4% of Nepal’s tea export <a href="https://tching.com/2022/09/understanding-the-current-conflict-between-the-tea-producers-in-nepal-and-india/">ends up in India</a>. But this means Ilam tea has a hard time establishing its unique brand characteristics. &nbsp; To make matters worse, Nepali farmers do not get their due and are ripped off by middlemen controlling the supply chain. Nepal’s tea exports are valued at drastically low prices in the Indian market, which means most Nepali tea pickers and workers earn <a href="https://www.worldteanews.com/origins/qa-nepal-teas-nishchal-banskota-talks-social-change-and-sustainability">less than $2 a day</a>.&nbsp; According to the Nepal Trade Information Portal, tea export valued at Rs834 per kg in the US market only has a price tag of Rs266 in India. Due to the lack of market access, Nepali farmers get only a fraction of that. Nepal exported more than Rs2 billion worth of tea to India in 2021, but less than Rs9 million to the United States the same year. Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/multimedia/made-in-nepal-peanut-butter-in-japan">Made in Nepal peanut butter in Japan</a>, Sonia Awale But here is the good news: Nepal's teas have been steadily carving out a brand name on the world stage. Companies like Nepal Tea Collective led by second and third-generation tea makers from eastern Nepal have been blazing a trail for loose-leaf, orthodox teas in the US market. It has also been working to disrupt the stranglehold of middlemen who have been so detrimental to farmers, as well as the international prospect for Nepal’s teas. &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230703120728_24d8b00faca41d9f498ea180962bee5437ad257577d7593af3eed51c371b93b0.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20230703120728_24d8b00faca41d9f498ea180962bee5437ad257577d7593af3eed51c371b93b0" data-rendition-name="original" width="5612" height="3741" loading="lazy" alt="Nepali orthodox tea"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230703120740_21c8a91930bb47601afbc6da8bf00cd994d356c22abc69bd01ff2c5fd094f40d.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20230703120740_21c8a91930bb47601afbc6da8bf00cd994d356c22abc69bd01ff2c5fd094f40d" data-rendition-name="original" width="1072" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Orthodox tea Nepal"> </figure>  Sourcing teas directly from family-owned, small-holder farms, <a href="https://nepalteacollective.com/">Nepal Tea Collective</a> connects tea drinkers in the US and across the world directly to farmers in eastern Nepal. Featured in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/28/dining/drinks/nepal-darjeeling-tea.html">The New York Times</a> and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/megykarydes/2018/03/27/nepal-tea-offers-opportunity-to-become-a-tea-farmer/?sh=6b4c94706093">Forbes</a> as a blueprint for reinventing the tea industry, Nepal Tea Collectives also offers the experience of award-winning teas from its catalog of organic, specialty teas.&nbsp; The Collective is also promoting tea tourism, taking visitors on ten-day trips through eastern Nepal’s scenic tea country, the sweet spot for tea gardens. Visitors can savour the scenery, the tea making process and the one-of-a-kind flavours of white, green, oolong or black teas along the foothills of Kangchenjunga, the world’s third highest mountain. The microclimate of eastern Nepal, where cool breezes from the snowcapped mountains mingle with the warm and moisture-laden winds from the Bay of Bengal, is ideal for tea. Visitors can also meet tea pickers, skilled factory workers and their ingenious and unique methods of producing exceptional flavours.&nbsp; Nepal Tea Collective is also hosting corporate tea-tasting programs to build awareness. “Guests can sip on tea together, learn about its rich history, and then engage in team-building activities,” explains founder Nishchal Banskota.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230703120728_3ead5ecd236b1d68fac3439d4344d3047006ad5129052a63291eac5cc5b7b627.jpg" data-media-id="editor_13" data-image-id="20230703120728_3ead5ecd236b1d68fac3439d4344d3047006ad5129052a63291eac5cc5b7b627" data-rendition-name="original" width="3024" height="3347" loading="lazy" alt="Nepali orthodox tea"> </figure>  The journey for Nepal’s tea has not been easy. There are challenges brought about by the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/himalayan-icecap-melting-faster-than-thought">climate crisis</a> as well as existing problems with outdated machinery, lack of proper storage and the higher cost of organic teas.&nbsp; “Nepali producers could process teas from Nepal and access international markets with better facilities. We could create an identity for Nepali producers in the global market,” says co-founder of the Collective, Pratik Rijal.&nbsp; An added challenge for farmers is also bridging the gap between the popular CTC <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=767">tea culture</a>, loaded with milk and sugar, and the still evolving taste among Nepalis for loose-leaf, organic teas.&nbsp; Nepal Tea Collective is now connecting Nepali tea drinkers with a range of Nepali orthodox teas. Co-founder Amigo Khadka says, “If the French have their wines, the Scots have whiskeys, the Swiss have their chocolates, can Nepalis not have their teas?” &nbsp; From Nepal with love Decades before their conception in 2016 in New York, Nepal Tea Collective’s journey began halfway across the world, in Ilam’s Phidim.&nbsp; Founded by second and third-generation tea-makers, Nishchal Banskota and Pratik Rijal, Nepal Tea Collective has since taken loose-leaf, orthodox Nepali teas to the global market.&nbsp; Starting off as a kick-starter campaign with almost 500 backers, their work has always been anchored in disrupting the market chain of middlemen that rob tea farmers of their earnings. &nbsp;Following a direct-to-consumer model, Nepal Tea Collective sources their award-winning, organic, loose-leaf teas from small-holder, family-owned partner farms, like the Kanchanjangha Tea Estate and Research Center.&nbsp; Read also: J<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/japanese-yen-made-in-nepal">apanese Yen, Made in Nepal</a>, Maheshwor Acharya Established in the 1984s, the Kanchanjangha Tea Estate and Research Center was envisioned by Banskota’s father, Deepak Prakash Banskota. At just 15, Deepak Prakash Banskota was struck by the thriving tea gardens and the livelihoods of the tea farmers in Darjeeling. Hoping to lift his own village in eastern Nepal out of poverty, Banskota planted Phidim’s first tea garden upon his return. What had been a backyard tea garden grew into the Kanchanjangha Tea Estate, the first certified organic tea garden in Nepal.&nbsp; Over the years, some of the most flavorful and aromatic teas in the world were grown and produced on these farms. And yet, Nepali teas were lagging behind with the Darjeeling variant making up most of the market. In fact, most of the leaves grown in Nepal are sold wholesale in the Indian market and packaged as Darjeeling tea. “It was almost as if Nepali loose-leaf teas had no identity of their own,” says Nishchal Banskota. “I realised it was our job, as the next generation, to step up and inform the world about Nepali teas, about our incredible tea-makers.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2023070313074_621f2971642949e2fdb28790b9e2ec26ab07300bcc9f55887fa774b843b74a40.jpg" data-media-id="editor_17" data-image-id="2023070313074_621f2971642949e2fdb28790b9e2ec26ab07300bcc9f55887fa774b843b74a40" data-rendition-name="original" width="5695" height="3797" loading="lazy" alt="Orthodox Nepali tea"> <figcaption>Founder and Co-founder of Nepal Tea Collective Nischal Baskota and Pratik Rijal.</figcaption> </figure>  Uplifting small-holder, community tea farms out of poverty is at the heart of Nepal Tea Collective’s work. By sustainably leveraging tea-making as a catalyst for economic and social transformation, Nepal Tea Collective is striving to uplift one million tea farmers out of poverty by 2050.&nbsp; Since 2016, they have been working with seven community farms that operate in a cooperative, sustainable model, facilitating social change for 712 farmers. The average wage of their partner farmers has increased from $67 to $90 since 2016, an increment of 33%.&nbsp; Not only have tea farmers and tea-makers benefited from the elimination of middlemen, consumers have also appreciated the freshness of their orthodox teas. It typically takes over 3-6 months for loose-leaf teas to reach tea-lovers through the supply chain of middlemen. Nepal Tea Collective has drastically shortened this chain: packing their teas at origin and immediately sending the tea to the customer, so that they are the first ones to open their teas. In the spirit of transparency, customers can also scan a QR code on the packaging of every bag of loose-leaf tea, tracking the entire journey their tea leaves have taken.&nbsp; Furthermore, the collective also brings in tea tourists for immersive experiences of organic tea farming and tea-making in eastern Nepal. This allows for a new appreciation for Nepal’s unique micro-climates and rich terrain for tea farming while also connecting visitors with the young, Nepali tea-makers revolutionising the industry.

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चिया खानु भो ?

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101144/63720ec19c7e80680e0b7938jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1001"/><figcaption>All photos: JUN CHIYABARI</figcaption></figure>The all-purpose Nepali greeting “चिया खानु भो?” literally means “have you had your tea?” But it can mean anything from ‘Good Morning’, ‘How are you?’, or any other greeting.Now, mundane tea-drinking is being replaced by a new breed of beverage aficionados who savour and grade sophisticated teas as if it were champagne.For the untrained palate used to morning tea with milk and sugar, the subtle aroma and flavour of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/chiampagne/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">High Mountain Tea</a> brings out the wholesomeness and simplicity of the leaves. Once hooked, many in Nepal and around the world do not want to slurp anything else.And slurp it you must, as a recent elaborate tea-tasting ritual showed. Speciality teas of the High Mountain have been quietly gaining a loyal international following, proving to be a premium export from Nepal.“There is no one way of drinking tea but we have completely rebranded Nepali tea, not just in taste but in our mindset and marketing,” says Lochan Gyawali of Jun Chiyabari, a family-run tea garden 2,000m high up in the mountains of Dhankuta.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=17890" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepali tea</a> is often mistaken for the more popular Darjeeling variety because of similar taste and production methods. Historically, whole-leaf tea grown in Nepal used to be sold in India to be exported and blended into Darjeeling while the rest was processed into cheaper broken-leaf CTC black tea for domestic consumption.But Nepali growers are now consciously moving away from British and Indian influences, carving a unique Asian identity for tea from Nepal with refined taste.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101144/63720ec49c7e80680e0b7939jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="790" height="503">Speciality tea or ‘orthodox tea’ as it is commonly called, uses the wholeness of the leaf to create a diverse range of flavours. The leaves are not torn or crushed as they are in Darjeeling teas, but carefully rolled to create the desired taste and tang.Starting this month until December, tea pickers in <a href="https://junchiyabari.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Jun Chiyabari</a>'s 90-hectare plantation on the slopes near Hile in eastern Nepal will be busy, carefully plucking young leaves before they go into processing.“From the beginning we brought experts from Japan, China and Taiwan to train our staff to unlearn what Darjeeling has been doing,” says Gyawali, who himself grew up among tea gardens next to his school in the hill station.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101144/63720ec69c7e80680e0b793ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1503" height="1000">Unlike the usual tea production, High Mountain goes through withering, rolling and drying with specialised equipment designed to retain the organic compounds that give tea its essence.“You change the machine, you change the taste. Our teas have become different because of the way we pick them, process them, and the equipment,” explains Gyawali who started Jun Chiyabari with brother Bachan Gyawali after dabbling in the tourism and electronic export sectors.Jun Chiyabari today produces up to 20 different types of tea, each with its own distinctive flavour. It is exported to the United States, Canada, Japan and Europe where connoisseurs compare the teas to the sophistication of fine wines. The popularity of <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=14781#.Yj50Ky2B2b8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">High Mountains </a> s also growing amongst Nepal’s urbanites, where it is often called ‘chiampagne’.“If you want to sustain a market like Japan, mediocrity will not sell, you need perfection. Japanese buyers tell us our tea is unlike anything they have tasted from South Asia,” says Gyawali proudly.Indeed, High Mountain is described in Japanese as having the ‘flavour of the mist of the mountains’ — an accolade of the highest order.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=767#.Yj50MC2B2b8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Speciality tea</a> production is not without challenges. Nepal has not even scratched the surface of the potential in the domestic and world market. There are no studies into cultivars suitable for Nepal’s topography. Growers have to rely on trial and error methods.This means raw material is limited. With additional challenges posed by climate breakdown, growers are having to cope with increased demand and maintaining a delicate balance between quality and quantity.“We already knew global heating was going to impact us, so the selection of plantation sites was important. We couldn’t do anything about rising average temperatures and precipitation patterns, but we could, and did, go higher up the mountains,” says Gyawali.The pandemic has also affected <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=12018#.Yj50Mi2B2b8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepal’s tea industry</a>, but enthusiasts have discovered the health benefits of High Mountain during this time and boosted online sales. More and more growers are now interested in this niche market.Jun Chiyabari’s motto has remained the same over the years, to grow unique leaves to put Nepal on the world tea map. If the praise it has received internationally (see above) so far is anything to go by, it has already achieved this.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t8HoNNwsJE<h2>Tea Talk</h2>“Jun Chiyabari is a mark of trust and artistic creativity in Japan. All its various types of tea come in amazing quality and with an unmistakable sense of purity that captures the heart of tea connoisseurs. This is the fruit of constant effort trying to understand tea itself and the market. They are one of the very few producers who have tried and also succeeded in adapting a part of themselves towards the Japanese market.-Sayaka Nakanoji, Silver Pot Inc, TokyoOur connection to Jun Chiyabari tea garden dates back more than seven years. We purchased our first batches in 2014, which was one of the best decisions we have made. Since then our business has flourished and Nepali tea sales are increasing in our region.We consider Jun Chiabari to be the most progressive tea company in Nepal. In my opinion, they bring Nepali tea to a very high level and bring much fame to the country. Their attitude and care towards co-workers and the surrounding natural environment is a model to be followed in other parts of the world. We are proudly selling the carefully selected batches from the Jun Chiyabari tea garden to various restaurants and cafés in Budapest, Central Europe, including the finest Michelin star restaurants. -Gábor Tálos, Zhao Zhou Tea, Budapest<h2>History of Tea</h2>Tea dates back to ancient China 5,000 years ago. Legend has it that Chinese emperor Shen Nung in 2737 BC was sitting beneath a tree with his servant boiling drinking water when some leaves from a tree were blown into it. A renowned herbalist, Shen Nung, decided to taste the infusion. The tree was Camellia sinensis, which came to be known as 'tea tree'.Over time, tea established its medicinal properties helping reduce stress and fatigue. Before long, tea travelled across Asia via Buddhist monks to Japan, Korea and beyond.It was only in the 17th century that tea became popular among the British who then introduced tea plantations in India, specifically Darjeeling, to end the Chinese monopoly.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101144/63720eca9c7e80680e0b793bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="915">It is only natural that neighbouring Nepal would be the next place to be ‘tea-fied’. The beverage soon took off, influenced by British and Indian preferences for mixing in milk and sugar, and lately, other spices.But the history of <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=15185#.Yj54Di2B2b8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">tea in Nepal</a> is not linear. In 1863 the Daoguang Emperor of China gifted tea plants to Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana. Tea plantations in Ilam district began shortly after the British set up theirs across the border ridge in Darjeeling.But tea was consumed in Kathmandu long before that. Newa traders in Tibet had already brought tea drinking to Kathmandu – not with milk, but black tea with salt and butter.<h2>High Himalayan</h2>Harvesting: Young leaves are plucked by tea-pickers between late March and December. Tea makers can decide which type of tea to make depending on their look, the area where they are from and the time when they were plucked.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101144/63720ecd9c7e80680e0b793cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1001">Withering: Leaves are spread on vast trays to wither, are gently fluffed, rotated and monitored to ensure even exposure to the air. Before withering, some teas go through the sun, wilting out in the open.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101148/63720ed09c7e80680e0b793djpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1001">Rolling: The leaves after they become limp are rolled either by hand or a machine. This is to break cells and mix together a variety of organic compounds found naturally within the leaves to bring out its flavour.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101148/63720ed49c7e80680e0b793ejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="534">Oxidisation: The clumped leaves are broken up and set to oxidise, laid out to rest for several hours depending on the style of tea being produced. Oxidisation greatly influences flavours.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101148/63720ed79c7e80680e0b793fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="534">Firing/drying: Finally, the leaves are heated or fired quickly to dry them to below 3% moisture content and stop the oxidation process. The leaves can then be stored safely.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101148/63720eda9c7e80680e0b7940jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1203" height="803"><h2>Tea Types</h2>Broadly speaking, there are five main varieties of tea in the market:Black: The most common type of tea, this is fully oxidised, is darker in appearance and has higher caffeine content. It is characterised by a strong flavour and is typically consumed with milk and sugar. Think Darjeeling and English Breakfast.White: Simply withered and dried, this is the least processed of all teas. Has a high level of antioxidants but the lowest caffeine content. Best consumed without any additives. The infusion is very light-coloured and has a mild flavour. Originally from China.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101148/63720ede9c7e80680e0b7941jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1026">Green: The unoxidised tea that has retained its natural green colour with a high level of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. It produces a pale greenish-yellow infusion with a light and grassy taste. Popularised as a healthy tea, it can be taken with lemon, but not milk.Oolong: Semi-oxidised tea mainly produced in China and Taiwan with flavour resembling neither black nor green. The aroma depends on how long the leaves are allowed to sit before halting oxidisation. Produces golden or light brown infusion.Pu-erh: Exclusively from Yunnan province of China known for its distinctively earthy flavour. Made from wild tea leaves rather than cultivated ones, it is fermented by pressing raw leaves together, often stored underground for several years for maturity. Can be either black or green depending on the level of oxidation allowed.

Sonia Awale

Getting high on High Mountain Tea

The delicate and refreshing flavour of high mountain tea from Nepal gets a cult following abroad<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110710110/6368c9849c7e80680e02f2b9jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1231"/><figcaption>Photos: Gopen Rai</figcaption></figure>The subtle aroma and lingering taste of <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=12018#.WsYbMy5ubIU">Himalayan tea</a> has created a new international market with <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=8633#.WsYbMS5ubIU">big potential for exporting high value</a> leaves from Nepal. Several Nepali growers are exporting this sophisticated product range that needs much greater quality control and care than normal teas.More than 80% of the tea Nepal exports is still the traditional CTC variety with brands like Tokla and Muna, or mediocre teas sold in India to be re-exported as <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=14781#.WsYbOS5ubIU">Darjeeling</a>. However, a growing segment of the market is now dominated by specialty or orthodox teas.This coincides with the lenghty effort to brand Nepali tea, and put it on the map of the tea world like Sri Lanka did with Ceylon and India with Darjeeling. Nepal’s Rakura is trying to establish the Nepal brand with sustainability, longterm strategic planning and a mission to make tea from Nepal famous worldwide.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110710110/6368c9879c7e80680e02f2bajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="427"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>“Through Rakura, we are pushing the market with a similar approach to international tea brands,” says Neeraj Rathi, one of two brothers who own and run Rakura.Nepal was not making use of its potential and capacity to produce a lot of high quality tea, and even within Nepal, very few consumers knew about the origin of the quality tea being produced.Nepal Tea and Coffee Development Board (NTCDB) has finally put out a licensed logo (below) for Nepali tea with the tagline ‘Nepal Tea, Quality from the Himalayas’ which can be used by Nepali companies exporting quality tea to the international market.“The logo marks a symbol of standard for our tea”, explains NTCDB Executive Director, Sheshkanta Gautam. “It means that the product with the logo on the pack has undergone thorough inspection, is certified organic and the quality is supreme.”<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110710110/6368c98b9c7e80680e02f2bbjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="467" height="700">Internationally, however, customers are getting more familiar with High Mountain teas from Nepal with brands like <a href="http://junchiyabari.com/">Jun Chiyabari</a> which produce up to 20 types of tea with unique flavours found nowhere else. Nepali tea is finally carving out its own identity and distinguishing itself in production methods and quality from British and Indian influences.“General consumers worldwide do not know much about Nepal, unless we use the term Himalaya, and besides our teas get mixed up with Darjeeling because of similar taste,” explains Lochan Gyawali of Jun Chiyabari. “That is why we have created a distinct and exclusive taste, so that our tea stands out among the other better known ones.”Jun Chiyabari tea plantation is situated in the mountain slopes near Hile of Dhankuta. Their tea varieties are now exported to Japan, USA, Canada and Europe, where it has been very favourably reviewed. As a pioneer in exclusive Nepali teas, Jun Chiyabari is popularising teas like Himalayan Pine, Himalayan Evergreen, Himalayan Shiiba and Himalayan Spring.https://youtu.be/oO_zeel0fW4Drinking its brews is different from traditional tea, there is an elaborate process of growing, picking, making, sorting and drinking it chilled like champagne in tea ceremonies.Gyawali says his tea garden tries to get away from being a poor copy of Darjeeling varieties to be sold by the case-loads and blended with other teas. For this, Jun Chiyabari uses new Nepali cultivars, Taiwanese machines, specially trained pickers and has found a new cult following among the health-conscious in Europe and East Asia who are disillusioned with coffee.With the success of these specialty Nepali teas in the international market, branding standard Nepali tea may have come too late.“Despite it being a good branding exercise, very little of the tea produced in Nepal is of high enough quality and there is a danger that the new brand will be eroded if we do not implement proper food safety measures and quality control,” says Uday Chapagain of Gorkha Tea Estate and Nature Himalayan Tea.With so much happening in Nepal’s tea industry, championing the international market will no longer become an unachievable mission.Read also:<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=8633#.WsYbMS5ubIU">Our cup of tea</a>,  Kiran Nepal<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=767#.WsYbNy5ubIU">A new leaf</a>,  Mallika Aryal<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=14781#.WsYbOS5ubIU">Ilam tea goes green</a>,  Pranaya SJB Rana<h2>Mountain to cup</h2>How Nepal's sophisticated new teas are grown and produced for export.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110710110/6368c98d9c7e80680e02f2bcjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="934"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110710110/6368c9919c7e80680e02f2bdjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="935"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110710110/6368c9949c7e80680e02f2bejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="935"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110710110/6368c9979c7e80680e02f2bfjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="1050"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110710110/6368c99b9c7e80680e02f2c0jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="934"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110710110/6368c99f9c7e80680e02f2c1jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="934"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110710110/6368c9a39c7e80680e02f2c2jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="934"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110710110/6368c9a69c7e80680e02f2c3jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="931"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110710110/6368c9aa9c7e80680e02f2c4jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="937"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>

Chiampagne

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.”