Usually in winter, air quality in Kathmandu is equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. But <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/wildfire-season-starts-early-in-nepal">wildfires raging</a> across central Nepal for the past weeks may have increased that to four packs a day. <a href="https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/map/#d:24hrs;@86.3,28.9,7.0z" target="_blank">NASA’s Fire Information and Resource Management System (FIRMS)</a> uses infrared heat detecting satellites to map the world for fires. While central India and Burma are the worst affected, forests along the central Tarai and the mountains south of Kathmandu have hundreds of red dots — each representing a forest fire. Kathmandu Valley had the worst air quality of any city in the world on Monday afternoon, according to <a href="https://www.iqair.com/world-air-quality">Swiss-based air quality tracker IQ Air</a>. Air Quality Index (AQI) which measures the concentration of tiny suspended particles in the air smaller than 2.5 microns hit 250 because of soot particles from smoke combined with pre-existing pollution from vehicular and industrial emissions.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250331110320_6ea6ed9ab5fceefd0b46e5ba59222eefe6f838b475a75a5ec2c12598ffccb6eb.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20250331110320_6ea6ed9ab5fceefd0b46e5ba59222eefe6f838b475a75a5ec2c12598ffccb6eb" data-rendition-name="original" width="1896" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="NASA FIRMS 29 March"> <figcaption>More than 200 forest fires are burning in central Nepal with prevailing winds blowing it up the valleys to Pokhara and Kathmandu, worsening air quality. This NASA FIRMS satellite image was taken on Sunday afternoon.</figcaption> </figure>  This was ten times higher than what the World Health Organization (WHO) has set as the threshold for healthy air. The microscopic particles cannot be seen by the naked eye and can jump the blood-air divide in capillaries in the lungs causing not just lung infections but also heart disease and cancer.&nbsp; The immediate effects of air pollution are felt in dry and burning eyes, itchy throats, difficulty breathing, headaches, and dizziness. In the longer term, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a major cause of death in Nepal, with the average life expectancy of Kathmandu’s residents has been reduced by 3.5 years.&nbsp; Despite studies, Nepal’s leaders are preoccupied with coalition politics, and little action has been taken to control vehicular emissions with green stickers, curb open garbage burning and industrial pollution. 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 crop residue burning by farmers in India and Pakistan which prevailing winds blow up the Himalayan mountains.&nbsp; Forest fires are common in Nepal in the pre-monsoon months as farmers and herders set fire to slopes hoping for green shoots when the rains arrive for their livestock. But successive years of winter drought have meant that the wildfires have been starting earlier, and they spread fast because of high afternoon winds this time of year.&nbsp; On 29 March, there were at least 200 fires burning across central Nepal. The FIRMS satellite image also shows thick blue smoke blanketing the river valleys, reducing visibility and affecting flights. On Monday morning three flights attempting to land at Kathmandu airport had to divert due to runway visibility being below minimum.&nbsp; This level of pollution is classified as ‘extremely unhealthy, and &nbsp;has serious health impact not only on <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/poisoning-children-at-school">vulnerable groups</a> like children, the elderly, and those who live with health conditions, but across Kathmandu’s population.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250331110324_b0f149ef5fc3f2657e883c311520b87d45e9636a7464ab418c691dd2bb6f6c7a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20250331110324_b0f149ef5fc3f2657e883c311520b87d45e9636a7464ab418c691dd2bb6f6c7a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="1778" loading="lazy" alt="Pokhara Wildfire NT"> <figcaption>A fiery sunset over Phewa Lake in Pokhara on Sunday afternoon was caused by thick smoke from forest fires. Photo: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption> </figure>  After the<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-revenge-of-the-rivers"> devastating September floods last year,</a> Kathmandu Valley and much of the country experienced a prolonged drought with little to no winter rain. Such prolonged dry spells raises fire risk, and with Kathmandu’s bowl-shaped topography concentrates pollutants. There are indications that high pollution levels do not just harm human health, but are also beginning to affect tourism. Operators in Pokhara 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 fuel for visibility to get better 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.&nbsp; Kathmandu’s toxic air quality is not a temporary phenomenon, it has consistently gotten worse. IQ Air places Kathmandu eighth out of 121 capital cities with the worst air quality in 2024, and Nepal is seventh among countries with the highest air pollution. The State of Global Air (SOGA) Report published last June <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/bad-air-and-polluted-politics">revealed </a>more than 50,000 Nepalis died from air pollution in 2021, accounting for 19% of all mortality, just behind high blood pressure. 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 &nbsp;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. But 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.&nbsp;

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No smoke without fire

Parliamentary proceedings were brought to a halt on Wednesday in Kathmandu after a heated exchange between the UML and opposition MPs over the use of the word ‘violence’ to describe the Maoist conflict.&nbsp; The real peacetime violence being perpetrated on Nepalis is actually political failure to control <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/air-pollution-is-more-dangerous-than-smoking">lethal air pollution</a>. Figures from the Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) survey released this week, and the<a href="https://www.healthdata.org/sites/default/files/2024-06/soga-2024-report.pdf"> State of Global Air (SOGA)</a> in June, show just how dirty the air is. Any government accountable to the people would act, after all, the prime minister breathes this same air. Read also:<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/epicentre-of-pollution"> Epicentre of pollution</a>, Sonia Awale Summary from the reports: <ul> <li>Nepal’s 30.7 million people are exposed to air much worse than the <a href="https://www.iqair.com/nepal/central-region/kathmandu">WHO threshold</a>.&nbsp;</li> <li>19% of deaths in 2021 were due to contaminated air.</li> <li>Bad air cuts the average lifespan of Nepalis by 3.4 years. Tarai residents live 5 years less. For comparison, heavy smokers lose just 1.9 years of their life.&nbsp;</li> <li>Sooty indoor air will kill nearly 34,000 Nepalis this year, and 12,700 will die from ambient air pollution.&nbsp;</li> <li>More than 6,000 deaths, mainly in the cities, were linked to ozone exposure.&nbsp;</li> <li>75% of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in Nepal is caused by breathing bad air. Air pollution is also the cause of 39% of all lung cancer cases.</li> </ul>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240829160812_081b9558dee7b656f87f5d4e5af7923780ec8455f9d33402f38844a992ce5471.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20240829160812_081b9558dee7b656f87f5d4e5af7923780ec8455f9d33402f38844a992ce5471" data-rendition-name="original" width="1376" height="729" loading="lazy" alt="AIr pollution Nepal NT"> </figure>  Air pollution is now the biggest threat to human health in Nepal, shortening lives by 3-5 years in Kathmandu Valley and the Tarai with the worst concentration of particulate matter. A new <a href="https://aqli.epic.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Nepal-FactSheet_2024.pdf">report by Air Quality Life Index (AQLI)</a> released this week ranks Nepal as the third most polluted country in the world with its entire 30.7 million people living in areas where the annual average particulate pollution level exceeds the WHO guideline. Even where outdoor air is clean in the high mountains, families are exposed to excessive indoor pollution due to soot from burning firewood, especially in winter. The State of Global Air (SOGA) Report published in June has even more shocking figures: more than 50,000 Nepalis died from air pollution in 2021, accounting for 19% of all mortality, just behind high blood pressure. The study also linked 75% of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and 39% of lung cancer deaths to dirty air.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240829160812_d9ccb69192498c91f4b5be762eb073dceb2c7b7cbf01a284ae21654ab1ca9041.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20240829160812_d9ccb69192498c91f4b5be762eb073dceb2c7b7cbf01a284ae21654ab1ca9041" data-rendition-name="original" width="1172" height="722" loading="lazy" alt="Air pollution in Nepal NT"> </figure>  Levels of<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/warning-breathing-is-hazardous-to-health"> surface ozone and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) </a>are also increasing due to vehicular emissions, triggering development of childhood asthma.&nbsp; Appalling as these figures are, they should come as no surprise. What is more appalling is the lack of political will to clean up. “The political apathy to prioritise action against air pollution is the crux of the problem,” states environmentalist Bhushan Tuladhar, adding that solutions like stopping open garbage burning, and cutting vehicular and brick kiln emissions are easy to implement solutions.&nbsp; Just as the media and public <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/poor-safety-to-hit-nepal-tourism">call for action against floods and landslides</a> after the monsoon starts, air pollution also becomes a topic when winter has already set in. Action on both should be a year-round effort. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/100-101-102-hh5uvzf9">100, 101, 102</a>, Shristi Karki&nbsp; Prashant Khanal works on air pollution and climate mitigation and was recently in Paris, where the mayor is pedestrianising streets to curb emissions and improve health.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240829160812_e11b11cdee3ed917497deefb4f624c0c3d15c5fac16359801bbc2e2aec51369b.jpg" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="20240829160812_e11b11cdee3ed917497deefb4f624c0c3d15c5fac16359801bbc2e2aec51369b" data-rendition-name="original" width="1107" height="881" loading="lazy" alt="Air pollution in Nepal NT"> </figure>  He says: “We simply do not have that kind of leadership nor political will. Awareness and individual action are all well and good, but we need regulatory measures to improve air quality.” Vehicular and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/blueprint-for-a-net-zero-nepal">industrial emissions</a>, open burning, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/wildfires-ravage-nepal-mountains">wildfire smoke</a> and crossborder transport of pollution are the main culprits. Most can be reduced by strictly enforcing national air quality measures, while we have to wait for India and Pakistan to clean up their act for transboundary pollution to go down. Madhes and Lumbini provinces have even higher pollution levels than Kathmandu, especially when prevailing winds are from the south. This has worsened in recent years by longer-lasting winter fog. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/how-transboundary-haze-affects-nepal">How transboundary haze affects Nepal</a>, Prabhakar Shrestha If Nepal were to reduce particulate pollution to meet the WHO guideline, residents in the Tarai would gain 4.8 years of life expectancy, Kathmandu residents would live 2.6 years longer, and tens of thousands of lives would be saved every year. The SOGA report puts deaths linked to household air pollution due to cooking with solid fuels at 33,900 compared to 12,700 by ambient suspended particulate matter less than 2.5 microns in diameter (PM2.5).&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240829160816_5f7804d0407f8988fee6b44d8ca5e6f775b5ffcecccc53030372f27250b72385.jpg" data-media-id="editor_14" data-image-id="20240829160816_5f7804d0407f8988fee6b44d8ca5e6f775b5ffcecccc53030372f27250b72385" data-rendition-name="original" width="4000" height="2667" loading="lazy" alt="Air pollution in Nepal NT"> <figcaption>Photo: KONSTANTINOS SOFIKITIS</figcaption> </figure>  More than 6,000 other deaths have been linked to exposure to toxic ozone, mainly coming out of the tail pipes of motorcycles. Climate breakdown and biodiversity loss are now getting more media attention, but the air pollution crisis does not seem to be waking politicians to the dangers although its impact on citizens is more immediate and localised. Says Khanal, “Air pollution is not just a public health or environmental issue but has huge social and economic implications, the government needs to allocate money for its mitigation just as it is now doing for climate change.”&nbsp; Electrification of public transport and cooking are common sense solutions to improving air quality and public health in Nepal, with the country now generating <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/rivers-be-dammed">more than 3,000MW of hydropower</a>. This is set to double in the next five years. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/hefty-fines-fail-to-deter-polluting-vehicles">Hefty fines fail to deter polluting vehicles</a>, Sushila Budathoki Instead of prioritising export of surplus energy, increasing domestic demand in transportation and household appliances would yield greater dividends in terms of public health, and reducing the petroleum import bill.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240829160816_e4a78b2b4d55edb805060a899cef6a9297e5bff7b54d4a7aeea7b1f78fd60d84.jpg" data-media-id="editor_17" data-image-id="20240829160816_e4a78b2b4d55edb805060a899cef6a9297e5bff7b54d4a7aeea7b1f78fd60d84" data-rendition-name="original" width="1290" height="799" loading="lazy" alt="Air pollution in Nepal NT"> </figure>  As the ongoing NADA Auto Show in Kathmandu proves, there has been a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/evs-hybrids-and-plug-ins">spurt in the sale of electric vehicles</a>. Of the nearly 18,000 vehicles imported in Nepal last year, 12,000 were battery-powered. These are mostly private electric vehicles, but it is public transport and in electric stoves where the focus should be. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/rev-your-car-and-charge-it-too">Rev your car (and charge it, too)</a>, Vishad Raj Onta “Air pollution ranks as a huge concern to people living in Nepal, and the country also has some of the most open data for air quality information across South Asia,” Christa A Hasenkopf of the Clean Air Program at the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago told Nepali Times. But she added, “It is challenging to make progress on long term levels of air pollution when there is not a long-term goal in place, like a national annual standard for PM2.5.” Despite shortcomings, there have been notable local initiatives. Lalitpur has been promoting itself as a ‘cycle city’ while Hadigaon has been working on pedestrianisation. Changunarayan has come up with an Air Quality Management Plan while Chandragiri wants to invest in controlling wildfires to reduce pollution levels. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/cleaner-air-with-greener-buses">Cleaner air with greener buses</a> Says Bhushan Tuladhar, "Local leadership and community ownership is what’s missing from a lot of our government initiatives. That is why pedestrianisation of Hadigaon worked and not <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/kathmandu-s-balen-phenomenon">Mayor Balen</a>’s New Road expansion which was a top down directive with little community participation.” &nbsp; <h2>Transcontinental contamination</h2>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240829160816_e6d3a88220290318118466a3932332828f0ff89a03426175cd8bb5d8cf3a61d1.jpg" data-media-id="editor_22" data-image-id="20240829160816_e6d3a88220290318118466a3932332828f0ff89a03426175cd8bb5d8cf3a61d1" data-rendition-name="original" width="450" height="683" loading="lazy" alt="Transcontinental pollution NT"> </figure>  There is an anomaly in the new Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) report released this week. Particulate pollution in Nepal and South Asia in 2022 was 18% lower compared to 2021.&nbsp; Scientists are not sure why, but it is probably due to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/more-monstrous-monsoons">more rain that year </a>which washed down pollutants from the air. If this decline is sustained, an average Nepali could live 10 months longer than what they would have if they were exposed to the 2021 particulate pollution levels. “True progress on air pollution can’t be measured from one year to the next, it must be measured over several years,” says Christa A Hasenkopf of the Clean Air Program at the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. Read also:<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/blueprint-for-a-net-zero-nepal"> Blueprint for a net-zero Nepal</a>, Sonia Awale Indeed, longer-term pollution trends suggest that Nepal’s average annual particulate matter concentration in the air increased by 49% from 1998 to 2022. Warns Tanushree Ganguly of AQLI: “Despite the <a href="https://www.indiaspend.com/earthcheckindia/indias-air-quality-improved-in-2022-but-still-at-concerning-levels-921940">18% decline in South Asia’s PM2.5 levels relative to 2021</a>, people in South Asia are still likely to lose more than 3.5 years of their life as a result of breathing polluted air. This reinforces the need for sustained regionwide action.” In addition to vehicular and industrial emissions, farm stubble burning after autumn harvest in India and Pakistan is now emerging as a major source of suspended particulates that are carried by prevailing winds to Nepal and Bhutan.&nbsp; When deposited on ice and snow, the soot particles add to the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/lives-on-the-line-in-the-himalaya">melting of glaciers </a>caused by global warming. Some studies suggest that 30% of glacier thaw in the Indian Himalaya is caused by pollution-related loss of albedo effect on snow. “Air pollution is a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9224398/">transboundary issue</a>, and at least in South Asia, a coordinated regional approach can move the conversation towards joint solutions,” Pallavi Pant of the Health Effects Institute, which publishes the annual State of Global Air report, told Nepali Times. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/polluted-politics">Polluted Politics</a> Joint efforts to strengthen local technical and scientific capacity can help countries in the region establish and run advanced air quality monitoring systems, and use the data for decision-making. Pant adds: “We can leverage available data and expertise to identify relevant solutions that can lead to cleaner air and better health. Air pollution can be related to policies addressing prevention and control of non-communicable diseases.” Back in 1998, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka came together to sign the <a href="http://www.sacep.org/pdf/Declarations/05.Male-Declaration-on-Control-and-Prevention-of-Air-Pollution-and-its-Transboundary-Effects-for-South-Asia.pdf">Malé Declaration on Control and Prevention of Air Pollution and Its Likely Transboundary Effects for South Asia</a>. That collective is now mostly dysfunctional, but reviving it would be in the mandate of regional organisations like ICIMOD and SAARC, both headquartered in Kathmandu and working in a geopolitically volatile but seriously polluted region. Ganguly has an idea about where to start: “South Asian countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan have similar PM2.5 levels, but different PM2.5 standards. Harmonisation of PM2.5 standards could be one way to foster regional collaboration.”

Sonia Awale

Bad air and polluted politics

On a recent morning students at Darbar High School in the centre of Kathmandu were gathering for morning assembly. Excited chatter rose above the din of traffic outside the school gate.&nbsp; Nearby, pollution monitoring equipment found the concentration of suspended particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns (PM2.5) in the school that morning at 211µg/m3. Inside classrooms, the monitor read 126µg/m3 on average all day. &nbsp; “I get at least three pupils every day with lung problems, it is worse in winter,” says Bhavna Ojha Joshi, a nurse at the school infirmary. <div class="embed-block"><iframe src="https://school-circle-eng.netlify.app/" style="border:0px #ffffff none;" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" marginheight="0px" marginwidth="0px" height="850px"width=100%></iframe></div> Nepal’s National Ambient Air Quality Standard considers PM2.5 concentration of 40µg/m3 in 24 hours as ‘healthy’. But the World Health Organization says it must not exceed 15µg/m3 , and says anything over this is unsafe. At the adjacent Ratna Park measuring station, the Air Quality Index (AQI) that morning was 179µg/m3 . Darbar High School is 123 years old, and collapsed in the 2015 earthquake. It has been rebuilt and is located at the busiest intersection in the city centre. All day long, students here breathe poisonous air that affects their health, learning ability, and physical and mental growth. Six km away at the northwest corner of the Ring Road, students are also gathering for morning assembly at the Shree Kali Devi Secondary School. The PM2.5 concentration there measured 89µg/m3, and it dropped to 35µg/m3 during the course of the day since vehicular emission is blown away by afternoon breeze from the west. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240605070632_a7ca0bc091c99dfc5fcbeaed2f29ba7ed7d99a3e9828ad4890d17444e0dfcac0.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20240605070632_a7ca0bc091c99dfc5fcbeaed2f29ba7ed7d99a3e9828ad4890d17444e0dfcac0" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Air pollution in schools NT"> </figure>  It is not just diesel and petrol cars, smoke from wildfires burning out of control all over Nepal made Kathmandu the most polluted city in the world in the IQAir list for several days in a row in April. Kathmandu ranked 11th in a list of 114 capital cities with the worst air.&nbsp; Diesel exhaust, smoke and dust are visible, but suspended particles smaller than 2.5 microns are most dangerous since they can cross the blood-air barrier in the lungs. &nbsp; “The particles enter the bloodstream and affect vital organs,” says infectious disease specialist Anup Subedee. Toxic air is harmful to all, but especially for children and the elderly. Because their lungs, brain, &nbsp;organs, and immune systems are still developing, children have weaker immune systems and are &nbsp;more affected by air pollutants.&nbsp; <div class="embed-block"><iframe src="https://schools-box-dots-eng.netlify.app/" style="border:0px #ffffff none;" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" marginheight="0px" marginwidth="0px" height="500px"width=100%></iframe></div> Moreover, while people over 18 breathe up to 20 times a minute, younger ones breathe 30 times, absorbing more particles. Pollutants also cause allergic reactions in the respiratory tract, which change the structure of their airways, causing chronic asthma. &nbsp; “Continuous exposure to toxic air in children is not limited to colds, headaches and shortness of breath, but can extend to chronic heart and lung disease as well as cancer,” warns paediatrician Ganesh Kumar Rai, former director of Kanti Children’s Hospital.&nbsp; At Tarun Secondary School, 500m outside Balaju on Kathmandu’s Ring Road, the PM2.5 concentration was 155µg/m3 in the morning as fifth grader Pramisa Bardeva was walking to school along a dusty road. She has a chronic cough, and wears a flimsy mask. &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240605070632_0c11d1ac6472d965eb55fd9277b96f812482ce850aa296f59c33450e42b0a3ee.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20240605070632_0c11d1ac6472d965eb55fd9277b96f812482ce850aa296f59c33450e42b0a3ee" data-rendition-name="original" width="1356" height="830" loading="lazy" alt="Air pollution in schools NT"> </figure>  “My daughter’s studies have suffered because she is sick so often,” says Pramisa’s mother Manju. “They say she is sick because of the dirty air, and the hospital bills are piling up.” There are some 650,000 school-going children in Kathmandu Valley, of which 362,000 are students below Grade Five. Kathmandu has 1.6 million vehicles of which 80% are motorcycles. Most of these ply within the Ring Road, which means nearly 200,000 of the youngest students are exposed to the worst pollution all day at school. In 2023, the Ratna Park monitoring station recorded that only 8% of days are ‘clean air’ days, mostly during the monsoon. Environmental scientist Uttam Babu Shrestha returned to Nepal with his family from Australia four years ago. His son, now seven, has chronic asthma. “Although we worried about his health, his respiratory issues worsened after we came back due to the pollution here,” says Shrestha. His son has to regularly use an inhaler. Paediatricians said that a quarter of the children they see have asthma, whereas 20 years ago the most common ailments used to be diarrhea or typhoid.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240605070632_cf0f13b67c446bb47f8cf039d4bd5a6cff509833011a2d242a0ac6d7f103ce39.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20240605070632_cf0f13b67c446bb47f8cf039d4bd5a6cff509833011a2d242a0ac6d7f103ce39" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Air pollution in schools NT"> </figure>  Data from Kanti Children’s Hospital shows that 38% of the 2,378 patients admitted in 2022-23 &nbsp;suffered from respiratory diseases. Another 2,951 children were treated in the pulmonary ward in that time. This year, nearly the same number of children had been in the pulmonary ward by February. &nbsp; Jagat Jeevan Ghimire, a physician at Kanti, specialises in children’s respiratory issues and estimates that one out of five children in Kathmandu Valley has a respiratory disease. Eight out of 12 ICU beds in the hospital are occupied by respiratory patients. Binod Sapkota’s three-year-old son Arogya suffers from asthma and has to use an inhaler up to four times a day. The asthma flares up when pollution levels are high. Physicians do not recommend mask use for children under five because it makes it difficult to tell if a child is having breathing issues. <div class="embed-block"><iframe src="https://schools-locator-eng.netlify.app/" style="border:0px #ffffff none;" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" marginheight="0px" marginwidth="0px" height="800px"width=100%></iframe></div> Air pollution kills more people than all other natural and manmade disasters in Nepal every year. Last year, an estimated 42,100 people died of respiratory issues. Toxic air cuts 4.6 years off the average Nepali’s lifespan, in the Tarai the figure is a shocking minus 7 years. Most physicians we spoke to said that the real culprit is the lack of political will in government to control emissions. Politicians seem not to have grasped the scale of this crisis, and that it is a life-or-death issue for so many Nepalis. &nbsp; Paediatrician Prashant Prasad Rijal notes how respiratory issues like pneumonia and asthma among children decreased during the Covid-imposed lockdowns, from up to four patients every day to four every month. “As soon as the pollution level dropped, the children were healthier,” he recalls. <div class="embed-block"><iframe src="https://schools-line-eng.netlify.app/" style="border:0px #ffffff none;" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" marginheight="0px" marginwidth="0px" height="750px"width=100%></iframe></div> The number of registered vehicles in Nepal has doubled over the last five years, while petroleum consumption has increased by 160% in the last decade. The major contributors to Kathmandu’s toxic air are vehicular and industrial emissions, brick kilns, development construction, crop and garbage burning, wildfires, and transboundary pollution. Studies show that emissions from substandard and old vehicles are the major cause of air pollution in Kathmandu. Vehicles need to pass an annual emission test, but only 30% of the total four wheelers took the test last year. &nbsp;Motorcycles do not need to undergo tests even if they emit poisonous gases. &nbsp; Garbage and agricultural waste burning is another contributor to toxic air in urban Nepal, even though it is prohibited by law. The National Statistics Office's 2022 study showed that 1 million tons of waste is produced annually in the country’s municipalities, of which 22,750 tons (2.2%) are incinerated. The National Agricultural Census 2022 found that 3 million tons of agricultural residue is burned every year, 90% of it in the Tarai. <div class="embed-block"><iframe title="No Day Free from Pollution" aria-label="Range Plot" id="datawrapper-chart-PhVXB" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/PhVXB/2/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;" height="371" data-external="1"></iframe><script type="text/javascript">!function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r<e.length;r++)if(e[r].contentWindow===a.source){var i=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";e[r].style.height=i}}}))}(); </script></div> Pre-monsoon forest fires also make air pollution worse. NASA MODIS satellite recorded 4,114 wildfires during the first four months of 2024, double the previous years. The Cabinet four years ago formed the Kathmandu Valley Air Quality Management Action Plan to reduce vehicular emissions, stop waste burning, and use filters in diesel-powered vehicles. Nothing was done. The Ministry of Forests and Environment introduced standards to regulate brick kilns in 2018, but failed to monitor compliance.&nbsp; On 28 May, the finance minister increased taxes on petroleum products, but the money is not invested in reducing pollution or promoting clean energy. Electrification of public mass transport is the surest way to clean up Kathmandu air quickly, and reduce petroleum imports. But the new budget raised taxes on electric vehicles.&nbsp; Clean air is a Constitutional right of Nepalis, but Tek Bahadur Bogati, who moved to Kathmandu from Okhaldhunga, constantly worries about his son whose studies have suffered because of frequent hospitalisation which has drained the family’s savings.&nbsp; Says Bogati: “They told me it was due to dirty air, but where in Kathmandu is it clean?” This story was produced under an Earth Journalism Network (EJN) fellowship in collaboration with the Center for Data Journalism Nepal (CDJN).

Poisoning children at school

One aspect of colonial cartography of South Asia leaps out in this must-see exhibition – while the coastline of India, Ceylon, Burma are extraordinarily accurate in maps made more than 200 years ago, the Himalayan hinterland is wholly approximate and inexact. The accuracy improves as modern survey techniques are introduced by atlas-makers, but even then formidable terrain and forbidden lands thwart precision. Map aficionados will be fascinated by the 40 antique maps from The Rajbhandari Collection on display at the exhibition ‘Imaging South Asia: Nepal in the Making at Kathmandu Art Gallery’ at Baber Mahal Revisited from 13 February - 17 March.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260211090252_0cbeb88674a97c6292e2b43b2135df219257ca641cbd4723e9aabf5541c2b258.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20260211090252_0cbeb88674a97c6292e2b43b2135df219257ca641cbd4723e9aabf5541c2b258" data-rendition-name="original" width="4160" height="3485" loading="lazy" alt="Map Land NT"> </figure>  The first maps were made on clay tablets and cave paintings, but maps improved with Chinese maritime charts of Southeast Asia and beyond. Nautical maps created during the European Age of Exploration used geometry, latitude and longitude. Competition for colonial riches rested on the accuracy of these maps. The Portuguese had the lead in the 15th century, but were soon overtaken by the Spanish with Columbus voyaging to India but landing up in the Americas.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260211090252_1fb21d20cf29b408119f5279ce666e73dee089356e52277d753a27e3440364eb.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20260211090252_1fb21d20cf29b408119f5279ce666e73dee089356e52277d753a27e3440364eb" data-rendition-name="original" width="4030" height="3407" loading="lazy" alt="Map Land NT"> </figure>  European mapping of the coastline of peninsular India &nbsp;began after Vasco de Gama sailed around the Horn of Africa to arrive at what is now Kerala in 1498. The British and French struggled for control of India, and the Carnatic Wars of the 19th century were extensions of their rivalry in Europe.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260211090252_0fb0969dc3e07c5a77123b4aa5eb0f11d2ffea73c108077f7e4d1892d6bd4bb6.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20260211090252_0fb0969dc3e07c5a77123b4aa5eb0f11d2ffea73c108077f7e4d1892d6bd4bb6" data-rendition-name="original" width="2842" height="4160" loading="lazy" alt="Map Land NT"> </figure>  While most of the maps at this exhibition were commissioned by the East India Company and the Survey of India, there are quite a few made by Parisian cartographers and feature Pondicherry and the Danish trading outpost at Tranquebar. Followed chronologically, the maps show improvements in cartographic techniques. The earliest French map L’Inde of J D Barbié du Bocage from 1760 is a copper engraving with hand painted colours demarcating boundaries. ‘Napaul’, ‘Gorka’ and ‘Catmando’ are depicted. The rivers of India are precisely drawn, as is the Brahmaputra (Yarou Tsanpou) even though locations across the rest of Tibet are rough estimates.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260211090252_486dc1b12f391550516be164f27170d4702a69b5125c1b8c4b10f76fdae4c0b1.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20260211090252_486dc1b12f391550516be164f27170d4702a69b5125c1b8c4b10f76fdae4c0b1" data-rendition-name="original" width="1675" height="604" loading="lazy" alt="Map Land NT"> </figure>  The 1781 map Carte des Indes en deçà et au-delà du Gange of Rigobert Bonne has slightly more detail about Nepal with even ‘Pattan’ and ‘Bagmally’ river marked. William Darton’s 1802 map has ‘Nogarcot’ and ‘Mocaumpour’ wrongly placed to the east of the valley of ‘Napaul’. Samuel Arrowsmith’s 1828 map ‘India and the Birman Empire’ has Nepal’s rough boundaries demarcated for the first time within a hand-coloured green border, with the mountain ‘Dholagiri’ and ‘Dhunchi’ appearing for the first time. The 1835 map by Boston-based American cartographer Thomas Bradford has a more precise ‘Burrampooter’ river with ‘Sgigatoe’, ‘Lassa’ and ‘Bootan’ marked. In Nepal, ‘Batgan’, ‘Macwampour’ and ‘Lelit Pattan’ appear near ‘Catmandu’.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260211090252_5509c8e043a74b3e34e399c0684ca8eef7fc79953ee0dd18aedc738e8189d552.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20260211090252_5509c8e043a74b3e34e399c0684ca8eef7fc79953ee0dd18aedc738e8189d552" data-rendition-name="original" width="4094" height="3646" loading="lazy" alt="Map Land NT"> </figure>  One striking landmark appears consistently through a century of map-making from 1760 onwards, and that is the sacred Yamdrok Tso near Lhasa. It is precisely located, although it is drawn as a circular lake called ‘Jamdro or Palto Lake’ till J Bartholomew’s lithographic map in 1893 Constable’s Hand Atlas of India. Bartholomew’s map is also where ‘Mt Everest’ appears for the first time with its altitude ’29,002ft’ after Peak XV was calculated to be the highest mountain in the world by the Survey of India. Meanwhile, ‘Kinchinjunga’ appears in some of the earlier maps from the mid-1800s, north of ‘Dorjeloo’. The maps did not only have locations of towns, rivers and mountains but also other interesting facts about places. History buffs will find much to pore over in these maps.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260211090252_8280c979b175946a2ac29e22b7a2b2427f7f36f22093c3456524f1f529311498.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20260211090252_8280c979b175946a2ac29e22b7a2b2427f7f36f22093c3456524f1f529311498" data-rendition-name="original" width="4160" height="2762" loading="lazy" alt="Map Land NT"> </figure>  Many have sites of major British battles while conquering India. The ‘British India’ map by J Rapkin has dates and times of the ‘Principle Massacres’ during the Indian Mutiny of 1857. The map also shows India’s growing railway network with completed lines and those ‘in progress’. Narrow gauge lines can be seen in successive maps snaking up to the Nepal border to haul sal logs for sleepers for India’s expanding railway network. Many maps were drawn by British military intelligence. One even has the Kuti route of the Nepal Army while invading Tibet in 1791, and the Chinese Army’s advance in hot pursuit through Kerung to Nuwakot.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260211090252_a41ff6a7453f95d1e83c12ed3f831911d65ebd4d2389e0e3b774252dfa037132.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20260211090252_a41ff6a7453f95d1e83c12ed3f831911d65ebd4d2389e0e3b774252dfa037132" data-rendition-name="original" width="1173" height="679" loading="lazy" alt="Map Land NT"> </figure>  Pre-1857 maps show the western Tarai as a part of British India, but in later ones the Naya Muluk districts of Banke, Bardia, Kailali and Kanchanpur have reverted back to Nepal. The maps clearly mark Nepal as an independent nation, and represent it differently from Indian princely states. The Atlas of India of 1846 shows the ‘Dominion of the King of Nepal’.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260211090252_52132146d9ee8b922560b98e90d866149715d7f53ced408b5f3af8f3b142a07b.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20260211090252_52132146d9ee8b922560b98e90d866149715d7f53ced408b5f3af8f3b142a07b" data-rendition-name="original" width="4149" height="3682" loading="lazy" alt="Map Land NT"> </figure>  Visitors will be curious about Nepal's claim to Limpiyadhura and Lipu Lek. A map by Mason &amp; Payne from 1846 clearly shows the ‘Kallee River’ as being the border between Nepal and British India, with Kalapni within Nepal. The Lipu Gad tributary (which India claims is the border) is not marked. Some other maps, however, seem to show the border not following the Kali river to Limpiyadhura but the tributary up to Lipu Lek.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026021112024_9a1b6055a9fbecca7b64c3882c205efb336aac03e64ecf43a2044cb079cd699f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="2026021112024_9a1b6055a9fbecca7b64c3882c205efb336aac03e64ecf43a2044cb079cd699f" data-rendition-name="original" width="875" height="1215" loading="lazy" alt="Map Land NT"> </figure>  Imaging South Asia: Nepal in the Making&nbsp; Kathmandu Art Gallery, Baber Mahal Revisited&nbsp; 13 February – 17 March For guided walk-throughs and curatorial tours: +977 1-5318048 Panel discussions: -Cartographic Practices from the &nbsp;Gorkha Polity to the Present with Buddhi Narayan Shrestha and Kanak Mani Dixit&nbsp; Friday, 13 February, 4pm -Mapping Beyond Borders with Akhilesh Upadhyay and Amish Raj Mulmi Wednesday, 25 February, 4pm&nbsp;

Map land

The recent Nepali Times Substack post titled ‘Unresident Nepalis’ made me realise I also belong to the category of Nepalis who are technically Non-resident Nepali (NRN), but want to ‘permanently reside inside Nepal’.&nbsp;
Although this was meant as a joke, it is ironic that many of those who go abroad long to come back home, and those who have not emigrated cannot think of a good enough reason to stay back in Nepal.&nbsp;
As soon as the NRN Citizenship was officially introduced in late 2023, I had tried to apply for one but was shut down before even submitting my documents as the district administration office firmly told my then lawyer that I needed to prove “तिन पुस्ता” proof of three generations of Nepalis from my father’s side.&nbsp;
My late father was from Japan and relinquished his citizenship to become a Naturalised Nepali citizen in 2006. Three years ago, I dismissed the rejection with the thought that I will try again later when government officials would gain more experience with such applications.&nbsp;
Now, with an ailing mother and an energetic toddler, I felt the need to act soon and reached out to a law firm that specialises in NRN citizenship applications. To my surprise, they were positive after reviewing my documents, although they did warn me that we may need to overcome some obstacles.&nbsp;
In 2023, I had applied in the district office where my father had received his naturalised citizenship, but now the suggestion was to try from the district where my mother had received her Nepali ancestral origin “बंसागज” citizenship.&nbsp;
The lawyers pointed to the NRN citizenship mandate which clearly states that it can be acquired via a Nepali origin father, mother, grandfather or grandmother. The firm helped arrange the necessary documents required and the first step was to get a “सिफारिस” &nbsp;recommendation letter from my mother’s ward office.&nbsp;
This was the first hurdle as the ward office was unsure if they could issue such a letter, so they checked in with their head office, and luckily we received the go ahead. After persistent follow up from the law associates, they were able to provide us with a recommendation letter and we filled out the application forms.&nbsp;
The law firm wisely suggested that I take the paperwork myself to my mother’s district office while they stayed in the background in case I needed help explaining my situation.&nbsp;
With a big smile and cheerful tone, I dutifully followed the process and to my surprise, I found most of the officials ready to help without creating unnecessary hurdles. The application has to be signed off by the Chief District Officer (CDO) or Assistant CDO and just when I thought wow, I am going to breeze through this, one officer noticed that my father’s naturalised citizenship was from a different district and told me that I should apply for my NRN from there.&nbsp;
I explained that my father has already passed away and as he was not originally a Nepali, therefore it is not possible for me to get my NRN from his documents, as the requirement is ancestral “बंसागज” citizenship. The officer then went to check with their seniors and later told me that I would need police verification as an extra precaution.&nbsp;
Off I went to the police headquarters where they issued a sealed letter to be given to the police station that was in the same vicinity as my mother’s ward office. At the station I was told to get four people who are not my relatives to testify our documents are true.&nbsp;
This process happened to be more stressful than dealing with the government offices. At first, it turned out that most of my mother’s old neighbours had already passed away or had citizenship papers from another area. Others confirmed their availability, but later had conflicting schedules. Luckily, one very helpful old neighbour was able to arrange for enough people to verify the documents.&nbsp;
Encouraged that the end of the tunnel was in sight, I went back to the district office with all the requested documents, and after some initial pushback, I was finally referred to meet the official who signs off the documents before it goes to the CDO.&nbsp;
As luck would have it, the officials were in a meeting that lasted more than two hours, and I had to give my mother her insulin shot and noodles from the cafeteria in the waiting area.&nbsp;
When we were finally able to meet the officer, he didn’t even look at my papers properly and started questioning my lawyers whether they had even read the law, how could I apply for Nepali citizenship when I already had a Japanese passport, etc. He somehow assumed that I was looking to get a normal Nepali citizenship from my mother’s side, and we informed him that I was only looking to get an NRN citizenship, after which his tone became more apologetic and said that he would need to look into the law more closely.&nbsp;
It had already been three full days of working through each step of the process, and I had no problem waiting another day for the conclusion.&nbsp;
Perhaps because this NRN citizenship is a fairly new law and perhaps a lot of NRNs apply from the Nepal’s embassies in their country of domicile, throughout my experience, officials kept on telling me that a case such as mine has not been processed before.&nbsp;
My case being that I have never had a Nepali citizenship, my father having a naturalised Nepali citizenship and my mother being the only 100% Nepali in the family. I kept on saying that just because it has never been done before does not mean that it cannot be done, and sure enough, the next day the officer signed off on my documents, even kindly saying that they should have highly respected my application upon learning about my late father and his contributions to Nepal.&nbsp;
Although the intricacies of the NRN citizenship law have not been fully hacked out such as the transfer of land ownership, it is definitely a positive step in securing the rights and aspirations of fellow NRNs as many would agree that no matter where we go, “यो मन त मेरो नेपाली हो!”&nbsp;
Sonia Miyahara, Managing Director of Hotel Everest View, Trans Himalayan Tours &amp; Trekking Pvt Ltd &amp; Himalaya Kanko Kaihatsu Co. Ltd.

How I got my NRN Citizenship in Nepal

Besides being an election year in Nepal, 2026 is also the year of anniversaries. It is exactly 30 years since the Maoists launched their armed struggle on <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/13-february">13 February 1996</a>, and it was on 27 April 2006 that the ceasefire came into effect after a month of massive pro-democracy protests.
Alas, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/not-ever-again">three decades on</a>, the decade-long conflict that claimed 17,000 lives has been <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/ghosts-of-war">air brushed from our history</a>. For the survivors, and the families of those disappeared and killed, memories of loss and suffering are fading. The party that fought the war in Mao’s name has dropped it.
It is important on this day to remember not to forget that <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=3203">violent decade</a> -- so that it does not happen again, and so the youth movement that has led to this election will also not be in vain.
The 8 September 2025 rally, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-s-8-september-massacre">the massacre that followed</a>, and the nationwide mayhem and carnage the next day were largely a result of public anger boiling over. Nepalis had been let down repeatedly by rulers promising revolution in the name of the ‘people’: from the 1990 People’s Movement I, to the Maoist ‘People’s War’, and the 2006 People’s Movement II.
There are some positive residual effects of the insurgency. One-third of the Maoist militia was <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Nation-sibling-war-juna-rai,731">composed of women</a>, this empowered not just the female guerrillas themselves, but indirectly made a whole generation of young women aware of their rights.&nbsp;
The peace process itself resulted in the Maoists entering the democratic mainstream, and the induction of many of the guerrillas into the national army – a rare occurrence after a conflict.
The ceasefire was followed by an interim government, and the first elected <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/the-letter-and-spirit">Constituent Assembly</a> abolished the monarchy in 2008. Deadlock over the model of federalism meant a second election had to be held in 2013, and the new Constitution <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/by-the-way/new-constitution-should-adopt-inclusive-democracy-with-federalism-republicanism-secularism,538">finally promulgated in 2015</a>.&nbsp;
That statute was supposed to devolve political decision-making away from Kathmandu to autonomous provinces, improve inclusive representation of women and hitherto excluded castes and ethnicities at all three levels of government, ensure accountability and good governance to generate jobs and lift living standards.
There were seven governments in ten years after 2015, and tottering coalitions one after another failed to fulfil any of those provisions in the Constitution. There were subliminal gains in representation of women thanks to affirmative action, but as this election shows, women candidates are still used as proxies by patriarchal parties.&nbsp;
Since the two warring sides of the Maoist war both became the state, sharing power in dozens of coalition cabinets since 2006, they colluded to bury the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-s-unpunished-war-crimes">transitional justice process</a>.
The former supreme commander of the Maoists Pushpa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda) has become prime minister three times in the last 20 years. He is contesting this election from Rukum East, where he marked the 30th anniversary of the start of armed struggle on Friday.
The word ‘Maoist’ has been erased from the Nepali Communist Party which Dahal formed with more than a dozen other smaller leftist outfits. His main rival, Janardan Sharma, quit the Maoists and is standing for elections in Rukum West.
Both former comrades are competing for the hearts and minds of people of this former base area from where the Maoists went on warpath on 13 February 1996 by attacking a police station in Athbiskot, and simultaneously on targets in <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=7812">Holeri of Rolpa</a>, Sindhuli and Gorkha.
The former ideologue of the Maoist party, <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/editorial/20-years-wasted-in-war,2850">Baburam Bhattarai</a>, was the architect of the revolution while Dahal was the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=6369#.Y-XIii8w1KM">executor</a>. Bhattarai submitted a list of 40 demands to the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/deubas-denouement">Sher Bahadur Deuba</a> (during his first tenure as prime minister in 1995) but did not wait for a reply before launching the armed struggle.
The Maoists felt that the constitutional monarchy after 1990 was too feudal, and a patronage-driven parliamentary system too slow to bring about change. Besides, the democratic parties were accused of using state security to prevent Maoist candidates from winning elections.
The Maoists followed Mao’s Red Book to the letter, attacking police stations, looting weapons and targeting local elected governments, eliminating ‘class enemies' with summary executions.&nbsp;
They destroyed telecommunication towers, highways, bridges and airfields in remote areas. Threats forced health posts, schools, post offices to be withdrawn from areas where people needed them the most. The country’s development was pushed back decades.
Nepal in the early 1990s was ripe for revolution. There was inequality, social injustice, exclusion, and the political parties in Kathmandu were too busy squabbling to do their job. The Maoists wanted an end to the monarchy, but in 2001 the monarchy imploded with the royal massacre.
ABSOLUTE POWER
King Gyanendra succeeded his <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=8338">murdered brother</a> to the throne, and took the country back to absolute rule with a military-backed coup in 2005. Within a year, street protests forced him to step aside. And by 2008, it was too late to save the monarchy.
We can look back as far as we want to the roots of the Maoist conflict. It can be blamed on elected leaders post-1990 who abandoned the people once in power, the 30 years of partyless Panchayat system that stifled dissent and let social pressures build up, or even 100 years of Rana rule.&nbsp;
It was the prolonged indifference on the part of successive rulers in Kathmandu that fed public discontent. These accumulated grievances were also the reason for the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-s-gen-z-protest-turns-deadly">September 2025 events</a>.&nbsp;
During China’s Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong said: ‘The old has to be uprooted to be replaced with the new’, and that could almost be the anthem of the GenZ movement and this election.
The objective conditions that drove the Maoist insurgency 30 years ago are still evident today. And much will depend on the government(s) that will be formed after March.&nbsp;

Remembering not to forget

As Nepal mourned its dead in the September violence and public buildings smouldered, former Chief Justice Sushila Karki was installed as prime minister to pull the country back from the brink.
She gave herself six months to conduct elections, and has gone about achieving that goal with a single-minded sense of purpose. Supporters praise her poise and decisiveness, while others fault her for not pursuing justice for the death and destruction, and postponing the release of the inquiry commission yet again.&nbsp;
But that also highlights her steadfastness to hold free, fair and peaceful elections on 5 March, and not allow it be derailed by distractions. It has not been easy for the 73-year-old — she has had to balance radical calls for scrapping the Constitution while appeasing entrenched leaders of established parties.&nbsp;
Karki has displayed patience, determination, foresight, and, above all, a deep love for country. It has been a lonely struggle, no doubt.
The very youth who voted for her on Discord demanded her resignation, &nbsp;she had to cajole discredited leaders to take part in polls, and she was not dismayed when her chosen ministers abandoned the government to contest polls. And this is not to mention geopolitical demands that must be happening behind the scenes.
This being Nepal, there is endless speculation about who is ‘pulling the strings’. Yet her record both as chief justice and interim prime minister offer ample evidence of integrity and principled leadership.
Regardless of geopolitical interpretations of her intentions, Karki is a Nepali leader through and through who has lifted herself from the highest judicial office to the highest executive position, adhering to both mandates.
Organising national elections within five months was a formidable task, which many doubted — and are still doubting — can be accomplished. Karki has worked closely with the Election Commission, security forces, and mainstream political parties to ensure participation.&nbsp;
In doing so, she has set an example not only for Nepal but for South Asia. Bangladesh, which went through its own GenZ protest in 2024 and held elections on Thursday offers a study in contrast. The Awami League and its exiled prime minister who was deposed have been banned from front contesting, there is growing influence of the Jamaat-e-Islami-led alliance.
Her first address to the National Assembly on 2 February was characteristically candid. She laid out the facts sequentially and emphasised Nepal’s most urgent priority: holding elections on schedule and transferring authority to elected representatives. Timely election was the only constitutional path forward, she said.
She acknowledged that GenZ activists had pressured her to appoint certain individuals to her Cabinet. She had to personally persuade Kulman Ghising, Mahabir Pun, and Jagdish Kharel to join her Cabinet. Others she was advised to induct turned out to have controversial pasts, and she was forced to rescind the nominations. She admitted Pun resigned as education minister because he could not get legislative proposals passed.
Educated, professionally accomplished, known for her frugal lifestyle, Karki has distanced herself from the culture of excess often associated with power, and has turned down multiple invitations for foreign junkets.
Her meeting with editors at Baluwatar in December was a breath of fresh air for Nepal’s jaded journalists used to excessive displays of power and pomp. Her frankness about threats from the GenZ and pressures from disgraced party leaders drew gasps.
In the last five months, Karki has attempted to restore a sense of governance anchored in constitutional duty rather than partisan ambition. But Nepal’s problems have been decades in the making, and it would be unrealistic to expect an interim government to solve all of them at once.
Nepal now stands at a crucial juncture. Leadership alone cannot safeguard democracy, elections alone do not guarantee legitimacy. That must come from delivery, performance and accountability. Citizens casting informed votes on 5 March will determine whether Karki’s handover to leaders capable of placing national interest above party and personal agendas.
In a region where democratic transitions often falter, Nepal has another chance to demonstrate that home-grown movements, constitutional discipline, and principled leadership can coexist.&nbsp;
Whether this moment becomes a turning point depends not only on one leader, but on the collective resolve of the nation and polity.
Watch a timelapse video of how Anup Tamu drew this portrait of Sushila Karki, <a href="https://youtube.com/shorts/tchdBwBZDJE?si=PD9Sd3__t-1-lILh">here</a>.&nbsp;