Protecting our natural heritages: If the government cannot, we should take the lead
Introduced without much fanfare, this column aims to offer a cursory reading of news reports appearing mainly in the Nepali print media. Though no big name in the Nepali media firmament, yours truly will try through this forum to offer an unbiased and insightful analysis of the stories by not discriminating against any publication big or small. The effort will be on coming up with this column daily, though yours truly admits that the task will not be that easy for a juggler. Hope you all will be with yours truly through thick and thin.
Natural disasters
No, they are no lead stories of our vernacular dailies today, but they surely show how vulnerable we are to natural disasters and how we should tread with caution when it comes to developing physical infrastructure. It's a pity that the government is throwing caution in the wind and thinking of even opting for high dam-based, export-oriented multipurpose projects like the Saptakoshi high dam project that will involve the construction of a 265-metre high dam on a seismically active and landslide-prone region in Eastern Nepal, all for flood control, irrigation and navigational benefits for areas bordering India, at huge environmental, religious and social costs for Nepal.
The project will cause inundation in several eastern districts, displace a huge population and rob the eastern plains of water by channeling one of Nepal's major river systems into Bihar. Whose interests such projects will serve is pretty clear.
Also, mindless development activities like construction of roads and cable car systems cutting through young mountains with utter disregard for environmental fragility is causing huge losses of life and property annually, but perhaps our brave Gorkhali spirit does not allow us to learn lessons and mend ways. As a result, bulldozing of mountains and clearing of forests, all in the holy name of road construction and other development activities, is going on unabated without any consideration into environmental fragility, thanks to a nod from governments at different levels to the design of interest groups with money and political muscles. What can one expect when most chairs of our rural municipalities own bulldozers? What should they use these machines for if not bulldozing the mountains?
Back to the stories. The Kantipur daily reports from Rasuwa that two passengers died and seven got injured, one critically, when a landslide swamped a jeep headed for Kathmandu from Rasuwagadhi at Tatopani area, Gosaikunda rural municipality-2, on Saturday evening.
Powerful lobby bags conserved area
The Annapurna Post daily reports from Butwal
that clearing of a forest is underway at the environmentally-sensitive and
historically important Butwal-Nuwakot area, including the Mani Mukunda Sen
Park, with a lobby of businessmen planning to lay a cable car line there and
develop a resort with consent from the provincial and federal government.
As per the report, around 40 years ago, King
Birendra had shifted a settlement from there to Bhutaha of Nawalparasi for the
conservation of the stretch from Jitpur to Nuwakot Gadhi, one of the forts that
the Nepalis had used to stop the advances of British troops during the
Anglo-Nepal war (1814-16).
Through the 'resort model of development', the government is handing over community managed, state-protected forests to powerful business lobbies at dirt cheap rates for the construction of hotels and other recreational facilities, thus restricting the access of local communities and the larger public to these places without giving much thought into the negative impact that increasing human activities will have on wildlife.
It should bear in mind that the Chandragiri model of development, the model of handing over jungles and hills to powerful business lobbies at dirt-cheap rates and thus denying the public's access to natural heritages, is not a sustainable model.
Here's hoping that our politicos will draw inspirations from the founding fathers of the United States and do every bit to protect our national parks, forests and water bodies for generations to come.
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