Four killed in explosion in Nepal

Kathmandu (dpa) - Four people were killed and more than 20 injured in an explosion in south-eastern Nepal on Monday, police said.

A bomb fixed to a parked motorcycle exploded at Ramanand Chowk in Janakpur, 200 kilometres south-east of the capital Kathmandu.

The explosion took place near a meeting of a local ethnic group demonstrating for a separate province in the new constitution.

Police said they had detained a man on suspicion in the blast and that a group calling itself Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha had claimed responsibility for the explosion.

Nepal is set to write a new constitution on May 27. The country has seen several protests by local ethnic groups demanding their rights be enshrined in the charter.
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Record Everest climber raises awareness on climate change

   Kathmandu (dpa) - Record Mount Everest climber Apa Sherpa, who recently completed the 1,555-kilometre Great Himalaya Trail, said Wednesday he wanted to raise awareness about the impact of climate change on the Himalayas.

   On April 19, Apa Sherpa - who has scaled Everest 21 times - and his team completed the trail in 99 days. It runs along the entire base of the Nepalese portion of the Himalayas, across 22 districts.

   Born in the Everest region, Apa Sherpa lost his home, land and relatives in 1985, when the Dikcho glacier lake burst its banks, flooding his village downstream. Then a farmer, he was compelled to take up work as a porter to support his younger siblings.

   "I have experienced the adverse impacts of climate change in 1985 and would like to help draw awareness to it, so that we can mitigate its impact," Apa Sherpa told a press conference in Kathmandu.

   Team member Dawa Steven Sherpa said, "During our trek, we saw how climate change has had an impact on people's livelihood because of the impact on agriculture.

   "Crops have failed in many places, people are waiting for the rain to plant their crops in some places and forest fires are occurring at an alarming rate."

   Their trek started from Suketar in eastern Nepal on January 15, at 2,417 metres, and ended at Darchula, at the far-western border of Nepal with India, at 894 metres.

   Apa Sherpa said he had seen the mountains were melting fast during the 21 times he had climbed Everest - the world's highest mountain that peaks at 8,848 metres  - and the frequency of drought and landslides had increased.

   Last year, Apa Sherpa said he would not climb Everest again, beyond the base camp. He made his first ascent of Everest in 1990.

   Everest has become increasingly polluted because of the waste and climbing gear left behind by mountaineers, as well the bodies of those who died during their climb.
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Women trekking guides take the lead in Nepal

DPA/Pokhara, Nepal
When Saraswati Biswakarma first started working as a trekking guide a decade ago, she was greeted by jeers from male porters and trekking guides.
''You’ve snatched our job’, they would shout when I walked up the mountains with over 10kg on my back,” said the 28-year-old.
Biswakarma was one of the first - and is still one of the few - women in Nepal to take up the profession of trekking guide. She is also one of only four women to have ascended Annapurna IV, considered one of the toughest walks in Nepal. The struggle to get there has been uphill in more ways than one.
“When I first started, my family was under a lot of pressure from my relatives and neighbours to make me quit,” she says. “Women who work and travel with foreigners are often seen as those who have tainted characters,” she said. “It wasn’t easy for me to continue.”
She persevered with support from her father and uncle, who also worked as trekking guides, and now lives and works with the Chettri Sisters Trekking Company. Since it was established in 1998, the company has been helping women like Biswakarma who want to be part of the trekking industry, an activity traditionally for men.
Company founder Lucky Chettri, 47, saw a business opportunity in the lack of women working as porters or guides. “I was operating a tourist lodge in the late 90s in Pokhara, when two young foreigner women who had just returned from a trek told me they had been sexually harassed by their drunk guides,” she says.
“They were helpless and actually wept, and that immediately got me thinking about how we could cooperate.”
The story inspired her to set up a trekking agency operated by women that would offer services to female travellers. Women in the country’s rural areas already carry heavy loads daily, she thought, so it should be feasible for them to make a living out of it. Also, they were well-placed to show the country to travellers, as they were already familiar with the local terrain.
Lucky was soon joined by her younger sisters, Dicky and Nicky. Together, they offered themselves as trekking guides for women travelling in the Himalayas. It wasn’t easy at first to recruit more women “as it was a new concept and there was the social stigma attached to it”, says Nicky. But gradually, more women wanted to become trekking guides.
In 1999, the sisters also started a non-governmental organisation called Empowering Women of Nepal, which offers free trekking guide training to women. The centre has trained over 16,000 so far.
“We train them in the classroom for a month and five months is spent on the field, trekking, where they earn while getting trained,” says Nicky. Most women set off as independent guides, while some work for the Chettri sisters.
They acquire better fitness, learn to use trekking equipment and to survive in the wilderness, and also learn foreign languages.
Laura Ortlieb, a German volunteer who has been teaching the women English and German for six months, says the exchange is beneficial for her as well. “Every day, I learn more from their experiences.”
The three sisters were also moved by the plight of children they saw working as labourers as they trekked through remote villages.
So the next part of their mission was setting up a children’s home in 2006 to rescue and shelter such children. Most of the children have been rescued with the help of the International Labour Organisation and government officials.
Sarada Nepali, 14, is one those rescued. She had been sold by a relative to a hotel in Mustang, in Nepal’s north-western mountains for 1,000 rupees ($13). There are 17 other children like her who now live at the children’s home run by the sisters and attend nearby schools.
“Rescuing the children is not an easy task, so we start by warning people how abusing children could be detrimental to their business and we seek legal help,” says Dicky, the third sister.
The children’s home also serves as a care centre for the children of the guides, as their treks can last from five to 12 days.
Each year, during the tourist season from September to March, 120 women trekking guides from the Chettri Sisters Trekking Agency lead a total of up to 800 female guests through Nepal’s treks.
“The worst time to be trekking is when you’re having your period, as you have a backache and it’s not convenient to change,” says Biswakarma. “But when people appreciate the fact that you’re rubbing shoulders with men, walking the wild, much of that tiredness just disappears.”
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=500400&version=1&template_id=44&parent_id=24

British actress, Ghurka activist Lumley opens school in Nepal=

April 19,2012
   Kathmandu (dpa) - British activist and actress Joanna Lumley, who has long made cause for issues related to Nepal, opened a school in Nepal Thursday.

   Lumley - best known for roles in television shows like Absolutely Fabulous and The Avengers - has been a leading advocate of the right to British residency for Nepal's Gurkha soldiers. The soldiers, from the country's Gurkha minority, fought with British troops throughout World War II.

   Lumley, the vice-patron of the Gurkha Welfare Trust, opened a school in the village of Tiplyang. The school was built in memory of Captain Michael Allmand VC, Honorary Lieutenant Tulbahadur Pun VC and her father, Major James Lumley.
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Author: Pratibha Tuladhar

Everest veteran dies at base camp =

   Kathmandu (dpa) - A Nepali Sherpa guide who climbed Mount Everest no less than 10 times has died at the base camp of the world's tallest mountain, expedition organizers said Thursday.

   Karsang Namgyal, 40, died on Wednesday due to altitude sickness at the base camp, located at an altitude of 5,300 metres, according to Darmabar Parajuli of Prestige Adventure, the organizer of the expedition.

   “We left for the Everest base camp on April 10 and he seemed fine until Wednesday afternoon,” said Parajuli. “We wanted to rescue him after he complained of discomfort in his chest, but couldn't fly him out because of bad weather and he didn't make it.”

   Namgyal was to be cremated according to Buddhist rituals on Friday. He was the son of legendary climber Ang Rita Sherpa, who  climbed Mount Everest and many other mountains in Nepal on several occasions.

   Nearly 250 people have died on the world’s tallest mountain since it opened to climbers 57 years ago.
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Author: Pratibha Tuladhar

FEATURE: Nepalis living in the shadow of melting glaciers

By Pratibha Tuladhar, dpa =

   Bahrabise, Nepal (dpa) - Devi Maya Tamangni watches the river rage just a few metres below her one-room house in a barren highland valley of Nepal.

   The 42-year-old mother scrapes a living from it by sifting sand to sell to construction companies.

   “We have no time to think about a flood,” she says. “I pay the government 250 rupees (2.5 dollars) every month as rent for this land. I live here because I have nowhere else to go.”

   But her village of Larcha is among those threatened by melting glaciers as average temperatures rise.

   There are hundreds like her in the upper Bhotekoshi basin of Sindhupalchowk district, 100 kilometres north-east of Kathmandu, including children who study in school buildings next to the river.

   A flash flood in 1996 killed 54 people in the village, wiped out 22 houses and caused massive damage in the area.

   Deadly floods are not uncommon in Sindhupalchowk, which shares its border with China. The Arniko highway passes through the district, the only highway connecting Nepal and China.

   Scientists say the people in the region are under severe threat, as global warming is causing the glaciers to melt fast, increasing the threat of their lakes bursting their banks.

   In the nearby trading town of Bahrabise, residents attribute natural calamity like floods to the anger of the gods.

   The basin experienced three glacial lake outbursts in the last century. The first occurred in 1935, when the Tara Co Lake burst its matural dam. Although there were no human casualties, the flood killed livestock and damaged farmland, leaving behind a trail of debris that made cultivation impossible in some parts of the valley.

   The Zhangzangbo lake breached its banks in 1964 and in 1981.

   “It was close to midnight and I noticed the water had risen as far as the bridge,” says Dhanbahadur Shrestha, 69, who was making preparations for his daughter’s wedding the last time.

   “My friends and I had only stepped off the bridge, and it got swept away,” he explains, speaking over the sound of the roaring Sunkoshi river.

   “We couldn’t believe we were alive!”

   The flood swept away five people, 41 houses, water mills, and two major bridges, including the Friendship Bridge that connects Nepal and China. Hundreds were injured and several houses damaged. The flood also damaged the Sunkoshi hydroelectric station, 150 kilometres downstream.

   “We climbed to the highest point of the station and stayed there all night, waiting for the water to recede,” says Ramlal Parajuli.

   "We couldn’t figure out where the water had come from, but there was so much of it everywhere.”

   The flood brought down boulders measuring up to 4 metres in diameter, which remain parked at several places along the rivers.

   “The difference between the impact of a glacial lake outburst and a cloudburst is that the first brings down with it heavy debris, like trees, boulders, while sweeping away everything on its path,” says  Pradeep Mool, a scientist working with International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development.

   While the basin has seen no major flood since 1996, the population in the area has been growing quickly.

   A study conducted by the centre said that another outburst like the one in 1981 would affect about 900 households and about 5,800  people. Scientists predict one of a stronger magnitude could occur.

   There are more than 3,200 glaciers in Nepal and studies say that 14 glacial lakes are at risk of bursting their natural dams made of glacier debris from rapid melting.

   The two major glacial lakes threatening to burst their banks are located on the Chinese side bordering Sindhupalchowk, which put Nepal at risk downstream.

   “Political will is needed to solve this problem,” Mool says. “If the two sides deal with it politically, and spend 5 to 7 million dollars to mitigate the glacial outburst and put in an early warning system for the flash flood, it is possible to avert the danger to some extent.”

   But infrastructure in the area is poor and no warning system is in place for residents, who are mostly unaware of the threat from the mountains above them.

   “If a flood comes, it comes, what can one do about it?” Tamangni says.
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Nepal brings Maoist fighters under auspice of national army

April, 10,2012
   Kathmandu (dpa) - The Maoist army, their arms and their military camps were brought under the auspices of the Nepalese Army Tuesday, in a landmark decision following the start of Nepal's peace process in 2006.

   The army took over responsibility from a special integration committee, in line with a decision made previously by the government and the main political parties.

   The security of the military camps, or cantonments, was handed over to the army, along with their management. The decision came in the wake of violent confrontation among the Maoist combatants living in the camps.

   Chief opposition leader Ram Chandra Poudel, of the Nepali Congress party, said the decision had opened the door for the peace process to be completed and the constitution to be written.

   A fresh screening process is to begin immediately for potential army recruits, while those who opt for voluntary retirement will be released with a severance package. The parties have agreed to integrate 6,500 Maoist combatants into the national army.

   More than 19,000 Maoist combatants had been living in seven encampments across the country after the Maoists signed a peace deal with the government in 2006, ending a decade-long armed insurgency.

   One of the clauses of the pact is to write a new constitution, by May 27. But the task has lagged, as the Nepali Congress party has insisted that the army integration must be completed first.

   The parties are still disputing the electoral system, the distribution of provinces and the system of governance in the new constitution.
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Author: Pratibha Tuladhar

Nepal ministers muck in for street clean-up

   Kathmandu (dpa) – The prime minister of Nepal on Friday took to the streets broom in hand and sporting a golf cap and breathing mask instead of his usual dark suit and Nepali cap, to launch a week-long cleanup campaign in Kathmandu.

   Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai made headlines as he swept the streets in front of the parliament building, flanked by his wife, Maoist leader Hishila Yami and Local Development Minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi.

   The clean-up campaign was initiated by the government and the city authorities to encourage people to keep their neighbourhood clean and tackle Kathmandu's growing waste management problem.

   "We need to contribute to a clean and healthy Kathmandu, so that we can build a new Nepal, so I request everyone to contribute to this,” Bhattarai said.

   The government has called on every household to provide one volunteer, and said it expects to mobilize up to 10,000 pairs of hands for three hours each day for a week. There will also be a clampdown on littering.

   Ministers, politicians, students, police officers, soldiers, government officials and residents all turned out for Friday's clean-up.

   “This is to make people aware and responsible for their city,” Rayamajhi said. “It’s an example of cooperation between people and government.”

   On the last two days of the campaign, the rivers will be cleaned.
Kathmandu has a long-standing garbage management problem, with piles of rubbish left to fester on the streets, and causing water-borne diseases.

   The problem has become worse in recent years as authorities struggle to find new landfill sites. Residents of areas around dump sites frequently demonstrate to protest for better conditions.
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US asks Nepal to register Tibetan refugees

   Kathmandu (dpa) - The United States has asked Nepal to start fresh registration of Tibetan refugees, local media reported Friday.

   Many more are thought to have arrived or been born since the last census in 1990 put their number at 20,000, and hundreds are living without any documents.

   US Department of State Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Wendy R Sherman met Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai and asked him to help clear obstacles faced by the children of Tibetan exiles in accessing employment and education, The Kathmandu Post daily reported.

   "We did talk with the PM about the identity cards and their registration on regular basis," Sherman was quoted as saying.

   "There is no question in my mind that the government here supports international rights of refugees and I know it is going to resolve the remaining concerns of the Tibetan refugees," she said.

   Nepal is under conflicting pressures over Tibetan refugees. Western Nations are keen to see the migrants well treated, and Nepal has an informal agreement with the United Nations to let them cross into India.

   But Kathmandu has come under repeated pressure from China to control the refugees on its territory, and in particular to prevent any protests against the Chinese occupation of Tibet.

Parahawking in Nepal helps vulture conservation

By Pratibha Tuladhar, dpa
   Pokhara, Nepal (dpa) - It is a busy time in the hills of Sarangkot, on the outskirts of Pokhara in central Nepal, as paragliders gather with their colourful wings, spotting the hills in blue, orange, red and all the other colours of the rainbow.
   Kevin, a 6-year-old Egyptian vulture, is getting ready to fly with the paragliders. Perched on the fist of his keeper, he ruffles his feathers, preparing to join the men and women taking off, sometimes smoothly, sometimes clumsily from the hilltop. It's a short sprint before they jump off the cliff, Kevin joining them.
   With a yellow hooked beak and pink head covered by spiky white feathers, Kevin is about 70 centimetres tall and is one of the birds who navigate for paragliders in Pokhara. He and his fellow Egyptian vulture Bob, 4, seek out thermals that keep the paragliders airborne.
   "We rescued Kevin from the forest, when he was a chick, as he had fallen off the nest and injured himself," explains Scott Mason, the 40-year-old British bird conservationist, who invented the sport of parahawking.
   "We raised him and trained him."
   "The birds have a natural instinct for finding thermals and they have better eyesight, so it's easier for paragliders to just follow the bird," says Damodar Parajuli, a Nepali parahawker.
   The gliders make their landing, guided by the bird.
   Mason, originally a graphic designer and a bird trainer, arrived in Nepal a decade ago to do a paragliding flight. As a bird trainer, he was overwhelmed with the different species of birds found in Nepal.
   But he was also struck by how the number of vultures in Nepal, Pakistan and India was fast declining due to the use of diclofenac, a drug used on livestock, which is fatal for the birds of prey when they feed on animal carcasses.
   "On leaving, I was presented with an option to stay and train two black kites to fly with paragliders by a friend who owned a paragliding company."
   Mason thought it was a good opportunity to use the birds of prey as ambassadors to promote the issue of conservation and stayed in the South Asian country. In 2001, he conducted the first parahawking flight, using one of the black kites.
   "What started as an experiment turned into a labour of love," he says.
   The extreme adventure comes with an underlying objective of bird conservation. The money raised from the parahawking goes to running a rescue facility for birds, Himalayan Raptor Rescue, which takes care of injured birds before returning them to the wild.
   "Part of the money goes to vulture restaurants," Mason says.
   Conservationists decided to start feeding centres for the birds - known as vulture restaurants - to protect them from carrion contaminated with diclofenac residue.
   The government banned diclofenac in 2006 for veterinary use. But it is still available on the market for human use, and farmers get it and administer it to animals.
   As the vultures soar alongside, the paragliders hold out lumps of meat between their index finger and thumbs for the birds to take.
   "It's a different thing to have a bird fly and take food off your hand," says Robert Dan from Alaska in the United States.
   When the birds aren't flying, the trainers exercise them.
   "We don't fly them during the moulting period because we don't want to compromise on the quality of their feathers," says Taylor Guastella, a bird trainer from the US. They also avoid flying them when the birds are breeding.
   It was only after a film on parahawking made by Mason and a friend earned international recognition that they decided to start in-tandem commercial flights.
   What started at the cost of 1,000 Nepali rupees (12.9 dollars) in 2006, now costs 14,000. The two birds, Bob and Kevin, each do a daily flight from September to March. They live in the garden of a resort hotel run by Mason, with other black kites, Sapana - the first paragliding bird, now 11 years old - Goggles, Brad, and two recently rescued chicks.
   "You can't pat and pet a bird like you do with dogs and cats," says Mason. "But it's a spiritual feeling to be in the air, see their expressions, observe their behaviour and pass the passion on to the passengers."
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