KATHMANDU : “I won’t come online tonight and will call only after ten days. Tell aama [mother] that and not to worry.”
The Chhipchhipe settlement lies about 8km north of Kawasoti bazar along the east-west highway in Nawalparasi, right at the base of the Chure hills. In a small, zinc-roofed abode in this settlement live Yamkala Tiwari and her elder son Dipendra. Yamkala’s younger son, Nabin, had left for Turkey, five years ago, with dreams of making it big in Europe. Dipendra had passed Yamkala the message Nabin left at about 9pm on December 5, 2017.
Ten days passed but Nabin’s promised call didn’t come. It never did.
Nabin, aged 24, had left the country on November 1, 2017, aiming for Greece via Turkey, with a work visa. After 24 days, he had notified Dipendra of his arrival in Istanbul, the Turkish capital.
Five days later, Nabin was part of the group that was aiming for Greece. This the family knows but not much beyond. For the past five years, Yamkala has been waiting for her son’s return, with sad eyes and a dejected mien.
Those who try to reach Greece via Turkey have to brave the Evros River and the Mediterranean Sea. Those who don’t want to cross them on congested boats, overburdened with hopefuls, have to opt for the 203km long hiking route through a jungle.
Nabin and his team chose the latter route, the family has learnt through enquiries and from men on the group, including Moti Gurung, from Ilam, Rohit Gurung, and Tikaram Bhattarai, who is also from Kawasoti.
In a Facebook Messenger conversation on July 25, 2018, Moti had said that they walked for seven nights and eight days through the dense forests with little to no food, and that Nabin had fallen sick en route.
“The agent left Nabin with an unknown man in the jungle and led us forward,” Moti said from Greece. “I don’t know what happened after that.”
Moti is out of contact since then and his Facebook account hasn’t been updated since March, 2020.
With Nabin’s whereabouts unknown, Dipendra contacted a man called Mohammed, who was responsible for taking the group to Greece via Turkey, through the social networking app Imo. Mohammed said that Nabin had had his legs swollen and was also suffering from fever; hence he was admitted to a hospital. Mohammed, however, didn’t reveal the name and location of the hospital where Nabin was said to be undergoing treatment. Neither do Nabin’s teammates headed for Greece know of it.
The family got in touch with Moti after seven months of Nabin’s disappearance. Moti had already reached Greece by then and was just released after spending 25 days in police custody. In two Messenger conversations on July 2 and 8, 2018, Moti said that he had left for Greece from Istanbul at midnight with four Nepalis, three Pakistanis, an agent, and one man who showed the way through the jungle.
Yamkala gets overcome with emotions thinking of the times she spent with her younger son. “After my son disappeared, I have lost count of days and nights,” she says. “Now I don’t know whether to live or to die.”
Uncounted deaths, few complaints Many Nepalis who get to Turkey, lured by organised human traffickers and after spending Rs1.1-1.5 millions, have just one goal in mind—to reach Greece anyhow. But even if they reach Greece, a developed country that is a member of the European Union, their odyssey hardly ends.
According to the research paper ‘Transborder Crime Between Turkey and Greece: Human Smuggling and Its Regional Consequences’ by Professor Ahmet İçduygu at Koc University, of the total people who enter Greece via Turkey, 14 percent head for the United Kingdom, 13 percent Germany, six percent Italy, five percent France, and 13 percent Greece itself.
Deputy Inspector General Tek Prasad Rai, who is former chief at Nepal Police’s Anti-Human Trafficking Bureau, also says that for most Nepalis, Greece is a transit point to enter other European countries.
Rohit Gurung, who accompanied Nabin and Moti, told the family in a Facebook Messenger conversation on July 18, 2018 that many Nepalis in his team have already reached either Portugal, Italy or Spain. He said that he was working at a hotel in Greece where he earned USD10 per day, which didn’t suffice him for food and lodging. “This is the situation of 75 percent of Nepalis who have come to Greece,” Rohit said. In another conversation on December 25, 2019, Rohit had spoken from Portugal.
Nepal’s police and other government agencies do not have an exact data of the number of Nepalis who reach Turkey on work visa and then head for Greece, illegally, by paying hefty sums to organised traffickers.
DIG Rai said that though the number of Nepalis who meet with accidents on their way to Greece is large, the victims’ families do not inform the police, the reason why data on trafficked individuals is scarce.
Like Rai said, Yamkala hasn’t filed a report about her disappeared son to any government agency. Because her own relatives orchestrated Nabin’s trip in the beginning, Yamkala is hesitant to seek government help.
“Even though we get information informally, the victim’s family do not file a formal complaint with police,” Rai said. “The victim’s own relatives are connected in most of these cases of organised trafficking.”
According to Yamkala, it was Nabin’s own brother-in-law, Tulasi Prasad Neupane, a resident of Butwal who initiated the process to send him to Turkey. Neupane had worked in Saudi Arabia for over a decade, so Yamkala was assured that he had the know-how of foreign trips. Recalling the conversation with Neupane the day Nabin left, Yamkala said, “He [Neupane] said Nabin would land a job that would pay Rs30,000 a month. And if he gets a part-time gig, the income would increase. It never crossed my mind that he would disappear.”
According to the Missing Migrants Project of the International Organisation for Migration, within the first five months of 2022, as many as 21 migrants have died in the Turkey-Greece border area.
In January and February of 2021, ten migrants were found dead in the same area.
The agents do not allow those illegal migrants to keep any identifying document or cellphones with them, the reason why officials are unable to ascertain the nationality of those dead or deranged migrants.
On February 3, officials at the Greece-Turkey border nabbed 50 migrants from Nepal, Pakistan and some other African countries trying to cross to the other side. The arrested migrants were kept at the detention centre and asked to take off their shoes and undress. They were then ordered to return to the Turkish territory on foot. The news that as many as 19 of those migrants died on the way, succumbing to the freezing cold amid snowfall, made international headlines.
Ujjwal Kumar Ghising, chair of Immigrant Nepalis Association in Turkey, said that while he knew that at least eight Nepalis were among those who battled snowfall and freezing cold, he couldn’t know whether they were among the deceased.
The news of the mass death of migrants which spread around the world shocked the family of Divyadev Awasthi in Nepal’s Baitadi. It was around the same time when Divyadev had headed for Greece through the illegal route via Istanbul. Birendra Raj Joshi, Divyadev’s brother-in-law, said that he was further perturbed upon learning that only seven of the eight-member team returned to Turkey. Divyadev has been out of contact since January 31, according to Joshi. “We are desperate to know the whereabouts of Divya, but have had no luck so far,” Joshi said.
Wondering if Divya’s name is included in the list of dead migrants, his family has filed a report at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ consular department and at Nepal Police’s Anti-Human Trafficking Bureau. Rai, the former chief of the bureau, said that though a correspondence has been made with Interpol, Divya’s whereabouts are unknown.
Nearly a year ago, on November 11, a vehicle carrying migrants crashed at a border area, 502km east of the Greek capital Athens. As many as seven passengers died in the incident.
Upon learning of the incident, the families of Nepali migrants renewed the search for their dear ones. After they contacted the bureau, it procured the images of those who died in that fatal crash with Interpol’s help.
Forty days after the incident, the relatives identified the deceased—30-year-old Raju Lama from Dolakha’s Bhimeshwar Municipality; 21-year-old Ramila Ghale, also known as Sharmila, from Rasuwa’s Amachhodingmo Rural Municipality; Laxman Sapkota, 38, from Kailali’s Gauriganga Municipality; and Om Bahadur Thapa from Tanahun’s Ghiring Rural Municipality.
Among the dead, Laxman and Raju had reached Turkey via Dubai on a work visa. Sharmila, from a rural village in Rasuwa, had reached Iraq when she was just 19. Om Bahadur had reached Turkey via Dubai with the help of human traffickers.
Lokraj Acharya, a native of Kailali who was injured in the incident, said that they had reached the border area after a 13-day walk through the jungles. The vehicle they were on crashed while trying to cross to the other side of the border, into Greece. Acharya, who is now in Greece, said he is neither happy with his work nor his remuneration.

Not what they sought
According to the families concerned, one person spends an average of Rs1-1.5 million to land in Turkey. The amount includes ‘agent charge’, flight ticket fare, and food and lodging.
But the charge could be more. For instance, Rohit, who left Nepal with Nabin, could head for Greece only after paying an extra $2,900 to one Ashish Ghimire, an agent, and with the help of a Pakistani agent. 
The illegal route to Greece is so arduous that the travellers not only risk torture and accidents but also get arrested by security officials and are even taken hostage. In one instance, on April 4, the Turkish police arrested as many as 37 Greece-bound Nepalis held at a house in Istanbul.
A few weeks later, on April 26, it was discovered that four Nepalis—two men and women—were held hostage by six armed Pakistani nationals in Taksim Square, Istanbul. The Nepalis had known the Pakistani nationals as agents who would take them to Greece. Acting on a tip-off, the Turkish police had set the Nepalis free andarrested one of the hostage-takers.
According to a translator who worked for four months in 2016 and 2017 at the Moria Camp, one of Greece’s biggest refugee camps, a majority of Nepalis reach Greece through human traffickers.
“The agents would lead them off as early as three in the morning,” the translator, who wished to remain anonymous, said. “They are made to travel on small, congested boats teeming with people.” While applying for a refugee certificate with Greek authorities, the translator added, they claim that they faced brutality during the Maoist insurgency or caste-based violence back home in Nepal, so they couldn’t return.
According to Nepal Police’s Metropolitan Crime Division, it received a total of 37 complaints from Nepalis trafficked to Turkey in the fiscal year 2017-18. In 2019-20, however, only one complaint was filed; it stated an agent had swindled Rs3.9 million off the complainant, promising them to take to Turkey. The following fiscal year, the number of complaints was four. All four said they had paid Rs2.25 million each to the agents.
Superintendent of Police Krishna Koirala, who is the spokesperson of the division, said that though the number of trafficked Nepalis is large, few do actually file a complaint.
At the Anti-Human Trafficking Bureau, however, only one such complaint has been filed. It was filed by one ‘Babarmahal 61’ (the name changed by police to protect the complainant’s identity), who registered the complaint on February 17, 2021, saying she and her daughter were left stranded in Turkey by agents under the pretext of providing them lucrative jobs.
A man called Anil Dangol had put Babarmahal 61, who runs a clothing store at Budhanilakantha in Kathmandu, in touch with one Januka Lama. Januka had said that she’d provide both the mother and daughter jobs that’d pay Rs80-90,000 per month. The mother-daughter duo then met Purnima Basnet, who runs a clinic at Gongabu, for health checkup and visa processing. Purnima then put them in contact with Kismat Singh, alias Lucky Singh, who, she said, was his father. The duo sold their land in Tokha and paid Purnima Rs800,000.
The duo reached Turkey on October 8, 2020. For three months after that, Lucky kept them in a “hostage-like situation,” promising them jobs. Then one day, Lucky whisked the mother away to the border area, saying it was for employment, while leaving the daughter in her room.
At that time, the daughter managed to get in contact with the Association of Nepali Immigrants in Turkey. With the association’s help, she managed to return to Nepal on November 23, 2020. For the mother, however, Lucky assured that she’d get to Greece and led her through the jungle. In her police statement, Babarmahal 61 has said, “While walking through the jungle, I saw a dead Pakistani and then I cried that I’d rather die but wouldn’t move ahead. After that, Lucky brought me back home.”
According to her statement to police, Lucky was ready to bring her back only after she promised in writing that she wouldn’t file a case against Purnima and Januka once she was back home. But after returning, the duo did file a case with the police stating they were swindled and lost about Rs2 million.
Based on the complaint, police nabbed Jivan Bhatta, an agent, from Tarakeshwar, and Purnima Basnet from Machhapokhari. On March 31, 2021, the Kathmandu District Court released Bhatta, the main defendant, on a bail of Rs300,000 and sent Basnet to custody for investigation. The police are trying to issue a red corner notice through Interpol to nab the other defendant, Lucky Singh.
According to Anti-Human Trafficking Bureau, the organised racket that trafficks Nepalis to the US and European countries like Greece, Turkey, Croatia, and Romania is still very active in Nepal. These traffickers work under Indian and Pakistani racketeers, officials at the bureau said. Nepalis who try to reach Greece via Turkey, however, aim to stay in Greece if they get a decent job and if not, head for Portugal.
According to the bureau, in the last two years, as many as 150 Nepalis trafficked to the US were rescued and brought back home. But only three of them have filed a complaint with the police.
Tapas Adhikari, who has been Nepal’s ambassador to Greece and Turkey and is now resident ambassador to Pakistan, also says that only two such cases have come to his notice in the last year and a half.
“Those two cases were about the deaths of Nepalis in Turkey after their work visa expired,” Adhikari said.
Adhikari added that according to the Embassy’s correspondence with the Turkish government, no Nepalis were among the dead in the latest road accident that killed migrants.
But despite the fact that incidents of deaths, disappearances, and accidents among illegal travellers are increasingly being reported, Nepalis haven’t stopped trying to get to Greece via Turkey, and spending millions for it.

Divyadev Awasthi in Istanbul, Turkey. Awasthi had headed for Greece through the illegal route via Istanbul. He has been out of contact since January 31.Photo courtesy: Awasthi’s facebook

Yamkala Tiwari at her home in Kawasoti.Post Photo: janak raj sapkota

Nabin Tiwari with a friend in Istanbul. While living in Nepal, Nabin worked as a videographer.Photo courtesy: Tiwari’s facebook

KATHMANDU : Kantipur Conclave, an annual calendar event of Kantipur Media Group, will commence on Saturday.
The third edition of the Conclave is expected to be bigger and better, the organisers said. The event resumes after being suspended in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid-19 pandemic.
Themed ‘Beyond Expectations, Beyond Boundaries’, the two-day event will bring renowned personalities in various sectors together to discuss a range of issues national and international issues.
The conclave will have nine sessions: five on the first day and four on the second—in English (on the first day) and Nepali (second).
The event will kick off with opening remarks by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba. Former National Security Adviser of India Shivshankar Menon and former Chief Election Commissioner Bhojraj Pokharel are keynote speakers on the first day.
Development economist Prof Dr Mahendra P Lama and former vice chairman of the National Planning Commission Dr Swarnim Wagle are the speakers on the topic ‘Geopolitics and Economic Diplomacy’ (Bhurajniti ra artha kutniti) in the second day’s opening session. Former prime minister KP Sharma Oli is the speaker for the closing session, where he will be speaking on ‘Policy, Order and Politics’ (Niti Thiti ra Rajniti).
Information on all panels, panellists and timings is available at kantipurconclave.com.

KATHMANDU : Following the Election Commission’s conclusion that the House of Representatives cannot function after the nominations for Proportional Representation seats are filed, the lower house has hardly a week of tenure.
As per the schedule for Nove-mber 20 polls, the listing of nominees for proportional representation is done on September 17 and 18. Hence, the lower house cannot function beyond September 17. Its term is expiring even as there are several crucial bills and motions pending endorsement, including the impeachment motion against suspended Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana.
The Impeachment Recommendation Committee formed to probe the allegations is yet to get full clarification from him. Rana has answered only 11 of the 43 questions set by the committee. The next meeting called for Sunday will put additional questions before Rana. The tedious three question-answer sessions so far suggest it will take at least a couple of days to complete the clarification process.
“We are yet to hold discussions with the Nepal Bar Association and the Supreme Court Bar Association, among other stakeholders,” Ram Bahadur Bista, coordinator of the recommendation committee, told the Post. “I don’t see how we will be able to prepare the final probe report and present it to the full house on time.”
As many as 98 lawmakers from the Nepali Congress, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) and the CPN (Unified Socialist) had filed the impeachment motion against Rana, leveling 21 charges against him. Promoting corruption in the judiciary, interfering in the appointment of the justices and judges, bargaining for a share in the government, passing controversial decisions in several cases and failing to perform his constitutional duties are some allegations the ruling parties have levelled against him. The recommendation committee is tasked with investigating them and preparing a final report on whether Rana should be impeached.
However, it is not in a position to complete its job before the term of the lower house expires, raising a question over the fate of the impeachment motion. “There is no legal or constitutional clarity on whether the motion gets transferred to the House that is to be elected by the November 20 elections,” said Bista. “Rana can continue on his job if the motion, like other bills, becomes null and void after the term of the lower house ends but he will remain suspended if it gets transferred to the to-be-elected House.”
Article 111 (10) of the Constitution of Nepal says the bill that is registered in the House of Representatives will become ineffective if the House is dissolved or its term comes to an end while the bill is still being considered in Parliament. However, the constitution is silent on the status of the impeachment motion.
“While there are confusions, the ruling parties believe the motion will get continuation in the post-November 20 House,” Min Bishwakarma, a whip of the Nepali Congress, who also is a member of the recommendation committee, told the Post. “Let’s see how the situation unfolds.”
Legal experts are divided on the matter.
Advocate Raju Prasad Chapagain, former chairperson of the Constitutional Lawyers’ Forum, said the nature of the impeachment motion is different to that of other bills so it gets continuation in the next House of Representatives. “The impeachment motion is a list of accusations against Rana which the parliament needs to decide on,” he told the Post. “Rana cannot return to his office without coming clean.”
Acting Chief Justice Deepak Kumar Karki has been leading the judiciary after the suspension of Rana following the lodging of the impeachment motion against him. Karki retires on October 1 while Rana retires due to age-limit only on December 12. Ganesh Datta Bhatta, a former associate professor at the Nepal Law Campus, argues that the impeachment motion will be rendered null and void with the expiry of the tenure of the incumbent House.
“How can the impeachment motion remain alive when the House and lawmakers who initiated the impeachment motion no longer exist?” he told the Post. “If the House cannot prove the allegations against Rana, there are no hurdles for him to return to work.”
The officials at the Parliament Secretariat also say that the impeachment motion will not pass on to the House to be elected by the upcoming polls. “As far as I understand, the impeachment motion will become ineffective as soon as the term of the incumbent parliament ends,” said a joint secretary at the secretariat. He, however, sees complications for Rana in rejoining his job.
“Rana was suspended following a letter from Parliament. There must be some decisions to make that letter ineffective,” said the official. “I think Rana can move the Supreme Court seeking its intervention to allow him to work. All depends on the court’s verdict.”

LONDON : King Charles III greeted crowds singing “God Save the King” outside Buckingham Palace on Friday before making his inaugural address to Britain and the Commonwealth after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.
The 73-year-old—the oldest monarch to ascend to the throne—shook hands and accepted flowers from well-wishers after returning to London from Scotland at the start of his reign.
One kissed his hand, another kissed his cheek, and some sang the national anthem, adapted to a new monarch following the passing of the 96-year-old Elizabeth after seven decades on the throne.
Church bells and ceremonial gun salutes rang out across the UK and Britain’s overseas territories in honour of the late queen, who died “peacefully” at her beloved Balmoral retreat in Scotland after a year of ill-health.
Charles will make his first televised address as king at 6:00 pm (1700 GMT) before being formally proclaimed king to the public at 11:00 am Saturday morning.
Elizabeth II had reigned for a record-breaking 70 years, a source of stability in a period of extraordinary change whose death sparked heartfelt tributes from across the world.
“During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which the queen was so widely held,” Charles said in a statement on Thursday.
Buckingham Palace said the king and other members of the royal family would observe an extended mourning period from now until seven days after her funeral.
The date of the funeral, which will be attended by heads of state and government, has yet to be officially announced but is expected to be on Monday, September 19.
While Britons adjusted to the shock of the departure of their only head of state since the aftermath of World War II, tributes poured in for one of the planet’s most recognisable people.
News of her death dominated global headlines, while the popular UK tabloid the Daily Mail declared: “Our hearts are broken.”
Flowers were also left at British embassies around the world, including in Moscow—currently at odds with London over the war in Ukraine.
Buckingham Palace in London became the epicentre for thousands of mourners, with flowers piling up in a sign of the reverence felt for the queen.
Joan Russell, a 55-year-old project manager from northeast London, had tears running down her cheeks as she looked at the tributes lining the gates.
“I think I came to say a prayer. She has been our monarch all my life and she has led by example, she has learnt, she has listened, wherever you go, she is our stamp,” she told AFP.
“Charles has had such a great example to follow.”
The new king held his first audience on Friday with Prime Minister Liz Truss, who was only appointed on Tuesday in one of the queen’s last official acts before her death.
Truss offered the nation’s support to Charles as she said he now bore an “awesome responsibility” at the start of two days of special tributes to his mother in parliament.
“Even as he mourns, his sense of duty and service is clear,” she said.
Truss lavished praise on the queen as “one of the greatest leaders the world has ever known”.
“Her legacy will endure through the countless people she met, the global history she witnessed and the lives that she touched,” the premier said.
Charles was also due to meet officials in charge of the arrangements for his mother’s elaborate state funeral, which will take place before she is laid to rest in the King George VI memorial chapel at Windsor Castle.
Church bells tolled at Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral and at Windsor, among other places, and Union flags flew at half-mast across the UK.
Gun salutes—one round for every year of the queen’s life—were fired on Friday across Hyde Park in central London and from the Tower of London on the River Thames.
While the government has said there is no obligation on organisations to suspend business during the period of national mourning, many are doing so as a mark of respect.
The Premier League postponed all matches this weekend, the TUC umbrella body of trade unions postponed its congress due to begin on Sunday, while railway and postal workers halted upcoming strikes over pay, as Britain is gripped by soaring inflation and spiralling energy prices.
The queen’s death and its ceremonial aftermath comes as the government strives to rush through emergency legislation to tackle the kind of war-fuelled economic privation that marked the start of Elizabeth’s reign in 1952.
Elizabeth’s public appearances had become rarer in the months since she spent an unscheduled night in hospital in October 2021 for undisclosed health tests.
She was seen smiling in her last official photographs from Tuesday when she appointed Truss as the 15th prime minister of her reign, which started with Winston Churchill in Downing Street.
But the queen, visibly thinner and stooped, leant on a walking stick. Her hand was also bruised dark blue-purple, sparking concern.
Jane Barlow, the photographer who took the last public pictures of the queen on Tuesday, said she was “frail” but in “good spirits”.
The queen’s closest family members had rushed to be at her bedside at Balmoral, a private residence set among thousands of acres (hectares) of rolling grouse moors and forests in the Scottish Highlands.
Her body is expected to remain there initially before being taken Sunday to the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh.
From the Scottish capital, her coffin is due to be flown to London on Tuesday for a lying in state accessible to the public.
Officials expect more than one million people to file past the catafalque in Westminster Hall, the oldest part of the parliamentary complex, before the televised funeral service at Westminster Abbey opposite.
Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne aged just 25 in the exhausted aftermath of World War II, joining a world stage dominated by political figures from Churchill to Mao Zedong and Joseph Stalin.
In the ensuing decades, the last vestiges of Britain’s vast empire crumbled.
At home, Brexit shook the foundations of her kingdom, and her family endured a series of scandals.
But throughout, she remained consistently popular and was head of state not just of the United Kingdom but 14 former British colonies, including Australia and Canada.
New Zealand proclaimed Charles its new king. But Australia’s new government looks set to revive a push to ditch the monarchy, casting doubt on his inheritance even as it mourns the queen. The final public farewell at Westminster Abbey in London will be a public holiday in the form of a Day of National Mourning.
Charles’s coronation, an elaborate ritual steeped in tradition and history, will take place in the same historic surroundings, as it has for centuries, on a date to be fixed.

King Charles III and Camilla arrive at Buckingham Palace in London on Friday.AP/RSS

MYAGDI : Game hunting enthusiasts of Nepal are now allowed to hunt animals in Dhorpatan, the only hunting reserve in the country, from this fiscal year.
Earlier only foreigners were allowed to hunt in the reserve.
The Department of the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation has decided to allow Nepali hunters to hunt wild boars in Dhorpatan in the first hunting season (mid-September to mid-December) of the current fiscal year. But Nepali hunting enthusiasts are prohibited from hunting Himalayan blue sheep (Naur) and Himalayan tahrs (Jharal)—the reserve’s major
attractions.
“The department decided to allow Nepalis to hunt here with the objective of promoting domestic tourism, increasing revenue and protecting crops in the fields. Those interested to hunt wild boars in the reserve must submit tender bids. We will soon invite tender bids,” said Birendra Prasad Kandel, chief conservation officer at the Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve.
According to him, the recent development came following complaints from the locals about the increasing wild boar population and the destruction they cause to
farmers’ crops.
“Earlier foreigners were allowed to hunt Naur and Jharal after taking permits. Besides Naur and Jharal, one foreign hunter could hunt one wild boar, one barking deer and 10 birds. Some of them used to hunt wild boars but most did not,” said Kandel, informing that the number of wild boars is increasing in the Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve and its buffer zone.
The Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve sprawls over 1,325 square kilometres along the Dhaulagiri mountain range in Rukum (East), Myagdi and Baglung districts. It was established in 1983 and was gazetted four years later. The reserve is divided into six blocks for hunting purposes. Approximately one-third of the reserve area is flat grassland, locally known as Patan, one-third comprises forests and hills whereas the remaining one-third is a buffer zone.
According to Kandel, separate hunting blocks have been designated for the hunting of wild boars on the basis of the density of its population. Hunting of the wild boars is designated at Dhorpatan valley in Baglung and Gurja area of Myagdi which have a high density of wild boars.
The Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation invites hunting enthusiasts to hunt wildlife in Dhorpatan in the second or third week of September every year. After receiving permits, the hunters are allowed to hunt Himalayan blue sheep, Himalayan tahrs and wild boars in Seng, Ghustung, Dogadi, Barse, Phagune, Sundaha and Surtibang areas. Hunters from various countries visit Dhorpatan every year.
Hunting is allowed in two seasons—the first season runs from mid-September to mid-December and the second season runs from mid-February to mid-April. Hunters can enter the hunting block along with a liaison officer and the reserve’s permit. According to the existing legal provisions, the hunters cannot hunt the animals at night or kill baby and female of the species.
The Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve is home to 32 species of mammals and 130 bird species. According to the reserve office, there are around 852 Himalayan blue sheep and 200 Himalayan tahrs in the reserve forests. Snow leopards, Himalayan black bears, barking deer, spotted deer, red panda, wild boars, and Himalayan gorals among other wildlife are also found in the reserve but their hunting is prohibited. Himalayan blue sheep are the major attraction for hunters visiting the reserve.

KATHMANDU : A seat-sharing deal among the ruling coalition partners for the upcoming federal and provincial elections looks doubtful with each of them unwilling to compromise on their demands.
While they stick to their demands, they have also started holding each other responsible for the failure to strike a deal.
CPN (Unified Socialist) chair Madhav Kumar Nepal said at a function last week that the Nepali Congress does not deserve more than 70 lower house seats, but has been insisting on more seats. “Isn’t 70 seats enough for them now?” Nepal said at the function.
After over a month’s struggle, the coalition task force formed to finalize a seat-sharing deal for the November 20 elections has submitted a report to the top leaders.
The ruling coalition has Nepali Congress, Maoist Center, Unified Socialist, Janata Samajbadi Party, and Rastriya Janamorcha as partners.
Now, it is the responsibility of top leaders of the alliance to take the seat-sharing talks to a logical conclusion.
Insiders say the parties have reached agreement on 90 constituencies and the decision on the remaining 75 constituencies will be made by the top leaders of the coalition.
Some leaders said they have been unable to strike a deal due to rigid stances of certain parties.
Nepali Congress whip Min Bishwakarma claimed that his party has shown the utmost flexibility and settled for less than 90 seats. “If we cede more seats to other members, this could lead to disintegration of the coalition,” he said.
“Congress will not agree on 70 seats like other parties want. This will put our party’s image and organisation at stake. We have shown considerable flexibility, so it is other parties’ turn to become flexible now,” he told the Post.
Just because the Congress wants to continue the alliance formed to protect the democratic system, other parties should not take it as Congress’ weakness and pressure for an uneasy compromise, said Bishwakarma.
Nepali Congress, which had earlier demanded 100 seats, has agreed to settle for 85-90 seats, while the Maoist Centre has agreed on 45-50 seats. The remaining seats are to be divided among the Janata Samajbadi Party and the Unified Socialist which have been claiming 32 and 40 seats respectively.
Himlal Puri, Rastriya Janamorcha leader in the task force, said the rigid stances of big political parties are making the seat sharing arrangement a tough row to hoe.
“They all tell each other to be flexible enough but do not budge on their stances. All four parties have been demanding more than they deserve except the Rastriya Janamorcha,” Puri told the Post.
Speaking at a function in Birgunj on Thursday, Janata Samajbadi Party chair Upendra Yadav said if the seats are not divided satisfactorily then there is no point of forming the coalition.
Apart from the ruling coalition partners, Deuba and Pushpa Kamal Dahal are also under pressure to bring the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party, Bamdev Gautam, and Baburam Bhattarai led Nepal Samajbadi Party on board the alliance.
Bhattarai on July 28 registered the Nepal Socialist Party after parting ways with the Janata Samajbadi Party. Likewise, Gautam on July 29 announced the formation of the Nepal Communist Party Ekata Rastriya Abhiyan.
Ram Sahaya Prasad Yadav, a Janata Samajbadi Party leader who is also a member of the task force, said the Nepali Congress and Maoist Centre are not showing needed flexibility.
“We are flexible on our part. Being larger political forces, they have more responsibility to incorporate everyone in a just manner to conclude the seat-sharing arrangements,” said Yadav.

KATHMANDU : Several political parties have, so far, projected themselves as alternative forces. But none of them has succeeded to effectively practise alternative politics in Nepal.
Why do the political parties that claim to be vocal advocates of alternative politics slacken soon?
The Bibeksheel Sajha Party, which claims to be the flagbearer of alternative politics in Nepal, created a buzz in the 2017 elections. Now it is going through the worst of times.
The party is yet to take firm ground, but Rabindra Mishra has stepped down as chairman and party coordinator Milan Pandey has already been expelled. And the party, since its establishment, has been mired in disputes and factionalism.
During the formation of the Janata Samajbadi Party in April, 2020 following a merger between the Rastriya Janata Party and the Sanghiya Samajbadi Party, the party’s leaders boasted it would be an alternative force, as the country’s ‘traditional forces’ had failed to address the country’s problems.
Now, the party has already split—some key leaders quit the party and launched the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party in August 2021.
Baburam Bhattarai is another vocal advocate of alternative force. Bhattarai, who was in the Janata Samajbadi Party, has already parted ways to form the Nepal Samajbadi Party in August this year.
Bhattarai, a Maoist ideologue and leader of the Maoist insurgency, while forming the Naya Shakti Party in 2016, had projected his party as the alternative political force.
But the party disappeared into thin air in no time. Bhattarai merged the party with Upendra Yadav’s Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum in 2019.
The right-wing Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) is also proclaiming itself as an alternative force of late.
At a function organised on Tuesday, RPP chair Rajendra Lingden said that if the RPP weakens in the upcoming polls then the prospects of alternative politics in Nepal will also weaken. “If our role in the election is not effective, the very idea of alternative politics will weaken,” he said.
Experts say the ‘alternative forces’ have either already abandoned their alternative agendas or are now entangled in power politics or just claim themselves as alternative forces without any self-commitment. The ‘alternative forces’ have failed miserably, according to them.
Uddhab Pyakurel, an assistant professor of Political Sociology at Kathmandu University, said the ‘alternative forces’ have miserably failed to even come close to what they had claimed in the beginning. “The alternative forces have failed in their claims of translating the slogans of big and old political parties about ensuring proper representation of marginalised communities in state governance and making the state progressive,” he told the Post.
The leaders of the ‘alternative forces’ have turned out to be no different than the conventional political parties, Pyakurel said. “As a result, they have been continuously mired in conflicts and splits.”
Rajendra Maharjan, a political analyst, said ‘alternative forces’ differ from other political forces based on their agendas which incorporate diversity—the minority and marginalised groups. But in the current scenario, it is difficult to distinguish between the so-called alternative forces and other political parties, according to him.
“They have not given any alternatives. In some contexts, they have even moved backward, supporting the monarchical system, while opposing secularism and federalism,” Maharjan told the Post.
Experts also claim that the term ‘alternative forces’ has been widely misinterpreted in many contexts.
Even though it is talking about alternative politics, Rastriya Prajatantra Party is not an alternative force, as they are guided by regressive thinking, argued Pyakurel.
According to him, the alternative forces ideally carry and implement the agenda of national development, incorporating all the social and political structures.
CK Lal, a political commentator who is also a columnist for the Post, said alternative politics emerges either from marginalised groups or from a rebellion in dominant groups.
The alternative to democracy is only the advancement of democracy, Pyakurel further said.
Alternative politics is not about alternative faces, it should be alternative agendas, policies and ideologies, said Lal.
“The alternative forces should continuously raise crucial issues that have been ignored by mainstream parties. But the parties claiming to be alternative forces have failed in this context too,” said Maharjan, the political analyst.
“No one has launched a movement based on agenda and issues to prove themselves as an alternative force.”
The Janata Samajbadi Party, which had claimed to be an alternative force during its launch, is struggling to make itself relevant in its own base—the Madhesh province. It won leadership positions in just 25 local units out of the total 136 in the province in the 2022 local elections.
Bibeksheel Sajha Party has remained vocal about alternative politics since its early days and projects itself as the flag bearer of the political discourse. The party’s leaders, however, agree that alternative forces are now weakened to a degree.
Samikshya Baskota, Bibeksheel Sajha chair, said the alternative forces and the leaders who carry alternative agendas are weak at present as they have remained disunited.
“They are scattered because of their craving for power, or their novel ideas and agenda.”
Also, according to Baskota, people are reluctant to join new forces which are yet to take firm ground and this makes the process of breaking the syndicate of large and traditional political forces harder.
“The alternative forces in Nepal appear unwilling to coalesce to form an alliance, which would make them stronger. This has pushed the alternative forces into a quagmire,” she further said.
Parties that claim themselves to be alternative forces faced disappointing results in the last local elections.
The right-wing Rastriya Prajatantra Party, which is talking about alternative politics, won only four local unit chiefs in the local elections. Bibeksheel Sajha did not win a single local unit chief.
Observers say the ‘alternative forces’ do not have much hope in the upcoming polls too.
“Some of them are so interested in power that they have forgotten their agendas completely. They don’t ignite hope, so their prospects are dim,” he said.
Those who have been claiming themselves as alternative forces are merely covering up their frustrations, said Lal.
“They are not committed. They just say so to say so. That’s why they will fail to gain public trust.”

KATHMANDU : After a gap of almost two years, foreign secretaries of Nepal and India are meeting next week in New Delhi, the Indian capital, to discuss various bilateral issues.
A Cabinet meeting has already approved the visit of Foreign Secretary Bharat Raj Poudyal to New Delhi scheduled for September 13. Poudyal was invited by his Indian counterpart Vinay Mohan Katwra, who until April served as India’s ambassador to Kathmandu.
The meeting is scheduled to take place on September 13 and 14, according to the Foreign Ministry.
During the visit, the foreign secretary will hold a meeting with his Indian counterpart where the two sides will discuss different areas of cooperation between Nepal and India, the ministry said in a statement.
In the wake of heightening bilateral tensions between Nepal and India especially over boundary issues, the outgoing Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla had visited Kathmandu in the last week of November 2020 and discussed a wide range of bilateral issues.
Officials said that Nepal will take up all outstanding issues with the Indian side including settling the row over the Agnipath Scheme, boundary dispute, amendment to Nepal-India Transit Treaty, and energy cooperation, among others.
“This is a confidence-building meeting between Nepal and India. We will review the progress made in the recent visits of Nepali and Indian prime ministers to each other’s countries and the Agnipath Scheme, boundary issues, energy cooperation, amendment to the transit treaty and Indian assistance for November elections, among other things,” a Nepali official privy to the meeting, told the Post.
The foreign secretary-level meeting will forward its recommendations to a mechanism involving the foreign ministers of the two countries. The foreign minister-level meeting remains pending for the past two years.
During the visit next week, foreign secretary Poudyal will seek logistical support from India for the upcoming federal and provincial elections as sought by the Election Commission.
“We had already asked for at least 42 different kinds of vehicles for election purposes with the government. We are hopeful that the government will heed our request,” Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Thapaliya said.
The EC’s request was forwarded to the Indian side through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to officials.
Of late, besides differences over boundary issues after Nepal unveiled the new political map in May 2020 by including the Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura areas, the Indian government’s Agnipath Scheme has also drawn controversy in Nepal and recruitment of Nepali youths in Indian Army’s Gorkha regiments remains halted. The scheme involves short-term recruitment of Nepali youths in the Indian Army and Nepali officials are unhappy about it. Nepali officials say India brought the scheme in violation of the Britain-Nepal-India tripartite agreement of 1947.
Besides the Agnipath scheme, the foreign secretaries will discuss additional air routes for Nepal through India, development of the Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project, cooperation in the field of energy and power among others, said a foreign ministry official.

CHITWAN: A fire broke out at the Manjushri feed factory located in Rapti municipality-3, at around 1:40 am on Friday. According to the Chitwan District Police Office, an electric short circuit had sparked the fire, destroying the machinery, electrical equipment and a whole warehouse. “Firefighters, local residents and the police brought the fire under control at around 3:20 am,” said District Police spokesperson DSP Narahari Adhikari. The owner claims the fire caused a loss amounting to Rs15 million.

BAGLUNG: A group of youths locked the gate of City Water Supply and Sanitation Consumer Office in Baglung Municipality on Friday. According to Nikesh Adhikari, mayor of the municipality, Baglung youth association took the action alleging that the office had not been supplying clean drinking water for several years. They are adamant that they would not open the locks until clean water is distributed. The office faces difficulties providing clean water during the rainy season. However, the utility has promised to fix the problem soon.

BAITADI: Dilashaini Rural Municipality-1 of Baitadi district has been declared a liquor-prohibited zone. According to Krishna Kumar Dhami, the ward president, the ward committee took the decision to ban the sale and consumption of alcohol in the area. A notice has been issued to warn that someone found to be selling alcohol will be fined Rs15,000 for the first offense and the amount would be doubled for repeating the act. “The step has been taken to reform society. Alcohol creats disorder in the society and there have been increasing incidents of murder and violence of late,” said Dhami.

KYIV : Russian state television broadcast an interview on Friday acknowledging that Kyiv had achieved a “substantial victory”, after Ukrainian forces burst through the frontline in a lightning advance.
The Ukrainian breakthrough near Kharkiv was the fastest advance reported by either side for months, and one of the biggest shifts in the war’s momentum since Russian forces abandoned a disastrous assault on the capital Kyiv in March.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said troops had “liberated dozens of settlements” and reclaimed more than 1,000 square km of territory in Kharkiv region in the east as well as Kherson in the south in the past week.
Western military analysts say the advance puts the Ukrainians within striking distance of the main railway Moscow has relied on to sustain its force in eastern Ukraine, and could leave thousands of Russian troops at risk of being cut off.
After a day of providing little or no response, Russia’s defence ministry released video of its troops being rushed to reinforce the area.
“The very fact of a breach of our defences is already a substantial victory for the Ukrainian armed forces,” Russian state TV showed the head of the Russian-installed occupation administration for Kharkiv province, Vitaly Ganchev, saying in an interview. Russian law bans all reporting of the conflict that diverges from official accounts.
Zelenskiy posted a video of Ukrainian soldiers announcing they had captured the eastern town of Balakliia, along a stretch of front stretching south of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city. The Ukrainian military said it had advanced nearly 50 km through that front after an assault that appeared to take the Russians by surprise.
The Kremlin declined to comment on the advance and referred questions to the Russian military.
Such rapid advances have largely been unheard of since Russia abandoned its assault on Kyiv in March, shifting the war mainly into a relentless grind along entrenched front lines.
Ukraine has not allowed independent journalists into the area to confirm the extent its advances, but Ukrainian news websites have shown pictures of troops cheering from armoured vehicles as they roar past street signs bearing the names of previously Russian-held towns.
“We see success in Kherson now, we see some success in Kharkiv and so that is very, very encouraging,” US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin told a news conference with his Czech counterpart in Prague.
The Institute for the Study of War think tank said the Ukrainians were now within just 15 km of Kupiansk, a junction for the main railway lines that Moscow has relied on to
supply its forces on the battlefields in the east.
Moscow has long used its firepower advantage to make slow advances by bombarding towns and villages. But that tactic depends on tonnes of ammunition a day reaching the front line by train from western Russia.
The Ukrainian general staff said early on Friday retreating Russian forces were trying to evacuate wounded personnel and damaged military equipment near Kharkiv.
“Thanks to skilful and coordinated actions, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, with the support of the local population, advanced almost 50 km in three days.”
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a senior Zelenskiy aide, posted a photo showing a Ukrainian soldier posing with a bound and blindfolded prisoner in civilian clothes. Tymoshenko identified the prisoner as the captured head of the Russian-installed administration of Ivanivka, a village deep in territory previously held by Russia.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed, millions have been driven from their homes and Russian forces have destroyed entire cities since Moscow launched what it calls a “special military operation” in February to “disarm” Ukraine. Russia denies intentionally targeting civilians.
In the latest reported strike on civilians, Ukrainian officials said Russia had fired across the border hitting a hospital in the northeastern Sumy region on Friday morning, destroying the building and wounding people. Reuters could not independently confirm the report.

ISLAMABAD : UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the world owes impoverished Pakistan “massive” help recovering from devastating floods because other nations have contributed more to the climate change thought to have triggered the deluge.
Months of monsoons and flooding have killed 1,391 people and affected 3.3 million in the Islamic nation. A half-million people there have become homeless. Planeloads of aid from the US, the United Arab Emirates and other countries have begun arriving. But there’s more to be done, Guterres said.
Nature, the UN chief said in Islamabad, has attacked Pakistan, which contributes less than 1 percent of global emissions, according to multiple experts. “Nations who are more responsible for climate change...should have faced this challenge,” Guterres said, seated next to Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
“We are heading into a disaster,” Guterres added. “We have waged war on nature and nature is tracking back and striking back in a devastating way. Today in Pakistan, tomorrow in any of your countries.”
The UN chief’s trip comes less than two weeks after Guterres appealed for $160 million in emergency funding to help those affected by the monsoon rains and floods that Pakistan says have caused at least $10 billion in damages. International aid is arriving, including the first planeload of what the US has pledged will be $30 million in assistance.
Earlier, the UN chief took to Twitter, saying, “I appeal for massive support from the international community as Pakistan responds to this climate catastrophe.”
UN chief said Friday other nations contributing to climate change are obligated to reduce emissions and help Pakistan. He assured Sharif that his voice was “entirely at the service of the Pakistani government and the Pakistani people” and that “the entire UN system is at the service of Pakistan.”
He said “Pakistan has not contributed in a meaningful way to climate change, the level of emissions in this country is relatively low. But Pakistan is one of the most dramatically impacted countries by climate change.”
Later, Guterres directed his words to the “international community,” saying that by some estimates, Pakistan needs about $30 billion to recover.

SEOUL : North Korea has officially enshrined the right to use preemptive nuclear strikes to protect itself in a new law that leader Kim Jong Un said makes its nuclear status “irreversible” and bars denuclearisation talks, state media reported on Friday.
The move comes as observers say North Korea appears to be preparing to resume nuclear testing for the first time since 2017, after historic summits with then-US president Donald Trump and other world leaders in 2018 failed to persuade Kim to abandon his weapons development.
The North’s rubber-stamp parliament, the Supreme People’s Assembly, passed the legislation on Thursday as a replacement to a 2013 law that first outlined the country’s nuclear status, according to state news agency KCNA.
“The utmost significance of legislating nuclear weapons policy is to draw an irretrievable line so that there can be no bargaining over our nuclear weapons,” Kim said in a speech to the assembly, adding that he would never surrender the weapons even if the country faced 100 years of sanctions.
Among the scenarios that could trigger a nuclear attack would be the threat of an imminent nuclear strike; if the country’s leadership, people or existence were under threat; or to gain the upper hand during a war, among other reasons.
A deputy at the assembly said the law would serve as a powerful legal guarantee for consolidating North Korea’s position as a nuclear weapons state and ensuring the “transparent, consistent and standard character” of its nuclear policy, KCNA reported.
“Actually spelling out the conditions for use are especially rare, and it may simply be a product of North Korea’s position, how much it values nuclear weapons, and how essential it sees them for its survival,” said Rob York, director for regional affairs at the Hawaii-based Pacific Forum.
The original 2013 law stipulated that North Korea could use nuclear weapons to repel invasion or attack from a hostile nuclear state and make retaliatory strikes.
The new law goes beyond that to allow for preemptive nuclear strikes if an imminent attack by weapons of mass destruction or against the country’s “strategic targets”, including its leadership, is detected.
“In a nutshell, there are some really vague and ambiguous circumstances in which North Korea is now saying it might use its nuclear weapons,” Chad O’Carroll, founder of the North Korea-tracking website NK News, said on Twitter.
“I imagine the purpose is to give US and South Korean military planners pause for thought over a much wider range of actions than before,” he added. Like the earlier law, the new version vows not to threaten non-nuclear states with nuclear weapons unless they join with a nuclear-armed country to attack the North.

NEW DELHI : Indian and Chinese soldiers will disengage at a disputed area along a remote western Himalayan border by September 12, India’s foreign ministry said on Friday, after more than two years of a standoff following a deadly clash.
The disengagement, which comes after several rounds of talks between senior military officials, is part of efforts by New Delhi and Beijing to avoid an escalation in tension between the nuclear-armed Asian giants that went to war over their border in 1962.
The pull-out, also confirmed by China, comes ahead of a meeting in Uzbekistan next week that Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are expected to attend.
Indian and Chinese soldiers began withdrawing from the Gogra-Hot Springs area in Ladakh in the western Himalayas on Thursday, a process that would be complete by early next week, India’s foreign ministry said.
“The two sides have agreed to cease forward deployments in this area in a phased, coordinated and
verified manner, resulting in the return of the troops of both sides to their respective areas,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said in a statement.
All temporary structures in the area erected by both militaries will also be dismantled as part of the agreement, he said.
Although details of the latest agreement have not been made public, the two militaries are likely to create a buffer between their troops and stop patrolling in the area, a defence expert said.
“This is a positive step,” said Rakesh Sharma, a retired Indian lieutenant general who has served in Ladakh. “Face to face scenario has been obviated.”
India and China share an un-demarcated 3,800 km frontier, where their troops previously adhered to long-standing protocols to avoid the use of any firearms along the de facto border known as the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

BERLIN: China’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva on Friday slammed the publication of a long-awaited report on alleged human rights abuses in the country and particularly the north-western region of Xinjiang. “The office closed the door of cooperation by releasing the so-called assessment,” Ambassador Chen Xu told reporters. The report, released on August 31, stipulates that “serious human rights violations have been committed” in China
and detention of Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang may constitute crimes against humanity. The report is expected to be discussed during the human rights council next week. China has denied any abuses.(AGENCIES)

NEW DELHI: India’s Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to a journalist two years after he was arrested on accusations of incitement and terrorism while reporting on the alleged rape of a young woman whose death sparked nationwide protests. Siddique Kappan, a journalist from the southern state of Kerala, and three co-accused were arrested while on the way to report from the site of the alleged rape in Hathras district, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, in October 2020. The top court granted bail to Kappan after observing that no formal charges were filed against him and a document named “Toolkit” recovered by the state police only propagated a call for justice in the rape case.(AGENCIES)

COPENHAGEN: A Dutch coaster sank in the North Sea off western Denmark after colliding with another vessel early Friday. The Danish Navy said that seven crewmembers from the Helge who had jumped into the sea, were rescued by helicopter and there are no reports of injuries. The Danish Navy said it sent several ships and two helicopters to the site and the rescued crew members were flown to a hospital in Esbjerg, western Denmark, for medical examination. (AGENCIES)

KATHMANDU : India’s new export tariff on rice has sparked food inflation fears in Nepal which is bracing for a poor summer harvest.
On Thursday, the southern neighbour slapped a 20 percent export duty on various types of rice except parboiled and basmati rice. The tax came into effect on September 9 as experts considered the possible repercussions in Nepal where paddy output is expected to drop due to multiple factors.
Nepal is a country of rice eaters like much of Asia, and harvest disruption is a national concern. According to agro experts, the 2022-23 harvest is doubtful as Nepal suffered a shortage of chemical fertiliser during the paddy transplantation period in June-July.
A subsequent drought-like situation hit key food producing districts. In August, a heat wave spread over most of the southern Tarai, the country’s food basket, which scorched summer crops, particularly paddy, in the fields.
Experts say that with food-producing countries imposing export bans, poor countries could be in for a hard time because many could face food shortages or prices could go up sharply.
India, the world’s biggest exporter of the grain, has initiated a slew of restriction measures as it tries to augment supplies and calm local prices after below-average monsoon rainfall curtailed paddy planting.
It exports rice to more than 150 countries, and any reduction in its shipments would increase upward pressure on food prices, which are already rising because of drought, heat waves and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
India first tightened wheat exports, followed by an export ban on broken rice. In a new development, it has hiked the export duty on non-basmati rice to discourage buyers from making purchases from India.
New Delhi has also banned exports of 100 percent broken rice, which may impact Nepal’s feed industry. This could make feed costlier and that could be reflected on chicken meat prices.
Long grain rice holds a unique charm in global markets including Nepal, and this has resulted in a growth in rice imports although the country produced surplus grain, agro experts said.
Nepal does not grow fine rice in adequate quantities, and Indian rice is much cheaper compared to the local product because of the low cost of production and India’s heavily subsidised farm sector, according to experts.“The recent decision by the Indian government is not only going to create a shortage of rice but also increase the price of rice by 20 percent,” said Subodh Kumar Gupta, president of the Assocition of Nepalese Rice, Oil and Pulses Industry.
The bad news comes ahead of Dashain, Tihar and Chhath, Nepal’s key festival season, when demand for fine rice goes through the roof.
According to him, there are 2,500 big and small rice mills operating in the country employing 50,000 people. “The decision is going to impact their sustainability too,” Gupta said.
“It will also increase the illegal trade in rice. Inflation will rise further.”
This year, the government failed to supply chemical fertilisers to farmers during the peak paddy transplantation period in June. The government had promised that fertiliser would
be available after India starts sending shipments through a government-to-government deal. But that did not happen.
Predictions by South Asian meteorologists that Nepal would get above-normal rainfall turned out to be false too.
Madhukar Upadhya, a climate change expert, told the Post in a recent interview that the insufficient rainfall may affect the growth of paddy which may hit output.
“Nepal imports rice in large quantities from neighbouring India, and if it decides to restrict rice exports, the situation will be difficult,” said Upadhya.
In the last fiscal year, Nepal imported 550,000 tonnes of paddy, 520,000 tonnes of rice and 50,000 tonnes of broken rice, mainly from India, according to the Department of Customs. In terms of value, Nepal imported rice worth Rs29 billion and paddy shipments amounted to Rs16.99 billion.
India has been imposing trade restrictions on products one by one, which trade experts say violates the free trade agreement.
“We have a preferential trade agreement with India, and that rule doesn’t allow blanket restrictions,” said Purushottam Ojha, former commerce secretary.
“In this context, the Nepal government should request the Indian government to allow the export of rice and cereals without additional duties,” said Ojha.
“The issues need to be resolved through government-to-government level talks, which is important at this time. There is a provision in the bilateral trade agreement that a waiver can be provided on goods at the request of partner countries,” he said.
The additional duties will make rice, Nepal’s staple food, more expensive to consumers who have been braving high inflation for nearly a year.
Experts say that Nepal needs to look for alternative markets to import rice like Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Malaysia and other rice-producing countries.
But reports say that the heat wave has hit most nations in the world, and there will be lower output this year globally, stoking inflation and food insecurity in low-income countries like Nepal.
Inflation in Nepal was recorded at 8.08 percent in July when the fiscal year closed, which is double the figure for last year. But economists are saying that the official inflation rate doesn’t even fully capture how bad the situation is.
Sanjay Kumar Phuyal, proprietor of Asma Enterprises, Balaju, wholesaler of rice, lentils and edible oil, said that the additional duty may increase the price of rice by around Rs4 per kg.
Phuyal said that as the harvest season is around two months away, prices may not rise further.
Some agro experts say the Indian move is positive as it will encourage sales of local products.

BRUSSELS : The European Union on Friday intensified its mission to shield the population from dramatically increasing energy prices that threaten to plunge millions into cold and poverty over the winter as tensions mount with Russia over the war in Ukraine.
The energy ministers of the EU’s 27 nations gathered in an emergency meeting and hoped to overcome differing views on proposals to bring natural gas and electricity prices back to affordability. The measures range from windfall levies on oil and gas companies whose profits have risen along with skyrocketing prices to setting a price cap on Russian gas.
Several ministers underlined that reaching an agreement would not be easy, given each country’s energy mixes, supplies and needs, but they conceded that time is of the essence if the most vulnerable people across Europe are to receive timely assistance. Russia has cut back supplies of natural gas that power factories, generate electricity and heat homes, driving up energy prices to record highs and fueling inflation that is poised to tip Europe into recession later this year.
“The big interference here is from the Russian government. They, through their acts, have used gas as a weapon of war,” Irish Transport, Environment and Climate Minister Eamon Ryan told reporters in Brussels. “We have to intervene because the whole market has been played with.”
Ryan insisted that action must be taken “within weeks, not months.” He said that this coming fall, “when we’re really going to see the high prices having effect, that’s when we need the support, that’s when we need to get some of that money.”
The ministers might agree to provide support to struggling energy companies forced to buy supplies at inflated prices and back measures on ways to impose reductions in electricity use similar to those already agreed on gas.
“There is no time to wait, and we have to be swift and united,” said Jozef Sikela, industry minister of the Czech Republic, which was chairing Friday’s meeting.
Despite the urgency, with several northern nations feeling the first chill in the morning air announcing the onset of autumn, the ministers will only give guidelines to the EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, which will present a proposal for the member states next week.
At that point, the EU nations will reassess again, and the hope is that a decision can be made early next month.
The commission has already called for a price cap on Russian natural gas and is seeking a “solidarity contribution” from European oil and gas companies that have made extraordinary profits from the rise in energy costs.
German Economy and Energy Minister Robert Habeck also said it’s important to find a way to uncouple natural gas prices from the costs of all other forms of energy,
particularly relatively cheap renewables, “without destroying the market mechanisms.”

LA CHAPELLE-SAINT-MESMIN (France) : For the glassmakers at iconic French tableware brand Duralex, the mornings have become a horror show. Daily updates from energy traders drop into their email inboxes, showing the asphyxiating upward climb of prices for the natural gas and electricity that power their energy-devouring business.
Before Europe’s energy crisis—which took off after the Covid-19 pandemic and became a full-blown economic threat with Russia’s war in Ukraine—the price charts were reassuringly stable. They have since become a terrifying succession of peaks and troughs, with Russia choking off cheap natural gas deliveries in a battle of wills with European leaders over their support for Ukraine.
For Duralex, each price spike represents another bite from the bottom line of the 77-year-old company that counts generations of French families, Mongolian yak herders, Afghan diners and African tea drinkers among worldwide users of its glasses, bowls and plates. Actor Daniel Craig drank from one its “Picardie” tumblers, with a scorpion on his wrist, when playing James Bond in “Skyfall.”
With energy costs burning through the firm’s cash reserves and viability, Duralex President José-Luis Llacuna is taking radical but, he hopes, business-saving action: He’s stopping production. The thunderous machines that turn incandescent blobs of molten glass into hundreds of thousands of tableware items each day will fall silent for a few months on Nov. 1.
Duralex will join a growing array of European firms that have reduced and halted production because they’re hemorrhaging money on the energy needed to keep running.
“The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is look at the daily change in electricity and gas prices,” Llacuna said in an interview at the plant outside Orléans in central France.
“Needless to say, there’s an incredible amount of volatility,” he added. “It’s truly a rollercoaster, and the outlook for the future is a complete unknown.”
Facing the risks of power shortages, rationing and blackouts when demand surges this winter and of an expected recession as businesses shut down, Europe is scrambling for energy alternatives, stockpiling gas and urging consumers to save. European Union energy ministers are holding emergency talks Friday on the bloc’s latest proposals for alleviating the crisis. At Duralex, the costs of heating the furnace to above 1,400 degrees Celsius (above 2,500 Fahrenheit) with roaring torrents of flaming gas and of transforming the molten glass into tableware on the production lines manned by sweating workers are set to burn through 40 percent of the company’s revenue if it keeps producing, “which is untenable,” Llacuna said.
The production shutdown will last at least four months. The glass furnace can’t be switched off entirely because that could destroy it. Instead, it will be maintained in a hot slumber, slashing the firm’s energy use by half. The aim is to then fire it back up by the spring.
In the meantime, the 250 employees will work fewer days, with drops in pay just as inflation is gnawing at household budgets.
“It’s very hard to stomach,” said Michel Carvalho, a production line crew chief who has been with the company for 17 years.
“Around the world, everyone is suffering from this war,” he said. “We’re hostages. Absolutely. We’re being used. Because being asked to stop work is hard. And we’re not responsible for what is happening.”

KATHMANDU: The Ambassador of Republic of Azerbaijan Ashraf Shikhaliyev said that Nepal
could also develop through digitalisation and digital governance as Republic of Azerbaijan did. He expressed his experience while delivering his remarks in the 3rd session “Digital Infrastructure and Technology Emigration: Leapfrogging Opportunities” of Nepal Infrastructure Summit 2022 organised by CNI on Friday. He further informed the summit that digitalisation and digital governance have eased the livelihood of the public and changed the overall economy. Azerbaijan has become one of the most attractive destinations for all where a visa for a 30-day stay can be obtained within an hour of online application, a driving licence can also be replaced within 5 minutes and firm registration work is completed within 2 days.
All of the mentioned processes are done very transparently without any corruption, reads the press release issued by the Nepal-India Chamber of Commerce and Industry. (PR)

NEW DELHI: Indian conglomerate Tata Group is in talks with Taiwanese supplier Wistron Corp to establish a joint venture to assemble Apple’s iPhones in India, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. The venture would be the Indian salt-to-software group’s latest push into technology manufacturing as it taps Wistron’s expertise in product development, supply chain and assembly, Bloomberg added, citing people with knowledge of the matter. Cupertino, California-headquartered Apple has bet big on India since it began iPhone assembly in the country in 2017 via Wistron and later with Foxconn, in line with the Indian government’s push for local manufacturing. It wasn’t immediately clear if Apple was aware of the talks, the report said. (REUTERS)

LONDON: British railway and postal workers, at the forefront of sector-wide strikes over a cost-of-living crisis, have halted upcoming walkouts following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. The Communication Workers Union had planned to continue a 48-hour stoppage Friday but it was called off “out of respect for” the queen, CWU general secretary Dave Ward said in a statement following the queen’s passing in Scotland on Thursday. The Trades Union Congress said it had postponed its four-day annual conference due to have begun Sunday. “The UK’s trade union movement sends our condolences to the Royal Family on the death of the Queen, and recognises her many years of dedicated service to the country,” the TUC added in a statement. The RMT rail union
said it was suspending walkouts planned for next week and the TSSA transport union has called off its September strikes. (AFP)

KATHMANDU : Australian cricket great Brett Lee on Friday said that passion for the game among Nepalis and exposure combined with right mentorship would be vital for transformation of the country’s cricket.
Lee, who was named the mentor for the country’s first ever official franchise cricket League Nepal T20, said: “I see passion in Nepal. I have travelled all over the world to watch cricket. I spent a lot of time in India and my home country in Australia. But the passion here is really high
and they are going to get better and better.”
“Once the players get the right coaching mechanisms, ways to watch the game and mentorship there’s no reason why we can’t grow this game over here because there is talent in the country.”
The former Australian fast bowler who has played all three formats of game—Test, One-Day International and Twenty20—for his country said that he was excited regarding the prospect of cricket in future. “I’m just so excited to see the way cricket is going to improve in Nepal, not over the next twelve months, but over the next five years in general. And it’s going to be wonderful to be part of this programme,” he said at a media interaction.
The Nepal T20, to be organised by the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) and managed by Indian company Seven3Sports, featuring six teams is scheduled from September 24 to October 20.
Seven3Sports managing director Jatin Ahluwalia, said that a star player like Lee could be an inspiration for a lot of youth cricketers to do better. “Lee would be a mentor to the whole event. He would analyse the tournament as a whole and also serve as mentor to all teams, players and coaches,” said Ahluwalia adding that he would visit Nepal during the tournament. “He, however, won’t stay for the entire tournament due to his other commitments. But he will be available virtually whenever we need him.”
“I am looking forward to young cricketers who are going to be on the show shortly,” said the 45-year-old Lee who was also named brand ambassador of mobile app Ssixer that would be the official app for the tournament.
Lee arrived in Nepal on Thursday and left for India on Friday, also lauded the warm welcome he received in the country. “It’s my first trip to Nepal, but I loved the hospitality and generosity of all the local people,” said Lee, who had a glittering international career for more than a decade from 1999 to 2012.
When quizzed which format of the cricket would be better for an emerging cricketing nation like Nepal, Lee said, “Whatever format it is, it’s important that kids play cricket. The T20 format is fresh and exciting and it doesn’t have to go through five days. But Test cricket is important. One-Day cricket is also important. But it’s T20 cricket at the moment because that’s what the young boys and girls want to play.”
Talking about lack of fast bowler friendly South Asian pitch, he said: “There are low and slow wickets predominantly. But there’s no reason why we can’t produce nice wickets that will be conducive to fast bowling. I think that the conditions over here are perfect to produce nice wickets. We should offer something for the fast bowlers to encourage young
fast bowlers.” 
The Australian also said that he had seen Nepali players in different competitions (on screen). “Hopefully I will have a chance to come back very shortly.”

KATHMANDU : National cricket captain Sandeep Lamichhane was forced to return to Nepal earlier than his plan from Trinidad & Tobago after the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) declared the leg spinner will not take part in the Twenty20 franchise tournament.
Lamichhane, facing a rape charge of a minor which resulted in an arrest warrant by the Kathmandu District Court, was suspended by the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) on Thursday. Following the suspension by CAN, the CPL said in a statement that the 22-year old ‘will no further take part in the tournament this year’.
Lamichhane, one of the star cricketers of the country, is currently in Trinidad & Tobago to play the CPL from Jamaica Tallawahs. Even after the rape charge was filed against him, Lamichhane was reluctant to return home promptly.
But following the declaration by the CPL, Lamichhane wrote on Twitter that he would return to Nepal within a few days. He also claimed that he was innocent. “I am innocent and keep complete belief in the respectable laws of Nepal. I have decided to take a leave from CPL and go back to my country within a few days. I am ready to face all these baseless allegations. May justice be served to the innocent and right investigation to be done [sic] towards everyone involved. Hope the law acts equal to everyone,” wrote Lamichhane on Friday morning.
Lamichhane in his telephone conversation with CAN acting secretary Prashant Bikram Malla on Wednesday had said that he would return Nepal only after the completion of Jamaica Tallawahs matches of CPL. “I had a discussion with him and he said he was innocent in the rape case. He also urged that CAN help him by hiring reputed lawyers. He further informed that he would return to Nepal after playing the remaining matches of the CPL,” Malla had said on Thursday.
But following Thursday’s developments—arrest warrant issued by the Kathmandu District Court acting on a case filed by Gaushala Police Circle, Nepal’s cricket governing body decided to suspend the national captain. The CPL also followed the footsteps of CAN and ruled him out of the remaining games.
Had Lamichhane not been ruled out by the CPL, he would have stayed with the team at least until September 25, the last group stage match of Jamaica Tallawahs. His stay would even be prolonged by almost a week should Jamaica Tallawahs make it to the playoffs.
Jamaica Tallawahs currently are second in the six-team standings after playing three matches. Lamichhane, however, has not been included in the playing list in those three games.

KATHMANDU: All four men’s Twenty20 cricket matches under the ninth National Games scheduled for Friday failed to fetch results due to downpour. While three matches were abandoned without a ball being bowled, the day’s early kickoff between NRNA Sports Academy and Nepal APF Club was interrupted in the middle of the first innings. The match was called off with NRNA scoring 120-2 in 13.3. NRNA captain Sunam Gautam was unbeaten on 45 and Prithu Baskota on 26 runs after their opener had contributed 32 runs. The other games of the day scheduled between Nepal Police Club and Madhes Province, Sudurpaschim and Bagmati Province, and Army and Karnali Province were all abandoned. Three matches among
the four scheduled for Thursday also faced similar fate. (SB)

KATHMANDU: Nepal came from behind to edge India 3-1 and finish on top of Group ‘B’ to secure a semi-final spot as group winners at the SAFF U-17 Championship in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Friday. India also progressed into knockouts as group runners up. Danny Meitei put India ahead in the 25th minute before Saroj Darlami hit back an equaliser at the stroke of half time. Unesh Budathoki gave Nepal the lead five minutes into the restart, scoring his second goal of the tournament. Subash Bam ensured Nepal’s victory with a third goal in the 68th minute. (SB)

ARIES (March 21-April 19) ****
Pay special attention to any strange dreams you may have had while traversing the astral realms. Ethereal vibes will flow as the day moves forward, and will provide you with creative opportunities to heal today.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) ***
The day give you an edge when it comes to social situations as your popularity becomes elevated. It is a great time to connect with your spirituality and meditation practices. You’ll begin to feel less social as the day comes to a close.

GEMINI (May 21-June 21) ****
Professional anxiety could disturb your sleep. You’ll have an opportunity to shake off these vibes, bringing a refreshing tranquility to the table. Ideas on how to transform and evolve your current situation may also pop today.

CANCER (June 22-July 22) ***
Your spiritual senses will reach a peak in the very early hours this morning. Open yourself up to healing, which provides you with an opportunity to dissolve your pain and fears. Your love life could reach new and intense depths.

LEO (July 23-August 22) ***
Try not to get rattled if you experience some intense dreams. Though this cosmic climate will provide an overall healing effect, the process of this transformation could involve confronting some serious feelings you’ve been harboring.

VIRGO (August 23-September 22) ****
A dreamy and romantic energy will follow you throughout the day. Plan on spending some time with your sweetie or indulging in self-care. Creative inspiration will strike, so be sure to engage with the artist that lives within.

LIBRA (September 23-October 22) ***
Try to get some stretching in, or you could become disconnected from your body. This day may also magnify any physical discomfort you’ve been hiding from, making it a good time to take an honest look at your physical endurance.

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21) ***
You’ll feel elevated, alive, and filled with gratitude this morning. These vibes are perfect for celebrating your friendships and the love that dwells deep within your heart. It also brings artistic inspiration to the forefront of your mind.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21) ***
Don’t feel guilty if you decide to spend your Saturday lounging from the couch. While there will be an emotional element at play, the cosmic climate will ultimately be a healing one. Look at ways to reduce your debt today.

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19) ****
Take a moment to meditate and commune with your higher power once you’ve stirred from your slumber. You’ll have a chance to assert your authority without abandoning grace, making it a great time to have important conversations.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18) ***
Today’s skies make it a great time to meditate on your financial goals and current business standing. Feel free to embrace luxury, but try not to overdo it with your budget or make large purchases without thinking them through first.

PISCES (February 19-March 20) ***
This lunar event will carry an optimistic and visionary energy, giving you the energy and excitement of a young child. These vibes are perfect for prioritizing your goals, so be sure to spend the day doing exactly what you want to do.