Nepal cabinet to meet at Mt. Everest base camp

In order to highlight the impact of climate change onHimalayas ahead of the Copenhagen meet, the Nepal cabinet will hold a meeting at a Mount Everest base camp on December 4.

Although the meeting was scheduled to be held this month, it got delayed due to Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal's ill-health and the ongoing political impasse in the Himalayan nation.

"Due to climate change, Himalayan glaciers are melting and it could lead to unnatural drought, flood and sea-level rise affecting millions in the region," said Forest and Soil Conservation Minister Deepak Bohara on Sunday.

The cabinet meeting will take place at Kalapatthar at an altitude of 17,192 feet above sea level. The 20 minute meeting will approve the country's report to be tabled at the Copenhagen meet on climate change.

"Nepal is suffering as a consequence of high-level of carbon emission by developed countries. The cabinet meeting is an attempt to attract global attention to this issue," said Tourism Minister Sharat Singh Bhandari.

For the meeting the entire Nepali cabinet will be flown a day earlier to Lukla at a height of over 13,000 feet where they will stay overnight to get acclimatized to the extreme cold climate ahead of the event.

They would be flown by two MI-17 helicopters to the venue the next morning. An emergency medical team, rescue helicopters and other precautionary measures will be in place to ensure that the event passes smoothly.

The entire cost of nearly Rs 60 lakh (nearly 81,000 US dollars) would be borne by Nepal-based private companies with Nepal government contributing a token amount of Rs 1 only.

The Maldives cabinet had held an underwater meeting in October to highlight the impact of rising sea levels to the island nation. The ministers stressed that the Mt. Everest meeting is not a mere imitation of the earlier event.

Summiteers Summit at Copenhagen

Besides holding the cabinet meeting at a Mt. Everest base camp, the Nepal government would also organize a Summiteers Summit at Copenhagen on December 11 to highlight environmental threat to Himalayas.

The event would include a two-hour march on the streets of Copenhagen by nearly 2000 people including dozens of Mt. Everest summiteers from Nepal and other countries wearing full mountain gear.

"Since we will get only three minutes at the Copenhagen meet to present our case, we decided to hold these two events to attract attention," said Forest and Soil Conservation Minister Deepak Bohara.

Nepal's rhinos flourish under bodyguards

KATHMANDU: After the president, prime minister and other ministers in Nepal, the Himalayan republic has bodyguards-- its rare one-horned rhinos.

In two national parks in southern and farwestern Nepal, where the endangered species is found, a novel effort to protect them from poachers has paid rich dividends, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) said Tuesday at a seminar at London Zoo.

About 18 months ago, conservationists from ZSL joined forces with Nepal's local communities to form a team of rhino bodyguards in the Bardiya and Chitwan National Parks.

The bodyguards, riding on elephant-back, have been trained to recognise individual rhinos and adhere to strict scientific monitoring to protect the species' last remaining strongholds.

"Not a single rhino from the Bardiya population has been poached since the patrols began 18 months ago," ZSL said in a press statement issued in Nepal Tuesday.

In 2005, a rhino census in Nepal had spotted only 372 rhinos, fuelling fears among conservationists that the animal - treasured for its horn and hide - was fast becoming extinct due to rampant poaching.

Bardiya was initially sought as a safe haven for a new population of rhinos translocated from the Chitwan National Park.

However, heavy poaching quickly turned the park into a killing field and the rhino population there plummeted to just 22 individuals.

Rogue members of the Nepal Army stationed to protect the rhino were eventually exposed as being responsible for killing the animals, prompting a new collaborative approach between the army, conservationists and the local people to save the greater one-horned rhino.

Says Richard Kock, ZSL conservationist, "When we first arrived in Nepal, the barbed wire and machine gun mounts were still evident, and the losses of rhino from the last refuges in the Terai were horrific. (But now) our Darwin Initiative project has catalysed increasing commitment from Nepalis, restoring pride in their national parks and recovering their dwindling wildlife."

Invasive species, deforestation and settlement encroachment are some of the other threats facing Nepal's greater one-horned rhinos. ZSL continues to work with the local communities and its other conservation partners in Nepal to address these problems and anti-poaching patrols are now being implemented in Chitwan, where encouraging results are already being seen.

The latest census in 2008 gives cause for optimism with the number of rhinos having gone up to 408. With many of the 130 females being in their prime, the Chitwan national Park authorities feel the rhino population will go up in the coming years.

Nepali grandpa is world's oldest to scale Mt Everest

Kathmandu: A 78-year-old grandfather from Nepal has wrested back from his Japanese rival the record of being the oldest man to conquer Mt Everest, the highest peak in the world, at the age of 76.

Min Bahadur Sherchan, a former soldier in the British Army who quit his job to become a social worker, is now the proud holder of the record, vanquishing professional Japanese climber and skiier Yuichiro Miura.

Though both the senior citizens summited the 8,848m high peak in May 2008, the real battle began after both claimed place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest climber in the world to succeed in the feat.

Sherchan, who reached the summit on May 25, was then a little more than 76 years old. But his joy turned to chagrin when the record was awarded to Miura, who scaled the peak two days later at the age of 75.

"There was some misunderstanding, a lapse in communications," said the organisation that had supported Sherchan's Everest expedition in 2008.

"We were not aware of the technicalities and did not forward the necessary documents to the Guinness authorities," said the Senior Citizens' Mt Everest Expedition 2008.

However, an undeterred Sherchan fought back doggedly, sending the Guinness office the required evidence.

A month ago, the beaming 78-year-old walked into the office of Nepal's tourism ministry to proudly display the new certificate awarded to him by the Guinness, correcting the error.

"The oldest man to climb Mt Everest is Min Bahadur Sherchan (Nepal b. 20 June 1931) who reached the summit on 25 May 2008 at the age of 76 years 340 days," the certificate says.

However, Sherchan will make his record public only on Monday at a triumphant programme in the capital, to be attended by Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala.

"He decided to wait so that the PM and deputy PM would be able to attend the programme," undersecretary at Nepal tourism ministry Surendra Sapkota said.

Sherchan, who hails from the remote Myagdi district and has travelled across Nepal on foot, will however not rest on his laurels.

He is planning to attempt the legendary peak once again.

"The Thakali community, to which Sherchan belongs, believes an elder becomes an incarnation of god when he turns 84," the organisation supporting him told IANS.

"So he is planning to attempt Mt Everest at the age of 84 once again."

Sherchan said he was delighted with the recognition despite the delay.

"I am very happy," he said. "I hope I can pull it off again when I am 84."

3 years on, stability still eludes Nepal

The historic peace pact that ended 10 years of Maoist-led civil war in Nepal turned three on Saturday. But the changes it promised are yet to be witnessed.

Now, with the Maoists announcing month-long agitation from Sunday seeking restoration of ‘civilian supremacy’, the country is on the brink of another crisis in the coming days.

The silver lining in the political impasse is that the Maoists are willing to let parliament function for three days to pass the annual budget tabled in July.

“The agitation will end with a three-day general strike beginning December 20 and will intensify further if the government fails to address our demands,” said Chairman of Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ on Saturday.

It was on November 21, 2006 when Maoists led by ‘Prachanda’ signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement with then Prime Minister G.P. Koirala to end the violent war that had claimed more than 10,000 lives since 1996, and join the political mainstream.

Drafting of a new constitution and general elections were part of the agreement. The pact also ended 240-year-old rule of the Shah dynasty and Nepal transformed from a Hindu nation to one with secular credentials.

After last year’s elections, Maoists formed a coalition government. But in May 2009, the government fell after President Ram Baran Yafav overruled an order to sack the Army chief.

Since then, Prachanda and his cadres have been agitating across Nepal seeking to restore ‘civilian supremacy’ and an apology from the President for his ‘unconstitutional act’.

All this has affected drafting of the new constitution, which has a deadline of May 2010. The schedule for this has been revised seven times .

Rehabilitation of Maoist guerillas staying in barracks after giving up arms is yet to take place and successive governments have failed to constitute the Truth and Reconciliation Commission meant to investigate violation of human rights during the civil war.

The turmoil has led to worries outside the country as well. Last month UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon expressed concern at non-implementation of several key issues of the pact.

Earlier this week, heads of 14 diplomatic missions to Nepal issued a joint statement urging parties to abide by the tenets of the CPA in letter and spirit.

Hindustan Times

Thousands flock to 'world's biggest animal sacrifice'

By Claire Cozens (AFP)

KATHMANDU — Thousands of Hindu devotees have flocked to a village in Nepal ahead of the planned sacrifice of more than 300,000 animals in a ceremony condemned by animal rights activists, including French actress Brigitte Bardot.

Priests are preparing for the slaughter of more than 15,000 buffaloes and 300,000 birds, goats and sheep during the event, which starts Tuesday and is thought to be the biggest ritual sacrifice anywhere in the world.

Every five years, the village of Bariyapur, near Nepal's southern border with India, hosts this religious festival dedicated to Gadhimai, the Hindu goddess of power.

"Thousands of people from Nepal and India have already begun arriving and preparations for the festival are in full swing," Mangal Chaudhary Tharu, the main priest at the Gadhimai temple, told AFP.

He said visitor numbers were expected to be higher this year because it is the first such ceremony since the end of Nepal's conflict in 2006 and he vowed to go ahead with the sacrifice despite the protests.

Tharu, the fourth generation of his family to serve as a priest at the temple, said he expected more than a million people to attend, over half from India, where many states have banned animal slaughter for religious purposes.

Nepal's government has refused to put a stop to what it says is a centuries-old religious tradition, and has pledged 4.5 million rupees (60,000 dollars) in funding.

"People have deep faith in the goddess and they believe that sacrificing animals will bring them good luck and prosperity for their families," said Tharu.

"I don't think the mood will be spoiled by the animal rights campaigners. They have the right to raise their concerns and we have the right to continue with our age-old tradition."

Armed police have been deployed to keep the peace and authorities have banned alcohol during the festival, which begins with the ritual sacrifice of two wild rats, a rooster, a pig, a goat and a lamb.

The meat is distributed to the devotees and to local people, while contractors bid for the animal hides -- making the slaughter a lucrative venture for the local community.

But the ceremony has been strongly opposed by animal rights campaigners, who are demanding an end to what they say is senseless cruelty.

The cause is supported by the well-known Indian animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi and by Bardot, a veteran campaigner who this month wrote to Nepal's president urging him to put a stop to the festival.

"Thousands of terrified buffaloes will have their heads cut off by drunken devotees," she wrote.

"Honorable president, I have dedicated my life to protect animals and the best gift I could receive for this lifelong struggle would be the announcement of the stopping of ritual sacrifice."

Pramada Shah, director of pressure group Animal Nepal, says the campaign has won strong support both in Nepal and abroad, although she accepts it faces an uphill struggle in this deeply conservative, majority-Hindu nation.

"In a country like Nepal it is very difficult to raise these issues," she told AFP.

"The idea of animal rights is very new here and people are so used to sacrifices, even well-educated people are resistant to change. There is a lot of work to be done here, but slowly, progress is being made."

She says attitudes towards ritual slaughter are beginning to change in Nepal, a view shared by cultural expert Chunda Bajracharya.

"Belief in these ancient rituals is deep rooted in our society," said Bajracharya, professor of cultural studies at Kathmandu's Tribhuvan University.

"But there is evidence that animal sacrifices are becoming less popular, especially in urban areas, where people are instead choosing to 'sacrifice' eggs or coconuts.

"Mindsets are gradually changing."

Nepal's Maoists announce fresh protests

KATHMANDU — Nepal's opposition Maoist party on Saturday announced a fresh, month-long round of anti-government protests, accusing the new administration of failing to address its demands.

The former guerrillas, who waged a decade-long war against the state before winning elections in 2008, said they would launch nationwide protests on Sunday, culminating in a three-day general strike in December.

The Maoist-led government fell in May after the president overruled their decision to sack the head of the army, and since then they have held regular protests, preventing parliament from sitting and paralysing the capital.

"We have been compelled to announce a third round of protests because the government has made no effort to meet our demands," said party spokesman Dinanath Sharma.

"But we will keep the door open for further talks with the government."

Sharma also said the Maoists would allow the parliament to reopen for three days to pass this year's budget, which should have been approved by lawmakers three months ago.

Most government workers including police and the army went without pay last month because government departments cannot draw down any more money until the new budget is passed.

The Maoists want the president to apologise for his move to reinstate the army chief, which they say was unconstitutional, and are also calling for a parliamentary debate on the head of state's powers.

Earlier this month, they blockaded the government headquarters in Kathmandu for two days in protest against the president's move.

Nepal's ex-rebels stay on terror list

WHEN the Nepalese went to the polls last year, an event that came two years after the end of a 10-year civil war, the country's former Maoist rebels found themselves with the largest single share of the vote - about 40 per cent.

On the face of it, the group's transition from fierce guerilla force to elected political party seemed, perhaps, to vindicate the pro-democracy doctrine of George W. Bush.

There was, however, one problem: the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) remained classified as a terrorist organisation by the US. It has stayed on the US Terrorist Exclusion List, meaning that members of Nepal's largest political party cannot travel to the US as they are deemed, well, terrorists. Last year, an American diplomat who had met the Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alias Prachanda (or "fierce one"), said the Maoists would remain blacklisted until they showed conclusively they had renounced violence.

The definitive moment of that test could be in the offing.

In May, the Maoists lost control of the Nepal parliament when a bid by Prachanda to sack the head of the army failed. Since then, they have stymied the coalition government that replaced them. As a consequence, the peace process designed to reconcile the sides in the civil war has also ground to a halt.

Last week, tensions were ratcheted up when the Maoists brought thousands of supporters on to the streets of Kathmandu, the capital, blockading the government building in a show of strength following the failure of talks with the ruling parties.

S.D. Muni, a professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies in Singapore, said: "The numbers they were able to mobilise and the fact they were able to keep control and maintain the peace indicate the protest was a success. It also showed the government is incapable of dealing with this kind of challenge."

There are now fears - stoked by fierce rhetoric from senior Maoists - that the former rebels could revisit their violent tactics. Most experts seem to think that is unlikely - for now.

For one thing, as part of the peace deal that followed the end of the war, 19,000 Maoist troops agreed to be confined to 28 UN-monitored cantonments, their weapons locked away. The measure was supposed to be temporary, but the 95,000-strong Royal Army - renamed the Nepalese Army after the country became a republic - has refused to accept even one "indoctrinated Maoist" into its ranks.

Nearly three years on, despite having their political wing emerge as the largest party in the election, the Maoist cadres find themselves in limbo - an extra army whose existence is regarded a paramount threat to stability.

The Australian

Airbus, Nepal Airlines in deal for two aircraft

DUBAI (Reuters) - Airbus (EAD.PA) and Nepal Airlines have signed an agreement for two aircraft, one A330-200 wide-body plane and one A320 single aisle jet, according to a statement on Tuesday.

Nepal Airlines said the aircraft would be deployed on routes to Japan as well as to Europe, the carrier's first direct flights to the continent.

Announcing the deal at the Dubai Air Show, the companies said delivery of the two planes was scheduled for 2011 and valued at about $250 million.

Nepal emerges as 'poacher's paradise'

Forest warden Narendra Man Babu Pradhan is on the frontline of Nepal's battle against poachers and he grimaces as he recalls the recent discovery of an injured rhino whose horn had been cut off.

"We found a male rhino with bullet in his head around a lake in the park. It was a horrific sight," said Pradhan, who was informed by tour guides about the injured animal.

"The poachers had cut the horn off without killing it and it seemed in great pain," said the chief warden of the Chitwan National Park in southwest Nepal, a UNESCO world heritage site that is popular with foreign tourists.

Pradhan, who said the incident was the worst of his 20-year wildlife career, did everything he could to save the rhino but it died within two weeks.

In Nepal, poaching is getting worse, conservationists say, and the country has emerged as a hub for the illegal trade in animal parts given its strategic location between India, the source of material, and the Chinese market.

Porous borders, a lack of coordination between countries in the region and political instability in Nepal mean the men with guns and underworld connections are gaining the upper hand.

"The disappearance of tigers and seizures of skins, bones and rhino horns indicate poaching and trafficking is growing," Shiva Raj Bhatta, spokesman at Nepal's department of national parks and wildlife conservation, told AFP.

"Our wildlife is in a critical stage. We believe Nepal is fast developing as an international hub for wildlife trade and turning into a poacher's paradise."

Chitwan Park has lost 24 rhinos - 17 of them killed by poachers - in the past 18 months.

The figures for Asian big cats are not encouraging either.

A new tiger census carried out earlier this year showed that there were 121 adult tigers in Nepal's parks. In two parks in southwestern Nepal, the numbers fell by 60 percent, from 65 to 26.

World Bank president Robert Zoellick, who sent a video message to a tiger conservation forum at the end of October, said that traders and poachers were better organised than policymakers and conservationists.

"At present the illegal trade in wildlife is estimated at over 10 billion dollars (annually) across Asia - second only to weapons and drug smuggling," he said.

In India, where tiger numbers are dwindling, experts say the border between India and Nepal serves as the principal route for contraband from India to the main market in China.

Poachers bribe poor forest dwellers to guide them through the dense jungles.

Part of the problem in Nepal, explained Bhatta, is that recent political turmoil has handed smugglers the opportunity to expand their operations.

Nepal's decade-long civil war between Maoist rebels and the state ended in 2006 with a UN-brokered peace agreement.

Since then the country has seen tumultuous change, with the ultra-leftists winning landmark polls, abolishing the 240-year-old monarchy and declaring Nepal a secular state before their government fell in May.

"Before the peace accord, the army used to be mobilised both inside and outside the parks, which created a psychological deterrent to the poachers," Bhatta said.

"Now the army is confined just inside the parks and in barracks."

Tiger and leopard parts, rhino horns, otter skins, live birds and turtles are known to pass through Nepal.

Rhino horns are highly valued as an aphrodisiac in China, and are used to make dagger handles in Arab countries.

Tigers attract huge sums of money in Asia, with their body parts used in traditional medicines and aphrodisiacs while their skins are used for furniture and decoration.

Samir Sinha, head of TRAFFIC India, a wildlife trade monitoring network, agreed with Zoellick that smuggling in animal parts had grown into a multi-billion-dollar business.

"All the signals are there to suggest that wildlife trafficking is fast emerging as transnational crime and is growing alarmingly," Sinha told AFP. "It will be difficult to win a battle against the traffickers unless countries collaborate with each other and share information and intelligence regularly."

A single tiger skin fetches a maximum of about 1,000 dollars in the local market, but more than 10,000 dollars internationally.

A single rhino horn can fetch as much as 14,000 dollars on the international black market, experts say.

Prasanna Yonzon of Wildlife Conservation Nepal, a local group monitoring the illegal trade, said Nepal had "ideal conditions" for wildlife trafficking as the borders with India and China are porous and lack proper security.

"Nepal is not the market for consumption and we don't have control over the market," said Yonzon, whose group has helped authorities nab over 100 poachers and traders through undercover operations in the last four years.

"The main market is China and other Asian countries. We are just being used as a conduit route to smuggle wildlife parts to the end users in those countries."

G P Koirala ‘critical’, admitted to hospital

Former Prime Minister and Nepali Congress president G P Koirala is ‘seriously’ ill and now under treatment in Gangalal Heart Institute here.

Doctors said Koirala’s oxygen intake has drastically reduced following infection in the lungs. “Even after giving in 8 litres of oxygen, his oxygen saturation is below 90,” a doctor said, admitting that the condition is ‘critical’. Under the circumstances, he can not be flown to Singapore for further check-up as planned, hospital sources said.

Koirala was rushed to the hospital on Tuesday morning after he developed breathing problem. As a result, he could not give advice to the central committee members of the party who had assembled at his Maharajgunj residence. Koirala had called the meeting a day prior to his planned departure to Singapore.

A series of political set-backs and the recent humiliation that he suffered in the party circle as a result of his nominating his daughter as the Deputy Prime Minister against the party quota in the coalition government, some think, is directly linked with the sudden deterioration in his health.

Maoists block roads to Nepal's capital

Nepal's former rebels have protested against the president and government by blocking highways leading to the capital and cutting off road access to the city.

On Tuesday, supporters of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), the former rebels, gathered on the highways connecting Kathmandu with the rest of the Himalayan nation.

At the Thankot checkpoint, the main entrance to Kathmandu, hundreds of Maoist supporters held banners and their party's red flag, stopping vehicles and chanting slogans.

Binod Singh, traffic police chief in Katmandu, said the highways were shut down by the protests but that there were no reports of violence.

The airport was open and flights were operating in and out of Kathmandu. The Maoists had initially planned to shut down the nation's only international airport but withdrew their plan following pressure from Western diplomats.

The Maoists have been protesting for months against President Ram Baran Yadav, whom they accuse of acting unconstitutionally after he rejected a decision by the prime minister to fire the army chief.

The president's rejection prompted Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the Maoist leader, to resign as prime minister in May and pull his party out of the coalition government. Since then, the communists have sought a reversal of the ruling and a public apology from Yadav, a member of the rival Nepali Congress party.

The Maoists accused the army chief of opposing the integration of thousands of former rebel fighters into the national army - a key component of the peace deal under which the Maoists laid down their arms three years ago. The communist fighters are still confined to UN-monitored camps.

Students from Nepal form a growing kinship at community colleges in North Texas | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | News: Education

Students from Nepal form a growing kinship at community colleges in North Texas | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | News: Education

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Nepali Cabinet to meet on Everest

KATMANDU, Nepal — Nepal's Cabinet will hold a meeting on Mount Everest to highlight the threat from global warming, which is causing glaciers to melt in the Himalayas, an official said Monday.

The Cabinet will meet at the Everest base camp later this month, just ahead of an international climate change conference next month in Copenhagen, Denmark, Forest and Soil Conservation Minister Deepak Bohara said.

Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and other Cabinet members will fly by plane to the 17,400-foot (5,300-meter) camp, the starting point for mountaineers attempting to climb the world's highest mountain.

Bohara said the meeting is an attempt to highlight the problem of melting glaciers in the Himalayas.

Glaciers are melting at an alarming rate, creating lakes whose walls could burst and flood villages below. Melting ice and snow also make the routes for mountaineers less stable and more difficult to follow.

Last month, members of the Maldives' government held an underwater Cabinet meeting to highlight the threat of global warming to the world's lowest-lying nation. President Mohammed Nasheed and 13 other government officials donned scuba diving suits and took their seats at a table on the ocean floor — 20 feet (six meters) under the surface of a lagoon.

Separately, a renowned Everest climber said he and mountaineering colleagues are planning to travel to Copenhagen next month to highlight the impact of climate change on the mountains.
Appa, a Nepalese Sherpa guide who has scaled the 29,035-foot (8,850-meter) peak 19 times, said climbers from all over the world will join the campaign.