Does development have to come at the cost of the environment?
On recent governmental attempts to allow construction inside protected areas and national parks
Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening from Kathmandu. This is Issue 172 of KALAM Weekly, the only newsletter you need to keep updated with everything happening in Nepal.
A great big thank you to Kate Coffey for renewing your yearly subscription to this newsletter and welcome to all my new readers. I hope you will enjoy this weekly epistle and consider pledging a paid subscription. More details below. Now, without further ado, let’s get to the news.
In this newsletter:
Cracks in the coalition?
Madhes-based parties vie for an alliance
Ashika Tamang arrested
Ceasefire in Gaza, hope for Bipin Joshi
Recommendations
The deep dive: Does development have to come at the cost of the environment?
Cracks in the coalition?
Six months into Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli's tenure, there are already whispers that all is not well within the Nepali Congress-UML coalition. Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba is reportedly under pressure from within the party to ditch the UML and form a new government as the largest party in Parliament. The grumbling comes primarily from the Shekhar Koirala faction within the Congress, which has long been displeased with Deuba. Koirala wants to lead the Congress but doesn’t have the numbers to challenge Deuba. Thus, he gets sidelined within the party, and his supporters do not receive ministerial positions, leading to more resentment. The Koirala faction has demanded that the Congress break with Oli, citing recent controversies involving the prime minister.
The opposition and Congress are miffed at Oli pursuing ordinances via President Ram Chandra Poudel instead of getting bills passed through Parliament. An ordinance is a law promulgated directly by the President upon the recommendation of the Cabinet. The President can refuse to endorse an ordinance and ask that it go through Parliament instead. Even laws passed via ordinance must be ratified by Parliament within 60 days of the next parliamentary session. The Congress is also upset at Oli’s statements last week that there would be no constitutional amendment before the next elections. Congress had campaigned on an amendment platform.
Deuba, however, appears to be in no mood to break with Oli. For Deuba, this is possibly his final chance to become prime minister. Deuba is nearly 80, and his age might not allow him to contest the next election. Even if he does, he might not be able to take up leadership of the country. His current deal with Oli is that he will become prime minister two years after Oli, leading up to the next election. He will have roughly a year and a half in the prime minister’s chair, during which time he can shore up his party’s chances in the polls. So he doesn’t want to rock the boat just yet. Things will change, however, if Oli reneges on his promise, which is not unlikely given that he did the same to Pushpa Kamal Dahal of the Maoists in 2019. Dahal, for his part, has consistently claimed that the coalition will not last. But Dahal is in opposition and will not hesitate to predict the collapse of a government formed by betraying him.
This shows that politics in Nepal remains as unstable as ever. Even with two of the largest parties in Parliament in a coalition government, there is no shortage of talk about an imminent downfall. Governments rarely last their full term, often collapsing within a year or two. While I don’t think that the Deuba-Oli combine will fall apart anytime soon, I would not be too surprised if there is a new government in a year. That’s just how things go in Nepal.
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Madhes-based parties vie for an alliance
The Terai-Madhes is a politically fractious region. Traditionally a bastion for the Nepali Congress party, recent times have seen numerous new political forces vie for space, capitalizing on caste, class, and regional sentiments. To consolidate these disparate forces into a stronger political bloc, several parties have attempted to forge an alliance to oppose the larger Congress, UML, and Maoist parties. This push has become crucial as the two coalition parties — Congress and UML — are rumored to be mulling changes in the proportional representation system to limit the number of smaller parties represented in the federal Parliament. Currently, the Madhes-based parties represented in Parliament include the Janata Samajbadi Party (7 seats), Janamat Party (6 seats), Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal (5 seats), Loktantrik Samajbadi Party Nepal (4 seats), Nagarik Unmukti Party (4 seats), and Aam Janata Party (1 seat). These parties are also miffed at Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s recent statements ruling out constitutional amendments before the next elections. Amendments are a major demand of the Madhes-based parties.
According to The Kathmandu Post, veteran Madhesi politician Hridayesh Tripathi is one of the driving forces behind the pursuit of this alliance. CK Raut, a Cambridge-trained engineer turned popular politician, is also part of the push. But the Madhes is not a singular bloc, and numerous competing interests exist. Mainstream Madhesi political parties like the Janata Samajbadi Party and Loktantrik Samajbadi Party are giving way to smaller and more regional forces like the Nagarik Unmukti Party, which has its base in the Tharu heartland of Kailali and Kanchanpur. Raut’s Janamat Party is also popular among the young and educated, winning six seats in its first-ever election. So, not much progress has been made. The first meeting of the parties, called for Tuesday, January 14, failed as several party representatives did not show up.
Still, it is a good sign that the Madhes-based parties are considering an alliance. Although there might be differences among the parties, the Madhes needs a strong, unified voice to oppose the hegemony of the Congress, UML, and Maoists. These latter three parties are all led by pahadi Khas Arya men who have never been too sympathetic to the Madhesi cause. Citizenship and adequate representation have long been significant issues for Madhesis, but none of the traditional parties have been too serious about addressing them. If the Madhesi parties could come together and contest the next election as a bloc, they could garner enough seats to lobby for important issues and pressure the other parties to listen to them. A united Madhes will be good for all Madhesis.
Ashika Tamang arrested
Social media provocateur Ashika Tamang was taken into custody on Wednesday on charges of “misbehavior.” Tamang had “misbehaved” with female police personnel stationed at Pashupatinath Temple a few days before her arrest, according to the Nepal Police.
If you have no idea who Ashika Tamang is, I envy you. If you understand Nepali, you can watch this video by The Nepali Comment:
If you’d rather not watch the video, allow me to explain. Tamang has made a name for herself by yelling at miscreants and innocents alike on social media. She hops on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram to livestream her confronting people she deems to have done wrong. Her most infamous video has her confronting a man urinating in public. She berates the man while constantly making retching noises. Other videos have her harshly questioning restaurant servers over the price of tea or a bottle of water. These frontline workers, who don’t control the prices of anything, bear the brunt of her “criticism,” which is basically yelling at people at very high volume with a camera thrust in their faces.
Tamang has achieved notoriety in a very short time. Many on social media applaud her for speaking out against perceived “injustices,” like restaurants charging Rs 100 for a bottle of water. But many also deride her on-camera hounding, her tone of voice, and her blatant sensationalization of every little annoyance. Tamang might have been concerned for social welfare at some point but her recent videos are increasingly confrontational and aggressive. It seems she has realized these are the kinds of videos that go viral. So it was only a matter of time before she got arrested. Citizens, no matter how concerned, cannot simply go around haranguing people on camera. Her brand of social media vigilantism was bound to get her into trouble. Sadly, her arrest is likely to embolden her and her supporters further. The arrest will be spun into a saga of persecution, even though that is exactly what she does to others.
I will not link to any of her videos. However, a simple Google search should bring up her most infamous videos if you are interested.
Ceasefire in Gaza, hope for Bipin Joshi
On Friday, Israel and Hamas finalized a ceasefire deal, brokered by Qatar, involving the release of hostages from both sides. With the deal in place, there is finally hope that the conflict, which has taken the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinians, will finally come to a halt, at least for the time being. But even as news of a planned ceasefire broke on Wednesday, Israeli forces continued to bomb Gaza, killing at least a hundred more. Still, despite Israeli excesses, the ceasefire deal is expected to go through, with the release of the first batch of hostages on Sunday. Hamas will release women and the elderly, while Israel will release Palestinian prisoners.
However, according to the BBC, it does not seem as if Bipin Joshi will be among the first group of hostages released by Hamas. Israel is prioritizing elderly and women hostages over the 10 or so non-Israeli hostages who are still held captive by Hamas. There is some small measure of comfort when the BBC writes that “Bipin is believed to still be alive,” although it doesn’t say how it came to that conclusion. Bipin’s family is hoping that he will be released in the next round of hostage exchanges. But the longer the process, the more likely it is that talks will break down and Israel and Hamas will go back to warring. Bipin will again be lost in the dust of bombs and bullets.
As I understand it, Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba has been holding intensive talks with the Israelis and the Qataris to get Bipin released. Her efforts have not borne any fruit yet, but at least she is making an effort. I hope that Hamas will release Bipin soon, safe and sound. As I’ve written countless times before, Bipin is no party to the Israel-Hamas conflict. He is a student caught up in someone else’s war. Free Bipin, free Palestine!
Recommendations
Review: Roger Ebert’s review of the late David Lynch’s film, Mulholland Drive.
Film: Blue Velvet, David Lynch
Film: Mulholland Drive, David Lynch
The deep dive: Does development have to come at the cost of the environment?
Image generated with Leonardo AI
On Wednesday, January 15, the Supreme Court struck down controversial amendments to numerous laws, including the flagship National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act, which allowed the government to open national parks and protected areas for infrastructure development. This decision is a victory for conservationists who’ve long criticized successive governments’ push to open protected areas to construct infrastructure like hydropower plants, railway lines, and hotels and resorts. While the Supreme Court decision is welcome, there is no doubt that political and business interests will once again attempt to chip away at one of Nepal’s biggest success stories in the interest of profit.
Recently, in December, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli remarked that Nepal had too many tigers and that the number of tigers should match the available forest cover in response to comments about increasing human-wildlife conflicts. He further said that Nepal had increased its forest cover to nearly 47 percent of the country, but 30 percent would suffice for a country of Nepal’s size. According to The Kathmandu Post, he harangued the international community, saying, “We face a scarcity of paddy, wheat, and other essential products. Shouldn't we be compensated for this? We allocate land for forests, often enduring hunger ourselves. Do we not deserve recognition for these efforts? Shouldn't we be paid for it?”
These statements exemplify the mindset of Nepal’s top political leadership, for whom the environment and wildlife are burdens international actors and conservationists have saddled us with. It’s not just KP Sharma Oli who holds these beliefs; most politicians — and their cronies in the business community — believe that concerns for the environment are hindering Nepal’s development. We’ve seen this in the broad-based political support for the planned Nijgadh International Airport, which will cause immense environmental damage if it is ever built. And numerous other proposals for hotels, high-end resorts, and cable cars inside national parks and protected areas. As we pointed out in a previous newsletter, protests are ongoing over a planned cable car in eastern Nepal’s Taplejung district. The cable car will disrupt indigenous practices and cause environmental damage; yet, political figures, business interests, and even some locals believe the cable car will bring development and prosperity, even if it is at the cost of traditions and the environment.
Numerous administrations have targeted protected areas, each trying to change laws to allow building in forested areas. These are lucrative lands with great potential for profit, especially hotels and resorts inside national parks where tourists can be charged a premium. In 2012, Nepal kicked out half a dozen resorts operating inside the Chitwan National Park. One of these, the Tiger Tops Tharu Lodge, predated the park's establishment, having been established in 1964, while Chitwan National Park was only formally established in 1973. Numerous attempts to allow these resorts back into the park have failed, but that hasn’t stopped business interests from trying. In April 2024, on the eve of the much-vaunted Investment Summit, the administration of then-prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal introduced an ordinance amending several laws to ease private investment. This ordinance included amendments to the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act, allowing building inside protected areas. This amendment categorized only certain areas inside parks as “highly sensitive,” thus freeing up all other areas for construction of infrastructure projects approved by the Investment Board or deemed “national pride projects” by the government.
This ordinance was approved by President Ram Baran Yadav and passed by Parliament a few months later, in July 2024. Almost immediately, conservation lawyers challenged the amendment at the Supreme Court, eventually leading to Wednesday’s decision declaring them illegal. The Supreme Court is often the last port of call for lawyers and activists who believe that the government has overstepped its bounds and is pursuing policies that will harm the long-term health of the environment and Nepal’s non-human residents. And the Court has sided with environmentalists. Last year, the Court put a halt to a planned cable car project connecting Sikles to Kori Peak, both within the Annapurna Conservation Area, a protected space. After environmentalists and locals opposed the cable car due to the large-scale damage it would do to the environment, the Supreme Court put a halt to the project.
The Supreme Court decision might halt just one ambition of the political-business nexus, but many more are currently underway. According to this article on The Third Pole by Shristi Kafle, “at least 298 hydro projects have received permits to conduct feasibility and environmental assessments in protected areas since 2009.” Eight hydropower plants are being built inside Langtang National Park alone, according to the same article. Transmission lines and roads have also been built through national parks and protected areas, disrupting wildlife habitats.
Proponents of the “development at any cost” narrative will argue that such infringement is necessary, especially when such protected areas comprise nearly half of Nepal’s land area. Power lines have to go through somewhere and hydropower plants have to be built somewhere. There is going to be damage to the environment and that is part and parcel of pursuing the advancement of our own species. Development and conservation thus appear to be at odds, but it doesn’t always have to be the case. Damage can be minimized through Environmental Impact Assessments, currently routinely ignored by most large-scale projects. But we also have to ask: what do we really need? Do we need yet another international airport when Bhairahawa and Pokhara both have little to no flights?
Something else we should be concerned about is who benefits? As Lester Freamon of The Wire often says, follow the money. Hydropower might electrify rural homes, but will locals benefit directly from a cable car or a high-end resort inside a national park? Yes, jobs will be created, but the bulk of the profit will end up in the hands of already wealthy capitalists. Why else would they pursue such projects in the first place? But conservation has its economic rationale, too. Tourists are not going to come to see a hydropower plant. There is no thrill in a jungle walk alongside giant transmission lines and paved roads. The very high-end tourists these resorts hope to attract will not come if all the construction has destroyed the habitats of tigers and rhinos, and these animals have moved elsewhere.
Nepal’s national parks, conservation areas, and protected areas are a global success story. The experiments of the Annapurna Conservation Area and the Kanchenjunga Conservation Area, brainchild of the late great Chandra Gurung, have been exemplars of community-led conservation of the environment and wildlife. All of this cannot be squandered in the name of fast profits and fast development. Nepal’s development partners — donor countries like the US, EU, and UK and multilateral lending agencies like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank — must also reconsider where they stand. So much infrastructure is being financed through loans and grants from these entities, all of whom now prioritize “green, sustainable growth.” How sustainable will any development be when we destroy the environment in the process?
That’s all for this week. I will be back next Friday, in your emails, for the next edition of KALAM Weekly.
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