The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
After a dramatic decline in population in the last decade, vultures are increasing in Nepal. A study by the Bird Conservation Nepal (bcn) says vulture nests have doubled in number in a year since the vulture feeding centres were initiated in the region (see
The impact of climate change on Himalayan glaciers is becoming apparent. Studies show that most valley glaciers are retreating. Vertical shifts of up to 100m have been recorded during the last fi fty years with retreat rates of 50m per year. There is evidence that glaciers have been melting faster …
Vegetable farming is an important income generating activity in parts of rural Nepal. However, vegetable farming is pesticide intensive and pesticide exposure is beginning to emerge as a problem. A SANDEE study examines the impacts of pesticide use on vegetable farmers in the mid-hills area of Nepal, some 40km east …
The study documents practices of 28 community-based forest enterprises (CBFEs) in Nepal, representing different enterprise models - FUGs, networks, cooperatives, and companies. FUGs are primarily constrained by their limited scale in terms of membership and land area. The formation of intergroups and networks minimizes this limitation. Networks are often constrained …
Occupational health, well researched in developed countries, remains neglected in developing countries. One issue of particular importance is the use of pesticides on farms, which can have both chronic and acute impacts on human health. This paper focuses on acute health impacts associated with pesticide exposure in rural Nepal. Based …
zinc supplements are widely promoted only in the oral rehydration therapy to treat diarrhoea. Plans to use it as a general supplement, have suffered a setback with a new study proving that they wouldn't help healthy children. Observing children who were given zinc supplements, us scientists found no significant differences …
There's a beautiful wetland in Nepal that's being destroyed-yet it's no ones fault. Seb Buckton reports on an innovative WWT (Wildlife & Wetlands Trust) project aimed at bringing the balance back to a pristine land.
Conventional thinking has it that floods are caused by excessive rainfall. ARCHITA BHATTA finds out that wasn't necessarily the case this year While people in the flood-affected areas are struggling to come to terms with the ravages, the political blame game has begun. In a particularly heated debate in the …
fuel crisis in nepal: As India curtails oil supplies to Nepal, financially bankrupt Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has sought a Nepali Rs one-billion loan from its government to partially clear the mounting dues. In a letter to ministries of supplies and finance, the state-owned company requested for funds to avert …
A Nepalese community radio station has become the only source of news for flood-hit villagers in Bihar's Darbhanga district. Radio Janakpur is a popular station for people in Bihar's Darbhanga and Sitamarhi districts, even in normal times. But with people not getting newspapers, and with the local radio station submerged …
Floods in the mountain kingdom of Nepal? It sounds unlikely, but Nepal has a low-lying region called Terai, and much of it has been submerged in the past week following intense rains during the south Asian monsoon. Even more surprisingly, Nepal is blaming its downstream neighbour, India, for the floods.
declining fertility: Low levels of fertility among Sri Lankan women will lead to a decline in the country's population after 2040, says a study by the Institute of Policy Studies, Sri Lanka. The country's population is 20 million now. It will reach 20.1 million by 2011 and could attain its …
This study investigates the impact of climate change on glaciers and glacial lakes in two major glacial hotspots in the Himalayas: the Dudh Koshi sub-basin in the Khumbu-Everest region in Nepal, and the Pho Chu sub-basin in Bhutan. The focus was on changes in the number and size of glacial …
>> Bolivian President Evo Morales recently announced that credits from the International Monetary Fund would be refused if they were accompanied with stiff conditions. >> 10 per cent of the Yellow River, China's second longest river, is made up of untreated sewage from factory discharges and urban centres, according to …
The Kathmandu reaches of the Bagmati River are widely characterised as severely degraded. This article explores the rhetorical life and death of the concept of a 'Bagmati civilisation': a particular configuration of history, cultural identity and river ecology espoused by a prominent Nepali river restorationist. Following the 2001 imposition of …
Tigers and Asian big cats were at the centre stage of an important debate at the 14th meeting of the Conference of Parties of the CITES at the Hague, The Netherlands. Led by India and other range states like Nepal, China, Bhutan and Russia, the 14th CoP was able to …
One doesn't really expect carrion scavengers to be gastronomes. So, a restaurant for vultures does seem something of an oddball. But the vulture restaurant at Kawasoti, Nawalaparasi district, some 100 km from Kathmandu, provides vultures with something that's become a rarity for them: carcasses cleaned of diclofenac residues. Environmentalists say …
"Shortage of food is not killing vultures, it is diclofenac. It caused more than 95 per cent decline in vulture population during the last 15 years. This terrible situation can arise even if five out off 1,000 carcasses are contaminated with diclofenac,' says ornithologist Hem Sagar Baral. Apart from running …
