CNP reports deaths of 34 rhinos since mid-July

 

The Chitwan National Park (CNP) so far reports the death of 34 rhinoceroses in the past nine months of the current fiscal that begun on mid-July. Of them, two died due to poaching while remaining due to other reasons. The park recorded the deaths of 33 rhinos last fiscal year.

According to park information officer Ganesh Prasad Tiwari, a significant number of rhinos died in mutual fighting while some others died after falling in to swamps and pits. Some deaths were due to ageing and also from tiger attacks. With an increasing number of rhinos in the park, the deaths from others causes besides poaching are also on the rise, suggesting a prompt need for taking timely preventive measures. Deaths from natural calamities are high during rains. The park is aware of preventing the avoidable deaths of the animals, it is said. The western part of the park serves as a major habitat for rhinos and the deaths from natural causes are more in the area. Park chief conservation officer Haribhadra Acharya said discussions were underway to transfer some rhino populations from the west to the east with adequate management of water and vegetation. The latest rhino census shows that Chitwan is home to 694 rhinos followed by 38 in Bardiya, 17 in Shuklaphanta, and three in Parsa.

WHO pledges to support Nepal in health emergency preparation

 

The World Health Organization (WHO) has pledged to support Nepal in strengthening its health emergency preparedness and priorities of health sector.

Minister for Health and Population Birodh Khatiwada said this at a press meet organised here today to share information about WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’ recent three-day goodwill visit to Nepal and discussions held in course of the visit. The WHO Director General’s visit concluded on Saturday. Nepal received commitments from the WHO for the establishment of a maternity and child health cooperation center focused on oncology, for the development of Vector Borne Disease Training and Research Center as the WHO Southeast Asian Regional Center, for manufacturing of emergency drugs, for the establishment of health industry relating to surgery and for opportunities and capacity enhancement of Nepali health experts. “Director General Tedros has his concern over the National Public Health Laboratory,” the Minister said, adding that the WHO chief had expressed his interest for assisting Nepal in the development of an advance genomic lab, for getting required equipment and for the tests. More, the WHO high-level delegation responded to issues put forth before it by Nepal positively and pledged to take them towards implementation phase with the preparation of a required action plan. Nepal has the WHO support and cooperation in its health sector.

FCAN announces construction holiday

The Federation of Contractors' Associations of Nepal (FCAN) has announced a 'construction holiday' reasoning the lack of environment conducive for construction due to price increment in construction materials.

Excessive price increment in construction materials, some errors in the 11th amendment to the Public Procurement Regulation and provisions in the Insurance Directives, 2078 BS among others have made the matter worse, it said. As a result, approximately 3,500 projects have been halted in protest. "We have announced a construction holiday as construction business has been at risk of collapsing," said the FCAN President Rabi Singh, adding that as a result, over 17,000 contractors have been on the brink of quitting their business. Construction of around 1500 projects has continued however, he said. In protest, sit-ins at the district administration office of all 77 districts and the office of Chief Minister of all seven provinces will be launched from April 26, he said. The FCAN in a statement has urged the government to resolve the problems facing construction business as they will have negative impacts on country's whole economy. They had to resort to the protest after their repeated call to the government to address their problem went unheard, according to the statement. As part of their protest, they launched a sit-in in front of the office of the public procurement monitoring office and the Beema Samiti on past Thursday and Friday. They have demanded price adjustment in construction materials, amendment of inconsistent points in the 11th amendment to the Public Procurement Regulation, 2078 and a scrap of the Insurance Directive, 2078. The Independent Power Producers' Association, Nepal has showed its solidarity with the demand of scraping the Insurance Directive, 2078.

Nepal's land divided in 11 categories

 

The government has classified the land into 11 different categories. Based on the National Land Cover Monitoring System (NLCMS) which was launched Saturday by the Ministry of Forests and Environment, the land has been categorized as forested land, agriculture land, grassland, bush, marshland, snow land, glacier, rock, flood land, shelter land and vegetation-less land.

The Ministry had approved the NLCMS on March 21 and it was launched on the Mother Earth Day on April 22. NLCMS aims to carry out monitoring and preparing report every year by using the maps and photos taken from satellite. The system uses cloud computing and artificial intelligence to generate consistent data on how much of a region is covered by forests, wetlands, agriculture, and other land and water types, on an annual basis. Ministry spokesperson Meghnath Kafle shared that the land cover map from 2000 to 2019 has been prepared according to the national, provincial and geographical areas by using this system. According to the land over map, forest cover was 39.99 per cent in 2000 and it reached 41.69 per cent in 2019. Similarly, the agriculture area decreased from 26.31 per cent in 2000 to 24.21 per cent in 2019. Data and information on the situation and distribution of forest, agriculture, pasture land, water bodies and settlement areas are considered important basic source for the sustainable development. The NLCMS will improve reporting on forest cover change and support Nepali lawmakers in making evidence-based policies to improve related land management practices. The Forest Research and Training Centre (FRTC) developed the NLCMS with support from Survey Department, SERVIR-HKH, a joint initiative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). ---

Two killed in motorcycle accident in Kathmandu

 

Two people have died in a motorcycle accident occurred at Kathmandu Metropolitan City-32 today. They were riding the motorcycle bearing registration number plate Ba 50 Pa 9933 and the accident took place as it rammed on an electrical pole after the driver lost control of the vehicle, the Police Headquarters stated. The mishap occurred this morning.

The deceased are 32-year-old Kamal Ale Magar and 21-year-old Gopal Ale Magar of Sunkoshi Rural Municipality-6, Okhaldhunga and currently living in Bouddha Naya Basti of Kathmandu.

Grade 12 exam to start from 8am

 

The Office of the Controller of Examinations, National Examinations Board, has made some changes in the schedule of Grade 12 board exams taking place from coming May 30 to June 8.

As per a notice issued by the Board today, the exam will be conducted from 8:00 am to 11:00 am. Prior to this, it was scheduled from 12:00 noon to 2:00 pm. As the Board said, the time table was changed bearing in mind requests for the same from different bodies concerned.

Distribution of Melamchi water resumes

 

Distribution of water drawn from the Melamchi river has resumed in the Kathmandu Valley from today.

Minister for Water Supply, Umakant Chaudhary, inaugurated the re-distribution by turning on a valve of the distribution mains at the Kathamandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited (KUKL) Baneshwor branch office today. According to the KUKL, it plans to supply 50 million litres of water pumped from the Sindhupalchowk-based Melamchi River. The water will be supplied from just two KUKL branches at Mahankal Chaur and New Baneshwor today and the distribution coverage will be extended gradually. Melamchi water supplies got halted due to rain-caused damages on the project in last July. On the occasion, Minister Chaudhary said the water supplies resorted as per the commitments he made while assuming the post. As he said, some of the damaged water project structures are yet to be resorted and the supply was made possible through the diversion technology for the time being. The minister informed the Asian Development Bank, the development partner of Nepal, is carrying out a study in detail in regard with damages on the source’s upper coastal area. He said the project structures damaged by the massive flooding on June 1 last year will be repaired in coordination of all the agencies concerned after the study report is submitted. "An early warning system has been installed at the project site in Melamchi to prevent flood damages," he said. Ministry secretary Suresh Acharya shared that water has been brought from the Melamchi river through a temporary process for the time being. Water would be distributed from 10 reservoirs in the Kathmandu Valley. He added that water from the Bagmati river would be distributed if the Melamchi project tunnel had to be closed during the monsoon. Kathmandu Upatyaka Water Supply Management Board executive director Sanjeev Bikram Rana said unlike last year water from the Melamchi would be distributed to Bhaktapur as well this time. As he said, water would be distributed to every house in a gap of one or two days. Chief of the Project Implementation Directorate, Rajendra Sapkota informed that the Directorate has constructed the structures necessary for supplying water from Sundarijal to the houses of the consumers. According to him, the construction of the required structures has been completed. KUKL chief executive officer Milan Shakya said although water was supplied for some time last year, it had to be stopped due to the damages caused by the massive flooding last year. He said the people are now hopeful of getting uninterrupted supply of water. KUKL Baneshwor Branch chief Narayan Karna said the Branch has informed consumers about the distribution of water by publishing the time schedule.