May 29 is the 70th anniversary of the first ascent of Mt Everest by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953. So far, 2023 has been a season of new records with more than 1,000 mountaineers attempting 25 peaks. Everest has more than half of those climbers, and there have been 11 fatalities on the peak.&nbsp;
20 years ago this week, Nepali Times marked the 50th anniversary of the event with special coverage. That year, too, saw a record number of climbers dashing to the summit before the weather window closed. Among them were the sons of Hillary and Tenzing.
Excerpts from the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=3164">page 1 report</a> published in <a href="http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/nepalitimes/pdf/Nepali_Times_146.pdf">issue #146 23-29 May 2003</a>:&nbsp;
If Thursday was anything to go by, this will be a wild week on Sagarmatha in the run-up to 29 May, the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of the world’s highest mountain.&nbsp;
After days of fierce winds, nearly 150 climbers from 25 expeditions have been moving up the mountain from the Nepali side, and 30 expeditions from the north. Till presstime Thursday, some 26 Nepalis and 11 international climbers got to the top from the south.&nbsp;
In the coming days, more expeditions will be making summit bids—traffic and weather permitting. There are the South Africans, trying to put the first black woman on the summit, the Italian speed expedition is acclimatising and moving up to the South Col and the 50-strong French expedition is planning to go for the top in two groups this week. Most expeditions have been sharing Sherpas to fix ropes while they wait for the weather window to make the dash to the summit. &nbsp;
From archive material of Nepali Times of the past 20 years, site search: www.nepalitimes.com

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20 Years Ago This Week

Dash to the summit

In a story published in Nepali Times in May 2003, we reported that 30% of the development budget was unspent with just six weeks to go before the end of the fiscal year. Twenty years later, we have managed to spend only 33% of our capital expenditure 10 months into the current fiscal year. Things are not just the same, but getting worse.
Of the Rs380.38 billion allocated for the development budget, the government has managed to spend just Rs125.68 billion. Underspending is a chronic problem and to make up for it, much like every year, there is going to be a spur of hasty construction in the last months of the fiscal year. Poor planning starts right here.
Excerpt of the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=2983">report published 20 years ago this week</a> in issue #145 16-22 May 2003:
With only six weeks to go till the end of the fiscal year, 30 percent of the development budget is unspent. Donors, who foot three-quarters of this money, are getting worried about the government's inability to spend money when the need is so great.
The irony is that the country's macro-economic situation has never looked better. Buoyed by remittances from Nepalis abroad, our foreign currency coffers are enough to pay for 11 months of imports. Liquidity grew by six percent compared to last year. The government's cash savings have gone up from Rs740 million overdraft last year to a surplus of Rs1 billion. Remittances have more than made up for the fall in tourism receipts and export.
Development expenditure is down, but regular expenditure (salaries, civil service, overheads) is up by Rs3 billion from last year. Defence spending is up by Rs1 billion to to more than Rs7 billion this year. As happens at the end of every fiscal year, the development section of the Finance Ministry is a busy place these days. Up to Rs700 million is being released every week as various agencies try to beat the deadline to prevent their allocation from lapsing.&nbsp;
From archive material of Nepali Times of the past 20 years, site search: www.nepalitimes.com

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Cash-rich, Development-poor

We often lament how Nepal has remained the same (or got worse) in 20 years. But we have also seen dramatic progress, including the electrification of households which has increased from 18% in 2003 to 95.5% today.
While the installed capacity of hydropower projects in Nepal is expected to cross 3,000MW this monsoon and projects with 3,200MW more are under construction, much of the power is at the risk of being wasted. India refuses to buy electricity from projects with Chinese involvement, choosing to get its companies to invest as water becomes a strategic commodity.
Excerpts from the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=2909">report</a> published 20 years ago this week in <a href="http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/nepalitimes/pdf/Nepali_Times_144.pdf">issue #144 9-15 May 2003</a>: 
 
As evening falls over this small villager in southern Lalitpur, the inky darkness is broken only by the unsteady flickering of kerosene lamps and tuki. But outside, the sky above Kathmandu glows with bright city lights.
Shanti Kala Shrestha, a primary school teacher, misses the convenience of electricity that she had grown accustomed to in her home village. “It’s little wonder that children in this village do so poorly in their exams,” she says. The villagers used to complain, now they are just resentful. “It is sheer negligence on the part of the government. They are happy to sit in Kathmandu with their bright lights, not one cares for small villages like ours,” says Dilli Prasad Ghimire, Shrestha’s neighbour.&nbsp;
With only 30,000 new connections a year, the Nepal Electricity Authority’s (NEA) rate of distribution is outstripped by growing demand. Half of the 525 MW electricity available in the national grid is consumed in Kathmandu Valley alone, and the NEA spends more than 45 percent of its income on purchasing electricity from independent power producers. 
 
From archive material of Nepali Times of the past 20 years, site search: <a href="http://www.nepalitimes.com/" target="_blank">www.nepalitimes.com</a>

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Power Play

20 years ago this week, the political parties found themselves sidelined by both the palace and the Maoists as the peace talks were finally starting. Cornered, they threatened an uprising that would abolish monarchy altogether, a front page story in Nepali Times reported.
Now in 2023, with the country having transitioned into a federal state with the former rebels as the government, but it is still politics as usual. Even the ‘alternative’ RSP is demanding for its pound of flesh.
Excerpts of the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=2756">report</a> published in <a href="http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/nepalitimes/pdf/Nepali_Times_143.pdf">issue #143 2-8 May 2003</a>:
How the tables have turned. Political parties that till six months ago were talking about bringing the Maoists into the mainstream find themselves on the periphery. And the Maoists are centre stage, in the limelight.
By launching street agitations fronted by their student wings and refusing to be a part of the government-Maoist peace talks, the parties have deliberately distanced themselves. Their sights are on a rerun of the 1990 uprising that turned the absolute monarchy into a constitutional one. This time, they threaten, the change may be from a constitutional monarchy to a republic. 
 
Realising that most Nepalis blame them for the ills of the past 13 years, the parties have appropriated the Maoist agenda by borrowing their slogan and trying to appear more radical than the revolutionaries.
The Narayanhiti Royal Palace and the Chand government seem to be taking these threats seriously. The reduction in fuel prices, release of detained students and the setting up of an inquiry into student beheadings in Hetauda all show they do not want the situation to get out of hand.
From archive material of Nepali Times of the past 20 years, site search: <a href="http://www.nepalitimes.com/" target="_blank">www.nepalitimes.com</a>

Business as usual

At the height of the Maoist insurgency in 2003, former classmates and rivals Baburam Bhattarai and Upendra Devkota were once again on opposite sides. Bhattarai was the ideologue of the Maoists while Devkota was Health Minister under king Gyanendra.
Two decades later, neurosurgeon Devkota is no more while Bhattarai is still active in politics, after serving as finance minister and Nepal’s only prime minister with a PhD. But that does not seem to have helped with his politics.
Excerpts from the report published 20 years ago this week from issue #142 25 April – 1 May 2003:
 
When Thomas Varughese came to Nepal from Kerala to teach in a missionary school at Luitel Bhanjyang in Gorkha, he knew he wanted to raise a generation of well-educated Nepalis who would be dedicated professionals in their fields.
Two of his brightest students-Baburam Bhattarai and Upendra Devkota-went on to stand first and second in the whole country in the 1970 SLC exams and may soon be sitting face to face across the negotiating table to find an end to the Maoist insurgency.
After leaving Gorkha in the early 1970s, Thomas and Mary set up three schools in Kailali. The Maoists’ ideological campaign against the country’s education system badly affected the Gorkha school as well as those in Kailali. 
The Maoists closed down two other missionary schools in Gorkha and Thomas’ Kailali school was bombed and torched last year, although the Maoist leadership denied responsibility. 
Thomas and Mary are hoping to meet Baburam soon. What is the one question they want to ask him? Thomas says: “I will ask him, Baburam, where do you think you went wrong?” And he even has an answer for his own question, “His goals are good, but the end never justifies the means. Violence begets violence, he is a smart boy, he should learn from history.”

From archive material of Nepali Times of the past 20 years, site search: <a href="http://www.nepalitimes.com/" target="_blank">www.nepalitimes.com</a>

BRB, then and now

Just five years after ushering in the federal system, many of Nepal’s political leaders and the civil society have questioned its usefulness and say it has in fact centralised power even more.
But have we really allowed federalism to work? Have the top leaders in the main political parties and in provinces actually devolved power? And is five years not too short a time to judge the suitability of a governing system?
Writing in his column in Nepali Times 20 years ago, Dhawal SJB Rana, now the MP of the anti-federal monarchist RPP, advocated for a federal state for true decentralisation. Excerpts from the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=10282#.ZEH8zi1BxQY">article</a> published in <a href="http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/nepalitimes/pdf/Nepali_Times_141.pdf">issue #141 18-24 April 2003</a>:
The proponents of federalism in Nepal rightfully state that democracy, development, culture, heritage, administration, economy, people’s participation, accountability, responsiveness, justice, inclusiveness are enhanced under a federal form of government. Theoretically, regional units should be more sensitive to the demands and special needs of the local inhabitants and be forced to include castes, religions and socio-economic groupings to participate in the administration of the state, irrespective of its percentage in relation to the total percentage of the nation.
The federal state is by definition more inclusive than a unitary one as the ethnic and tribal minorities, and indigenous people get more space to share political, economic and social power thus addressing deeply-entrenched economic and social inequities. This in turn works as a safety-valve to release ethnic, communal and caste tensions within society. Even after 12 years of multiparty democracy, the people of Nepal are not satisfied with the results, and do not feel that the country is headed towards an inclusive democracy. This is mainly due to continuous upheavals at the centre that has led to disillusionment.&nbsp;
From archive material of Nepali Times of the past 20 years, site search: www.nepalitimes.com

The F word

Twenty years ago this week we were marking the beginning of a new Nepali decade, as we are this week. That was the 2060s. Much has changed since, but as we enter the 2080s, so much is the same. If not worse.&nbsp;
The country has gone through a decade-long war, abolished monarchy and ushered in federalism. And yet, the old leaders have not changed, they are just older. They were and are as short-sighted, power-hungry and feckless as ever before. Former rebels are now the government, but a just and fair Nepal is a mirage that keeps receding.&nbsp;
Excerpts from the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=2676#.ZDi6bi8w1KM">editorial</a> published in <a href="http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/nepalitimes/pdf/Nepali_Times_140.pdf">issue #140 11-17 April 2003</a>: 
 
This is also the last week of the 2050s. Politically, this has been a lost decade. A decade of unkept promises where selfishness, short-sightedness and a complete disregard for the national interest took its toll. Even so, progress was made in education and health. Local self-governance was beginning to work—hinting at how much more we could have achieved in the past ten years if only our national-level political leaders were more accountable.
Alas, disillusionment and apathy with democracy set the stage for the flames of the peoples’ war to spread. It is clear now that the Maoists were not particularly clever or strong, it was just that successive elected governments were so feckless, faction-ridden and preoccupied with power. They are back to their antics this week, trying to be more radical than the Maoists by raising the republican slogan.&nbsp;
In the coming weeks, the novelty of hearing their speeches will wear off, and hopefully the mainstream media will not devote so many column inches to the comrades unless they have something particularly important or jargon-free to say. 
 
From archive material of Nepali Times of the past 20 years, site search: <a href="http://www.nepalitimes.com/" target="_blank">www.nepalitimes.com</a>

A lost decade

Twenty years ago this week Nepali Times exposed toxic effluent being discharged into the Narayani River by a paper mill which was threatening the ecology of Chitwan National Park downstream.
The Chinese-aided Bhrikuti Paper Mill in Gaidakot was set up by Nepal government in 1984 and was later privatised. It eventually shut down in 2011 after workers went on strike.
But many more factories have sprung up along the Narayani since then. Excerpts of the report published on <a href="https://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/nepalitimes/pdf/Nepali_Times_139.pdf">issue #139 4-10 April 2003</a>:
Over the years, Bhrikuti’s discharge has been analysed and tested. One toxicity analysis of samples of Narayani water by independent researchers last year showed just how serious the problem is. One indicator of pollution is Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), and according to Nepali law, COD content in industrial discharge cannot exceed 250 mg/l. A sample of Bhrikuti’s effluent showed a whopping 979.6 mg/l. Even 1 km below the mill, the river had COD of 58.14 mg/l, whereas the international threshold for drinking water is in the 5-10 mg/l range.
Another indicator of pollution is Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) which measures the amount of biologically usable oxygen in the water. A low BOD value implies a lot of micro-organisms present in the water (which is a healthy sign). Bhrikuti’s effluent water had a BOD count of 74 mgO2/l, and 1 km downstream it was 6.4 mg O2/l. Narayani water above the mill was measured at only 3.6 mg O2/l.
Measuring the pH value of discharge is an indicator of alkaline content, and the paper mill’s effluent was 11.5 on the pH scale, whereas this value is not supposed to exceed pH 9 in industrial discharges. Since the pH scale is logarithmic, this means that the alkalinity of Bhrikuti’s effluent was almost 1,000 times more than permissible standards. The researchers also detected high concentrations of ammonium nitrate and nitrite.
All this is poisoning wildlife like gharial, tiger, rhino and other animals, birds and plants in the national park.
From archive material of Nepali Times of the past 20 years, site search: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/">www.nepalitimes.com</a>

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Narayani Pollution

In this space every week, to no one’s delight, we find how Nepali politics and society have not changed. But let us take a break this week to look at how Nepali Times 20 years ago this week featured the Tinjure Milke Jaljale (TMJ) ridge in eastern Nepal that is abloom in rhododendron every March.&nbsp;
The TMJ spans over 585km and up to 5,000m in elevation and is home to 28 species of Nepal’s national flower and saw more than 30,000 visitors on Nepali New Year’s day last year.
Excerpts from the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=3642#.ZCXVAy8w1KM">report</a> published on <a href="http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/nepalitimes/pdf/Nepali_Times_138.pdf">issue #138 28 March-3 April 2003</a>:
It may not rank among the natural world’s most celebrated events like the monarch butterfly passage, phytoplankton blooms, wildebeest migration, or the New England fall colours. But the annual flowering of the rhododendron in Nepal is well worth travelling to see.
And the place to see it is the Tinjure Milke Jaljale (TMJ) ridge in eastern Nepal. In the coming weeks these scenic hills will be awash with red—not of political fervour but of rhododendrons in full bloom. The junction of Taplejung, Sankhuwasabha and Tehrathum is home to Nepal’s prime rhododendron forests and a natural niche for several rhododendron species. This is nature’s display case for our national flower.
If the regular in mid-hill topography is north and east-west ranging hills cut by longitudinal valleys, the TMJ ridge is different. It ranges north in one long stretch and extends from Dhankuta to Basantapur and all the way to the Jaljala and Lumba Sumba Himal and Tibet. The run-off from the eastern flank joins the Tamur river system, from its western flank, the Arun. The ridge is a recently peopled frontier, as the mixed nature of the larger settlements will tell. The more recent arrivals followed the roads into the area and the opportunities that came with it— portering, inn keeping and petty trade.&nbsp;
…East Nepal is exciting even minus the flora—less explored, great ethnic diversity and wildlife, magnificent views of the eastern Himalaya and lots of adventure options for rafting and mountaineering.
From archive material of Nepali Times of the past 20 years, site search: <a href="http://www.nepalitimes.com/">www.nepalitimes.com</a>

Go east

Twenty years ago this week, Nepali Times published a special edition on Kathmandu's pollution.&nbsp;
This editorial that week in 2003 summed up the situation, but it might as well have been written today. Waste management, sewage, over population, air pollution … everything has only got worse.
Excerpts from the editorial published on issue #137 21-27 March 2003: 
 
It is a myth that Kathmandu is a valley. Actually it is a plateau, the terrain beyond the valley rim on all sides dips down to less than 900m. All these natural impediments pale in comparison to the human bungling that has turned one of the most spectacularly-located and culturally-vibrant capital cities in the world into a toilet bowl. The fact that Kathmandu’s old-world charm shines through all the grime, concrete and foul air is a tribute to our ancestors. They left us a legacy of beauty and architectural harmony, but what legacy are we leaving for our grandchildren?&nbsp;
It is said that the test of a civilisation is the way it treats its waste. Well, we don’t treat it. On that count alone, we fail miserably to attain a civilised status. The raw sewage emptying into the Bagmati, the industrial waste that makes this holy river froth at Chobar, and the powerful odour of death and decay over the bridge at Kopundole all remind us of our own callousness.&nbsp;
Then there is the growing garbage crisis, each time we pass the neighbourhood heap, the stench reminds us of our inability to separate and turn its organic constituents into valuable fertiliser, and the failure to stop use of non-biodegradables like plastic bags.&nbsp;
Even more shocking is our breathtaking disregard for air quality. As our investigative report in this issue makes clear, we are choking ourselves to death. The paradox here is that we know it, we know what should be done about it, we have the laws in place to do it, but we still don't do it. 
 
From archive material of Nepali Times of the past 20 years, site search: <a href="http://www.nepalitimes.com/" target="_blank">www.nepalitimes.com</a>