On/Off the Record
By P.R. Pradhan
The fire has caught above 400 jungles in this dry season. Fire has not only destroyed timber but also destroyed rare and valuable plants including herbs, wild animals, and birds.
Due to the massive fire in jungles, the air pollution in the Kathmandu Valley and other parts of the country has escalated to the No 1 position in the globe. The burning of the agro-wastes by farmers in India has also contributed to polluting the air.
Every year, we see jungle fire particularly in this season mostly due to the negligence of those cowboys. The other reason for the escalating fire is due to lack of the jungle fire-line. If the federal, provincial, and local governments will pay serious attention or if those cowboys are restricted to carry lighter and matchbox or if the local authorities convince them about the damage caused by the fire or punish the responsible person, the jungle fire can be controlled to a greater extent.
Hundreds of thousands of people are suffering from air pollution created by the jungle fire. Therefore, the federal government’s responsibility is to manage aircraft rescue and firefighting to take into control the fire immediately.
Sadly, in such a horrible situation we cannot see those jungle loving activists worried about deforestation. They are not voicing for protecting the jungles, but when someone will talk about the construction of the international airport in Nijgadh, they see deforestation of valuable timbers disappear of rare animals and birds from the project.
What I have felt that those activists either campaigning for human rights or lauding for women’s rights or voicing against caste discrimination, or voicing for nature and wildlife conservation, most of them are not honest towards their motherland. They are serving foreigners’ vested interests. Accordingly, most of the intellectuals, experts, high ranking bureaucrats and political leaders are dancing to the tune of the foreigners.
Three decades ago, we saw strong opposition in the construction of the Arun hydropower project, later, we saw demonstrations against the construction of the Kaligandaki hydropower project. Finally, the Arun-3 project has gone to the Indians’ pocket. The Upper Karnali hydropower project is occupied by the Indians for years. The Indians are eying on the Budhigandaki project. The Indians are against the construction of the proposed Nijgadh internal airport, a project considered to be a game-changer for Nepal’s tourism industry. Not odd, India wants to keep Nepal a permanently poor country. The Indian doctrine is that it can keep Nepal and other neighbouring countries under its control if there is poverty and people are dependent. Odd to note, the Nepali citizens are being used to serve the Indian interests.
Democracy, freedom, human rights are the showing teeth of the powerful countries. In fact, in the name of democracy and human rights, the mighty countries are dominating weak countries. This is the new form of colonial rule. The vested interest in doing so is to expand the business empire by the mighty countries. The present cold war between the USA and China and the USA and Russia or the UK and the EU are directly related to the trade war aimed at strengthening their economic empire.
After the second world war, we saw the era of the cold war between the USA and the then USSR. After dissolved of the USSR, the USA became a sole superpower nation and ruled the globe. Meanwhile, the visionary Chinese leaders realized Western supremacy and to counter it, they started economic reforms in the early 80s. Astonishingly, within 40 years, China became the second-largest economy in the globe and now she is heading for becoming the largest economy, which has not been digestible for the USA. The same applies to India’s relations with her neighbouring countries.
Climate change or air pollution has become a global issue for debate but none of the countries is strongly committed to working for the improvement of the climate and controlling air pollution. Industrialist nations are contributing a lot to polluting the climate, whereas, Nepal like poor and tiny countries have become the victim of such hegemony of the powerful countries.
Nepal has remained a poor country as we have failed to harness our natural resources. Our leaders, policymakers and decision-making bureaucrats are not honest towards the motherland and the Nepali citizens. For example, we could reduce import of the petro-product by producing electricity based on hydropower and operating industries and vehicles from the electricity, which could contribute to reducing air pollution to a greater extent. Our policymakers talk about exporting hydropower to India at a cheap price, but they don’t talk about supplying electricity at a low price to the local industries. Our policymakers are reluctant to encourage the import of electricity operating vehicles, rather, they are encouraging petrol and diesel consuming vehicles. Our policymakers are encouraging the construction of the Nepal-India cross border petroleum pipeline. Instead of constructing the Nijgadh airport, our policymakers are allotting the budget for expansion of the Tribhuwan International Airport, which has already become congested. Due to the lack of vision, lack of will-power and lack of commitment among us, Nepal has remained a poor nation. We don’t see any effort in making Nepal prosperous!
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