WITHOUT F EAR OR FAVOUR Nepal’s largest selling English daily Vol XXIX No. 55 | 10 pages | Rs.5 O O Printed simultaneously in Kathmandu, Biratnagar, Bharatpur and Nepalgunj 38.4 C 3.0 C Wednesday, April 14, 2021 | 01-01-2078 Bhairahawa Jumla The Kathmandu Post wishes all Is Dahal headed for its readers, advertisers and well-wishers a healthy and Happy New Year 2078. shedding the Maoist We would like to take this occasion to urge everyone to stay safe and take all necessary precautions against Covid-19. tag for good? Maoist Centre was dissolved after its merger with UML in Kantipur Media Group May 2018, but it was thrust upon Dahal by court in March. It now appears to have become albatross around his neck. TIKA R PRADHAN & BINOD GHIMIRE KATHMANDU, APRIL 13 Last year, at Kantipur Conclave, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, tongue-in-cheek, talked about how he over the years had “dissolved” the parties that he led. Responding to a question by Kantipur Editor-in-Chief Sudheer Sharma as to at what point of time he realised that he had had enough of Maoism, Dahal briefly went back to history. “When I became the general secre- tary of the party, the first thing I did was I dissolved the [Communist Party of Nepal] Mashal party. I became the first leader to dissolve my own party,” POST ILLUSTRATION he said. “When we prepared for the “Yes, now it’s the turn of the Nepal people’s war, [there was this party Communist Party (NCP),” Dahal called Unity Centre], I dissolved the responded. Unity Centre and formed the As though he had already foreseen, [Communist Party of Nepal] (Maoist). the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) did One can understand this in this get dissolved, on March 7 this year, POST PHOTO: MANOJ POUDEL series... that I dissolved the around 13 months after Dahal made A girl skipping a rope is silhouetted against the setting sun in Kapilvastu district on Tuesday. Maoist [party]... and also the the statement. CPN-UML, I would rather say.” This time, however, courtesy the It had been a little less than a Supreme Court which ordered revival year since the Nepal Communist of the UML and the Maoist Centre. Party (NCP) was born. UML’s KP That said, the Supreme Court decision INSIDE Sharma Oli and Dahal in May was rather the effect–and not the Higher altitudes beckon 2018 had announced merger to cause. The verdict came after a series form the Nepal Communist of events that unfolded in the Nepal Party. Communist Party (NCP) where Dahal Covid-19 spreading among “Now is it the turn of the was engaged in an intense power more children, government more wildlife in Nepal Nepal Communist Party (NCP)?” struggle with Oli. asked Sharma. >> Continued on page 2 adamant about closing schools KATHMANDU: In the last 24-hours, 48 children under 20 years of age have amid warmer climes tested positive for Covid-19. Of the 517 new cases, five are under 9 years old and 43 are between 10 and 19 Experts and independent studies have assessed warming years, according to the Ministry of Health. “We have recommended that temperatures could be a contributory factor for movement schools be closed for at least three weeks, but the government is not pay- of animals and insects towards higher altitudes. ing any heed to our recommenda- tion,” an official at the Ministry of Health told the Post asking not to be named. “Students are dying in schools but the government is listening only to the suggestions of business people and school operators.” So far, 46 per- sons under the age of 20 have died of the coronavirus infection. (Details on Pg5) UN fears Myanmar heading towards ‘full-blown’ conflict YANGON: The UN rights chief warned Tuesday Myanmar could be spiralling towards a “full-blown” Syrian-style conflict, after a two-month crackdown that a local monitoring group says has already claimed more than 700 lives. Myanmar is in chaos and its economy has been paralysed since the military seized power from civil- PHOTO COURTESY: NARAYAN PRASAD KOJU ian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on The mountain-dwelling pika is another animal that researchers have found to be moving February 1. Warning of possible upwards. In Langtang, the animal’s habitat has shifted up by 200m in an interval of 46 years. crimes against humanity, the United Nations High Commissioner for MARISSA TAYLOR And the effects of changing climate Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on KATHMANDU, APRIL 13 will be exaggerated for such a geo- Tuesday urged countries to take graphically vulnerable region, espe- immediate action to push Myanmar’s Indra Dhara Bista remembers his cially considering the country’s lack military to stop its “campaign of childhood winters being biting cold. of economic resources and pover- repression and slaughter of its peo- From December to February, the ty-stricken population. ple.” (Details on Pg6) thatched roof of his home in Jomsom, Mosquitoes are not the only species a village in Gharapjhong Rural that are being sighted in altitudes that Municipality in Mustang district, were previously unheard of. Surging coronavirus caseloads would be blanketed by thick snow. A research study titled ‘House Crow dampen New Year sales Livestock would be kept indoors (Corvus Splendens) Heading Upwards KATHMANDU: Megha Khadka of throughout the season; fed stored, in Nepal: Possible Climate Change Baneshwor was going to celebrate sun-dried hay. When the temperature Impact Influencing its Movement’, Nepali New Year’s Day on Wednesday dipped too low, his family would be conducted from 1999 to 2011 on the with her friends, but she suddenly got compelled to migrate down to lower movement pattern of the bird, cold feet after hearing that a second elevation. reveals that the species is moving by wave of the Covid-19 pandemic was “But in the last decade or so, win- an altitude of 136m annually, from sweeping through the country. We ters have become considerably warm- 2,000m to 4,200m, on an average, in had planned to have fun with family er. And only few people move down Mustang. “There have definitely and close friends by having dinner or these days,” says 50-year-old Bista, a been sightings of species at higher going somewhere. But the situation is resident of Jomsom. “Not just temper- altitudes, in Nepal and abroad. Even not looking good,”the 36-year-old atures, but rain and snowfall patterns our research on the house crow housing company employee told the have also become unpredictable in revealed just that,” says Yadav Post. (Details on Pg7) recent years. Even summer tempera- Ghimirey, a conservation biologist tures are rising.” and one of the authors of the report. Accompanying the changes in “Increase in temperature could be a Wandering and wondering weather are the sightings of an insect contributing factor in influencing in spaces within unseen in the area before—the tiny species to adapt to the warming cli- mosquito. mate, forcing them to go upwards to LALITPUR: Beauty in the ordinary is “As a child, I didn’t know what a survive.” often always overlooked. That is why mosquito was. But now there are mos- In another part of the Himalayan structures of homes and the spaces quitoes here in Mustang in the sum- region in Nepal, the mountain-dwell- amid them in Bhaktapur are what mer,” he says. The insect, which ing pika is another animal that Pooja Duwal, a visual artist, chooses has been known to live only at a maxi- researchers have found to be moving to explore—to find innate beauty in mum elevation of 1,500m, is being upwards. A three-year study (2011-13) the ordinary that we often unsee. In sighted in higher elevations, such as conducted by Narayan Prasad Koju, her plein air oil paintings, one can in Jomsom (2,743m). Last year, they PhD programme coordinator, MSc almost hear people’s stories, of them were reportedly sighted in Lo Natural Resources Management, in moving around, waiting for their fam- Manthang (3,840m). Kyanjin (3,900m) in Langtang ilies to come back home, preparing Erratic weather patterns are being National Park shows the lowest eleva- food, or just the quiet of the homes witnessed across the Himalayan tion of pika habitat has shifted up by waiting for everyone to return. region of the country, affecting its 200m in an interval of 46 years, sug- Duwal’s paintings put at rest our delicate ecology and possibly even gesting they are either getting locally busy minds; they feel like images we influencing species’ habitats and bio- extinct or are migrating upwards. (Details on Pg10) have known and felt. diversity, climate change experts say. >> Continued on page 5 C M Y K WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 2021 | 02 NATIONAL Remote local unit Is Dahal headed for shedding the Maoist tag for good? >> CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Dahal’s last bid to get the Nepal in Gorkha enhancing Communist Party (NCP) revived was rejected by the Supreme Court on April 1. Oli is now leading the UML and Dahal the Maoist Centre. public access to Insiders say talks have been going on for a while about changing the name of Dahal’s current party–the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist information Centre). With Oli bent on driving the Madhav Kumar Nepal group into a corner and Dharche Rural Municipality has employed heralds and used in no mood to relent, a possibility of Dahal and Nepal joining forces has radio services to disseminate information in highlands. emerged. “It is just a matter of time.