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The price of gold has increased by Rs 600 per tola in the domestic market on Thursday.

According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the precious yellow metal is being traded at Rs 150, 300 per tola today. It was traded at Rs 149, 700 per tola on Wednesday.

Similarly, the gold is being traded at Rs 1,800 per tola today.

The exploration of petroleum products underway here has come to a final stage.

As of Wednesday, 3,930 meters of drilling work has been completed, with merely 70 meters left, the Department of Mines and Geology informed.

Drilling for petroleum products and natural gas exploration had begun in the Jaljale area of Bhairabi Rural Municipality-1 in Dailekh district on May 10.

Chief of the Department's petroleum project, Ganesh Nath Tripathi shared that the drilling was underway with the target of completing the work this month.

In the first phase, the Chinese technical team had completed seismic survey, geological survey, magneto telluric survey and geochemical sampling survey on time, while the drilling work would also be completed before the stipulated time.

The project is being implemented with grant assistance amounting to Rs 2.5 billion from the Chinese government.

Under the project, 45 ropanis of land was acquired at Jaljale for drilling. A group of 80 people, including Chinese and Nepali, is carrying out excavation.

The Department, China Geological Survey and Cibu Drilling Engineering Company are implementing the project.

For the first time in its seven-decade history, the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) has seen representation from Mahottari in its central committee. Rajkaran Mahato, the former secretary of FNJ Mahottari, was elected as a central committee member in the elections held on Dec 12.

Mahato, who contested for the position of Central Member (Open Madheshi category), defeated his opponent, Chandradev Kamati, by a margin of 1,328 votes. Mahato secured a total of 3,893 votes from across the country.  

On Tuesday, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Devraj Ghimire, handed over the election certificate to Mahato during a formal ceremony.  

Hari Prasad Mandal, former chairperson of FNJ Mahottari, remarked that Mahato’s election marks the first time in Mahottari’s 72-year journalism history that a journalist from the region has reached the central committee. 

Currently serving as a senior correspondent for Annapurna Post, Mahato has been actively reporting on grassroots issues for the past 15 years.

The price of gold has dropped by Rs 100 per tola in the domestic market on Wednesday.

According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the yellow metal is being traded at Rs 149, 700 per tola today. It was traded at Rs 149, 800 per tola on Tuesday.

Similarly, the price of silver has dropped by Rs 5 and is being traded at Rs 1, 800 per tola today.

As the cold weather sets in, goat farms in the high hill areas of Bhojpur, including Maiyung, Sawne, Kimalung, Khartamchha, and Nagikharka, have been relocated to the valleys.

Farmers raising goats commercially in the hilly areas of Tyamkemaiyum Rural Municipality and Salpasilicho Rural Municipality have begun shifting their farms to lower altitudes, including locations such as Surke, Tarulbari, Koshedhunga, and Chilimdhap.

Every year, farmers move their goat herds to the valleys during winter and return to the mountains in the rainy season to escape extreme temperatures. “With the change in weather, the herds move down the valley to avoid the cold and up the mountains to escape the heat,” said Namsong Rai, a cattle farmer. “It has become colder now, so we also relocated the cattle sheds along with the herds.”

The cattle herds in this region follow a natural migratory cycle, descending to the valleys in November and returning to the mountains in February. At an average altitude of 3,300 meters above sea level, dozens of herds have been commercialized. According to 2080 data, 476 herds of cattle are maintained in 19 groups in the Maiyung area of Bhojpur alone. Tourists visiting the region often come to witness the scenic beauty of herds grazing in the pastures.

However, during winter, the Chauri valleys become inaccessible due to flooding, and most tourists prefer to use the Mundum trekking route in April, September, and October, said Pavihang Rai, the central president of the Yak Chauri Farmers Federation. “Tourists are attracted to this area because the grazing Chauri adds to the natural beauty of the landscape. They often stay in cowsheds and take home chhurpi (hardened cheese made from yak milk) as souvenirs,” he added.

Despite this, yak farming faces challenges as some local herds are migrating due to a lack of grazing land. Dendi Sherpa, a cattle breeder from Helaunchha, Bhojpur Municipality-1, explained that the formation of community forest groups has led to restrictions on grazing areas. “The forests now impose a grazing tax of Rs 11,500 per year, making it difficult to sustain yak farming,” Sherpa said. “We can no longer graze yaks freely, and this limited access is forcing some farmers out of the business.”

In the high-altitude regions, including Maiyung, which have significant potential for yak farming, farmers must pay annual grazing taxes to community forest groups. Local farmer Durgadhan Rai pointed out that taxing natural grazing areas limits livestock keepers to specific zones, increasing the challenges of raising yaks. Adding to the difficulties, the tail of the yak—highly valued for religious purposes—is becoming increasingly rare and commands a steep price in the market.

Presently there is a chance of light snowfall in some places with partial changes in weather in the mountainous region.

It is due to the influence of the westerly low-pressure system and the westerly wind in the country.

According to the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, the weather will be partly cloudy in the hilly regions of the country in the next 24 hours.

The Kathmandu Valley has seen cloudy weather due to the western low-pressure system. It will be gone by this afternoon.

The weather will be clear today as compared to Tuesday. The current temperature is recorded at 7.5 degrees Celsius while the maximum temperature will remain in-between 16 and 18 degrees Celsius.

The Department has urged all concerned to adopt safety measures in view of foggy weather in some places of Terai and Valley on Thursday morning.

President Ram Chandra Paudel said that festivals are instrumental to promote diverse cultural identities and enhance mutual good will, tolerance and solidarity among the communities having different religious faiths.

Extending best wishes to Christian religious people for their happiness, peace and good health on the occasion of the 'Christmas Day', he expressed the confidence that such festivals would further strengthen and consolidate national unity.

Christmas Day is celebrated every year on December 25 as a religious and cultural festival to mark the birth anniversary of Jesus Christ.

On the occasion, various programs are being organized in different parts of the country, including Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Bhaktapur and Pokhara.

President Paudel wished that the festival of Christians would inspire all to deepen the spirit of mutual trust, love and unity.

The government has taken a significant step toward restructuring the aviation sector as the cabinet last week approved two crucial bills aimed at splitting the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) into regulatory and service provider entities.

The cabinet meeting held on Friday green-lit the Bill to Amend and Consolidate Laws Related to Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, 2024, and the Nepal Air Service Authority Bill, 2024. Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Badri Prasad Pandey had presented these bills to the cabinet on Sept 6 after the law ministry approved their drafts. This has paved the way for Minister Pandey to table the bills in parliament. 

The primary objective of these bills is to improve aviation safety by ending CAAN’s dual role as both regulator and service provider.  The restructuring of CAAN is crucial for the aviation sector as Nepali airlines have been unable to fly into European airspace since Dec 2013 when the European Union put Nepal in its air safety list following a Sita Air Twin Otter crash in the Manohara river in September 2012, which claimed the lives of all 19 onboard.

Earlier in October this year, the EU’s ambassador to Nepal Veronqiue Lorenzo said the ban can be removed if the law is passed to split the CAAN into a service provider and regulatory body.

Since the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) earlier this month lifted the flight ban on Pakistan International Airlines three months after Pakistan divided its civil aviation authority into three separate entities—Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority, Bureau of Aircraft Safety Investigation and the Pakistan Airports Authority—tourism ministry officials are hopeful that unbundling of CAAN into regulator and service providing entities would lead to the removal of Nepal from the air safety list.

The government first mooted the plan to split CAAN in 2007. The Third Interim Plan (2007/08-2009/10) said that recommendations from a study panel to split roles of CAAN as the service provider in civil aviation, airport operator and regulator were being considered.

In Oct 2018, a sub-committee of the International Relations Committee of the House of Representatives under former PM Madhav Kumar Nepal directed the government to immediately split the aviation body. The sub-committee said in its report that Nepal’s aviation industry is facing problems at the national and international levels due to the delay in the separation. The panel had directed the government to pass the civil aviation bills immediately.

Following the parliamentary committee’s direction, the then tourism minister Yogesh Bhattarai had tabled the bills in parliament in Feb 2020. 

In Aug 2021, the National Assembly unanimously approved the two bills. The International Relations and Tourism Committee had directed the then Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal to table the bills in the lower house of the federal parliament at the earliest in December last year, to no avail.