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A passenger jeep met with an accident at Jakhauli in Hariharpur Gadhi Rural Municipality-2 of  Sindhuli on Jan 5. The accident resulted in the death of 20-year-old local resident, Kailash Rai, who succumbed to his injuries while undergoing treatment at Chure Hill Hospital in Hetauda. Two other injured passengers are currently receiving treatment.

In another incident, a scooter rider lost his life in a road accident in Sanothimi in Madhyapur Thimi Municipality-2 of Bhaktapur on December 30. Nischal Prakash Rajbhandari (31) of Sanothimi died while undergoing treatment at Norvic Hospital. The accident occurred when Nischal’s scooter skidded while trying to avoid a stray dog on the road. His wife Puja Shrestha (28), who was riding pillion, is currently under treatment.

Two years ago, Madhu Nepal from Palpa suffered severe injuries at Shankar Nagar of Butwal when his motorcycle collided with a pickup van coming from the opposite direction. Nepal, who had just returned after spending 10 years in Korea, was airlifted to Medicity Hospital in Bhaisepati for treatment. Despite spending over Rs 2.8m on multiple surgeries for his head injury, his life has never been the same. “Nothing is like before,” Nepal said. “The impact of accidents is devastating.”

Rising accident rates have claimed lives of people from all age groups, from young children to the elderly. The trauma and pain inflicted on families of accident victims are devastating. Those who survive with serious injuries often face a lifetime of hardship. Many are forced to live with disabilities caused by these accidents.

According to Nepal Police, 1,030 people have lost their lives in road accidents across the country in the first four months of 2024/25. A total of 13,442 road accidents were recorded during the period, resulting in 2,620 serious injuries and approximately 13,000 minor injuries. On average, 63 vehicle accidents occur daily, with 88 people getting injured and 7-10 losing their lives.

Nepal recorded 35,404 road accidents in 2023/24, resulting in 2,369 deaths and 6,160 serious injuries. Similarly, in 2022/23, 29,379 road accidents resulted in 2,883 deaths and 7,282 serious injuries. A total of 6,282 people died in road accidents over the past 28 months, averaging 225 deaths per month.

According to Kathmandu Valley Traffic Office, an average of four deaths occur in the valley every day. In the first five months of 2024/25, the valley witnessed 2,045 vehicle accidents, resulting in 75 deaths, 100 serious injuries and 2,758 minor injuries. Among the deceased, the majority were above 36 years old (41 people), followed by those between 17-35 years (30 people) and under 16 years(four deaths).

DSP Dipak Giri from the Kathmandu Valley Traffic Office told ApEx that most accidents occur during daylight hours. Two-wheelers are most frequently involved in accidents, followed by jeeps, cars, vans, buses, and microbuses, he added.

According to traffic police, overconfidence of drivers is an important factor behind rising numbers of road accidents. High speed, driving under influence, mechanical failures of motor vehicles, overtaking and negligence of pedestrians are the other reasons behind rising cases of road accidents. 

Between 200 to 300 people face penalties for drunk driving and speeding every day, police records show.

“Whether it is the families of those who died in accidents or those who were seriously injured, they face immense hardships. Accidents would naturally decrease if drivers remained vigilant while operating vehicles on the road,” DSP Giri said. “Pedestrians must also stay alert while walking on the roads. For those riding pillion on motorcycles or scooters, wearing helmets can reduce the impact even if an accident occurs.”

According to Nepal Police Spokesperson Bishwa Adhikari, the accident rates are rising in line with increasing vehicle imports and usage. “This trend is not unique to Nepal but is global, corresponding with increasing urbanization,” he said. “Nepal’s diverse geography presents unique challenges. Mountain roads are narrow and inherently risky, while Terai roads often run through settlements where high speeds lead to accidents.” Adhikari added that factors such as weather conditions, road construction quality and vehicle mechanical issues also contribute to accidents.

“There are numerous causes including drunk driving, speeding, and carelessness. The key factor in reducing accidents is the driver themselves,” Adhikari said. “If every person becomes a responsible driver, such incidents would decrease significantly.”

This week, Nepal’s two major communist parties—CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Center)—held their long-overdue Central Committee (CC) meetings. Both Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli of the UML and Pushpa Kamal Dahal of the Maoist Center share a common trait: they dominate their respective parties, using CC meetings as a formality to project inclusiveness, while key decisions are made unilaterally.

In the UML’s CC meeting, there was no meaningful discussion on pressing issues such as constitutional amendments. Yet, shortly after the meeting, Oli announced that amendments might be possible by 2030. The CC meeting lacked any substantive criticism of Oli’s leadership, with dissenting voices muted or expressed cautiously. This comes on the heels of the party expelling leaders Bhim Rawal, Binda Pandey and Usha Kiran Timalsina for opposing the decision to accept land from a controversial businessman for the party’s office construction. With the Supreme Court validating the land deal, Oli grew more assertive, urging party members to refrain from criticism.

During a party gathering after his China visit, Oli openly admired Xi Jinping’s unchallenged authority and expressed a desire for a similar dynamic in his party, where decisions faced no opposition. After seven months, the UML’s CC meeting was finally convened, but its purpose seemed more symbolic than functional. Critics labeled it a “rubber-stamp CC,” meant only to endorse decisions made by the top leadership without genuine consultation.

The CPN (Maoist Center) is in a comparable state. Chairman Dahal faces some resistance from senior leaders Janardhan Sharma and Barsha Man Pun, both vying to succeed him. However, this rivalry benefits Dahal by keeping them divided. The Maoist CC meeting made populist decisions to placate party members, such as rejecting alliances with the Nepali Congress (NC) and UML, opting instead to collaborate with revolutionary forces. It also pledged to restore the party’s organizational strength. However, as with UML, critical decisions on alliances and governance remain solely at Dahal’s discretion, with the CC expected to comply unquestioningly.

This week also saw a flurry of party activities concerning possible constitutional amendments. The Maoists proposed a directly elected executive head, a fully proportional electoral system, 50 percent female representation in state bodies and other progressive measures. Meanwhile, the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) formed a task force under Santosh Pariyar, a former UML cadre, to draft its position on the issue. While RSP leaders, including its Chairman Rabi Lamichhane, are less ideological, Pariyar’s influence could shape the party’s stance. However, Oli downplayed the entire debate, reiterating that constitutional amendments might not occur until 2030. UML insiders suggest that Oli’s reluctance stems from opposition to radical agendas that conflict with his party’s stance, despite amendments being a key promise of the coalition government formed last year.

Inside the NC, preparations for the 15th General Convention are becoming a contentious issue. Party President Sher Bahadur Deuba has remained silent on the timeline, while senior leaders like Shekhar Koirala and Gagan Thapa have already begun campaigning for party leadership. Some party members claim Deuba prefers postponing the convention until after the next national elections, fearing it could exacerbate internal factionalism and weaken the party’s electoral performance in 2027.

Meanwhile, in the Madhes region, discussions among Madhes-based parties about unity, alliances or a loose coalition are gaining traction. Grassroots pressure is mounting for these parties to unite ahead of constitutional amendments and the 2027 elections. However, historical divisions and rivalries make such efforts challenging, leaving the outcome uncertain.

On Tuesday morning, Nepal was jolted by a 6.8 magnitude earthquake centered in Tingri, Tibet, roughly 80 kilometers north of Mount Everest. The tremor felt across Nepal, Bhutan and India was the strongest since the devastating 2015 earthquake that claimed over 9,000 lives. This recent quake serves as a stark reminder of Nepal’s vulnerability to seismic activity, underscored by the frequent small-scale tremors in western Nepal in recent months. In 2023, a magnitude-5.7 earthquake in Jajarkot caused fatalities, highlighting the urgent need for preparedness.

Amid these concerns, there was a brief moment of respite as Nepal’s mountains received snowfall this week. While the snowfall offers temporary relief, the rapid melting of glaciers remains alarming. Nepal’s iconic snow-capped peaks are increasingly turning into barren black rocks, a stark indicator of climate change. Though the mountain regions anticipate more snowfall, there is no certainty. Unfortunately, Nepal currently lacks effective measures to address this environmental crisis.

On Jan 7, a sleepy nation woke up at 6.50am to a magnitude-7 quake epicentered at Tingri County (Tibet), China as eastern districts of Nepal, including Solukhumbu, Okhaldhunga, Khotang, Sankhuwasabha and Bhojpur, shook vigorously along with the federal capital of Kathmandu. Much to the relief of the nation, there was no loss of life and no major property loss in the jolt, though some private houses and the office building of Thame Post of the Sagarmatha National Park at Thametyang suffered damage.

The quake comes close on the heels of a season of disasters that just passed us by. Last monsoon, more than 230 people died, at least 169 people suffered injuries and many went missing as floods and landslides further destabilized a country where political instability has become the norm rather than the exception. The rescue of around 17,000 people during the monsoon season gives an indication of the scale of the disaster. 

Against this backdrop, a polity with a very short memory and a weak institutional capacity to deal with disasters would do well to learn some humble lessons from the disasters old and new. 

Monsoon floods, landslides, wildfires and quakes claim lives every year, render thousands homeless and cause infrastructural losses worth billions of rupees. 

For example, around 80 people died, several others suffered injuries, thousands became shelterless and the nation suffered infrastructural losses worth billions when a magnitude-6.4 temblor epicentered at Ramidanda (Jajarkot district) shook districts of western Nepal, including Jajarkot and Rukum West, at 11.47 pm on 3 Nov 2023. More than a year after the disaster, humanitarian assistance continues to ‘elude’ many shelterless survivors of the Ramidanda jolt. 

It’s time the government realized that disasters don’t kill, lack of preparedness does. Anyway, a government tasked with protecting the life and property of its people cannot get away by blaming death, devastation and displacement on ‘natural’ disasters.       

Let the recent jolt and other disasters wake up all three tiers of our government and prompt them to step up preparedness that can go a long way in protecting life and properties during such disasters.

Picture yourself standing in the middle of a hillside settlement and the ground beneath you is quivering. In an instant, houses around you start to crumble, people are trapped beneath mounds of bricks and stones, and there are clouds of dust everywhere. This senario became a reality when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Nepal on 25 April 2015, killing almost 9,000 people and leaving millions of people homeless and hopeless. From the general public view, this was a complete catastrophe. When we go deeper into this story, however, we see parallels between how a country recovers from an earthquake and how the economy rebounds from a market crash or financial crisis. We can create a better financial system by carefully examining these similarities and applying the lessons learned from the disaster, which some of the prospects will be covered in this article.

How are quakes and economic crises similar?

The majority of us already know that an earthquake does not necessarily finish when a shake does. After the main event, smaller earthquakes, often known as aftershocks, may continue for weeks, months, or even years. For example, the 2015 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal was followed by hundreds of lesser quakes or aftershocks. The 7.3-magnitude earthquake that happened a week following the big one is the best illustration of this phenomenon. On a similar basis, the financial crisis also takes time to settle, as it also has lots of repercussions in both the short term and the long term. The global financial crisis of 2008, for instance, left the world with a number of financial aftershocks, including but not limited to a spike in the unemployment rate, hardship in clearing debt and loans by many poor nations, and a lack of confidence among the world’s biggest investors in the financial market. 

This pattern of market crashes or financial crises is similar to Omori’s law in geophysics. According to Omori's law, which is used in seismology, smaller aftershocks of larger earthquakes gradually become less frequent but never entirely cease. Smaller aftershocks following major financial crises also don't fully resolve in the field of economics. Even after more than ten years, secondary market crashes or long-term unemployment can be observed. We can anticipate and even mitigate the effects of financial crises or market crashes by comprehending the mathematics of earthquakes and their aftershocks.

For example, Nepal’s tragic earthquake in 2015 caused a great deal of chaos and instability, but with careful planning, community togetherness, and adaptation, the disaster was eventually turned into an opportunity. The same concepts may be applied to financial systems, as the market can rebound with careful preparation and adaptation.

Lessons from Gorkha earthquake

Nepal lies in the Himalayan fault line, high-risk seismic zones. So, it is most vulnerable to earthquakes. Retrospecting the 2015 earthquake of Nepal, it poses hardship to the nation in the short term and strength and lessons for the long term. In the capital of the nation, Kathmandu, which has been suffering with pollution and unplanned urbanization, the poorly built houses fell apart, but in the rural areas, the traditional houses stood strong as they were made with traditional and native materials. So, they flexed rather than cracked.

This lesson applies to financial systems. Countries with inflexible economies—those that rely too heavily on a single industry or on foreign aid—are analogous to badly built structures. When a crisis occurs, these systems disintegrate. So, Countries can improve their tenacity to financial shocks by diversifying their income sources and embodying flexibility into their economic policies. 

In Nepal, remittance accounts for almost 25 percent of its total GDP, which clearly shows the nation's heavy dependence on remittance for revenue generation. Whenever global markets fall, remittance flow may decline, weakening Nepal’s economy. In order to fight against this chaos in the near future, Nepal should increase its investment in agriculture and ecotourism and foster small-scale businesses to generate revenue. This attempt can help to reduce a nation's reliance on a single income source.

Tracing financial ‘seismic zones’

Seismology divides Nepal into seismic zones to identify places that are most vulnerable to earthquakes. Similarly, we might classify economies as financial risk zones. Low-income countries with inadequate resources fall into the “high-risk zone” for financial crises. Wealthier countries with diverse economies are considered “low-risk zones”.

For instance, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Nepal’s economy was at sixes and sevens because of its heavy dependence on remittance and tourism, but some countries that have diverse sources of generating revenue, such as Germany, fared better in such a crisis. Therefore, just like how architects design stronger and more durable buildings in high earthquake-prone zones, policymakers and economists should concentrate on strengthening financial buffers in economically weak or challenged nations. 

These buffers could include developing a wide range of economic opportunities, like developing emergency reserve funds for disasters, buttressing exports, and developing market-fluctuation-resistant industries.

Global examples of resilience

Nepal’s experience isn’t unique. In 1995, the Kobe earthquake hit Japan, causing $100bn worth of damage, but at the same time it also sparked a novel approach in constructing earthquake-resistant buildings. Similarly, Japan’s economy recovered fast thanks to solid government planning and community backing.

In economics, the 1987 worldwide stock market meltdown, sometimes known as Black Monday, demonstrated how concerted effort might calm a crisis. Governments and central banks around the world responded with policy measures, like interest rate cuts, to prevent the crash from creating long-term damage.These instances share a common thread: resilience, whether dealing with natural or economic calamities, stems from planning, flexibility, and community support.

Roadmap for future

Nepal’s recovery from the 2015 earthquake reveals important lessons about building strong economies. Engineers are already designing structures to wobble rather than collapse during earthquakes, and legislators may create financial systems that bend but do not shatter.

This entails planning for any type of repercussion, whether physical or economic calamity. To summarize, countries can transform crises into opportunities by diversifying their revenue streams, investing in early warning systems, and offering aid to communities.

The next time the ground shakes—whether from tectonic plates or financial markets—Nepal’s story will remind us that resilience means more than just survival. It's about recovering strength and preparing for what lies ahead.