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Nepali Congress (NC) is demanding an investigation against Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Rabi Lamichhane for his alleged involvement in the misappropriation of cooperative funds. For the same reason, the main opposition party is pushing to form a probe panel, a move opposed by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli. Certainly, there are valid questions regarding Lamichhane’s involvement in the misuse of cooperative funds.

 However, the way the NC is acting after the formation of the new coalition is unusual. The party has just come out of a government that failed to deliver on service delivery and economic fronts. Home Minister Lamichhane has taken some positive steps, including implementing the report submitted by the committee formed to investigate gold smuggling. Similarly, he has pledged to minimize political influence in the Nepal Police and Armed Police Force. He should be allowed to work freely without pressure from parties. If he fails to fulfill his pledges, questions should be raised, but for some period, it would not be justifiable to obstruct him.

In a parliamentary system, the opposition party should allow the government to work for at least 100 days without obstructions. Obviously, the opposition party should work to hold the government accountable and raise people's concerns and plights, but that should be done constructively. Past experiences show that opposition parties often resort to obstructing Parliament to press the government to fulfill their demands. However, Parliament cannot engage in its key task of the law-making process if it is obstructed for a long time. As a grand old party and the largest in Parliament, the NC should not resort to obstructing Parliament. Instead, it should find innovative ways to raise its voices within Parliament.

The performance of parliament has been dismal over the past few years due to intra-party disputes. There is a long list of crucial bills in the Parliament Secretariat that have long awaited parliamentary endorsement. Some of them are very important and related to the party's international image and prestige, on which all parties should come together. The new coalition has come up with new commitments and visions, so the NC and other opposition parties should wait some time to see how the new government addresses the problems the country is facing today. The NC should think seriously about its role as an opposition party.

Lumbini Conclave, an international summit on 'Global Peace for Prosperity’ organized by Honorary Consular Corps Nepal (HCCN) in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, started in Lumbini on Thursday.

As the contemporary world is marred by geopolitical tensions, war and economic crisis, there is a growing need for dialogue, understanding and cooperation among nations. The conclave has been organized aiming to unite high-ranking officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Honorary Consuls, and Ambassadors representing Honorary Consular Corps Nepal (HCCN) countries to foster peace, tourism, better relationship to work on peace and areas of mutual benefits, and investment opportunities in Nepal.

HCCN is a non-profit and non-political organization representing all Honorary Consulate General/Honorary Consulates in Nepal. With its 61 members, the organization is actively working to strengthen relations between Nepal and the represented country. These countries associated with HCCN represent five continents of the world which bring over 15 percent tourists to Nepal and have consolidated economic size worth $18.64trn. It facilitates diplomatic relations, cultural exchange, and economic cooperation between Nepal and these countries.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Narayan Kaji Shrestha, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Hit Bahadur Tamang, along with other high officials from the Investment Board, Nepal Tourism Board, and Lumbini Development Trust, are scheduled to participate in the conclave. The other attendees include ambassadors and representatives from 18 countries without embassies in Nepal, honorary consuls of various countries, high-ranking officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, experts in foreign affairs, and cultural heritage.

The gathering aims to promote Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha, as a tourist and religious site, attract investment to Nepal, and foster global unity. Discussions and presentations on investment opportunities in Nepal and its tourism potential will also be featured during the course of the conclave.

The conclave symbolizes HCCN’s commitment to peace and prosperity. It’s an opportunity to reflect on our shared responsibilities and to forge pathways for a harmonious and prosperous future. 

The HCCN, alongside MoFA, envisions this conclave as a stepping stone towards a more peaceful and prosperous world, states the release issued.   

During the conclave, there will be an art exhibition by Ujay Bajracharya and presentation by Sumnima Udas, founder and executive director of Lumbini Museum Initiative on Leveraging Lumbini's 'Soft Power,' and a presentation by Prof. Naresh Shakya, on 'Of Buddhist Art on Nepalese Art'.

Also, there will be a presentation on investment opportunities and proposed Nepal Investment Summit by Ramesh Adhikari, along with a presentation by Santosh Panta, director Nepal Tourism Board, on the tourism opportunities in Nepal.

Additionally, there will be a briefing from Prof Basant Bidari about various important sites in Lumbini and five precepts by venerable Bhikshhu. Meanwhile the participants will also be visiting various heritage sites in Lumbini Premises.

Bishnu Kumar Agarwal, the dean of HCCN, stated that the event is organized to connect Lumbini with nearly one billion Buddhists worldwide and to underscore its cultural and religious significance.

The event will conclude on March 23. 

Nepal is rich in biodiversity represented by 118 ecosystem types. In a span of 800 km by 200 km, diverse arrays of wildlife species have been recorded. However, many of these components of biodiversity are facing existential crises, most of them due to anthropogenic influences. Amphibians are one such group of species, which are experiencing such threats. Some charismatic species such as tiger, rhino and snow leopard have received privileged treatment while the ‘non-charismatic’ species such as amphibians are shrouded in shadow.

All three types of amphibians are found in Nepal, namely frogs, salamanders and caecilians. There are six families of frogs in Nepal that includes 57 species. However, lack of studies about amphibians means scant information is available about their distribution. 

Environmental conditions like temperature, soil moisture and rainfall determine the occurrence of amphibians and the richness of their habitats. Amphibians prefer agricultural land, grassland, forestland and wetlands. 

Besides, amphibians play significant roles in the ecosystem by acting as both prey and predator. They keep pests like mosquitoes under control, help maintain the quality of water, contribute to crop yields and public health. 

Despite such an important role, these ‘non-charismatic’ species are not the focus of our conservation efforts.

Frogs are on the decline, due mainly to habitat degradation, conversion of wetlands to wasteland and a belief that they have certain medical values, a reason behind their consumption. Unplanned urbanization has become a major cause in developing countries like Nepal behind a shrinking habitat. 

A study has shown a significant relation between the roads and the occurrence of frog species in the Kathmandu Valley. Enhancing developmental activities like construction of road and other infrastructure could result in biodiversity loss, pushing the amphibian species on the verge of extinction. Furthermore, it is not a good practice to encourage students to use thousands of species killed annually for the purpose of dissecting frogs as a sample in practical courses.

To draw attention toward the poor status of frogs, Environment Protection and Study Center (ENPROSC) and Companions for Amphibians and Reptile for Nepal (CARON) initiated a program titled crocking monsoon in 2013, followed in 2019 by a citizen science-based approach with Wildlife Conservation Nepal (WCN), which has again highlighted a poor status of these creatures. 

Notably, this program started frog surveys across the country during the Covid pandemic with the aim of raising public awareness on the species, conducting research and identifying the species. 

This program mobilized volunteers across all seven provinces and 51 districts as citizen scientists, who, as district representatives, collected information (photos, videos) about frogs that used to be found in their respective localities. 

The year 2020 saw the submission of 1300 individual submissions of frog species using kobo collect application, followed by 1000 submissions in 2021. 

There’s a dominant mindset that only larger species deserve conservation, meaning that even governments across the world, including in Nepal, think that ‘non-charismatic’ species are not worthy of conservation. 

This program dedicated to ‘non-charismatic’ species, like several such conservation programs around the world, is in crisis for want of economic support. 

In this context, March 20 is an important date to remind the whole world of the need to conserve ‘non-charismatic’ species like frogs. Different stakeholders, including NGOs, organize awareness programs at different schools on the World Frog Day to raise awareness on the importance of frogs with a hope that those behind the decimation of the species will transform themselves into conservationists one day.

Summing up, tailored conservation approaches are necessary for sustainable conservation of amphibians. In our context, how about changing the syllabi suggesting amphibian species for dissection and exploring other alternatives?

International order is feeling the collective heat of the intensifying Russia-Ukraine war, the Israel-Hamas conflict and a massive weaponization of technology. Unlike the politico-polarity of the past, techno-polarity is now shaping the international order, while the US and China are navigating the tech and AI world order.

Given a sensitive geo-location, highly susceptible digital space and impact of AI on the world order, Nepal should recognize the gravity of the geopolitical competition between high-tech superpowers—the US and China, or China and India—and implement a logical strategy to maintain balanced relations with all of them.

Nepal must be ready to deal with the fallout of a possible occupation of Taiwan, which might put the country in the middle of a ‘crossfire’ between China and the US and directly affect its security and sovereignty. If unable to tenaciously maintain the geopolitical balance between the rival superpowers, Nepal will suffer on multiple fronts.