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Pangolins are among the most extensively traded animals in Southeast Asia mainly due to the perceived medicinal value of their scales and other body parts, putting them at high risk of poaching. However, little is known about their trade status in Nepal. Despite the ban on the international commercial trade of specimens by CITES, pangolins remain among the most trafficked mammal species. At a time when Nepal’s effort in protecting species like tigers and rhinos is getting global recognition, rampant poaching and illegal trade of equally important pangolin species threaten to undermine the country’s exalted conservation status.

Despite Nepal being home to two species of pangolins and sharing an international border with China, one of the world’s largest pangolin traders, there is little information on the extent of pangolin trafficking from Nepal. Additionally, there have been only few robust studies on illegal trafficking of pangolins in central Nepal. Although illegal wildlife trade of pangolin has received attention from the conservation perspective, there have been only a handful of studies on the root causes and socio-economic context influencing this activity. For instance, there is little factual information on the profiles and motivations of the perpetrators involved in illegal trafficking of pangolins, especially in central Nepal.

Recently I got to study the pangolin trade in Makwanpur district under the financial support of WWF Nepal (Hariyo Ban Program). The study was carried out in the Hetauda sub-metropolitan city and Makwanpurgadi rural municipality of Makwanpur district. Different indicators such as the presence of pangolin, anecdotal evidence such as seizure and arrest records on local and national newspapers as well as major markets were considered for selecting these municipalities as study areas.

Our study showed that most pangolin-kills were related to monetary benefits resulting from their supposed medicinal value. Locally, different parts of the pangolins are thought to have different curative properties. However, these social and cultural values ascribed to the mammals are suppressed by people’s monetary motivation. The minimum price of live pangolins and their scales in the Nepali market ranges between $7-12.5/kg for local hunters. The price doubles at every subsequent level of trade. And yet our study suggested that the pangolin population in Makwanpur district was actually increasing, perhaps owing to active involvement of police and concerned authority in controlling its trade. The National Park and Wildlife Conservation (NPWC) Act provisions for fines ranging from Rs 100,000–Rs 500,000 and/or 1-10 year jail for those involved in illegal wildlife trade. (But then we are in no position to say the same about other areas of Nepal.)

We identified hunting as the major threat to pangolins at the study sites. Locals use different techniques to hunt pangolins. The most common entails filling pangolin burrows with water and hitting them on the snout when they try to scramble out.

According to the information on trade routes provided by DPO, Makwanpur, poachers from each area use a different trade route but the final destination is mostly China. Most key informants also said that the country was the major market for the mammals taken out of Nepal. Illegal wildlife trade generally occurs through a complicated network of locations and routes where poachers of one village supply pangolins to poachers of another until it reaches the international border. Wildlife trafficking occurs through a mobile trade network with constantly shifting trade routes.

Currently, several remarkable attempts are being made for pangolin conservation in Nepal. A national pangolin workshop was organized by the government of Nepal to come up with a roadmap for conserving the country’s globally significant pangolin population. Similarly, a wide range of stakeholders from local pangolin experts to government officials are working together to develop a solid database on pangolins through intensive surveys. In addition, the Pangolin Conservation Action Plan for Nepal (2018-2022) aims to address the critical threats to pangolin conservation by developing appropriate conservation strategies and actions.

The forest department, wildlife conservation department, security forces and local conservation units have to actively network with the community to save the threatened pangolins. The capacity of the law-enforcement agencies and local people must also be significantly enhanced. Moreover, low levels of punishment and fines are only abetting the trade. Lastly, there is also a need for a more comprehensive study on pangolin trade originating in Nepal. There is not a second to waste in our quest to save this beautiful animal.

I am currently a student of wildlife pursuing my master’s degree in Wildlife Management and Biodiversity Conservation

In broad strokes, a veteran journalist used to paint a typical Nepali year into two seasons: the winter of discontent and the summer of unrest. That was when the winds of change were blowing again in Kathmandu after a brief period of calm and the regime of King Gyanendra was tottering, with generous help from friends/well-wishers from near and afar. 

This categorization of the seasons is too broad in a country that takes pride in her seven, uniquely beautiful seasons: Vasanta (the spring), Grishma (early summer), Varsha (the summer monsoon), Sharad (early autumn), Hemanta (late autumn) and Shishir (the winter). By the way, this broad stroke is not meant to undermine initiatives to promote Nepal as a tourist destination for all seasons, especially when all’s not well with her economy.

About the vet’s painting skills, yours truly does not know much. But for obvious reasons, a Homo sapiens of words should not get to paint things of beauty like seasons for public consumption, for he is sure to miss many a shade.

As for words, the vet had a way with them.

Now, let yours truly elaborate a bit on the vet’s two-season concept. 

Come winter, there’s rising frustration and biting cold but no electricity, that too in a country rich in water resources.

It’s not only the cold that’s biting the members of the public, though. Umpteen causes like the never-ending misrule, thriving corruption, the absence of law and order, market prices heading northwards and living standards on a free fall have the people smoldering like the fire burning in the makkal (a conventional coal-fired stove).

But it’s so cold outside, the people won’t hit the streets yet. Why would they, anyway? After all, the meenpachas—the 50 days of the grim winter—are so cold that even the fish catch cold, literally. Not only the people but their elected overlords and warlords also detest the grim winter. Yours truly fondly remembers a particular frame from the winter of discontent in which a firebrand politico was caught napping during a program to announce a series of protests against King Gyanendra’s autocratic regime. That grab would surely have gone viral if the leader was caught in a similar act these days.

The biting cold is not the only reason holding a people back, though. Letting the fire burn inside unhindered would surely propel the people into the streets and the resulting inferno would bring down regime after regime after regime, but what good would it do? What would the laity get even if they managed to bring about yet another regime change by hitting the streets and returning injured, crippled for life or not returning at all? Their sacrifices would bring another bunch of leaders to power that would forget popular aspirations and get neck-deep in corruption.

That is the reason why the masses, despite calls from political leaders of different hues and colors, would keep off the streets. The apathy would run so deep that political parties would often pay the hoi polloi handsomely for taking part in street protests, bringing them to the capital in busloads from the mofussil.

But the turning point in such protests would come sooner than later. Any instance of the use of the brute police force (real or perceived) would rekindle the protests with the masses joining in spontaneously. From then on, there would be no stopping the protests without the revolution reaching its ‘logical conclusion’.

Looking back, it will be fair and square to say that a `political revolution´ is like a river system consisting of different rivers and streams acting as tributaries and distributaries. In the case of Nepal, foreign interests in general and the interests of a neighbor have always counted far more than the streams of blood, sweat, toil and tears flowing from the attending multitudes.

That is why things have remained much the same for the Nepali lok (to say the least) despite several winters of discontent and summers of unrest.

While walking along the beaten paths for days on end as part of a thought process during the anti-MCC protests and later, yours truly again found how truly beautiful this city is. 

Walking by those blue flowers in full bloom was pure delight. You looked at those blooms for hours on end and still craved for more. And when the branches swayed at the slightest of winds and showered you with flowers, your heart swayed with pleasure.

For some very learned folks, these flowers are jacaranda and for others, they are blue mimosa. Yours truly does not know anything about the plant kingdom. All he knows is that these flowers are indescribably beautiful, they make life a bit more tolerable. 

We have given Kathmandu different names ranging from Alakapuri, the beautiful capital of Lord Indra, to Dustmandu (Dhulomamdu) to the necropolis. Our own images are what a city reflects. Traveling back in time, why on earth did the vet see just two seasons in Kathmandu?   

Between the grim winter and the sweltering summer, there always is a brief window when flowers of all sorts bloom and life seems a little more bearable despite its absurdities. Revolutions may go astray and the self-styled makers of our destiny may fail us yet again, but the spring will never fail us, probably.

In our respective rat races, we may have forgotten how beautiful this city looks during all seasons in general and the spring in particular.

Like the phoenix, this city of higher ideals like arts and crafts has repeatedly risen from the ashes of destruction, blooming like those blue flowers. Names like Dhulomandu do not do justice to her never-say-die spirit powered by divinity and humanity.

Even amid these blossoms, exceptionally fertile minds have failed to give this city a name befitting the season. As for yours truly, it is and will always remain #Bloommandu as this is where not only those seasonal blue flowers, but millions of dreams bloom in all seasons.  

The health and economic consequences of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are well documented. The question of how to best control and prevent NCDs is urgent as its burden is dramatically rising in Nepal. Tobacco, the only risk factor for the four main NCDs—cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory disease, and diabetes—is a growing problem and many more deaths are predicted if no action is taken to control its use. Nepal Burden of Disease 2019 report shows that smoking is the most important risk factor and responsible for around 18 percent of total deaths. 

In the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, taxation on tobacco products has been considered the ‘best buy’ and most effective measure to address NCDs. Reducing affordability of tobacco products cuts consumption, thereby improving public health and increasing government revenues.

If cigarettes are made more expensive, people start quitting, smoke less or don’t start at all. But, unsurprisingly, the tobacco industry of Nepal has been opposing excise tax increases to protect their profits. The most common argument they have is that an increase in tax will result in a spike in illicit trade. In turn, illicit cigarette trade is the key reservation policy makers have when arguing against tax increase. 

Particularly for Nepal, the porous border with India, and price difference in cigarettes (cheaper in India) is leading to a free flow of cigarettes to Nepal. Thus, Nepal’s approach to taxing tobacco has been sporadic and, as a result of several years of increases in tax rates below inflation and income growth rates, or no increases at all, tobacco has become more affordable.

The past two decades witnessed minimal increase in excise duties in cigarettes, making last year’s 25 percent increase the highest in decades. However, tax rates on tobacco in Nepal are still relatively low (38 percent on most sold brands) compared to neighboring countries and international recommendation of 75 percent of retail price. 

The industry’s claim of 25 percent illicit cigarettes in the market has been proven wrong by a 2021 study of the Nepal Development Research Institute (NDRI). The only national study of its kind titled “Extent of Illicit Cigarette Trade in Nepal: A Pack Examination Method” found only 0.33 percent of 4,300 cigarette packets examined were illegal—or less than one in every 200 packets. This finding is consistent with the finding from the India’s pack examination with very low illicit cigarette trade of 2.73 percent compared to 20 percent claimed by its cigarette industry.

In the aforementioned study, we used retailers pack survey within pack examination method, which has been approved by WHO and World Bank for countries like Nepal where majority of smokers use cigarettes in loose packets and where there is lack of cigarette production and market consumption data. The study was carried out in all seven provinces of Nepal among 1,204 cigarette retailers from 23 Primary Sampling Units (PSUs).

Overall, only 14 packets (0.33 percent) were found to be illegal in the primary method of retailers’ packet collection. This was also validated by the result of supplementary methods of littered pack collection with 0.6 percent illegality. 

The finding shows the majority of illegal packets were imported from Indonesia. The Indonesian brand Djaram Black was the most common illegal brand (two-thirds). But low numbers of counterfeit packets of Khukuri and Shikhar Filter Kings were also found. 

Most illegal packets found in non-border regions (Kathmandu and Pokhara) are not cheap, indicating price is not the only factor. Taste/flavor and preference also promote illicit trade.

The very first and only nationwide study’s illicit cigarette trade findings are shocking and contrast the cigarette industry’s claim. This gives us a strong reason to raise cigarette taxes. Moreover, as this study took place six months after the government increased 25 percent excise duty in its 2021 budget, the effect of price raise on illicit trade was found to be weaker than what policy makers may think.

This is consistent with the findings from studies in other low- and middle-income countries like Georgia, Vietnam, Gambia, Mongolia, Colombia, South Africa —there is no relationship between tax changes and smuggling. Further, when developed countries like New Zealand, UK, Scotland, Canada, Ireland, Australia, Sweden and Finland are trying to eliminate tobacco or reduce the smoking population to under five percent by 2025-2030, we should learn from them and initiate effective interventions against tobacco to save our current and next generations.

Therefore, we strongly recommend the government to consistently raise cigarette taxes, which is good both for public health and government revenue. The forthcoming budget provides a wonderful opportunity to do so.

The author is a lead researcher of ‘Illicit Cigarette Trade in Nepal’ and a health economist by experience who also manages the tobacco control program in NDRI

Have there been times when someone has said or done something and you could predict it? Alternatively, have there been times when you said or did something you wanted to change but it happened again? Human beings are creatures of habit. And these habits aren’t just about what we do, it is also about the way we think and feel in certain scenarios. These emotional habits are frequently recurring patterns and reactions. 

‘Recognizing patterns’ is one of the core competencies of self-awareness. It means knowing our frequently occurring emotional experiences, reactions, and go-to behavioral patterns.

Now you may be wondering why we need to know our patterns. Aren't reactions and behaviors natural? Aren’t we just supposed to go with the flow? Well, we always have the choice to ignore thinking about our emotional and behavioral patterns. But a problem with doing so is that all of our actions can become automatic and not necessarily healthy ones. Without paying due attention to our recurring patterns, we are likely to make automated and generalized responses that may not be the best for us in a given situation.

A lack of awareness about our patterns can impact the people around us negatively as well. For example, let’s say I have a habit of talking in a loud voice when I am with my family because that is how I think they will listen. If I am unaware that this pattern may not be natural or acceptable in contexts outside of the home, I may end up talking to my friends and colleagues in a loud voice as well, thinking that it's normal, but they might not appreciate it.

Only when we recognize our actions and reactions better do we know how to manage them. A good tool for us to understand our recurring patterns can be the ‘Think-Feel-Act’ cycle. Let’s look at an example. For a moment, I invite you to assume that you have a recurring pattern of putting off doing your tasks.

Think: What sorts of thoughts might you have in this situation? 

Let’s say some of them are: “Not again!” “I can come back to this later.” “I’ll watch some Netflix for 30 minutes first." "I have plenty of time."

Feel: How might you feel?

You might feel relaxed initially that you don’t have to do your tasks immediately.

Act: How might you act in this situation?

When you realize you still have time in your hands, you might start binging on some Netflix show.

But, oh, there are still some tasks pending. So what happens next? The cycle will start again. So, let's say you watched some Netflix show (obviously for more than half an hour).

 Think: What sorts of thoughts will you have now?

 “I shouldn’t have put off doing my tasks.” “I just have two hours to the deadline.” “Man, I am late again!”

Feel: How would you feel now?

You would probably feel guilty, regretful, or even frustrated for being late to submit your task again.

Act: What will you do?

 You might rush through the tasks and manage to submit them just in time or miss the deadline—yet again.

Given that you barely managed to submit your tasks on time, you might again have thoughts like, "I can never complete my work on time." "I'm a loser." "The assignments aren't so long anyway, so why should I spend more time reading or researching?" And, the cycle goes on.

But, when you become aware of this cycle, you can inform yourself that it's not helpful to start doing your assignments one or two hours before the deadline. You might need to buy more time, perhaps break down the work into several days throughout the week, so that you don't feel anxious and rushed at the last moment.

Whether or not we are aware of them, our everyday reactions are turning into habits that might or might not be helpful for us. Turning a blind eye toward them would mean living automatic and helpless lives. Knowing those patterns would mean understanding what we're doing well and what we aren't and taking steps to managing ourselves better. As the saying goes, “If you are aware of your pattern, you can change the pattern. Or else, you become the pattern.”

The author is Linchpin at My Emotions Matter, an education initiative that helps individuals and teams learn the mindset and skills of Emotional Intelligence. Learn more at myemotionsmatter.com