Submit your Article

The people of the Madhes are now calling upon the gods every day, pleading for water. With bowed heads, they are praying to the earth for drinking water. Villages are organizing grand religious rituals to ask for rain. In temples and shrines, priests and devotees can be seen gazing at the sky, holding flowers and offerings in their palms, invoking the gods—especially Lord Indra, the god of rain—for mercy.

Why wouldn’t they turn to the divine, when the government has failed to act? The people of Madhes are spending their days searching for water to quench their thirst and for irrigation to grow food for survival. The drought has disrupted the entire agricultural cycle in the region. Crops like rice, vegetables, maize, and fruits are all facing severe challenges due to the lack of rainfall.

Massive land plotting activities are underway at Ghising Danda in Ratamate, Kankrabari, Suryabinayak Municipality–9 of Bhaktapur, putting at risk the area’s natural landscape, irrigation canals, public roads, small settlements, community lands, and forest areas. The destruction has alarmed locals, especially as natural springs within the lush community forest have started drying up.

For the past month, over two dozen bulldozers have been aggressively clearing the area, but local authorities—including the municipal government, Division Forest Office, and other concerned district agencies—appear to be unaware or inactive. Approximately 535 ropanis of hillside land have already been leveled and cleared. The work is being carried out by Nik Bhujikik Housing Pvt Ltd, which claims it is for housing development purposes.

Following local complaints, a joint field inspection led by Bhaktapur’s Chief District Officer Gopal Prasad Aryal took place a couple of weeks ago. The team included senior officials from the Bhaktapur District Police, Armed Police Force in Duwakot, Survey Office, Kathmandu Valley Development Authority (Bhaktapur Branch), Division Forest Office, the Chief Administrative Officer of Suryabinayak Municipality, and the ward chairperson. They instructed the company to immediately halt all activities. However, the housing company appears to have ignored the directive.

According to locals, forested areas, water sources, traditional public rest stops (patis), canals, roads, pipelines, and streams have been destroyed in the name of plotting. Six houses, located in a high-risk zone, have already been demolished, and their residents relocated. Ward Chairperson Bhagawan Khatri of Suryabinayak Municipality-9 stated that the plotting has encroached upon 12 ropanis of public land and 19 ropanis of forest area.

The municipality had received an application from the company seeking permission to level land, but no official approval had been granted. “They carried out major construction activities under the guise of site clearance without getting approval. Entire settlements have been removed, and we are shocked. No further work will be allowed,” said Taranath Luintel, then municipality’s Chief Administrative Officer.

Saphal Shrestha, head of the Bhaktapur branch of the Kathmandu Valley Development Authority, clarified that any planning involving over 50 ropanis of land requires central-level approval from the authority, which had not been sought. Hence, the district office was unaware of the project. Dinesh Thapa Magar from the Division Forest Office reported that although the Survey Office had previously identified forest boundaries, bulldozers had entered approximately 19 ropanis of forest land, destroying several pine trees in the process.

At Siddhartha Art Gallery, “Chitra Katha: Contemporary Works from Bhaktapur” (April 11–May 11) gathers 28 artists whose creations breathe new life into Bhaktapur’s rich artistic and cultural traditions. Visitors are greeted by Manoj Dhoju’s striking Bhairav—its graphite-drawn mudras invoking knowledge and grounding—setting the tone for a show steeped in spiritual symbolism, everyday ritual, and evolving urban identity.

From Balkrishna Banmala’s dynamic acrylic depictions of Hindu deities to Mukesh Shrestha’s pastel goddesses reimagining divine femininity, sacred themes resound. Meanwhile, works like Laxman Kamacharya’s Skull Factory and Kabir Kayastha’s Nyatapola guardians provoke thought on impermanence and strength.

Artistic expressions of memory and transformation feature in Narayan Bohaju’s nostalgic Echoes of Childhood and Meena Kayastha’s Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas, created from salvaged machine parts. Everyday objects find poetic form in Preeti Duwal’s ceramics, while Ramesh Pradhan’s minimalist Freedom quietly interrogates constraint and release.

Music, movement, and festivity animate works by Suraj Shilpakar and Jugal Rajbhandari, while Sudeep Balla fuses jazz and Nepali tradition into joyful resonance. Urban transitions take center stage in Srijan Ulak’s cement works and Hitesh Vaidya’s scenic pen-on-block compositions.

Materials become metaphors: from Minod Bhaila’s satirical “Ganesh coins” to Magal Prajapati’s clay watercolors and Dhiraj Manandhar’s sculptural lamps, each work bridges tradition and innovation. Pop influences meet heritage in Sharada Vaidya’s Gai Jatra and Bikash Tamakhu’s mythical paper-mâché beasts.

Through vibrant landscapes by Rajendra Yakami and spontaneous plein-air sketches by Punya Ram Matang, Bhaktapur’s living essence is lovingly preserved. “Chitra Katha” is more than an exhibition—it is a narrative of continuity and change, of a city’s spirit reimagined for today.

April 25 marks the 10th anniversary of the deadly earthquake that struck Nepal killing nearly 9,000 people, injuring 22,000 and making more than a half million people homeless. It was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded to have hit the Himalayan country.

On April 25, 2015, when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake shook Nepal’s ground at 11:56 AM, the epicenter in Barpak village of Gorkha district suffered the most immediately. At least 72 people lost their lives from the village alone, while all the houses were damaged in the disaster except a few.

10 years later, Barpak doesn’t look like a village anymore. With completion of reconstruction, Barpak looks like a bustling town in recent times as all traditional stone roofed houses are replaced by tall concrete symmetrical buildings and a good flow of tourists.

In contrast, the neighboring village Laprak which housed the largest integrated settlement looks deserted even after a decade of the disaster. Initially, though Barpak was chosen for the site of the new settlement, the plan couldn’t be executed due to several reasons which provided Laprak a chance to shine and be the “model village.”  

However, the settlement built by the Non-Resident Nepali Association consisting of 604 houses (including additionally built) in Gupsi Pakha are in sorry state, with many locals themselves regarding it as a ghost village. Its difficult to spot people in the surrounding which was actually expected to be a vibrant and exemplary village of more than 2000 people.

The new settlement, located at around 2700 meters from the sea level, was chosen considering the geological studies and accessibility. Unfortunately, it failed to address the needs and expectations of indigenous communities of the mountain region. As a result, there are locks in doors and grasses at the entrance, holes on roofs, fading colors in two-storey buildings and deep silence around the settlement.

 According to Kishan Gurung, Ward-4 Chairman of Dharche Rural Municipality, out of the total houses, only 50 are filled with families who run homestays and hotels, while 50 other families keep migrating between the old village and the new settlement. “We are preparing to connect electricity from the national line, manage supply of drinking water and construct a gravelled road linking Barpak to Laprak. I am hopeful that villagers will move to the new settlement someday and Laprak will be known as a model village again.”