Submit your Article

Over 720,000 tourists have entered Nepal in the first eight months of the year 2024.

According to the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB)'s data, 720,334 tourists had visited Nepal in the eight months from January to August of 2024.

The arrival of foreign tourists has increased by 8.3 percent, the NTB sources informed.

A total of 5,566 more tourists visited Nepal in August this year compared to the same reporting period last year. A total of 67,153 tourists had visited Nepal last year while it was 72,719 in August 2024.

NTB Director Maniraj Lamichhane said the number of foreign tourists has been increasing in recent days. He expressed the belief that a significant number of tourists would come from other countries including neighboring countries in the coming days as a result of tourism promotion programs.

According to the board data, the highest number of 25,832 tourists came from India, 6,614 from China, 5,614 from the US, 4,851 from Sri Lanka and 3,077 from Bangladesh in August this year.

A total of 41,304 foreign tourists had visited Nepal in August 2022, 6,093 in the same period in 2021 and 94,749 in August 2019. The highest number of 111,376 tourists visited Nepal in March, while July received the lowest number of 64,599 tourists.

A total of 79,100 tourists had visited Nepal in January; 97,426 in February; 111,03,076 in April; 90,211 in May, 76,736 in June and 72,719 in August.

Foreign tourist arrivals have continuously increased after the COVID pandemic. A total of 1,014,885 tourists visited Nepal in 2023.

The government has set a target of attracting 1.6 million foreign tourists in the current fiscal year's budget.

The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation has set a target of attracting 1.6 million tourists in the current fiscal year by implementing the Tourism Strategy Plan (2016-25) and the Visit Nepal Decade. The Department of Tourism is also constructing infrastructure by identifying 100 tourist destinations.

Conservation activists recently conducted a training session focused on the conservation of owls, which play a vital role in protecting farmers’ crops by preying on rodents.

The training was attended by 20 individuals, including security personnel, staff from the Forest Ministry, and employees of the Kaski Division Forest Office in Pokhara, among others. These participants are crucial in the efforts to protect owls from poaching and illegal trade, according to the organizers.

The training covered a wide range of issues ranging from the importance of owls in our environment to the dynamics of their illegal trade.

Organized by an organization named Friends of Nature, the training also provided insights into the international demand for live owls, highlighting the countries where this demand is particularly high and where Nepali owls are often exported illegally.

Raju Acharya, Executive Director of Friends of Nature, along with Deepa Gurung, conducted the training. Acharya explained that the illegal trade of owls is often driven by various superstitions. Citing recent studies, Acharya revealed that approximately 1,500 owls are illegally exported from Nepal each year.

The training also explored the reasons behind owl poaching and smuggling, both within Nepal and on a global scale, as well as strategies to combat these issues.

The organizers plan to organize similar training sessions for students, mothers’ groups, and social organizations across various districts. “A total of  11 sessions have been planned for different districts. These sessions are expected to see participation of as many as 220 people,” Achary added.

In addition to the training, Acharya announced plans to install 90 artificial nests in different locations within Kaski and 10 in Syangja for owls in the near future. “The decline in traditional nesting spaces, such as the niches that were once commonly built into the walls of Nepali houses, along with the reduction in tree numbers, has created a habitat crisis for birds. Artificial nests will, to some extent, address this crisis, he added.

Acharya, who has dedicated the past three decades to owl conservation, was recently honored with the 2024 Whitley Award—one of the most prestigious awards in the wildlife conservation sector. He is using the prize money to organize these trainings and build artificial nests.

Owls in Nepal comprise two families—Tytonidae and Strigidae—and 23 species. The conservation status of two species—Long-eared Owl and Oriental Bay Owl—is vagrant and possibly extinct respectively, according to the Owl Conservation Action Plan, Nepal.

One more person has died from dengue infection in Chitwan.

The deceased has been identified as a 41-year-old man from Chanauli of Bharatpur Metropolitan city-20.

He died during the course of treatment at the Bharatpur Hospital on Tuesday.

He had a fever when he visited the hospital for treatment on Friday and was admitted to the hospital with a ventilator support, according to Dr Kalyan Sapkota, a senior physician at Bharatpur Hospital.

He said the man had a severe case of dengue and died from multi-organ failure followed by excessive internal bleeding.

On Saturday, a 63-year-old man from Bharatpur-2 succumbed to the dengue fever at Chitwan Medical College.

The Nepal Eye Hospital, Tripureswor has continued collaboration with local governments for the elimination of blindness.

In this connection, the hospital and the Kathmandu Metropolitan City-12 signed an agreement.

Hospital's Chief Executive Officer Dharma Raj Gosain and Ward Chair of Kathmandu-12 Bal Krishna Maharjan signed the agreement on Tuesday.

According to Executive Director Gosain, cataract selection camp will be organized in Kathmandu-12, eye check-up and treatment program in public schools and primary training program on eye treatment for women health volunteers working in the ward.

In the camp, free surgery will be provided to the patients selected for cataract surgery at the Nepal Eye Hospital and free glasses will be distributed to the students with low vision.

The hospital has already collaborated with Kathmandu-11, Lalitpur Metropolitan City-18 and Chandragiri Municipality-7.

According to Executive Director Gosain, the hospital had provided outpatient services to 175,000 people, 12,000 surgical services and mobile camps for eye treatment last year.

The hospital has been operating community eye treatment centers at Simra in Bara, Bhachchek in Gorkha and three places in Kathmandu Valley.