Nepal will be featured in Saudi Riyadh season
Although the Riyadh season has started in Saudi Arabia since 2019, Nepal is going to participate in the Riyadh season this year. This season is started by showing their religion, culture, art, sports, etc. by adapting the weather. The season started from 28 October 2023 in Riyadh city. It is organized by GEA (Cross Culture) run by the Saudi government.
On opening day, the season made a surprise return with the Tyson Fury vs Francis Ngannou fight, while the brand-new Kingdom Arena lit up red, green and purple with a grand opening, as well as Becky G and Kanye West performing. Bookings have been opened which include Boulevard City, Boulevard World, Via Riyadh, Ramla Terraza and Suwaidi Parks.On this occasion, Nepal will also participate in this season from December 10th to 12th, showing its Nepali originality by singing and dancing.
Singer Tirsna Gurung and The Collap Band will also participate, while local Nepali artists working in Saudi will also perform their ethnic and religious culture.
The exhibition will be held at Alsuwadi Park in Riyadh from 6:00 pm to 11:30 pm and entry is free. This is the first time Nepal has received this opportunity for which the Nepali Embassy will support. Annapurna Post will participate for the first time as a media person. has earned its reputation as an entertainment extravaganzaIn this season, including Nepal, countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Philippines, Indonesia, Sudan are going to perform their performances.
In Saudi Arabia, this season is seen as a celebration of culture and heritage, capturing the essence of Saudi Arabia from its Najdi tradition to its current dynamism.
Al-Suwaidi Park will host seven different cultures in seven weeks during the Riyadh season, offering visitors a unique entertainment experience as well as food, music, entertainment programs, and folk dances representing different countries.
Riyadh Season 2023 includes three new and completely free zones, including the highest weekly auction and maximum zone for heritage market prices 'Souk Al-Awalen' and 'Riyadh Zoo', whose capacity has been increased by 25 percent, and 'Al-Suwaidi' Park' and new areas and diverse cultures and mobile music bandIn addition to being the host of the events, it is seen that the 'Treasure' competition will be organized in a new way, which will have a prize of 6 million Saudi Riyals, while the business performance at the festival will be worth 1 million.
Migratory birds start coming in Chitwan
Migratory birds from home and foreign countries have started flocking to the Chitwan National Park and surroundings in Chitwan district.
The migration of such birds including ducks, hawks and kites takes place every year to avoid cold. President of the Bird Education Society Chitwan Tikaram Giri said such birds have been spotted on the river banks and at water bodies. According to him, 12 to 15 species of ducks from foreign countries have been seen in the Narayani and Rapti rivers, and Riukhola.
Saying the birds started coming in from August, he said many such migratory birds had arrived, and some others would reach by end-October. Even from the hilly areas of Nepal, birds come to Chitwan to avoid cold, he said.
Ornithologist Hem Sagar Baral said birds come to Nepal from countries including Siberia, Malaysia, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and China. Birds like various species of duck like Chakhewa, Suiropuchhre, Malak, Khadakhade, Bijula and Gairi are among the migratory birds that visit Nepal to avoid cold, he said. "It is found that birds migrate to the southern area from northern one to avoid cold."
According to him, 100 of 150 species of birds that come to Nepal as visitors have arrived in Nepal this season so far. These birds would return from the south to the north after six months during the time of hatching, he said. These birds visit Nepal as during winter, the days are shorter and nights are longer in the north pole of the earth, and there is short time for them to graze, he said.
Particularly, birds living in wetlands, grasslands, forests and farmlands visit Nepal during winter, it has been said. There are 892 species of birds across Nepal with 650 species in Chitwan alone.
Rapti, Narayani and Riu rivers that run through the CNP and wetlands in the surroundings are good habitats for waterbirds while the CNP, buffer zones, parks and community forests are considered good areas for wandering.
Climate change hits women's health harder, activists want leaders to address it at COP28
Manju Devi suffered in pain for two months last year as she worked on a farm near Delhi, unable to break away from duties that sometimes had her standing for hours in the waist-deep water of a rice paddy, lifting heavy loads in intense heat and spraying pesticides and insecticides. When that pain finally became too much to bear, she was rushed to a hospital.
The doctors’ verdict: Devi had suffered a prolapsed uterus and would need a hysterectomy. She hadn’t said a word to her family about her discomfort because of societal taboo over discussing a “women's illness,” and with two grown children and three grandchildren looking to the 56-year-old widow to help put food on the table, Devi had relied on painkillers to stay in the fields.
“I endured excruciating pain for months, scared to speak about it publicly. It shouldn’t take a surgical procedure to make us realize the cost of increasing heat,” she said, surrounded by women who told of undergoing a similar ordeal.
As the annual U.N.-led climate summit known as COP is set to convene later this month in Dubai, activists are urging policymakers to respond to climate change’s disproportionate impact on women and girls, especially where poverty makes them more vulnerable.
Their recommendations include securing land rights for women, promoting women's cooperatives and encouraging women to lead on developing climate policy. They also suggest that countries — especially developing countries like India — commit more money in their budgets to ensure gender equity in climate policies.
Group of 20 leaders who met in New Delhi in September also recognized the problem, calling for accelerating climate action with gender equality at its core by increasing women’s participation and leadership in mitigation and adaptation.
Devi is a farm worker in Syaraul, a village of about 7,000 a couple of hours southeast of Delhi in Uttar Pradesh, India's biggest and most populous state. Several other middle-aged and older women from the village described similar injuries leading to hysterectomies.
The link between phenomena like uterine prolapse and climate change is indirect but significant, said Seema Bhaskaran, who tracks gender issues for the nonprofit Transform Rural India Foundation.
“Women in rural, climate-affected communities often bear the brunt of physically demanding agricultural work, made more strenuous by climate change-related challenges like erratic weather and increased labor needs," Bhaskaran said. “While climate change doesn’t directly cause uterine prolapse, it magnifies the underlying health challenges and conditions that make women more susceptible to such health issues.”
About 150 kilometers (93 miles) away, in Nanu village, 62-year-old farm worker Savita Singh blames climate change for a chemical infection that cost her a finger in August 2022.
When her husband moved to Delhi to work as a plumber, she was left alone to tend the couple's fields. As rice and wheat yields fell due to shifting climate patterns and a surge in pest attacks, Singh's husband, who retained decision-making power, decided to increase the use of pesticides and insecticides. It was up to Singh, who had opposed the increases, to apply the chemicals.
“With the rise in pest attacks in farms, we have started using more than three times pesticides and fertilizers in our farms and without any safety gears my hand got burned by the chemicals and one of my fingers had to be amputated,” she said.
In Pilakhana, another Uttar Pradesh village, 22-year-old wage laborer Babita Kumari suffered stillbirths in 2021 and this year that she attributes to the heavy lifting she endured daily in working a brick kiln for long hours in intense heat. Climate change at least doubled the chances of the heat wave that hit the state this year, according to an analysis by Climate Central, an independent U.S.-based group of scientists that developed a tool to quantify climate change's contribution to changing daily temperatures.
“My mother and her mother all have worked in brick kilns all their lives but the heat was not this bad even though they worked for more than eight hours like me. But for the past six-seven years the situation has worsened and heat has become unbearable to withstand but what option do we have than to endure it,” said Kumari, who lives in a makeshift camp with her husband.
Bhaskaran noted that women in India often assume primary roles in agriculture while men migrate to urban areas, which makes the women especially vulnerable to the direct effects of climate change. A government labor force survey for 2021-22 found that 75% of the people working in agriculture are women. But only about 14% of agricultural land is owned by women, according to a government agriculture census.
For Bhaskaran, it adds up to a picture of women sacrificing their health by working long hours in intense heat, exposed to insecticides and pesticides, and with uncertain access to clean water. On top of that, many are undernourished because they "often eat last and least within patriarchal structures,” she said.
Poonam Muttreja is a women's rights activist who also directs the Population Foundation of India, a non-governmental organization that focuses on issues of population, family planning, reproductive health, and gender equality. She said it's essential that COP28, the meeting in Dubai, take concrete action to help women.
She said COP28 should go beyond providing financial aid, and actively promote and facilitate the inclusion of gender considerations within all climate-related policies, initiatives, and actions.
“It must prioritize awareness programs that emphasize the specific health challenges women face in the wake of climate change as a critical step towards increasing public knowledge. These efforts will also serve as a call to action for governments, institutions, and communities to prioritize women’s health and well-being as a central component of their climate initiatives,” she added.
Anjal Prakash, a professor and the research director at the Bharat Institute of Public Policy at the Indian School of Business, coordinated a working group that examined gender for a recent assessment by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He said it will take international pressure to overcome some countries that may quietly oppose gender-sensitive climate policies due to conservative ideologies and political barriers.
Finding money will also be a formidable challenge, he said.
Shweta Narayan, a researcher and environmental justice activist at Health Care Without Harm, said women, children and the elderly are among the most vulnerable to extreme climate events. She saw reason for optimism at COP28 because of a dedicated Health Day at the conference.
“Definitely there is a very clear recognition that climate has a health impact and health needs to be considered more seriously,” she said. AP
Eco corridor in community forests to draw tourists
Activities based on wildlife contributing to tourism are thriving lately at Nawalpur. The community forests in the buffer zone of the Chitwan National Park (CNP) have become popular for sightseeing.
With the activities growing on eco-tourism, the number of tourists has also increased here.
From Gaidakot to Triveni Forest, the buffer zone of CNP is visited for seeing wild animals and birds. Jungle safari is popular, according to Chairman of Dhakaha buffer zone community forest, Nar Bahadur Mahato.
"We have prioritized tourism because tourists visit here to see wildlife. Jungle safari is a major choice," he said, adding that the fee generated from tourists is the forest's income.
Aquatic birds found in the Narayani River and other streams attract visitors. Diversity in wildlife is a special feature in this area, including CNP.
Mahato further informed that even an 'eco corridor' was set up to lure tourists. The corridor stretches over 2,020 hectares of land straddling various community forests. The trail is also determined for the convenience of tourists.
Moreover, four other community forests under Sishbar Consumers' Committee in the buffer zone are also planning for the eco corridor. Management of the meadows and wetlands is also paid attention by the consumers' committee.
The indigenous settlements near the forest are also promoting homestay. Central chairman of Homestay Association, Premshankar Mardaniyar Tharu, informed that the number of households running homestays and hotels targeting tourists has also increased in recent times.
Currently, there are more than half dozen homestays near community forests in the buffer zone. The number of such homestays would be increased, Chaudhari shared.
