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The private carrier Buddha Air has extended its commercial flights from two to three days a week from Kathmandu to Varanasi of India.

According to the Buddha Air, there will be flights to Varanasi from Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport on every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Issuing a press statement today, the privately-owned airline expressed its belief that three flights a week would further facilitate passengers.

Furthermore, the Buddha Holidays, a sister organization of the Buddha Air, also has holiday packages for destinations like Sarnath and Ayodhya in India.

Buddha Air is hopeful that these packages would provide additional assistance to the passengers to perform Sohra Sraddha in Gaya of India. Sohra Sraddha is a 16-day period in the Hindu calendar during which people pay homage to their ancestors.

Varanasi (also known as Kashi) could be reached by a 50-minutes flight from Kathmandu. The initial one-way fare to Varanasi is priced at Rs 11,360.

Likewise, the flight time from Kathmandu to Varanasi is scheduled at 7:15 am while the flight from Varanasi to Kathmandu is fixed at 8:30 am, the Buddha Air informed.

Nepal's monthslong festival season began on Tuesday with tens of thousands of devotees pulling a wooden chariot with a young girl revered as a living goddess.

Families gathered for feasts and lit incense for the dead at shrines. Men and boys in colorful masks and gowns representing Hindu deities danced to traditional music and drums, drawing throngs of spectators to Kathmandu's old streets.

The Indra Jatra festival marks the end of the monsoon and rice farming season and signals the dawn of fall. It's celebrated mostly by the Newar community, the native residents of Kathmandu. It is also known as the festival of deities and demons and especially honors Indra, the Hindu god of rain.

The masked dancers, one of the highlights of the ceremony, can be fearsome, entertaining and awe-inspiring, depending on the performers' movements.

Kumari, a young girl who is revered by both Hindus and Buddhists in Nepal as a living goddess, left her temple palace and was driven around the center of the capital in a wooden chariot pulled by devotees, who lined up to receive her blessing. Among the spectators were President Ram Chandra Poudel, officials and diplomats.

The weeklong Indra Jatra precedes months of other festivals in the predominantly Hindu nation. They include Dasain, the main festival, and Tihar, or Diwali, the festival of lights, in November. AP

The 'Dhegaun' of Loghekar Damodarkunda Rural Municipality-5 of Mustang, which was full of human settlement two decades ago, is now turning empty.

Climate change is believably one of the reasons behind the eviction of villagers. With drying up of water sources in the village due to the effects of climate change, people were forced to leave the settlement.

The mass displacement did not only desert the village but also cause gradual disappearance of local traditions, culture and history.

Old houses are collapsing and the settlement looks ruined and rugged. Hundreds of hectares of cultivable land have turned barren due to the outflow of the locals in search of water.

Loghekar Damodarkunda rural municipality-5 ward chair Pasang Gurung said there was no one living in the village due to internal migration with the deepening water crisis.

"After the drying up of irrigation and drinking water sources, there was no condition to live", he said. People are forced to abandon their settlements with humans and animals being deprived of access to drinking water.

The ward chair bemoaned although he had spent his life at Dhe village since childhood, he was now forced to leave due to the water crisis.

Farming and livestock are the main sources of livelihood for the people. Ward Chair Gurung said that the water source has dried up after low volume of snowfall in the winter. "Snow was the main source of water, but due to climate change, there was a decreasing volume of snow", he said. According to him, the locals now go to the cowshed only to graze sheep and goats in the rainy season.

Agricultural land has not been cultivated when there was no adequate rainfall and drying up of irrigation water sources.

Dhey village was located in ward 9 of the then Surkhang Village Development Committee. At present, Dhe and Thamjung fall in the same ward. There is a large population of Gurung and Lowa people here.

The then VDCs and district development committees had initiated the process of relocating the settlements when water shortage was looming large.

Ward Chair Gurung said that infrastructure has been constructed in the new settlement with the help of the government and donor agencies. They are cultivating apples in the new settlement.

"We have been affected the most by the rise in temperature and climate change", he said.

The Dhe village is about 4,000 meters above sea level. The Thamjung-based new settlement on the banks of the river is at an altitude of 3,700 meters.

At present, there are 26 households in the village. Along with the settlement, the school has been shifted to Thamjung. Since 2064 BS, the migration to Thamjung had started.

Thamjung, which is close to Charang and Surkhang, has drinking water, electricity and other facilities. 

The Department of Meteorology and Hydrology said the country has witnessed impacts of monsoon winds along with partial influence of low-pressure system in and around north-eastern Madhya Pradesh and southern Uttar Pradesh of India.

At present, the weather will be partly to generally cloudy in Gandaki, Lumbini, Karnali and Sudurpaschim Provinces and partly cloudy in the rest of the country.

According to the Meteorological Forecasting Division, the weather will be partly to generally cloudy in the hilly regions of the country including Lumbini, Karnali and Sudurpaschim provinces and partly cloudy in the rest of the country.

Light to moderate rain with thunder and lightning is likely to occur at some places of the hilly region including Karnali and Sudurpaschim Provinces.

There is a possibility of a wind storm in some places of the Tarai region of Lumbini province. Similarly, the weather will be partly to generally cloudy in the hilly region and partly cloudy in the rest of the country tonight.

Light to moderate rain is likely to occur at one or two places of the hilly regions of Koshi, Bagmati, Gandaki and Karnali Provinces.

In the next 24 hours, light to moderate rain accompanied by thunder and lightning is likely to occur at a few places of the hilly region and at one or two places of the rest of the country.

There is a possibility of wind storm in some places of Lumbini and Tarai region of Sudurpaschim Province.