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The districts in the Terai/Madhesh, including Kanchanpur, will be celebrating Holi, the festival of colors, tomorrow, Monday. The festival is observed today in the hilly districts.

However, with changing times, the celebratory events of Holi are shrinking, it is said. The traditional Hindu festival, which once featured worship and prayers offered to deities such as Ram and Krishna, as well as presentations of special Holi songs, dances, stories and dramas based on social, natural, and cultural themes, has now become limited to color celebrations.

In the past, dance and singing performances relating to historic and mythical events would be carried out during the festival, symbolizing the victory of truth over falsehood.

However, literary figure Kabiraj Bhatta said that such cultural presentations have vanished over time. The present generation mainly internalizes the festival with playing with colors.

Bhatta sees the need of preserving the cultural values and prestige of the festival. Traditionally, people would visit public places and neighbors' homes to celebrate Holi. The cultural narratives presented during Holi carry historic and cultural values, according to Ramesh Pant, Chair of the Progressive Writers' Association in the far-west region.

He expressed concern over the increasing trend of consuming alcohol and haphazardly playing with colors during Holi, which as he believes undermines its aesthetic values.

Moreover, modern music has replaced traditional musical instruments during the celebrations.

The District Police Office in Kanchanpur has urged everyone to refrain from engaging in any untoward activities and to observe the festival in a decent and civilized manner. They warned of taking action against any unwanted behavior.

Light rain or thunder and lightning are likely to occur at a few places in the hilly region of Koshi, Bagmati and Gandaki Provinces and at one or two places in the hilly region of the rest of the country today, the Meteorological Forecasting Division said.

The weather is partly to generally cloudy in Koshi, Madhesh, Bagmati and Gandaki Provinces along with the hilly regions of the country and partly cloudy to mainly fair in the rest of the country, according to the Division. 

Likewise, there are chances of light snowfall at one or two places of the high hilly and mountainous region of the country.

Tonight, it will be partly to generally cloudy throughout the country. Light rain or thunder and lightning are forecast at a few places in the hilly region of the country. Similarly, there are chances of light snowfall at one or two places of the high hilly and mountainous region of the country.

Presently, there is an influence of Westerly low-pressure system and of local wind induced low pressure system based in Assam and its adjoining areas.  

Division's meteorologist Min Kumar Aryal said that today's maximum temperature in Kathmandu is likely to be measured from 21 to 23 degrees Celsius while the minimum temperature is measured to 13.6 degrees Celsius and existing visibility is five kilometers.

The World Tuberculosis (TB) Day 2024 is being observed in Nepal too by organizing a variety of programs under the main theme of 'Yes! we can end TB'.

Meanwhile, in Baglung, a campaign is being conducted to prevent tuberculosis by increasing the scope of tests for the infection. Leprosy inspector for the district, Dev Prakash Ghimire, said that there is a plan to test the blood of the family members of the infected.

Head of the district health office, Baburam Acharya, said that the number of people infected with TB has increased with the increase in the scope of tuberculosis testing. Tuberculosis tests are now conducted from 14 laboratories in the district.

Chief of the district coordination committee, Amar Bahadur Thapa, said that all efforts should be made to prevent the infection including an awareness campaign among the people.

The Yellow breasted bunting, an endangered species of bird, has been spotted in the buffer zone of Shuklaphanta National Park.

Locally known as Bagale Bagedi, the bird was seen for the first time in the area, said Suwan Chaudhary, a conservationist. He said that a flock of the bird was seen in the field of a local farmer in Dhaknia, Shuklaphanta Municipality-2.

Meanwhile, Hirulal Dagaura, ornithologist at Bird Conservation Nepal, said that the bird was first documented in Shuklaphanta National Park in 1980.

This bird has reached the point of extinction from the world after it was hunted excessively for its meat. "The number of yellow breasted bunting has been found to have decreased by 90 percent in the last decade", said Dagaura.  Just a few years ago the number of the bird in Nepal was in the thousands but now it has been limited to around 30.

Along with Kailali, Kanchanpur, Bardiya, Chitwan, Jhapa, the bird has also been found in some districts of Madhes province.