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A person died and other sustained injuries when a water tanker and a motorbike collided with each other at Sallaghari in Bhaktapur on Tuesday. DSP Raju Pandey of the Metropolitan Police Range, Bhaktapur said that the deceased has been identified as motorbike rider Sajan Duwari (26) of Lokanthali, Madhyapur Thimi Municipality-1. Similarly, pillion rider Amanal Sah (23) of Jhapa, currently residing at Madhyapur Thimi-3, who sustained injuries in the incident, is undergoing treatment at the Iwamura Memorial Hospital. DSP Pandey said that the motorbike (Province 02-031 Pa 7862) collided head-on with the tanker (Ba 4 Kha 4268) this morning. Police said that they have impounded both the vehicles and arrested tanker driver Prabin Sunuwar (28) of Byasi, Bhaktapur Municipality-2 for investigation.    

Representatives of the stakeholder agencies under the local level have underscored the urgent need of conservation of the threatened bird Bagale Bagedi, the yellow-breasted bunting. It has been reclassified as critically endangered on the red list of threatened species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). This was highlighted by ornithologists in a seminar on conservation of Bagale Bagedi organized by Pokhara Bird Society. On the occasion, Anisha Rana, a researcher on Bagale Bagedi, said that this species of buntings migrate to Nepal from the Siberian region to escape the harsh winter cold and its population is nominal at the global and national level. She shared that the yellow-breasted bunting s start arriving Nepal from Siberia towards mid-November and stay here in Nepal for about six months before returning back to Siberia. These birds inhabit the wetlands near the lakes in Pokhara. Rana cited a survey report that showed the presence of 230 of this species of bird in Phewa Lake, 12 in Gunde Lake and 13 in Khaste Lake. This bird was not seen in the six remaining lakes in Pokhara. “This bird’s habitat is in the wetland, farmland and grassland. The bunting is similar to the size of sparrow and it is an attractive bird. Its average weight is 22 grams and is 14 centimetres to 16 centimetres long. It lives for seven years on an average,” informed another researcher Amrit Poudel. It migrates to Nepal from Russia, Mongolia and China during the winter. Its decline has become extreme in the past decade, likely driven by excessive trapping at migration and wintering sites, according to the IUCN. This bird is highly endangered globally as people kill it for its meat. A working paper on the yellow-breasted buntings shared in the seminar states that 886 species of birds are recorded in Nepal while there are 11 thousand 225 species of birds in the world. The Spiny Babbler is only found in Nepal. The protected bird species of Nepal are the Black Stork (Ciconia nigra), the White Stork (Ciconia ciconia), the Sarus Crane (Grus antigone), the Cheer Pheasant (Catreus wallichii), the Himalayan Monal/Impeyan Pheasant (Lophophorus impejanus), the Satyr Tragopan (Tragopan satyra), the Bengal Florican (Houbaropsis bengalensis) and the Lesser Florican (Sypheotides indicus). Sixty-two species of birds arrive in Nepal during the summer while 152 species of birds migrate to Nepal during winter to escape cold. Similarly, it is said that 50 species of birds arrive in Nepal on the way of migrating while 79 species are seen as wanderers.

A construction businessman was found murdered in Nakkhu, Lalitpur. The deceased has been identified as Rajan Basnet (39) of Chanakhu, Manthali Municipality-10, Ramechhap. Siddha Bikram Shah, spokesperson at the Metropolitan Police Range, Lalitpur, said that they have apprehended six persons based on the complaint filed by Basnet’s relatives. According to Shah, locals informed the police after they saw the lifeless body on roadside while they were heading towards the Bishnu Devi Temple to offer worship on Sunday morning. The body has been kept at the Patan Hospital for postmortem. Police said that they are looking into the case.

As the UN climate change conference, COP27, has come halfway to the two-week-long event in Sharma El Sheikh city of Egypt, the world leaders have repeated the warning of 'climate hell', while decisive negotiations are now transferred to the political table. Similarly, as in the previous years, the poor and least developed countries (LDCs) are univocal to remind the historic responsibility of the industrially developed and rich countries behind growing greenhouse gas emission and the brunt being borne by the small and under-resourced ones. Since the beginning of the conference, various world leaders including UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and world climate champion Al Gore addressed the event. Both Al Gore and the US President Joe Biden seconded the warning made by the Secretary General that the world was making headway to 'climate hell'. It evidently shows a global urgency on climate change. Similarly, other experts, observers and researchers have so far shared both hope and despair over the event delivery. Some positive campaigns and best practices shared in the conference and side events have built hope while the prospect of tough negotiation ahead to deal with the climate crisis is likely to shake trust. Expert on climate change adaptation and development, Dr Lisa Schipper, mentions in tweet, "Half the events I’ve attended at #COP27 is bubbling with positive examples of local action to address climate change. The other half warn against the absolutely massive scale and severity of the challenge. What’s being done is NOT ENOUGH without government commitments." Similarly, reviewing the first week of the COP27, a PhD candidate of geography at Cambridge University, Friederike Hartz, said: "COP27 started out with a lot of hope, especially in the context of loss and damage. Getting a sub-agenda item on loss and damage finance was a historic success. Week two will now show what this was actually worth. A lot of work remains to be done for negotiators." Nepal has shared best practices of locally-led climate change adaptation. The officials from the Ministry of Forests and Environment claimed that Nepal is the champion on climate change adaptation. Nepal is vibrantly raising the issues of loss and damage and impact on the mountain ecosystem this time. The second week is awaited to see how effectively and convincingly Nepal and LDCs raise their concern. In this regard, climate change specialist Bimal Regmi shared from Egypt, "The Nepali delegation has been very active in lobbying for additional financial resources for scaling out locally led adaptation and direct access to international finance. We aren’t arguing that the current financial instrument within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has failed to provide fast track financing to adequately support impacted and vulnerable communities." He however suggested that it is time to reform these institutions. Moreover, climate change negotiator for LDC, Manjeet Dhakal, shared from Egypt that the negotiations have now moved to the second week, where the ministers would take over and try to resolve divergence at political level. When asked whether there was any significant achievement in the first week in the global climate event, Dhakal observed, "The progress on the first week was slow and many political differences are still to be resolved." According to him, the major topics are reducing emissions to limit global warming to 1.5°C, doubling support for adaptation, and establishment of dedicated funding for loss and damage. He commented that the negotiating texts are lengthy with multiple options that would require political breakthrough. Meanwhile, climate expert Ngamindra Dahal said, “Major emitters intend to shift debate beyond 1.5-degree centigrade target which will kill hope of the most vulnerable countries from the global south.” A week to go, let's see how the COP27, regarded as the implementation summit, will be able to act on fostering the common global agenda of ensuring safe future to entire humanity and planet.