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Indra Jatra, the biggest festival of the Kathmandu Valley, formally began today with the erection of a wooden ceremonial pole (lingo) at Hanumandhoka. The festival dedicated to Indra, the god of rain and king of heaven, is celebrated for eight days. On the occasion, Lakhe dance are performed on the streets of Kathmandu. Meanwhile, the lingo, brought to Hanumandhoka from a jungle in Bhaktapur, was erected with the help of locals and Nepal Army personnel. The lingo-erection procession was marked with fanfare.

Nepal reported 300 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday. According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 1, 981 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 177 returned positive. Likewise, 2, 609 people underwent antigen tests, of which 123 were tested positive. The Ministry said that 124 infected people recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours. As of today, there are 2, 457 active cases in the country.

The Kathmandu Metropolitan City has started demolishing illegal structures built by encroaching roads in Ason area. The Metropolitan City has once again directed the concerned people to remove illegal structures and vacate shops. Earlier, the KMC authorities had issued a 24-hour notice to vacate shops from the illegally built structures but business operators turned a blind eye to the order. Meanwhile, the business operators stage a protest against the KMC’s move. The KMC has urged the people to remove the illegal structures from the Ason areas by Wednesday. Street vendors in Kathmandu have often encroached the footpaths, forcing people to walk on the roads.

A large number of yaks in the pastureland in Disyang Rural Municipality in Manang are taken ill and around 30 died from an unidentified disease. Chief of Veterinary Hospital and Livestock Services Expert Centre, Manang, Narayan Kusum said that a team of livestock technicians have visited the site for the treatment of the disease after the issue was noticed. The yaks have developed the symptoms of high fever, maximum salivation, difficulty in breathing, swollen throat and some others. So far 30 yaks have died of the disease. On the basis of the symptoms on yaks, the technicians have suspected the spread of foot and mouth disease. However, it is yet to confirm from the sample test of blood and bone marrow of yaks, according to Kusum. Veterinarians have continued their surveillance as the yaks are still sick in the pastureland. The Centre stated that samples of the blood and bone marrow have been sent to Provincial Veterinary Laboratory in Pokhara for the diagnosis of the disease. However, Chief of the Laboratory, Kedar Raj Pandey, said the disease is not confirmed yet adding that yak dung was needed to confirm whether or not foot and mouth disease was spread in Manang. Pandey argued that chances are high for the infection of parasite leech on animals in the Himalayas during September and October. “That could have also created problems on animals,” he added.