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A woman died after an ambulance hit a scooter she was riding on at Bhokraha Narsingh Rural Municipality-4 in Sunsari on Sunday.

The deceased has been identified as Nirmala Uruwa (30) of Inaruwa-5, DSP Narendra Kumar Karki of the District Police Office said.

The ambulance (Province 2-01-001 Jha 0028) hit the two-wheeler (Province 01-02-041 Pa 2155) yesterday evening.

Critically injured in the incident, Uruwa breathed her last in the course of treatment at the District Hospital, Inaruwa, police said.

Police have arrested ambulance driver Sunil Kumar Mehta (27) of Bishanpur-5, Saptari for investigation.

Nepal logged 262 new Covid-19 cases and four deaths on Sunday.

With this, the country's active caseload mounted to 1,114, 156. Similarly, the death toll has climbed to 11,921.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 6, 572 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 229 returned positive. Likewise, 3, 243 people underwent antigen tests, of which 33 tested positive.

The Ministry said that 1, 338 infected people recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours.

As of today, there are 12, 244 active cases in the country. 

The Ministry said that 11, 754 people are staying in home isolation while 490 are in institutionalized isolation.

Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC), the state-owned monopoly, hiked the prices of petroleum products on Thursday.

The NOC has decided to increase Rs 3 per litre each in petrol, diesel and kerosene.

As per the new revised rate, the petrol will now cost Rs 145 per litre and diesel and kerosene will cost Rs 128 per litre.

The NOC, however, has not increased the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).

The decision will come into effect from today midnight.

WWF Nepal in 2021 ended its USAID-funded Hariyo Ban Program after 10 years. In this period, the program achieved several conservation milestones.

Nepal is on track to achieving the global goal of doubling its tiger numbers as it has recorded tigers at altitudes of 2,500 meters in the west and 3,200 meters in the east.

Similarly, the one-horned rhino count has hit a historic high with 752 counted last year (694 in Chitwan, 38 in Bardiya, 17 in Shuklaphanta and three in Parsa), in what was a 16.5 percent increase from 2015. Nepal also collared two additional snow leopards in Shey Phoksundo National Park.

When covid pandemic led to illegal logging, forest product harvest and wildlife crimes, the program in partnership with government, local communities and stakeholder renewed its efforts to protect forests and wildlife. WWF Nepal alone contributed to the protection of 161,813 hectares of forests by strengthening Forest Conservation Areas (FCA). Also, the authorities concerned maintained guard posts, fire lines, revised policy assistance, and held transboundary meetings with the Indian side to develop a cross-border sharing mechanism.

Efforts were also initiated to reduce fuelwood as the primary source of energy, as it hampers the environment along with the health and safety of communities.

Climate change was another field where the Hariyo Ban Program was active. Climate change has affected multiple small communities in the form of climate-induced disasters such as flooding and riverbank erosion.

To address these problems,  the Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (CCSAP) for each province of Nepal is currently being prepared to localize the National Climate Change Policy that aims to make a transition to 100 percent renewable energy.

Overfishing, proliferation of aquatic invasive species, unmanaged sand and gravel mining, pollution, encroachment, siltation, unplanned infrastructure development and ground water extraction continue to threaten freshwater ecosystems. To cope with these challenges, seven artificial wetlands were constructed and restored in the western Tarai. These wetlands are expected to retain around 200 million liters of underground water.

There has also been work on strengthening indigenous people and local communities’ access to natural resources and ensuring equitable benefit sharing mechanisms by creating transparent, participatory, inclusive governance mechanisms for sustainable management of natural resources.