More than three dozen of the local governments lying along the Kaligandaki River have gone violating the Supreme Court (SC) order by extracting river based natural products worth millions annually. However, the illegal activities operated by the local units are unchecked even if they are visible to the stakeholders. The Kali Gandaki river passes through Mustang, Myagdi, Baglung, Parbat, Syangja, Gulmi, Palpa, Tanahu and Nawalparasi districts adjoining over three dozen local governments. The river banks are rich in sand, pebbles, gritstone, stone, and forest woods. “Some 40 local bodies along the river from the mountain to plains have extracted the natural products of the river worth around one billion rupees every year although the Supreme Court ordered not to extract anything from the river,” said advocate Tulasi Ram Pokharel, resident of Rampur Municipality in Palpa, who also filed cases in the SC against the Kaligandaki river diversion and disobey of the court order.

According to Pokharel, Rampur Municipality in Palpa and Chapakot Municipality in Syangja district extract river products worth at least Rs 50m each annually. The local governments those lie along the river include Kaligandaki, Rambha, Ruru, Kushma, Beni, Baglung, Jaljala, Jaimini, Bulingtar, Nisdi, Ghiring, Rising, Devghat, Galyang, GharapJhong, Barhagaun Muktikshetra and more.

About a half dozen petitions were filed at the SC, seeking restrictive orders against the government plan for the river diversion and river products extractions as the Kaligandaki river has its own cultural importance and civilization dwelling along the settlements through the Kaligandaki river. Approximately, 3.5m people live in the surrounding areas along about a 309-km section of the river from mountain to foothills of Nepal. The river that starts from the Tibetan enclave to Triveni of Nepal accounts 496 km in length. Pokharel filed the case on 30 June 2021 against Office of the President, the Government of Nepal, Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, Ministry of Finance, then Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel, Chief Minister of Lumbini Province and National Planning Commission, demanding to stop the river diversion project that would spoil the chain of civilization, environment and culture. Senior Advocate Balkrishna Neupane filed a writ on 2 July 2021, seeking certiorari order against the river diversion that will damage the cultural civilization along the river. Similarly, senior Advocate Prakash Mani Sharma filed another case on 6 July 2021 demanding certiorari order with mandamus against extractions of river basin products by 40 local governments, district coordination committees, district administration offices and Gandaki Province. Immediately, the SC issued an interim stay order to stop diversion procedure and all sorts of extractions from the river. However, the local bodies including Rampur Municipality and Chapakot Municipality continued extractions unabatedly. Ruru Rural Municipality in Gulmi district filed a writ at the SC on 21 October 2021, demanding to scrap the stay order against the river extractions. On 27 December 2021, advocate Raja Ram Ghimire and Pokharel filed a court disobedience case at the SC against Rampur Municipality. The SC on 20 June 2022 dismissed the writ filed by Ruru Rural Municipality while other cases are undergoing at the SC. Advocate Pokharel claimed that the local bodies were still extracting the river products in the name of mouths of the small rivers and streams in these local units. “These extractions are against the SC order, triggering soil erosion, environmental degradation,” he said. “It’s also a slap against our proposal of enlisting the River in the World Heritage Site,” he added. Rampur Municipality called an invitation for bids on September 30, 2022 to contract for extractions of sand and gritstones, mentioning stream mouths but the seven locations called in the bid were the banks of the Kali Gandaki River. Kapil Bahadur Khand, spokesperson for the Rampur Municipality, admitted that they called the bid for the extractions from the mouths of streams adjoining the Kaligandaki river. “We are also checking the illegal extractions,” he claimed. “If they steal and extract by night or away from our notice, we are unable to take action against them,” he added. Khand further conceded that they allowed big contractors to extract the sand and gritstones from the river banks. “We have given permission for extractions after they presented letters from the Ministries or the Department of Roads,” he said. “We have allowed two big contractors to extract river products from the banks,” he added. There are a number of cases registered at the anti-graft body the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) against misuses of natural resources of the river. However, the actions against the violators are yet to be materialized against the cases belonging to the Kaligandaki River. The river has cultural and religious significance, and Hindu texts read sages including Pulaha, Kapila, and Jadbharat attained enlightenment by meditating along the banks at Beni-Galeshwor section. The river known as Gandaki is also considered a holy river having Shaligrams, goldstones. The Kali Gandaki Gorge or Andha Galchi is claimed as the deepest gorge of the world. The river stands among the longest and most interesting rivers of Nepal.