It is important to note that the vastly populated nations across South Asia, so rich in biodiversity, is unfortunately suffering from several anthropogenic issues impacting conservation and management of her vast natural resources, wildlife and biodiversity in particular. The exponential growth of human population across South Asia is susceptible to the grave danger of jeopardizing the natural ecosystems due to significant boost in economic growth, rapid development of infrastructure, establishment of heavy industries and expansion of intensive agriculture across the region. People need to be made aware and appropriately sensitized regarding the challenges of degrading environment and local ecosystems and about the loss of several endangered species, national forest cover and above all the dangers of erosion of their rich biodiversity. Holistic approaches in solving regional ecological problems through regional cooperation and coordination will be important in the not so distant future. Even the integration of the SAARC and ASEAN platforms for better ecological and wildlife conservation practices has the potential to cover several highly populated countries of South and SE Asia. The South and SE Asian nations now have strong but positive economic, diplomatic and strategic cooperation with one another through several regional and supra regional platforms and this needs to be extended towards cooperation in the rich biodiversity of the region. Saikat Kumar Basu, Canada Impunity Apropos of the editorial “Sidewalk trade” (THT, February 7, Page 8), Nepal needs laws carved in stone, in distinct black and white, to deal with people’s problems. We should substitute unwavering laws for dialogue and consensus to deal with problems in all spheres of life. Why is it that the vendors are back on the footpath without any fear of reprisals from the KMC? Why cannot KMC simply lock the erring vendors away for days when they start fiendishly spreading their wares on the footpath? Why is it that the cops have to tell the buses where to stop to pick up and drop commuters? Why cannot there be a clear sign indicating stops and a written warning to the errant drivers of a fine of Rs. 10,000 for non-compliance of rules? Why is it that the house panel chair has to direct the staff of the private contract company to complete Rajbiraj airport work ‘on time without compromising on quality’ (Page 6, Feb 7)? Aren’t these spelled out in TOR? Aren’t there legal consequences for not fulfilling a commitment within deadline or doing shoddy work? What punishment has been meted out to journalists who ‘failed to comply with code of ethics during the two Constituent Assembly elections and to those who were not ‘free from partisan views while covering election activities’, as charged by Prof C Khanal in his keynote address (Page 2, Feb 7)? Should not there be automatic punishment for breaches of codes and bias stand? Manohar Shrestha, Kathmandu