KATHMANDU, OCTOBER 5

"In any feudal family, it was fashionable to hunt animals and decorate homes with their skins and horns. But my daughter burned everything and has barred us from doing so," said Sharat Singh Bhanadari, Minister for Labour, Employment, and Security, at the Jyanu-Basant Raj Mishra Foundation Award 2024 ceremony.

And yes, his daughter Shristi Singh Bhandari affirmed that she burnt down the souvenirs of animal skins and horns in their home.

Shristi prefers to remain out of the spotlight, but her work in the sector of environmental conservation and animal rights has been relentless for two decades now.

"In addition, she has implemented very strict rules in our family. She is a vegan, environmental activist and animal rights advocate. As soon as anything goes against animals, she immediately alerts me about taking action against it," says Minister Bhandari.

He went on to add, "We are promoting Nijgadh airport while they (Shristi and her team) are suing us and dragging us through the court(s) to sway the decision in favour of the environment and animals."

"In 2022, the Supreme Court issued a ruling against the construction of the Nijgadh Airport. However, the government intends to proceed," Shristi says, adding. "There is a lot of corruption and poor governance that needs to be investigated."

Shristi asserts, "The government will always try to raise funds for the nature airport because it is a political project full of geopolitics and a vote bank rather than an economic one as many people believe."

Shristi says the government can build as many international airports as it wants, and that she and her team have never opposed the airport's construction. "Our concerns, however, are as follows: why do you want to cut 2.4 million trees in that location? We provided them a paper outlining alternative locations."

However, she points out the irony that the two existing international airports are failing to collect revenues.

Pointing to alternative locations, she says, "Sarlahi has a place called Murtiya. It has been thoroughly investigated and reported to the government as an alternative. The experts provided the government with a few other locations and alternative solutions. Experts included everyone from aviation experts to economic experts to environmental experts to wildlife experts, and more. But the government paid no attention to it. They wanted that specific location, which has been our reason for our question from the beginning."

The government-commissioned environmental impact assessment (EIA) in 2018 revealed that 2.4 million trees, both large and small, would have had to be cut down to build the two-runway airport.

Furthermore, the forest serves as a prime migratory corridor for wild elephants. Conflicts and retaliation with elephants and humans are often reported in eastern Nepal.

"It is because the entire area is a wildlife corridor for elephants. They have been using it forever. That's their ancestral land and deeply ingrained in their DNA," she says.

As such, "they are going to use that path no matter what. Regardless of how many villages, roads, and bridges you build."

Then she points to the issue of 'human wildlife conflict', which she terms as "human-caused wildlife conflict".

She explains her view: "Conflict or war, requires both parties to be aware that there is a conflict. The animals have absolutely no idea. Animals are doing whatever is programmed in their DNA and supposed to be stored in their DNA memory. They are doing what they are supposed to do to survive, eat, care for their children, and reproduce."

Pointing at us humans, She says, "It is humans who have created these kinds of obstacles for them. So, I always see human-induced violent conflict."

Hence, whenever "we talk about coexistence, we must also understand that removing these large forest areas will cause conflict, not for those who work in Kathmandu, Janakpur, or Birgunj, but for those who live with the forest, with these animals."

This, she says, is the crux of the matter. ""No matter how much we talk about climate justice or economic prosperity, if you do not talk about the basic issue of how these communities are going to benefit or how they are affected by this conflict, we are never going to reach, no matter how big all these COPs in conferences in hotels with so many stars solutions will never be involved because they are not really working on the ground."

That, she says, is the reality of the proposed Nijgadh Airport.

And it is also not just about the airport and environment, according to Shristi.

"It is always about the one percent versus the 99 per cent and how the 99 per cent is being brainwashed into believing that all of these projects are for their benefit."

Illustrating her point, she says that the government recently passed legislation to issue a contentious ordinance facilitating foreign investment in various sectors of the country, including protected areas, in a move that could have long-term consequences for the country's hard-won conservation gains.

Although the specifics of the ordinance, signed into law by President Ram Chandra Poudel on April 28, remain unknown, it appears to be brought with the intention to amend several existing laws, including the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act, which governs protected areas in Nepal.

"It seeks to make investments, particularly foreign and domestic investments, easier for everyone. One of the points states that it is done to facilitate investments and to declare an area to be outside of highly sensitive zones, such as national parks, allowing the construction of various types of infrastructure. Infrastructure developments classified as projects of national pride include both national priority projects and large-scale foreign investment projects," she says.

They (her team) have "challenged it in the Supreme Court" because if the law passes "all of our national parks will be destroyed, resulting in unimaginable catastrophes. And no one is really discussing it."

It is to be noted that Nepal has 12 national parks, a wildlife reserve, a hunting reserve, six conservation areas, and 13 buffer zones spread across the country, from the lowland Tarai Arc to the high Himalayas, and account for nearly a quarter of the total land area.

Though locals were displaced in order to establish national parks in the southern lowlands, people continue to live within some national parks and conservation areas, including Sagarmatha (Everest), Langtang, and Annapurna.

The ordinance was issued on the eve of the third Nepal Investment Summit, which the government had organised to showcase investment opportunities to foreign investors. Some of the projects on the list include the construction of cable car lines in the Annapurna region and a hotel within Rara National Park, which is home to the world-renowned pristine Rara Lake.

Without such an ordinance, the projects would have faced legal challenges, according to media reports.

"There is a very small group of people with vested interests, and they are literally brainwashing people into believing this will bring money and investments," she says. "And by now people should understand this but it baffles me that they are unable to see through this when it has been very visible for many years, whether they are discussing Pokhara Airport or anything else."

Pointing to the fact that "We must now pay the Chinese government interest beginning next year or this year (for the airport)" she wonders, "How will we raise that much money to pay interest? It is our money from taxpayers. It is a never-ending cycle of debt-national debt and personal debt-that will never be broken, even as more investments come in."

She then points to the "only strengths" of Nepal-"culture and natural beauty" that she says are our greatest assets.

"We are unlike Singapore or Dubai. We just have nature and culture. If we want to bring more people in, we should do so through spiritual tourism, wildlife tourism, hiking, trekking, or religious tourism, such as Lumbini, which has already received a final warning from UNESCO that it will be removed from the World Heritage Site."

However, she claims that no one is paying attention to that. "So if we have all these heritage sites that have been demolished, no one will come to Nepal to look at roads, malls, and airports because they already have them in their countries, which are far superior to ours," she argues.

Hence, there is a need to "capitalise on our culture and nature."

Also, there is danger when "intervening in national parks and, most importantly, displacing indigenous populations while establishing national parks. It has been repeatedly demonstrated that when indigenous people live in proximity to any type of natural reservoir, they are the ones who conserve these natural resources the most."

So it is important, she says, to recognise that "the government now wants to bring in big shops, profit-mongering companies, and corporations to deplete all natural resources and build cable cars and high-tech malls."

The solution, she opines, is that such an action should not be taken at all. "There are things like national parks that need to be conserved and protected, period. There is no grey area about this."

When it comes to an area like Nijgadh, " development and environment can and have always coexisted. It's not rocket science."

"What we need are leaders, whether from government, bureaucracy, corporations, the private sector, or NGOs, who are quiet about these issues and want to work together to figure out what we call sustainability practices, use and emerge innovation with indigenous knowledge, and create solutions. It's as simple as that."

But "intention is the key" she says: "Do you really intend to work for it? Do you have that on your agenda?"