Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Sabendra Nath Shukla recently suggested the members of Andhra Pradesh (AP) Legislative Assembly (India) to take Nepal as a safe destination for travel and asked to convey them to disseminate the positive massage in India.

Speaking in an interaction program with the MLAs who are in Kathmandu, Shukla said, "as the Maoists have also confirmed of not attacking foreigners, Nepal is a safe place for tourists all round the globe." President of NATA, Joy Dewan said the Indian tourists' arrival is important for Nepal's tourism development at a time when foreign diplomatic missions are also playing negative role by issuing travel warnings to their citizens.

In response, K Dayakar Reddy of the Government Assurance Committee in the AP Legislative Assembly said restoration of peace was the major factor for development of tourism. "The tourists always want tranquil places," he said. He also suggested for resolution of the Maoist problems through talks keeping the constitutional monarchy and multiparty democracy in place.

Another member, Jag Mohan Rao, said there were a lot of prospects of mutual cooperation like water, energy and technology between the two countries. Former Minister R K Mainali stressed on a need for the Indian government's initiatives to solve the Bhutanese refugee problems that Nepal is facing for the past twelve years. He said people-to-people contact between two countries could also assist in controlling Maoists sheltering there, as reported by several media and officials.

OTHER NEWS

• Five cities in the Valley to have solid waste action plan: Five cities inside the Kathmandu Valley will have a master action plan on managing solid waste within 18 months starting from early next year. The action plan, first of its kind, was being long sought for by the cities to make the cities clean from all sorts of solid waste. An eighteen-month intensive study will be carried out before drafting the action plan for Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC), Madhyapur Thimi Municipality, Lalitpur Sub-Metropolitan City, Bhaktapur Municipality and Kirtipur Municipality for a decade. The government of Japan has supported the efforts. The government of Nepal and the Japanese government signed an agrement to formulate the action plan on the management of solid waste of the Kathmandu Valley. Surya Prasad Silwal, Under-secretary at the Ministry of Local Development in-charge of Environment Section and Prof. Dr. Isamu Yokota, leader of the action plan formulation team on behalf of the Japan International Co-operation Agency signed the agreement recently.
  
  
• Locals construct road for tourism promotion: With the aim to attract the international tourists in general and domestic tourists in particular, the locals of the western district of Baglung have started constructing physical infrastructures, primarily the roads. The locals have said that they had taken such steps after the government was not serious in promoting tourism sector in the district. They have further stated that various roads are under-construction to link tourist spots within the district.
  
  
• Rautes on the verge of extinction: The life of aborigine people of western Nepal, Rautes, is in critical condition due to the lack of education, awareness and natural imbalance. The Rautes, who are living in the forests for centuries, live in the forest of Dhumhare, Gami, Hariharpur VDCs of Surkhet district. The population of the Rautes is decreasing rapidly and their number is only 350 at present. Though the population of the country is increasing rapidly, the main reasons of the decreasing of the population of the Rautes is lack of health services, awareness and the natural imbalance. They are deprived of the development facilities of the state and depend on the hunting of wild animals. Most of the Rautes depend on the hunting of monkeys and other wild animals and gathering wild products like Githa, Bhyakur etc.
  
  
• NTB reformulating crisis management cell: The Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) is reformulating its existing crisis management cell by including ministry officials, security personnel and private sector tourism entrepreneurs. Tek Bahadur Dangi, speaking at an emergency meeting of the Nepal Association of Tour Operators (NATO) said that the NTB is working out a terms of reference for members of the crisis management cell team. "Once the TOR is finalised, the cell will come into enforcement," Dangi said. Talking to The Kathmandu Post, he said that the formulation was a new attempt to provide right and timely information related to the tourism industry to the tour operators through the NTB.
  
  
• Polluting two-stroke three-wheelers to be phased out:In a bid to curb the rising air pollution in the Kathmandu Valley, the government has initiated its environmental-friendly decision to phase out all the three-wheelers powered by two-stroke engines plying in the Valley within 10 months. "The cabinet on Monday decided to ban the two-stroke three-wheelers from plying in the Valley on pollution factor," a source at the Ministry of Population and Environment (MoPE) told The Kathmandu Post while requesting anonymity. The decision will affect about 24,000 vehicles - auto-rickshaws and petrol-run Bikram tempos, according to Dr. Rishi Ram Koirala, senior divisional engineer at the MoPE in charge of air and water pollution. The vehicles, however, will be allowed to reregister in places outside the Valley other than Pokhara and inside the Lumbini Master Plan Area in Lumbini.
  
  
• Koshi Tappu valued at US $ 9 million per year: A recent study conducted by IUCN on Koshi Tappu and the Ghodaghodi lake estimates their annual value - biodiversity, wetland product and services, community dependence, among others - at over US $ 9 million and US $ 1.3 million respectively. "Value of wetlands around the globe is estimated at about US$ five trillion and a recent study estimates the value of Koshi Tappu and Ghodaghodi lake to be US $ 9,039,819 and 1,397,038 per year respectively", Sameer Karki, Programme Coordinator-Water, Wetlands and High Mountains, IUCN said. "Economic valuation of wetlands is usually done by taking several factors into account like biodiversity, communities benefiting from the wetlands, wetland product and services etc.", he added. Wetlands are important from the biodiversity perspective, as these are refuge to several rare, endangered and endemic species of flora and fauna. Besides, these are also important for the communities that directly or indirectly depend on wetland and wetland products. "There are 13 traditionally wetland dependent communities in Nepal, which constitute to about 11% of the total population of the country," he said.
  
  
• Colorful start to Indra Jatra: Color, gaiety and noise heralded the age-old Newari festival, Indra Jatra, today. Amidst the revelry of hundreds of devotees, the Indra Jatra, a festival that marks the end of the monsoons, began with revellers hoisting a wooden pole known as lingo in the vicinity of Hanuman Dhoka in the capital. The eight-day festival commences from the twelfth day of the waxing lunar fortnight of Bhadra and ends on the fourth day of the waning lunar fortnight of Ashwin, according to the Nepali calendar. On the occasion, the, Jyapus (peasants) of the Kilagal tole in Kathmandu presented traditional dance. "The erecting of the lingo amid all the festivities makes this festival a joy to watch," enthused Ratna Narayan Manandhar, a local. As tradition demands, the presence of royal representative as witness to the lingo hoisting, the Royal Khadga (the royal sword) and a horse, representing the king, were brought from the Royal Palace.
  
  
  

By Hari Shrestha, Resident Representative in Kathmandu