Nepal’s fertile wetlands dying out due to ignorance, unplanned development

Undervalued and ignored, wetlands are disappearing and drying up in Nepal – leaving the communities and wildlife that depend on them exposed in a changing climate By Ramesh Bhushal Undervalued and ignored, wetlands are disappearing and drying up in Nepal – leaving the communities and wildlife that depend on them exposed in a changing climate A few kilometres north of the Indian border in the Kapilvastu district — the birth place of the Buddha — lies Jagdishpur lake, the largest reservoir in Nepal, and one of the ten wetlands in the country listed under the Ramsar Convention. “We can hardly think of life without this water source, as it irrigates our fields, provides water to drink,” said Krishna Chaudhary, drinking untreated water from the source of Ghodaghodi lake in Kailali district. “With increasing population pressure, land degradation, haphazard road construction and unplanned urbanisation, there is tremendous pressure on wetlands and we should be more serious about protecting these water bodies which are often termed as the earth’s kidneys,” said Maheshwar Dhakal, joint secretary at the Ministry of Environment and Forests of the Nepal government. “It’s hard to count exact numbers but our regular survey shows about 150 species of birds migrate to Nepal in winter every year and about one-third of them are wetland-dependent,” said Baral, country manager of Nepal at the Zoological Society of London. “It’s hard to get fish nowadays, wetlands are shrinking or disappearing and there are too many people,” said Bimala Bote, a fisherwoman near the Jagdishpur lake in Kapilvastu in west Nepal.