Note: this is going to be a multi-part series about the proposed new International Airport in Nijgadh,
Nepal, since there is so much to grasp.
If you ask the average American about the main geographical feature of Nepal they would say ‘Everest.” The tallest mountain on earth. It’s hard to get Americans to focus on anything else in the country, and if you look at the New York Times you would see an inordinate focus on the climbing season, how overcrowded it is, how much trash there is including human bodies, the proposals to require fitness of climbers, and the like.
Many thousands of feet lower in altitude, on the border with India, are the southern plains — known as “The Terai” where half the population lives, along with three sub-populations of wild elephants, wild tigers, and the one-horned rhinoceros. In older days, this forested area was part of a belt that stretched through Nepal into India, Burma, Thailand, and Indochina. (some of these have new names but the forest/jungle is the same).
The country is beset with challenges from natural disasters — floods including monsoon flooding alternating with drought; landslides and earthquakes. They are at risk of climate change due to deforestation, pollution and overpopulation. It’s a Low Income Country that gets up to 60% of government funding from foreign aid.
Right now, the Government of Nepal is taking active steps to cut down an entire ecosystem of about 21,000 acres of forest/jungle, over the protests of many Nepalis. To learn why and how, step over the fold into one of the last pieces of intact jungle in Asia.
The project in question is called “Nijgadh International Airport,” which will take ten years to come to fruition but which starts with a two-year period of simply clearcutting the 21,000 acres ( okay it’s actually 8,620 hectares but nobody in USA measures land using metric).
With an area comparable to London’s Heathrow, Nijgadh International Airport has been planned as a colossal project that would make it the fourth largest airport in the world if completed. The proposed location for the airport, however, requires massive deforestation in the eastern Tarai which would cause large-scale displacement of wildlife native to the area. A virgin forest sprawling over 8045.79 hectares in Province 2, Nijgadh is covered in Shorea Robusta (Sal) trees that are home to countless species including 33 different types of mammals, and over 300 plus different kinds of birds, all of which will be adversely impacted by the cutting of well around 2.4 million trees. (from The Record, www.recordnepal.com/...
It only succeeds if the accompanying 93 mile supermodern highway to Kathmandu is also built through the Maharabhatta Range. ( yes, the mountains are named after the Hindu epic poem, but the events in the poem took place in Haryana province further south and to the west of Delhi).
It was first proposed thirty years ago, when a fantastical pre-planned city was dreamt up by government planners during the time of the monarchy. It’s only viable if there is a major upgrade of the 150 kilometer (93 mile) land road to Kathmandu from there at the same time.
The airport got resurrected as an infrastructure development project, and has gotten to the point where the government is asking for proposals from foreign backers. It is shaping up to be an astounding boondoggle in addition to the environmental and tourism disaster.
I am starting this series in the hopes that international pressure will restore a balance between the government’s decisionmaking and the need for responsible development.
I am hoping to share info on the eco-system of the jungle area, and the process by which the Nepali government is proceeding.
Stay tuned.