ADB_book_18 April.qxp - Himalayan Document Centre - icimod

available at that time. The Supreme Court did not seea conflict between the polluter and the public,although the complaining individual was clearlyahead of his times.The Godavari Marble Factory, located on theoutskirts of Kathmandu Valley, was charged withpolluting the air and water of the area and withemitting dust that was destroying the biodiversity ofthe forest. The court took the position that thecomplaining individuals were not directly affected bythe activities of the factory and dismissed the case. Itwas resubmitted in 1992/93 and again in 1995/96. It isinteresting that the court was becoming proenvironment during this time. The Rio Summit in1992 received global attention, and environmentalissues were hot in every society around the globe.This probably had some role in changing the laterrulings, which pointed out that environment was aconcern of every citizen and could not be dismissedas in the earlier cases. The court directed the factoryto install proper safeguards (Sharma et al. 2000).The case of the pollution in the Bagmati River issimilar. Although in this case no single offenderexisted, the court did identify numerousorganizations as responsible for correcting thepollution of the river (Sharma et al. 2000). The courtalso directed the organizations concerned to protecthistoric monuments, keep proper records of theproperty of these monuments, stop construction ofan unplanned road, establish a sewage treatmentplant, and improve cremation grounds. All of theseinterventions were also to ensure that the maternityhospital was not adversely affected.The changing position of the courts has been amost welcome development. Future cases are likelyto be even more complex, with additional issues ofcompensation and related measures to right pastwrongs. A persisting anomaly and a major source ofconflict in countries like Nepal is the readiness of theGovernment to introduce environmental legislationwithout ensuring adequate supervision, monitoring,and implementation—which permits offenders tocontinue polluting the environment.The Maoist Insurrection and theEnvironmentThe Maoist insurrection is now close to nine yearsold and has affected all aspects of Nepali lifeincluding the environment. While only post-conflictevaluation can reveal the actual extent of changescaused by the conflict, there are scattered reports ondifferent aspects of environmental changes that maybe attributed to it. The conflict has directly damagedthe environment in terms of destruction and damageto environment-related personnel, resources,infrastructure, and conditions. Furthermore, theenvironment has impacts on the conflict.First let us look at the direct impacts. Based ona field review commissioned by the WorldConservation Union (IUCN), the Nepal Forum ofEnvironmental Journalists did a selected review ofsome areas of the conflict’s impact on theenvironment (IUCN 2004). The review identifiedseveral points of impact.(i) Deforestation is widespread and differentsides blame each other. It should be notedthat deforestation is not unique to theconflict. It has been an ongoing part of Nepalisociety. What part of the deforestation canbe attributed to the conflict is difficult toascertain.(ii) Setting forests on fire has many impacts onwildlife. Again, this is not unique to theconflict and it is difficult to know what type ofwildlife has been affected and how.(iii) Poaching of wildlife has increasedsubstantially. This is highly plausible with thereduction in security in the national parks.While the Maoists may not be poachingdirectly, they may be involving traditionalpoachers and benefiting from the trade, butthere is no hard evidence.(iv) Impact on drinking water supply eitherbecause of increased demand or because ofdamage to water supply systems has beenreported by the local newspapers in anumber of areas.(v) There has been significant displacement ofhouseholds from conflict-affected areas,primarily due to the difficulties of meetingthe different demands of the Maoists.(vi) There is an inability to access forest productsbecause of fear of the Maoists who camp inthe forest areas.Another recent study (Murphy et al. 2004) hasalso identified some of the impacts of the conflictbased on reports from newspapers, publications,and discussions with concerned people. Some of themajor impacts reported are listed below.(i) Destruction of park infrastructure in almostall the national parks, making theseunusable. This has been reported by others(American Embassy 2005) when as many as54 endangered one-horned rhinos werekilled in two national parks but mostly inChitwan National Park. The absence ofprotection in national parks is seen as themajor reason behind this. In 2003, 50 peopleconcerned with poaching were arrested andChapter 11: Environment and Conflict: A Review of Nepal’s Experience169