Following a peace agreement in 2006, the Nepalese government and Maoists have engaged in heated debate over how to integrate the thousands of members of the People's Liberation Army into the national forces.
As the political future of Nepal still lingers in the air, about 19,000 former Maoist combatants are waiting to find out what the future has in store for their fate.
It is half past four and Comrade Pawel is already gathering his troops. Under his command, about a dozen young members of the People’s Liberation Army – all clad in bright blue and yellow – are going down to the field by the river for a battle against Comrade Gurans and his dozen men.
If understanding the political upheaval in Nepal seems confusing, that is because it is.
When the power was back after almost 10 hours of outage at the People’s Liberation Army cantonment in Jhyaltungdada, Comrade Khum Bahadur Lamsal wasted no time to turn on the computer and log onto his Facebook account.
Less grass means fewer yaks. What will happen if the glaciers disappear?
The climate story of South Asia begins in the Himalayas, home to thousands of rain-fed glaciers that make up the largest body of ice outside the poles. In the winter, these glaciers capture the precipitation that makes it over the mountains. In the warmer months, they melt away water that feeds major rivers like the Ganga, the Indus, and the Brahmaputra. The system is a 'natural water tanker' for the 1.5 billion people living in the river basins below.The second important feature of the story is its extreme monsoon, in which half the rain for the season falls in only 15 days.
Nepal is awash with water during the wet season. But for most of the year life in Kathmandu-- a city already choked by smog, and growing more polluted with the influx of rural Nepalis each year-- is strained by the circumstances of an ageing and inadequate water distribution network hobbled by political instability. Photos of life in the Himalaya's dirtiest city.
The Nepali government will give $1.6 million for the education of the former kamlari girls, or indentured servants.
As the world looks towards the December summit in Copenhagen, the Nepali government, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, DFID and Danish Embassy are arranging their own pre-Copenhagen negotiations for Himalayan nations. On August 31st and September 1st, representatives from the Himalayan region are scheduled to meet in Katmandu to debate and strengthen South Asian positions before the meeting in Copenhagen.
We've talked to Nepali experts on climate change and it's impact on South Asia:
For the mountain people of the Langtang region, the recession of the Himalayan glaciers is an unexplained fact of life.
Reporting from an Tibetan exile community in Nepal on renewable energy.
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