By Devendra Gautam

Another season of blazes

The season of fires has come, once again.

A wildfire originating in the Iname community forest in Tangtange Dande, Bhojpur district, on March 17 has destroyed 17 houses, eight outhouses and 10 sheds. 

At around 11 pm on Sunday, people of Boulde, Bethanchok Rural Municipality-3 in Kavre, had a rude awakening as a wildfire had broken out in Gorakhnath community forest. 

For a typical rural municipality or even a municipality in Nepal, firefighting equipment is a luxury and Bethanchok is no exception. 

Though ill-equipped, local representatives, security personnel, forest committee members and local residents banded together and tried to put out the flames as it was a looming threat to nearby settlements. Later, they would come to know that the flames had caused damage to Thalidanda and Harka Bhanjyang drinking water projects. 

Luckily, the team managed to avert a loss of lives with a coordinated effort. 


The Boulde wildfire came not long after a massive blaze at the Mahabharat jungle in Thamlekh Hill, Khanikhola Rural Municipality-1, Kavre. The Mahabharat fire that started in the last week of January continued for days, necessitating dousing efforts using helicopters. Again, luck was on the side of Boulde and nearby areas as a band of people managed to put out the fire without loss of life.  

But ‘luck’ is not always by the side of an ill-prepared humanity in the face of fire—and other disasters—manmade or otherwise, as statistics suggest. 

Let’s look at the trail of death, devastation and displacement resulting from the forest fires, over the years. 

According to the Global Forest Watch, between 2001 and 2023, Nepal lost 7.05 kilo hectares (kha) of tree cover from fires and 48.6 kha from all other drivers of loss. The year with the most tree cover loss due to fires during this period was 2009 with 1.33 kha lost to fires—24 percent of all tree cover loss for that year.

The average annual loss of lives and properties from these blazes must send a shiver up our government authorities’ spine. Per government statistics, on an average, 77 people lose their lives in wildfires and other incidents of fire every year.

The June 2022 edition of the Journal of Forest and Livelihood (June 2022) sheds some light on the cause of forest fires in Nepal. A study titled ‘Status and Practical Implications of Forest Fire Management in Nepal’ (authors: Hari Prasad Pandey et al.) throws some light on the causes of fire. Per the study report, about 58 percent of forest fires in Nepal are the result of deliberate burning by grazers, poachers, hunters, and non-timber forest product (NTFP) collectors; 22 per cent due to negligence and 20 per cent due to accident. 

Per the same study, more than 80 percent of wildfires occur in Nepal in March and April—about 20 percent in March and 60 percent in April).

Monsoon disasters

After a tinder-dry season of wildfires, another season of “natural disasters” like floods, landslides and lightning incidents is most likely to follow even in this day and age of climate change and its deniers. According to the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, the monsoon normally sets in eastern Nepal on June 13 and withdraws on October 2. Every year, the monsoon leaves behind a trail of death, destruction and displacement. This is partly due to climate change, partly due to lack of preparedness on the part of our government authorities and partly due to very environmentally-unfriendly projects undertaken in the name of development in a country known for high seismicity and vulnerability to all sorts of natural calamities.

Data from the National Disaster Risk Reduction Authority (NDRRMA) under the Ministry of Home Affairs paint an alarming picture. They show that monsoon disasters in 2024 caused the highest human casualties in Nepal since 2009 and five times more than in 2023. In 2024, monsoon entered Nepal on June 10 and retreated on October 12, meaning the country had a monsoon 10 days longer than average. 

The longer monsoon came with more severe consequences, with a 537 percent surge in human casualties compared to the corresponding period in 2023. Between June 10 and October 12, a total of 494 people died, 66 went missing and 532 sustained injuries in 2,136 monsoon-related incidents that affected 5,937 families. 

Whereas in the 2023 monsoon (June 14-October 15), there were 891 recorded incidents that killed 92 people, affected 6,128 families, caused 30 people to go missing and caused injuries to 168 people. 

Moreover, NDRRMA data from 17 July, 2018 to 16 July, 2024) show that fires caused a total loss of NPR 17.63 billion during the review period, followed by earthquakes (10.5 billion), floods (6.8 billion), heavy rains (1.6 billion), landslides (3.4 billion) and windstorms (1.8 billion). 

Per the data, 2,783 incidents of landslide reported during the review period killed 859 people, incidents of fire (15,593) killed 593, incidents of thunderbolt (1,699) killed 408, incidents of flooding (881) killed 245, incidents involving animals (1,743) killed 242, incidents of snakebite (229) killed 126 people, drowning (146 incidents) killed 122 people, incidents of windstorm (820) killed 73 people, high-altitude incidents (162) killed 70 people and 1,625 incidents of rainfall killed 67 people.

According to the Climate Risk Index, Nepal ranks 10th in the world as a country most affected by past climate hazards. It states that Nepal's climate vulnerability stems from an interplay of climatic factors, unique geography, weak policies and institutions, and existing development pathways that are not resilient to shocks. 

The primary duty of every state worth its name is to protect the life and property of its subjects. If the past is any guide, our polities of all hues and shades have not had a stellar performance on this front. 

In this season of fires, even our sovereign Parliament seems to be on fire, thanks to fiery exchanges between the republicans and the monarchists. 

This inferno is sapping the state of its energies as our political heavyweights engage in a war of words instead of bothering to channelise the national energies to combat fires and step up preparedness vis-a-vis monsoon disasters that are not so far away.

United we stand

In a country ill-prepared for dealing with disasters of all kinds, the fire rapidly spreading beyond the House’s confines comes at a time when the dragon and the elephant are exploring the possibility of dancing together instead of continuing with their hostilities and the sole global superpower is retreating with the intent of nursing its wounds.

Centuries ago, increased trade and other exchanges between two neighbourhood giants used to benefit our very own empire-sized country. Those days are long gone, pushing this country, like many other medium-sized and small countries into an unprecedented existential crisis, thanks to a rapidly-changing world and inability on the part of our political leadership of all hues and shades to navigate the choppy waters. 

A proverb goes: Whether elephants fight or make love, it’s the grass that suffers. 

Our contemporary history shows that this country has lost pounds of flesh whenever our political forces have failed to make peace on their own. Only if these forces come together can Nepal expect to benefit from the rise of our two giant neighbours and the emergence of the Asian century. 

As fires continue unabated in the House and beyond, as the globe continues to revolve at a dizzying pace and as our crises continue to deepen, the onus is on our political forces to learn lessons from history, bridge their divide, channelise their energies and switch to the firefighting mode before it’s too late.