Minister Mahato stresses environment-friendly development

 Minister for Forests an Environment Birendra Prasad Mahato underscored environment-friendly development to reduce the climate change's adverse effect and damages.

At an interaction program organized by the ACAP in Jomsom of Mustang district today, Minister Mahato said that disasters were occurring lately due to unmanaged and haphazard developmental works.

Expressing his concern over adverse effect of unscientific construction works on nature, he urged one and all to stop the tendency of undertaking development works without assessing environmental impact.

He also emphasized environment conservation and climate actions to reduce the damages incurred due to human negligence and haphazard developmental endeavors.

On the occasion, the Minister informed the locals about the agreement inked between Nepal and China regarding operating 14 checkpoints between Nepal and China including Korala Check Point in Mustang during Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal's recent visit to China.

He was confident that the agreement would help the herbal medicines in mountainous areas of Nepal find the market for which, he added, his Ministry had also stressed.

The Minister shared that over Rs 500 million provided by the international community for environment conservation in Nepal would be injected into Mustang for climate actions.

The issues relating to climate change-induced damages in the Kalapathar area in Solukhumbu and other districts such as Mustang, Manang, and Sindhupalchowk would be internationalized, he pledged.

National Trust for Nature Conservation member-secretary Sharadchandra Adhikari shared that the program was organized in the presence of the Head of the Government for him to do an on-site inspection about the effects of climate change on people and places in Mustang district.

He was confident that it would help raise the local issues in the international platforms as well.

Participating in the interaction programme were the Prime Minister, Minister Mahato, people's representatives, representatives from political parties as well as local residents.

Mustang folks complained that they had been suffering climate change-induced problems such as new diseases in crops, unseasonable rainfall and snowfall leading to damages of crops and loss of human lives and swelling rivers due to excessive rainfall among others.

---