Unsung heroes

To the tune of a bagpipe, he bows his head low and then salutes, raising his right hand to his forehead. In this way, Bill Jenkins of Liverpool, UK remembers the Gurkha soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and II at the cemetry of the Gurkha soldiers, in the premises of BP Koirala Medical Science Academy in Dharan.

“I want to remember them,” he says, simply.

Seventy-five-year-old Jenkins, father of three children, says he came to Dharan from halfway around the world to remember the forgotten Gurkhas. He recalls the name of Rit Bahadur Rai of Gairi Gaun, son of Nara Bahadur Rai and Durga Laxmi, who was killed on 27 July, 1941 during a battle in Iraq at the tender age of 16. Rai is among 47,000 Gurkhas who died in the two World Wars. A further 150,000 Gurkhas were also wounded.

Jenkins says, “I read his name at the Basra Cremation Memorial in Iraq in 2003, but it isn’t on official record in the UK defence ministry.” He is now in Nepal to help set the record straight. Like Rai, the names of many Gurkhas who died in these wars aren’t officially recorded. Jenkins, who served in the Royal Marines, started collecting the names of these unsung heroes in 2003. He obtained names from the Commonwealth War Graves commission and by visiting various places in Nepal.

Jenkins has been trying to find Rai’s house but can’t locate Gairi Gaun. “I don’t have a formal education, but have brains enough to now that something has to be done,” he explains. “By taking the names of some Gurkhas, I am remembering all Gurkha veterans who lost their lives in World War I and II for the British crown. The British government shouldn’t overlook those who die in its service.”

He says he has submitted a list of 43,000 names to the Indian and British embassies, and believes these governments can’t contrive an excuse to ignore them for much longer. He also directs ire at the Nepali Government, which he says celebrates the achievements of the Gurkhas only in speeches.

“I am not associated with any political party, religion or Gurkha organisation. I will be raising the issues of Gurkhas all my life. The British Government has failed to recognise them but I am proud of the Gurkhas,” he says.

Bill Jenkins remembers the forgotten gorkhas in Dharan

Power psychology

Ethnic group – Limbu, Khambu ( Rai), Gurung, Newar, Tamang, Tharu, Madhesi are demanding autonomos state.They are campaning to establish their rights for identity in new constitution.Especially in eastern region Limbu are demanding Limbuwan autonomos state,various groups of Limbu institutionn are also agree to eastablish Limbuwan. they have collictive voice for Limbuwan. The unitary structure doesn’t represent the country’s diversity so, Rai, Limbu have formed fronts to demand federalism  based on history and ethnicity. All the ethnic groups have own volunteers with combad dress. Let’s see differnt kinds of volunteers.

L.V are performed march pass in Dharan on september 12 th.

they are relatetd to Federal National Democratic Fron.

Limbuwan Dhimal volunteers (Kumar Linden group)

L.V Of federal Limbuwan state council (palungwa group)

Arm group –  Kirat janabadi workas party.

Khambuwan Democratic front.

सस्कृती

सुनुवार भेषभुषामा सजिएका युवा,युवती

लिम्ब भेषभुषामा सजिएकी युवती

नाच सक्कली नाच्ने नक्कली ….. मगर जातिले नाच्ने हुर्रा नाच नाच्दै गैर मगरहरू

Out of the closet and proud of it

Third gender individuals in eastern Nepal come out despite stigma

The summer that Chaiyun Chaudhari of Itahari turned 16, her parents received a marriage proposal for her from the family of a boy in the neighborhood. From a very early age, Chaiyun knew she was not attracted to men. When she refused the marriage proposal, her brother asked her to leave her parents house.

“That was more than 10 years ago,” she says, “I had no home and people called me names, I have been mistreated ever since.” She lived with a partner for a very long time, and now has returned home to take care of her aging father. She is butch, dresses and acts like a man and has been working as a peer counsellor at the Human Welfare Section in Itahari since last year.

Sarita Chaudhari was born as a woman and now goes by the name Samrat who used to work as a labourer and met Nikita a few years back. The two eloped and got married last year. The couple say that they have been pressured by both their families, political parties and friends. “Nikita’s parents went to the Maoists who accused me of being a pimp and then took us away for three months to Lachani village,” says Samrat. They forcefully urged both to join the party. “When they saw that we weren’t going to leave each other they left us in peace,” adds Samrat.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender men and women are still not tolerated in Itahari. However, gay men say that lesbian women have a harder time than they do.

Kristina of Ekabma in Sunsari doesn’t want to be called Krishna Magar anymore. Born as the only son among two sisters, Kristina just passed the SLC exams. She says it was difficult for her to explain to her friends and teachers in school that she was third gender.

She is now preparing for higher studies and is again worried that her new friends and teachers in college may not accept her sexual identity and prevent her from attending school. “It took me so long to grow my hair out, I will never chop these locks off or wear a man’s uniform to school,” says Kristina. Although her parents used to pressure her to act like a man in the beginning, now they have accepted that Kristina wants to remain a girl.

Morang’s Bhaikaji Priyar is now 28. He got married to a woman and also has a son. However, Pariyar now goes by the name Kanchi and identifies as a woman. “I also have a husband, who is exactly like me and wants to be with a person like me. I was forced to get married to a woman back then,” says Kanchi.

Suhani Rajdhami Belbari, Morang may have been born as a man, but when she realised that she is a woman trapped in a man’s body and wanted to be more like a woman, her family supported her. Today she injects hormones and takes pills to change her body. She even stood first in the ‘Beauty and Brains’ competition held in Biratnagar last year.

It is not easy to come out as a gay, transgender or third gender person in Itahari. Many have been kicked out of homes and rejected by society. They are refused jobs and the only way they can survive is through prostitution. Gagani Chaudhari, 42 of Sunsari, sells his body to survive. His clients are mostly married men who have not come out of the closet.

More homosexual and transgender people started coming out when Human Welfare Section was established in Itahari three years ago. Since a lot of transgender men and women are involved in prostitution, the group is very vulnerable to HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. The Blue Diamond Society, an organisation that advocates the rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transexual and Intersex (LGBTI) people in Nepal has been coordinating with Itahari-based Sahara Society in distributing condoms and lubricants. The Society, established by Samrat a year ago for lesbians, is in touch with more than 500 gay women. Three people of third gender stood for the CA election last year in Sunsari.

In 2007 Nepal’s Supreme Court declared that all discriminatory laws against LGBTI people must be repealed by the government and provisions must be made for the recognition of ‘third gender’ on government documents. A year later the SC again directed the government to form a committee to study the possibility of recognising same-sex marriages. In June a seven-member committee was formed to study same-sex marriage bills in other countries.

LGBTI 101

Lesbian: Sexual attraction or behaviour between two women.

Gay: Sexual attraction or behaviour between two men.

Bisexual: Sexual behaviour with or physical attraction to people of both genders (male and female).

Transgender: Individuals who cross gender boundaries or a man or woman that adopts the attributes of the opposite sex. The sexual preference of a transgender person often varies.

Transsexual: Those individuals who alter their physical appearance either by operation or hormones to become members of the opposite sex. Transsexuals can be either female to male (FtM) or male to female (MtF) and are sometimes referred to as “post-opt” after surgery.

Transvestite: Men or women who dress in the clothing of the opposite sex. They are also known as drag queens (men who dress in women’s clothing), drag kings (women who dress in men’s clothing) or cross dressers.

Intersex: Those born with mixed sexual physiology. Often at birth their gender is decided either by surgery or the parents chose to raise the child as male or female.

EMBOLDENED: More individuals like Suhani Rajdhami (right)

and Khusi Rai have come out since the Supreme

Court directed the government to make provisions for

the recognition of the ‘third gender’.

Where the buffalos used to roam

When the Kosi breached its levee and swept through villages here last August, 42,000 people were displaced. While national and international sympathy, and donations, poured in for the flood victims, no one gave a thought to the plight of animals in the Kosi Tappu Wildlife Reserve.

The Kosi Tappu Wildlife Reserve is the last remaining habitat for the wild buffalo, arna, in Nepal and the Gangetic fresh water dolphin. Their numbers have been severely depleted by habitat encroachment and disease, and no one really knew how many there were left in the world.

Kosi Tappu was established in 1975 to primarily conserve the endangered wild buffalo. Twelve years previously, all the arna in Chitwan were wiped out by an outbreak of hoof and mouth disease spread by livestock and it was felt the population needed to be spread out.

Despite the threats, a buffalo census carried out last month showed that the number of wild buffalo in the reserve has increased from 159 in 2004 to 219 this year. Yet conservationists warn that the endangered animals and birds in the reserve face grave threats.

The diversion of the river back to its old channel with the construction of a coffer dam has disturbed wildlife. Last month, security personnel discovered three stranded dolphins and managed to rescue two. The third was fatally poisoned by locals.

The green pastures near the breached levees where the arna used to graze, now look like a desert and the animals have been forced to graze outside the reserve. This puts them at risk from disease and poaching.

Indian contractors working on the rechanneling of the Kosi have also been illegally extracting sand from the arna pastures. The grasslands are now furrowed by 10-foot deep pits where wildlife can be trapped or drown.

Conservation official Nilamber Mishra says, “If any animal falls into those pits, it will die. We have requested the contractors and engineers to not dig the holes too deep. But they don’t take us seriously.

” Since the collapse of the levee, the reserve has become an island in a sea of humans. Eight security posts that were closed down during the conflict haven’t yet been re-established. The barbed wire boundary erected two years ago has been stolen. Villagers from the buffer zone are now bringing livestock into the reserve to graze. The movement of people is even more uncontrolled because of all the construction work going on.

Kosi Tappu is considered one of the best sites for bird watching with over 480 species of birds recorded and many migrant species, but after the river changed its channel last year the birds didn’t come.

Kosi flood victims in Sunsari have demanded that the reserve’s boundary be shifted one kilometre to the west. But if that is done, say conservation officials, the river that is a crucial source of food and water for the animals, and birds will no longer be in the reserve.

Population of wild buffalo’s (Arna)  is given below.

	Male	Fmele	1years calves	2 years calves	Total
1976	12	18	11	22	63
1987	32	29	16	14	91
1988	37	33	15	8	93
2000	56	53	19	17	145
2004	54	63	18	24	159
2009 Adult male Adult femele sub adult 2 year claves 1 yera claves back crossed Total 34 101 39 22 23 74 219

sources- Koshitappu wildlife reserve

ARNEE of koshi tappu- pics sita mademba

Nepal Army resued the Dalfin From border of India.

The resistants

Sita Mademb in Dharan,sunsari

Gajendra Ispo of Dharan was employed as a soldier in the United Kingdom for 17 years. When he came back after receiving his pension in 1993, Dharan was still relatively empty. But within the last couple of years the town had become a thriving middle class residential area for ex-Gurkhas who set up their homes in the city. Visitors to Dharan were stunned by the smart houses and beautiful gardens.

Recently the houses have gradually been emptying, the gardens neglected as more than half the 10,000 ex-Gurkha families in Dharan migrate and settle in the UK.

But Ispo says he is not for settling in the UK, “I want to live a life of dignity in my own country. In the UK, I will be degraded to a second grade citizen. Why go to a foreign country to slave for others? My principles don’t allow that.”

Since the Gurkha Army Ex-Servicemen’s Organisation (GAESO) was set up, Ipso has been actively involved in the fight for equal treatment of the Gurkha soldiers. He has been trying to help the families of the remaining ex-Gurkhas in Dharan. But as most Gurkhas have left to settle in the UK, he says he has not been able to help as much as he would have liked to.

Supporting Ipso is Ram Narayan Kandagwa, who has also decided to stay back. After his pension arrived, he completed his PhD on Nepali British relations with special focus on Gurkhas. Kandagwa explains, “I am against going to the UK because I believe that we have to make a contribution to Nepali society. British society, culture, religion and lifestyle are different. Language is a problem as well. In addition, our life will be of a lower standard. My life here is good, why should I leave? There is no point.” Along with Ipso and Kandagwa other Dharan residents who have opted to stay include Ramesh Rai, Nara Bahadur Thapa and Bhaktesar Rai.

But there are very few who choose not to join the race. According to GAESO there are about 40,000 ex-Gurkhas, the majority of whom have chosen to migrate with their families, which totals 60,000 Nepali people. Towns like Dharan, Damak, Pokhara, Butwal, Itahari and Palpa, which used to have heavy settlements of ex-Gurkhas, are now almost deserted. Many families sold their houses and property before leaving.

Dharan became a thriving town, thanks to the money invested by former soldiers. The former Gurkhas established Depot Secondary School under the one-day salary program. Gurkha Savings Cooperative has operations worth Rs 110 million. The Gurkha Community Building was well attended and land worth Rs 10 million was bought to construct Gurkha Department Store. British Gurkha Memorial Park, a Rs 150 million project, is being constructed to encourage tourism in Dharan. The present financial crunch aside, there is now a shortage of manpower to run these organisations. They seem destined to fold.

The Ex-Gurkha Organisation, women’s committee used to have 300 general members and was very active in social service activities in Dharan. Now they rarely have enough women to justify holding a meeting. Local businessmen say the mass emigration has had a detrimental impact on local businesses. Remittances have also gone down.

But the situation has not discouraged the ex-Gurkha community. Despite the low manpower, they are determined to carve out an identity for themselves and perpetuate the ongoing works. Those who have left also contributed to the projects.

The Gurkhas united in 1995 to fight against the injustice of inequality. They had put forward a four-point demand of which three have been granted. The soldiers who fought in World War II received compensation of 10,000 pounds each in 2002. Gurkhas recruited after 1997, were granted a permanent residence visa in 2003. Then, another ruling in favour of the Gurkhas earlier this month granted permanent residency to soldiers who had been in service for more than four years. Permanent residency was not a part of the four-point demand. Their main demand, which is for Gurkha soldiers to receive a pension equal to that of their British counterparts, is yet to be fulfilled.

The UK started recruiting Nepali soldiers after the 1816 Sugauli Treaty. There are now 35,000 Nepalis in the British army. Every year more than 200 Nepali youths are recruited.

STAYING HOME: (r-l) Gajendra Ispo, Nar Bahadur Thapa, Bhaktesar Rai,

Ram Naryan Kandangwa are a handful of former Gurkha soldiers who have

decided not to emigrate to the UK

Gurkha soldiers gather at a mass

meeting earlier this year

http://www.nepalitimes.com

विश्वमा नै दर्ुलभ कोशी टप्पुको अर्ना ।
आरक्षले सन २००४ मा गरेको गणनाका
अनुसार १५९ वटा अर्ना छन् ।

Asiatic Water buffalo in koshi tappu.

जथाभावि भारतिय ठेकेदारहरुले अर्नाको चरन क्षेत्रको
माटो खन्दा वनेका गहिरो खाल्टो ।
जहा अर्ना फस्यो भने निस्कन गाह्रो हुन्छ ।

भदौ २ गते भत्किएको सप्तकोशीको पर्ूर्वी तट वन्ध
निर्माणका लागि अर्नाको चरनको माटो खनेर लगिएका
कारण नष्ट भएको चरन क्षेत्र ।
करिव १ हजार हेक्टर नष्ट भएको छ ।

PM, President & other minister visited the koshi flood area

PM Puspa kamal dahal

president Dr rambaran yadav.

minister ram bdr. thapa

badal & bijay gachadar

koshi flood

 

 

 

सप्तकोशीको वाढि पिडितहरुको

उद्धारमा लागेका सुरक्षाकर्मिहरु ।

 

 

 

 

वाध भत्किएको दिन चाडै

घरवाट निस्कन आग्रह गदै

उद्धारमा खटिएका नपाल प्रहीहरु

 

 

 

 

आकास्मिक उद्धारका लागि तयार

 राखिएको रवर वोट ।

 

 

 

विस्थापीतहरुको लागि नेपाली सेनाले

आयोजना गरेको स्वासथ्य शिविरमा

उपचार गदै स्वास्थ्यकर्मि

 

 

 

 

 

 

before flooding  of koshi barage

 

 

 

 

After flood of koshi barage