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On January 10, 2020, Chandrakala Devi Mahato was in bed when neighbors came knocking at her door. “The crusherwalas killed your son,” they said. Mahato ran to the banks of the river to find her son Dilip lie motionless.

Dilip and his friends had tried to stop a group of people from extracting sand from the river. When they were attacked, his friends managed to escape, but Dilip was not as fortunate.

The incident that took place in Sreepur, Mithila Municipality-5, Dhanusha 17 months ago shows that the extraction of sand and other construction materials from the Chure region is no longer just about natural resources, but also about mushrooming crime in the region. 

Contractors are illegally mining the Chure and Bhawar region of the country and those who try to stop them are greeted with pistols and khukuri. Many people who raised their voices against the exploitation of natural resources have met with a fate similar to that of Dilip Mahato.

"The illegal exploitation of Chure’s resources is an epidemic just like Covid-19," said CPN-UML Mahottari district member Ram Hari Khatiwada.

Sreepur is located in the Bhawar area of Chure, where rivers are both a lifeline and a threat. The over-extraction of sand and other aggregates from the river has caused water shortages in winter and exacerbated floods during the rainy season. 

When Dilip's father Ramjivan was in class nine, he had to abandon his studies as he needed to work in the farm. He had dreamed of making his son Dilip an engineer. Ramjivan's dream was shattered by his son's murder.

"The government should declare Dilip an environmental martyr," said Dilip's father. "He sacrificed his life for the protection of Chure."

Under the patronage of political parties and leaders, mining has boomed in Chure. Former President Dr Ram Baran Yadav is worried as Madhes is in crisis and urges everyone to save Chure.

Mahesh Jha, Congress leader from Bardibas in Mahottari, says few people, including journalists, dare to speak, write and debate on the illegal extraction of the river beds. "Anyone who speaks out against them is in danger,” he said.

If the illegal activities of Chure exploitation are not stopped, it will deeply affect life in the Terai. The Terai, located on the banks of the rivers that originate in the Chure, is home to 50 percent of the country's population.

Bardibas Municipality decided to allow contractors to dig the Ratwa river bed using heavy machines such as excavators, rejecting the law made by the federal government. There is strong opposition to it now.

Although the municipality signed a contract to excavate the river after conducting an environmental impact assessment, the contractor has violated the rules and the municipality is turning a blind eye to it.

Giriraj Mani Pokharel, a member of the House of Representatives from Mahottari-1, has demanded that illegal excavations be halted at the earliest.

According to engineer Nagdev Yadav, excavation of the Bhawar area of Chure has made Madhes even more insecure. Most of the plants are operating in the Bhawar area of Chure. The Ministry of Industry, Tourism, and Environment of Province 2 set the criteria for the operation of extraction plants by approving the 'Procedure for Establishing and Operating Stone, Ballast, Sand Excavation’. However, most plants operate without meeting set standards.

Chure expert Vijay Singh said, “The area up to 10 km south of Chure is heavily excavated. The Chure hills cover 12.78 percent of the total area of Nepal. ‘Chure are the youngest mountains in Nepal. The unscientific exploitation of Chure is increasingly turning Madhes into a desert,” he said.

It’s 5 am. After a steaming cup of ginger-infused tea (made by his wife only on his lucky days), he will leave home. He will have a small cup of milk tea at the Patan Durbar Square chowk, chatting with other early risers whose mornings, like his, are incomplete without a walk, and then pick up some fresh greens on his way back. It’s been a ritual for as long as he can remember.

Only now, he will have to settle for a quick stroll around the neighborhood. The mask fogs his glasses and makes it hard for him to see. He doesn’t meet anyone and there aren’t any local vendors selling vegetables in the area. The medical doctor in his late 60s says it’s a huge deviation from his earlier relaxing routine. It’s annoying. It’s upsetting. And it doesn’t set the right mood for the day.

Many people ApEx spoke to confessed feeling ill at ease as their daily routines have been thrown out of whack. They know it’s necessary to stay at home. But being thus confined brings about a sense of helplessness, one that’s difficult to shake off.

“I miss my daily vegetable run,” says Lok Raj Pant, 63, who has always woken up at the break of dawn and gone on a walk. Like the doctor, he too enjoyed buying vegetables during his daily morning excursions. It might seem like a small thing, he says, but its implication on his life was immense. It gave him a sense of purpose and kept him disciplined. A good life is, after all, the cumulative effect of little things, he adds.

Lok Raj Pant
For those like Pant who have led active lives since their 20s, to suddenly find themselves without much to do has been a difficult terrain to navigate. Pant was involved in the hotel industry for nearly 40 years before he retired to work on his own projects. He was doing what he loved and living the life he wanted till the pandemic forced him to readjust. And he doesn’t like it, not one bit.

“I miss my routine and my social life. I feel trapped. It’s discomfiting,” says Pant.

Madhab Lal Maharjan, 70, owner of Mandala Book Point in Kantipath, Kathmandu, says it’s been a hard time for all but more so for people his age. They have had a certain lifestyle for so long that readjusting to the ‘new normal’ hasn’t been easy. But Maharjan believes in looking at the brighter side of things. He is grateful that his family is safe and that he gets to spend lockdown in the company of his grandchildren, who he never got to see as much before.

Technology, he believes, has made it easier to cope. If the pandemic had struck say 30 years ago when there were no cellphones it would have been almost impossible to stay sane. Just the fact that he can talk to his loved ones and even see their faces whenever he feels like it has made it possible to stay upbeat.

Maharjan’s daily routine included meeting a lot of different people, from various fields—mostly those who used to regularly gather at his bookstore in the evenings. They have, over time, become his friends. He misses not being able to talk face-to-face about current issues, books, and life in general. But they still keep in touch with regular phone calls and zoom sessions and that, Maharjan finds, calms his nerves and fills him with hope.

“Cribbing and complaining about what could have been will only make things worse. The focus should be on keeping yourself occupied and trying to enjoy your time at home,” he says.

 That is exactly what Jayendra Rimal, chief operating officer, Leadership Academy Nepal and adjunct faculty for management, has been doing. The pandemic has brought about a drastic change in his lifestyle. He has had to forgo his morning walks and table tennis sessions. The shift to online teaching has also been a bit jarring. Rimal, who is nearing 60, prefers interacting with his students in an actual classroom.

Jayendra Rimal
“There’s a lot you can tell about your students from their expressions and body language. You know when they are bored and it’s time to crack a joke. This kind of laidback approach to teaching isn’t possible when you are conducting online classes and I really miss that,” he says.

It’s very easy to get caught in the trap of wishing for things you don’t have at the moment, he says. He says boredom, loneliness, and confinement have also brought about a cognitive deficit of sorts. To keep his morale up in these scary times, he has been reading more than ever before, listening to podcasts, and meditating. Also, the weekly online-guided meditation program he takes part in helps bring clarity and peace of mind.

Pant argues that for those who don’t read or have specific things to do, it can be a little tricky to pass time and that can often lead to a tense environment at home. Pant tries to read and his daughter is always recommending books. He takes long naps. But he finds that just messes up his sleep cycle.

Pratima Tamrakar, psychotherapist, advises picking up a hobby and being involved in chores. The problem in our society, she says, especially where the older generation is concerned, is that men have never helped out at home. Chores are considered a woman’s job. It’s time to change that and involve men in housework, she says.  

She suggests having one proper meal together as a family to instill a semblance of normalcy in life. In many families, she says, people are eating alone, at their own preferred timings and that is creating a distance among them. This is further fueling a sense of unease on a subconscious level.

Rimal agrees that the need of the hour is to respect one another’s sense of space while also being able to come together as a family. It also helps if you realize and accept that life will invariably bring a lot of surprises and not all of them will be pleasant.

Pant says the shift from normal routine is just something all of us have to deal with, one way or the other—if not for ourselves then for the sake of our loved ones. The sooner we make peace with it the better, he says. And, as Maharjan puts it, whining isn’t going to change a thing so you might as well make the most of it.

A cache of drugs provided to practitioners by manufacturing companies as samples have been found stored in a house in Biratnagar.   

The medicines, which can’t be sold legally in the market, were recovered by a team of officials monitoring the supply of essential medicines during the pandemic. 

A team from the Department of Drug Administration and the police that found the medicines at Bhattimod, Biratnagar-16 impounded the drugs and started action against those involved. 

Sanjeev Kattel, head of the Department of Drug Administration, Biratnagar, said the drugs were stored in the house of Ravi Rajak of Biratnagar-16. A total of 46 cartons of medicines including antibiotics, cough syrups, sanitizer and pain killer injections were seized by police.

There is a drug store called ‘Jitu Medico Hall’ near Ravi’s house, which is run by his brother-in-law Jitu Rajak and Jitu’s wife Sheetal Pandey (Rajak). The monitoring team suspects that the sample medicines stored at Ravi’s home may be being sold illegally at the shop.

The medicine shop, registered under the name of Pralhad Prasad Simkhada, has been shut down by the monitoring team. Once the team found out that the shop was registered under one name and is being run by a different person, the store was shut and the involved persons have been ordered to present themselves at the department within five days. 

“It has been found that the person authorized to operate the drug store is Simkhada,” Kattel said, “But we shut down the shop as soon as we found out that it was being operated by other people.” 

According to Kattel, the recovered samples cannot be sold in the market. Usually when a new product is manufactured, the pharmaceutical companies send it to doctors as samples through their market representatives (MR) to inform them about it. However, Rajak and the team had been selling these samples as medicines by changing their labels. 

“Along with the drugs, we also recovered ATM cards and cheques of various banks during the raid,” Morang Police Chief SP Santosh Khadka said. “We found 168 ATM cards and 72 cheques of various banks.” 

Ravi Rajak, the owner of the house where the medicines were recovered, has been arrested. 

According to department official Kattel, manufacturing companies do not provide practitioners sample drugs on such a large scale.

Kattel also informed that necessary consultation and discussions have been started with the legal practitioners on how to take the issue of illegal drug storage forward.

A recent Niti Foundation survey noted an alarming rise in mental health issues among Nepali youths (aged 18-40) during the pandemic.

A whopping 84 percent of participants reported high anxiety levels. Others said they were living with depression and alcoholism and other forms of substance abuse. While a fraction had access to mental healthcare after Covid-19 restrictions were gradually lifted early this year, even they have been deprived of such services due to the latest lockdowns across the country.

Mental healthcare providers have no other option but to go online, run awareness campaigns on social media and 24/7 helplines. This is a big change for those who give and take mental help and one fraught with challenges.  

“Seeking therapy for mental wellbeing is a fairly new concept,” says 27-year-old Rojisha Shahi, a psychologist at Healthy Minds Nepal. “As a society that is still suspicious of anything on the internet, people are now even more skeptical of online counseling and its authenticity.”

Therapy stands on the foundation of trust and confidentiality. In-person sessions usually familiarize clients with the psychologist and the space they’ll be speaking in. Shahi says she decorates her office with plants and a lot of natural light to help her clients relax.

However, in an online setting, people seeking help are confined to their own space, often the very place they wish to escape. “Many can’t speak freely in an environment where their family can hear them,” Shahi continues. “In the absence of a private space, they have a hard time opening up.”

Saluja Chand, a counselor at St. Xavier’s College, also highlights this issue. “Teenagers are at the receiving end of both academic and familial pressure. So to make themselves vulnerable under these settings takes a lot of courage on their part.”

Where therapy sessions are new, the clients get suspicious about the psychologists and whether someone is listening in on their interaction.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are also instances of severe attachment to the counselor. Kripa Sigdel, psychologist at Psychbigyan Network Nepal, brings up a recent incident of a client who was constantly texting her for comfort. “During in-person therapy, there is a limited time and place on how much the two of you can speak,” she says. “But when that relationship goes online, counselors are easier to reach. The boundaries blur and the client expects you to be there for them 24/7, which isn’t possible for us.”

The relationship between a counselor and a client plays a key role in therapy. And while first introductions and conversation flow usually depend on the individuals and the therapist’s skill, online counseling hasn’t made it any simpler.

“It’s easier to form personal connections with clients when they’re physically present,” Shahi confesses. “Making a person comfortable online completely depends on your verbal skills. It feels more impersonal as there are distractions on both sides.”

Chand seconds this idea, adding that it completely depends on the individuals. “Some find it much easier to open up because of the detachment when you don’t have to show your face or look at the other person.” But for psychologists who also take note of body language and gestures, this is a downside as it blocks one of their main factors of observation.

For instance, Sigdel, who uses holistic activity-based observation methods, finds the sudden shift to online counseling challenging. “Getting quieter clients to open up solely based on conversations is quite difficult,” she says. “And interactive activities are harder to execute online.”

The lack of technological support isn’t helping either. Even during one of the worst crises in history, many parts of Nepal are still facing regular and unpredictable power cuts that don’t just interrupt counseling sessions but also take away the biggest communication channel between the help-seeker and the help-giver.

Similarly, many people from Kathmandu have gone to their villages during the lockdown. Says Pratima Tamrakar, counselor at Helping and Smiling, “Those without Wi-Fi access are solely dependent on mobile data for the internet. For them, help isn’t just far away, but also expensive.”

The expenses aren’t limited to the internet as most psychologists charge for their sessions. Because of the rise of mental health issues during the pandemic and the shift to online counseling, many have slashed their regular fees.

While the charges vary depending on the case’s severity and client demand, average fees for most online counselors ApEx spoke to ranges from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,500 a session.  

The situation is tough for many. Shahi shares that she has clients who have lost multiple family members to the virus and are now completely lost.

While online counseling has its limitations, it’s also the only alternative right now for people with mental health problems--and it has its benefits. 

A 20-year-old ApEx spoke to had been taking online counseling for the past seven months. Since the lockdown, she’d been having a hard time getting out of her room, her anxiety levels reaching the highest they have ever been. But after receiving help online, she has grown out of her shell and learned to deal with life in a healthier way. When asked if she’d shift to in-person therapy after the second lockdown ends, she admitted that she’d received the help she wanted and wouldn’t be meeting her therapist physically.

Psychologist Sigdel confirms the effectiveness of online counseling, reporting that she herself had taken on newer clients during the first lockdown and finished their sessions before the country reopened.

Karuna Kunwar, psychologist at CMC Nepal, shares that during the beginning of the first lockdown many people were overrun with paranoia and spam-called medical institutes, convinced that they had caught the virus. This occurred so often that hospitals had to provide individual hotlines just to calm and comfort people on their symptoms, with experts speaking on the other end.

According to Sigdel, it was during the very first lockdown in Nepal that Man Ka Kura, an online platform connecting Nepalis all over the world to Nepali psychologists, was established.  

Despite these developments, almost all psychologists ApEx spoke to agreed that they would hesitate to see clients with severe mental illness for online counseling. Because critical psychological disorders can’t be treated with just therapy and online therapy is still in its infancy in Nepal, psychologists are irresolute about taking on severe and violent cases. Instead, for this purpose, they recommend emergency hotlines or seeing a psychiatrist.