They appear tranquil soaring above Himalayan forests, but a string of cable car projects in Nepal have sparked violent protests, with locals saying environmental protection should trump tourism development.In Nepal’s eastern district of Taplejung, the community has been torn apart by a $22-million government-backed project many say will destroy livelihoods and damage ancient forests they hold as sacred.Across Nepal, five cable car projects have opened in the past two years — and 10 more are under development, according to government figures.Critics accuse the government of failing to assess the environmental impact properly.In January, protests at Taplejung escalated into battles with armed police, with four activists wounded by gunfire and 21 officers injured.The protests calmed after promises construction would be suspended, but erupted again this week, with 14 people wounded on Thursday — 11 of them members of the security forces.”We were in a peaceful protest but hired thugs showed us kukris (large knives) and attacked us — and we countered them,” protest committee leader Shree Linkhim Limbu told AFP after the latest clashes.He vowed to continue demonstrations until the project is scrapped.Around 300,000 Hindu devotees trek for hours to Taplejung’s mountaintop Pathibhara temple every year — a site also deeply sacred to the local Limbu people’s separate beliefs.In 2018, Chandra Prasad Dhakal, a businessman with powerful political ties who is also president of Nepal’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry, announced the construction of a 2.5-kilometre-long (1.5-mile) cable car to the temple.The government calls it a project of “national pride”.- ‘Butchering our faith’ -Dhakal’s IME Group is also building other cable cars, including the 6.4-kilometre-long Sikles line in the Annapurna Conservation Area, which the Supreme Court upheld.The government deemed the project a “national priority”, thereby exempting it from strict planning restrictions in protected areas.The Supreme Court scrapped that controversial exemption last month, a move celebrated by environmentalists.But activists fear the project may still go ahead.Taplejung is deeply sacred to local Mukkumlung beliefs, and residents say that the clearance of around 3,000 rhododendron trees — with 10,00 more on the chopping block — to build pylons is an attack on their religion.”It is a brutal act,” said protest chief Limbu. “How can this be a national pride project when the state is only serving business interests?”Saroj Kangliba Yakthung, 26, said locals would rather efforts and funding were directed to “preserve the religious, cultural and ecological importance” of the forests.The wider forests are home to endangered species including the red panda, black bear and snow leopard.”We worship trees, stone and all living beings, but they are butchering our faith,” said Anil Subba, director of the Kathmandu-based play “Mukkumlung”, which was staged for a month as part of the protest.The hundreds of porters and dozens of tea stall workers that support trekking pilgrims fear for their livelihoods.”If they fly over us in a cable car, how will we survive?” said 38-year-old porter Chandra Tamang.The government says the cable car will encourage more pilgrims by making it easy to visit, boosting the wider economy in a country where unemployment hovers around 10 percent, and GDP per capita at just $1,377, according to the World Bank.”This will bring development,” said resident Kamala Devi Thapa, 45, adding that the new route will aid “elderly pilgrims”.- ‘Massive deforestation’ -The cable cars symbolise Nepal’s breakneck bid to cash in on tourism, making up more than six percent of the country’s GDP in 2023, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC).Beyond the Pathibhara project, the government’s environmental policy is in question — in a country where 45 percent is forest.More than 255,000 trees have been cut down for infrastructure projects in the past four years, according to the environment ministry.”Nepal has witnessed massive deforestation in the name of infrastructure,” said Rajesh Rai, professor of forestry at Tribhuvan University. “This will have severe long-term consequences”.Unperturbed, the cable car builder assures his project will create 1,000 jobs and brushes aside criticism.”It won’t disturb the ecology or local culture,” Dhakal said. “If people can fly there in helicopters, why not a cable car?”The argument leaves Kendra Singh Limbu, 79, unmoved. “We are fighting to save our heritage,” he said.It has split the community, local journalist Anand Gautam told AFP.”It has turned fathers and sons against each other,” Gautam said. “Some see it as progress, others as destruction”.

In one of the world’s hottest cities, fresh and filtered water can quench the searing onslaught of climate change — but US President Donald Trump’s foreign aid freeze threatens its vital supply, an NGO says.Pakistan’s sun-parched Jacobabad city in southern Sindh province sometimes surpasses 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) in increasing heatwaves causing critical health problems like dehydration and heat-stroke.In 2012, USAID committed a $66 million grant to uplift Sindh’s municipal services, including the flagship renovation of a plant pumping and purifying water from a canal 22 kilometres (14 miles) away.But Pakistani non-profit HANDS says Trump’s aid embargo has blocked $1.5 million earmarked to make the scheme viable in the long-term, putting the project at risk “within a few months”.”This has transformed our lives,” 25-year-old Tufail Ahmed told AFP in Jacobabad, where wintertime temperatures are already forecast to pass 30C next week.”If the water supply is cut off it will be very difficult for us,” he added. “Survival will be challenging, as water is the most essential thing for life.”Between September and mid-January Sindh saw rainfall 52 percent below average according to the Pakistan Meteorological Department, with “moderate drought” predicted in the coming months.Heatwaves are becoming hotter, longer and more frequent due to climate change, scientists say.- Services withdrawn – The project pipes in 1.5 million gallons (5.7 million litres) daily and serves about 350,000 people in Jacobabad, HANDS says — a city where grinding poverty is commonplace.HANDS said it discovered Trump’s 90-day freeze on foreign assistance through media reports with no prior warning.”Since everything is just suspended we have to withdraw our staff and we have to withdraw all services for this water project,” HANDS CEO Shaikh Tanveer Ahmed told AFP.Forty-seven staff, including experts who manage the water purification and service the infrastructure, have been sent home.The service will likely stop functioning “within the next few months”, Ahmed predicted, and the project will be “a total failure” unless another funder steps in.The scheme is currently in the hands of the local government who lack the technical or revenue collection expertise HANDS was developing to fund the supply from bill payments, rather than donations.The international aid community has been in a tailspin over Trump’s campaign to downsize or dismantle swathes of the US government — led by his top donor and the world’s richest man Elon Musk.The most concentrated fire has been on Washington’s aid agency USAID, whose $42.8 billion budget represents 42 percent of humanitarian aid disbursed worldwide.But it accounts for only between 0.7 and 1.4 percent of total US government spending in the last quarter century, according to the Pew Research Center.Trump has claimed USAID is “run by radical lunatics” while Musk has described it as a “criminal organisation” needing to be put “through the woodchipper”.In Jacobabad, 47-year-old local social activist Abdul Ghani pleaded for its work to continue.”If the supply is cut off it will severely affect the public,” he said. “Poverty is widespread here and we cannot afford alternatives.”- ‘Supply cannot be stopped’ -Residents complain the Jacobabad supply is patchy but still describe it as an invaluable service in a city where the alternative is buying water from private donkey-drawn tankers.Eighteen-year-old student Noor Ahmed said before “our women had to walk for hours” to collect water. HANDS says the private tankers have a monthly cost of up to 10 times more than their rate of 500 rupees ($1.80) and often contain contaminants like arsenic. “The dirty water we used to buy was harmful to our health and falling ill would cost us even more,” said 55-year-old Sadruddin Lashari.”This water is clean. The supply cannot be stopped,” he added.Pakistan — home to more than 240 million people — ranks as the nation most affected by climate change, according to non-profit Germanwatch’s Climate Risk Index released this year and analysing data from 2022.That year a third of the country was inundated by unprecedented monsoon floods killing more than 1,700 and causing an estimated $14.9 billion in damages after a punishing summer heatwave.Jacobabad’s water system also suffered heavy damage in the 2010 floods which killed almost 1,800 and affected 21 million.Pakistan produces less than one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions which scientists say are driving human-made climate change.Islamabad has consistently called for countries which emit more to contribute to aid for its population suffering on the front line of climate change.”It’s incredibly hot here year-round,” said Lashari. “We need water constantly.”