China’s construction boom in Nepal is casting a shadow over the Himalayan ecosystem

China’s role in Nepal has intensified in the period since the 2015 earthquake, mostly in the form of investments in rebuilding projects. In 2019 alone, China started a series of projects, including factories and hydropower stations, worth $2.4 billion in Nepal, and many infrastructure projects are managed through sensitive environments, including national parks, and the construction of hydropower stations has been criticized by Before environmental organizations and local communities destroyed the river’s ecosystems, for example, work on the Rasuwagadhi hydroelectric project, part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, resumed in 2016, despite protests from local residents who blamed the dam for the demise. Large numbers of fish.

Syaprubesi, Nepal – Trucks are raising dust on a gravel road here in Syabrubesi, an eight-hour drive from Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. From Syabrubesi, the road winds 11 kilometers (7 miles) north to the border with China, the only route open northward since a 7.8-magnitude earthquake in 2015 devastated much of the area.

The road itself is being widened, and the trucks carrying rocks and gravel here are part of China’s global Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), one of several infrastructure projects in Nepal being funded by its powerful neighbor. By the road, a group of Nepalese workers is building a tunnel through a mountain, under the supervision of a Chinese supervisor. Off the road, Nihima Sangpo Tamang prepares for the inevitable moment when he loses his land and home in a road expansion project.

“We will have to act soon,” he says, adding that the promised government compensation will not cover the loss.

China’s role in Nepal has intensified in the period since the 2015 earthquake, mostly in the form of investments in rebuilding projects. For decades, India, Nepal’s southern neighbor, was Nepal’s main economic partner, a role China is now challenging. In 2019 alone, China started a series of projects, including factories and hydropower plants, worth $2.4 billion in Nepal – about 7% of the latter’s GDP.

The Belt and Road Initiative, under which China is building a network of roads, railways, power stations and other infrastructure across countries along major trade routes, arrived in Nepal in 2017. Here it includes airports, hydroelectric power stations and paved roads. There is also a planned 70-kilometre (43 mi) railway from Gyirong in the Tibet Autonomous Region to Kathmandu, which has raised concerns in India about Beijing’s growing influence in the region.

Nepalese builders working for POWERCHINA, a Chinese state-owned company, are building a tunnel through Mt. Jonas Gratzer’s photo for Mongabay Finding Balance

But there is more than geopolitics at stake with an infrastructure boom. Tourism accounted for nearly 8% of Nepal’s economy before the COVID-19 pandemic, and was the fourth largest industry in terms of the number of people employed. More than half a million foreigners who arrived before the outbreak of the pandemic have come to visit national parks, including the Himalayan gardens that have the highest peaks on earth.

However, many road and tunnel projects run through sensitive environments, including national parks, and the construction of hydroelectric power stations has been criticized by environmental organizations and local communities for destroying river ecosystems. Shakti Bahadur Basnet, Nepal’s Minister of Forestry and Environment, says he is well aware of this emerging problem.

A hydroelectric power plant is being constructed along the Poti Kochi River in Nepal. Image source: Jonas Gratzer for Mongabay

“We need to find a balance to conserve nature and develop our infrastructure,” he told Mongabay in his office in Kathmandu, adding that the government conducts environmental assessments in sensitive areas before allowing any project to begin. “It is not a priority to develop those areas.”

He says the goal is to keep protected areas intact. “Our policy is not to build roads in the heart of national parks, but instead in buffer zones,” Basnett says.

He adds that Nepal has ambitious replanting plans in the future. Forty-five percent of the country is already covered in various forms of forest, and 24 percent is protected in national parks and conservation areas. The government wants to add to this tree cover.

“We have a much higher percentage of protected areas than the international standard of 14%, but we still want to plant more forests,” Basnett says. “We will focus on the parts without forests, areas prone to landslides, as well as urban tree planting.”

He adds that the government will plant native trees, as well as herbaceous and fruit trees.

Basant says infrastructure projects, especially road construction, will boost development in Nepal by creating jobs and reducing transportation costs and travel time. Many parts of the Terai, the low-lying region in southern Nepal, have already seen construction projects that benefit local economies. But in the country’s less developed Himalayan region, where tourism and traditional livelihoods such as yak herding and small-scale farming are the dominant economic drivers, many worry that the environmental and social costs will be prohibitive. They warn that infrastructure projects will not pay much attention to fragile alpine ecosystems, and that cutting up land for roads and tunnels can exacerbate landslides caused by the annual monsoon.

A bus struggles across a narrow mountain road in Nepal. Jonas Gratzer’s photo.

Raj Bhatta, a trekking guide in the Himalayas for the past 17 years, is among those who are skeptical about projects in this region. He says they will destroy villages, farmland and trekking paths. He says that explosives used to dig tunnels through mountains disrupt agricultural activity, pushing wildlife out of their natural habitat. Bhatta cites reports of monkeys raiding villages for crops.

“Nepal needs roads and hydropower, but at the same time the government needs to develop our country sustainably,” he says.

He adds that many of the nature trails that once traversed the quiet, ancient landscapes have been expanded into roads, negatively impacting the tour industry: “Tourists don’t like to walk the dirt roads.”

Critics say the new roads will also open access to illegal logging into previously remote forests and help fuel the trade in endangered species, such as parts of tigers, rhinos and elephants, which are so prized in China.

Raj Bhatta Trekking Guide. Image source: Jonas Gratzer for Mongabay. natural haven

Raj comes from a village near Langtang National Park, Nepal’s first Himalayan national park, established in 1976. A day’s drive from Kathmandu, the Langtang Valley is one of the most popular trekking sites in Nepal and is rich in biodiversity. The park is home to species such as the red panda (Ailurus fulgens), as well as deer, wild boars, the Nepalese gray langur (Semnopithecus schistaceus) and occasionally the Indian leopard (Panthera pardus fusca). The more elusive goat-like Himalayas (Hemitragus jemlahicus) and snow leopard (Panthera uncia) roam the higher elevations of the park.

Narrow trekking trails wind through Langtang National Park through lush subtropical forests, where ferns and moss litter tree trunks, and rivers rush from snow-capped peaks and glaciers. These forests, at an altitude of 4,000 meters (13,100 ft), are home to indigenous Tamang communities.

Now, this natural haven is under threat from modern development.

“I have heard of plans to build roads in Langtang,” Raj says, adding that he fears the national park will end up like the famous Annapurna Circuit, where the roads were built. Another such area is the Manaslu Conservation Area, also in the Himalayas. As in Langtang, Manaslu treks are known for their stunning scenery. Centered around the world’s eighth highest peak of the same name, Manaslu is also a preserve and highly valuable to the trekking industry. Despite this, there are several road projects underway that will cut through its ancient forests and isolated valleys.

“I am really worried. This will destroy our environment and scare away the tourists,” says Raj.

Image source: Jonas Gratzer for Mongabay. Electricity export

Further on the gravel road from Syabrubesi, close to the Chinese border, lies the village of Timure. Since the 2015 earthquake flattened the area, the rebuilding process, with Chinese help, has progressed remarkably fast. Hotels and semi-finished restaurants made of concrete and wood dot the roadside. Before the pandemic, the area was teeming with foreign tourists, Nepalese truck drivers, businessmen and Chinese officials. Work on the Raswajadi hydropower project, part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, resumed here in 2016, despite protests from locals who blamed the dam for the large fish deaths.

Taxi driver Ngawang Dorje, one of about 20,000 Tibetan refugees living in Nepal, says the Chinese presence in the village has been good for business, but he remains upset about it. He says the environment is ruined, and describes the river where the dam was built as “pure white rapids, and now…a waterway clogged with dark filthy water.”

A hydroelectric power plant along the Poti Kochi River in Nepal. Image source: Jonas Gratzer for Mongabay.

An explosion shakes the massif above the river. Work is still underway on the 111 megawatt plant. Ngawang Dorje says it will not benefit the Nepalese people, as the electricity will be sold to India.

“Only the government makes money, and at the same time China controls the river and the road,” he says.

For Basant, the Minister of Forestry and Environment, the rivers of Nepal that cut through the mountainous terrain are an untapped force. The country currently generates 787 megawatts of hydropower, but it is likely to increase this to 100,000 megawatts within a decade, with the help of China, Basnett says. This is more power than Nepal needs, and it can sell the surplus to neighboring countries.

“Nepal benefits from cooperation, both directly and indirectly,” Basnett says. “Hydroelectricity generates electricity that we can use in our factories, as well as sell the remaining electricity to India and Bangladesh.”

But Nguang Dorje, an ethnic Tibetan, cautions against betting Nepal’s resources on China, which he says “does not respect the environment.”

“We Tibetans have no freedom in China,” he says. “It will be the same situation here.”

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