- Bharatpur Metropolitan City has been dumping waste in the Barandabhar corridor, an international wildlife passage, based on an initial environmental examination (IEE) that falsely claimed the site was barren and ignored the presence of more than 2,000 trees, including ecologically significant species like sal (Shorea robusta), a Mongabay investigation reveals.
- The landfill site disrupts a key corridor for species such as tigers (Panthera tigris) and rhinos (Rhinoceros unicornis), jeopardizing their movement and habitat. The federal government’s investment in an elevated road for safe wildlife passage may be undermined by ongoing waste disposal.
- Despite legal requirements for a full environmental impact assessment (EIA) for landfills in forest areas, the city relied on an outdated and misleading initial environmental assessment (IEE). The Department of Forests has not approved tree felling, yet local officials persist in waste dumping, citing lack of alternatives.
CHITWAN, Nepal — One of Nepal’s biggest cities on the northwestern fringes of Chitwan National Park has been dumping its municipal waste in a forest that serves as an international wildlife corridor, by relying on falsified environmental safeguard documents submitted 15 years ago, a Mongabay investigation has found.
Bharatpur Metropolitan City claims it has legal rights to use the land in Jaldevi forest, part of the Barandabhar corridor, as a landfill. However, a Mongabay investigation has found that the city lied about the status of trees and ignored the importance of the corridor in its 2010 report to avoid scrutiny from forest officials.
An initial environmental examination (IEE) report, submitted by the city in 2010 to the then-Ministry of Local Government (now the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration) stated that the proposed site covered approximately 9.9 hectares (24.4 acres) of land, which had remained barren for a long time, and, “There is no problem of losing of trees during the construction and operation of the land fill site.”
However, a recent site visit by Mongabay contradicts these claims. The proposed area is home to more than 2,000 trees and shrubs, including slow-growing species such as sal (Shorea robusta), which take decades to mature. Mongabay also found that the local divisional forest office had already marked these trees for felling even without orders from the federal forest department to do so.
For the last four months, around 40 truckloads (approximately 80 tons) of waste are being dumped in the Barandabhar corridor daily, according to Sakar Lama, a city engineer overseeing the landfill project.
“The smell from the waste hasn’t yet affected human settlements as the garbage is being covered with dirt,” said Madhav Devkota, chair of the Jaldevi Community Forest Users’ Group. “However, the waste will definitely affect the animals,” he added.
The Barandabhar corridor, which covers an area of around 161 square kilometers (62.2 square miles), is a crucial biological conduit for animals such as tigers (Panthera tigris), rhinos (Rhinoceros unicornis), leopards (Panthera pardus) and wild boars (Sus scrofa), connecting the Valmiki Tiger Reserve in the Indo-Gangetic plains in the south to Nepal’s Annapurna Conservation Area in the foothills of the Himalayas.
“The corridor is an essential wildlife passage, offering refuge during extreme weather events such as heat waves and floods,” said Shant Raj Jnawali, a conservationist and wildlife researcher. “If waste dumping continues, it will disrupt animal movement and degrade the habitat.” He added that when it rains, the leachate is likely to contaminate the Rapti River, considered the lifeline of Chitwan National Park.
The federal government itself recognizes the corridor’s importance. It plans to invest billions of rupees on a proposed elevated road near the proposed dumping site to ensure safe wildlife passage through a busy highway. “Such efforts will be rendered meaningless if waste dumping persists,” Jnawali told Mongabay.
Despite the known importance of the corridor, the 2010 IEE stated that “wild mammals, birds and fishes shall be affected” without acknowledging the potential impacts on the conduit, let alone possible mitigation measures.
“It seems that the city wanted to silently get rid of the trees so as to avoid the involvement of the forest department altogether and kickstart the landfill at the earliest,” a former government official tracking the project told Mongabay, asking not to be named, fearing retribution. “But that wasn’t possible, as the local community forest user groups regularly monitor and patrol the forest,” he added.
This is not the first time Bharatpur’s waste management practices have come under scrutiny. In, 2003, the Patan High Court ordered the city to stop dumping waste in the Jaldevi Community Forest following a petition filed by environmental lawyer B.P. Gautam.
Following the ruling, the city shifted waste disposal to the Narayani River. However, following recent local protests and concerns from conservationists about its impact on aquatic species such as the critically endangered gharial (Gavialis gangeticus), city officials started disposing of the waste again in Jaldevi, where they plan to establish a waste-processing center in the future.
“We assumed disposing of it in the forest was preferable to doing so on the banks of the Narayani,” said Sakar Lama, an engineer overseeing the landfill project. “Yes, some paperwork related to the forest ministry is causing hurdles, but once resolved, we’ll call for bids to operate the landfill.”
The “hurdles” Lama nonchalantly spoke about are related to specific permissions for tree felling. According to a letter sent by the Department of Forests and Soil Conservation to the city dated Dec. 12, 2024, seen by Mongabay, no approval has been granted to cut trees in the proposed landfill site.
The town had long eyed the Jaldevi forest as the best location for its landfill site. In 2012, following the approval of the dubious IEE, Nepal’s Council of Ministers approved the city’s proposal to use 9.9 hectares within the Jaldevi Community Forest to develop a landfill site. However, the city had failed to make progress in the development of the landfill site due to issues related to compensation for the forest land.
Nepal’s forest protection laws require developers — whether governmental or nongovernmental — to provide the government an equivalent area of land with similar climatic conditions for afforestation when forest land is allocated for “development work.”
However, the private land purchased by the city was deemed unsuitable, as it wasn’t connected to a national forest, causing delays in the handover of the proposed landfill site land for years as Bharatpur couldn’t find a suitable alternative.
In 2022, the government introduced a provision allowing developers to deposit money into the newly created Forest Development Fund if they couldn’t provide land for reforestation. Under this provision, the city deposited roughly 52 million rupees ($372,000) into the fund to compensate for the forest land and its reforestation. No compensation has been made for potential loss of trees.
But as the IEE was based on falsified claims, lawyer Dilraj Khanal said, the government should revoke its permission to grant usage rights. The number of trees being cut and the significance of the international corridor seems to have been omitted in the IEE report on purpose, Khanal said. If these issues are to be accounted for, the fundamentals of the IEE report would change, and a fresh environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the project would then be called for, he said.
According to Nepal’s Environmental Protection Regulations (2020), landfill projects within forest areas require a full EIA, which requires more rigorous and resource-intensive assessments compared with an IEE. “The 2010 IEE is outdated and does not reflect current environmental realities,” said Dhirendra Kumar Pradhan, undersecretary at the federal Ministry of Forest and Environment. “Given the ecological sensitivity of the Barandabhar corridor, an EIA is mandatory.”
The former government official said that if done diligently, the EIA could come up with a conclusion that the environmental cost of the project is much higher than its economic benefits. “But the city seems to have ignored this possibility. Who will be responsible for the irreversible damages that may have already occurred in Barandabhar due to the disposal of waste?” the officials asked.
City officials said they had no option but to dump the waste in the forest. Bishuram Kunwar, head of the city’s environment division, said the city couldn’t dispose of its waste for a week in 20224 due to protests by locals who complained of foul smell. “We plan to continue to dump the waste in the forest,” he said.
When asked about the dubious claims made in the IEE, he said he couldn’t comment on it, as it was prepared by past officials.
Banner image: A Bharatpur Metropolitan City truck ferries municipal waste inside the Barandabhar forest in Chitwan. Image by Rajesh Ghimire.
Rajesh Ghimire is a journalist based in Bharatpur, Chitwan.
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