Federalism in Nepal is alive and kicking. Eight-and-a-half years after the new constitution institutionalised a three-tier federal state, the provinces, the second tier, neither have police forces of their own nor can they employ their own civil servants. Whenever there is a change of government in Kathmandu, or even a change in coalition partners for that matter, the provincial governments too are invariably rocked. Oh, and when folks in other provinces face some problem, they have to troop all the way to Kathmandu for redress. Sugarcane farmers have repeatedly made the long march from various districts in the Tarai-Madhesh in order to demand a decent price for their produce. The same is the case with the 22-member Chure and Forest Conservation Campaign team that is currently marching from Bhardaha of Saptari district to Kathmandu. Their goal is to garner the national government’s attention on the destruction of the Chure region, a string of low hills stretching from Mechi in the east to Mahakali in the west.

Natural water sources originating at the foothills of Chure have been drying up in the past few years, and the first layer of underground water has been severely depleted in much of the Tarai. The campaigners started the long march on April 28 in to exert pressure on authorities concerned about the unchecked deforestation and haphazard extraction of sand and stones in the Chure region, resulting in an acute water crisis. The campaigners have a 12-point charter of demands, including strong action against forest officers who work hand in glove with smugglers, control of illegal extraction of river-bed materials from the rivers and streams in the Chure region, declaration of Madhesh as a dry zone, and concrete plans to control forest fires. Last year, the campaign had undertaken a similar march to Kathmandu demanding control of the pollution of the Sirsiya river that flows through Birgunj, a major business hub in Madhesh Province. The Sirsiya river has become highly polluted due to the toxic industrial waste generated by several factories on the Parsa-Bara industrial corridor. The campaigners had met many high-ranking government officers and ministers in Kathmandu. But nothing happened.

The country’s most eco-sensitive region is being devastated by illegal deforestation and sand-mining and millions of people are having to scrounge for water. Yet the authorities, both at the federal and provincial levels, seem unbothered. One big reason the old unitary state was replaced by a federal setup was so that the fruits of development could trickle down to the lowest rungs of the society, and the voices of people at the grassroots could be heard and addressed without delay. Yet what we see is that the same criminal-political nexus that benefitted the most from the old structure continues to dominate the federal state as well. In many cases, the illegal miners and deforestors active in the Chure region would have funded the election campaigns of (current) federal and provincial lawmakers, getting in return the licence to do pretty much as they please. People at the grassroots meanwhile have to beg with the authorities just to drink some clean water. Apparently, the more things change in Nepal, which has long been under the sway of a corrupt elite, the more they stay the same.