Mayor Launches Peaceful Hunger Protest Demanding Bamboo Promotion Policy

The mayor of Khotang's Diktel Rupakot Majhuwagadhi Municipality, Tirtha Raj Bhattarai, has commenced with a nonviolent protest in Kathmandu demanding a national policy that promotes bamboo production and consumption. Since 2022, Bhattarai, tagged as the Bamboo Mayor, has been vigorously marketing bamboo all over.

Driven by frustration at the government's lack of response, he set up a three-day-protest at Maitighar Mandala on Sunday, bringing bamboo furniture and other items as symbols of his demands. The sit-in goes on every day from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. He has said that in the absence of government action, he will begin an inside hunger strike.

The mayor has almost regularly been sending a letter with a seven-point demand to the government, including to the Prime Minister, KP Sharma Oli. But he claims nothing has been done.

Bhattarai wants laws to be passed that would promote the use of bamboo in government works and construction projects. The officials are at present hesitant to approve any purchases made of bamboo as per the unclear policy, and the payment to the bamboo growers has also been delayed due to the same reason.

From the standpoint of barriers, Bhattarai has converted his office into a bamboo-fest-showcase for everything from décor to furniture. In his hometown, he also wasted his wooden chair and bought a bamboo one. Also, there has been a bamboo breastfeeding room built for the office.

According to Bhattarai, promotion of bamboo will increase transparency, reduce corruption, provide local employment, and conserve the environment. Bamboo is sourced locally, Bhattarai says, so the process is transparent and without corruption. 

The first National Bamboo Conference of Nepal is held in his municipality this year, and the conference issues a 35-point declaration on bamboo marketing, promotion, and generation of revenue.

More demands of Bhattarai, apart from bamboo:

  1. More stringent climate change law

  2. Government buildings made using bamboo and indigenous materials

  3. Authority to local governments for taxation of enterprises producing plastic

  4. Compensation to farmers affected by wild animals

  5. Declare the Khotang as "bamboo capital" of Nepal

The bamboo initiative has support from the Ministry of Forests and Environment, which already puts forward a bamboo strategy. But what is needed lots more maybe from the Ministry of Urban Development, the mayor feels. 

"Bamboo is plenty here in abundance and can be an earning source for the farmers," says Bhattarai, who still clamors to use bamboo for creating wealth for his area.