Nepal’s Supreme Court halts industrial development in Buddha’s birthplace

Nepal’s Supreme Court halts industrial development in Buddha’s birthplace

KATHMANDU — Whenever Chandra Prakash Pathak visits neighboring farms in his hometown of Lumbini, in southwestern Nepal, he sees a thick blanket of black smog. The problem is more severe in winter, when the country doesn’t receive much rainfall. “The farmland is also covered in dust from the manufacturing plants and industries in the area,” Pathak told Mongabay by phone. It’s not just people who are affected, he added: birds, rivers and farms are…