Lawyers' Association for Human Rights of Nepalese Indigenous Peoples (LAHURNIP)On 1 January 2023, more than 100 security forces (combining of both Armed Police Force and Nepal police) were deployed by Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), the state owned corporation, to construct the substation of the electricity transmission line in Shankharapur Municipality -3, Jarshingpauwa, Kathmandu district, Bagmati Province.
A total of 2 Indigenous rights defenders were arrested by the police as they were leading the communities protest against the NEA move and reprisal that they carried out in the pretext of development
The project, Tamakoshi to Kathmandu 200/400 kV Transmission Line, is planned to develop under the finance of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The affected Indigenous and local communities are demanding to reroute the transmission line to protect the densely populated human settlements and to implement human rights due diligence to mitigate multi-dimensional harms that are being caused by the project on traditional lands, lives and livelihoods of affected communities.
The communities have been making their demands for the past 3 years.