Senior officials at the Ministry of Energy (MoE) have sought official position of the ruling UCPN (Maoist) on implementation of the Pancheshwar Multi Purpose Project, a part of Nepal-India Mahakali Treaty, ahead of the Nepal-India ministerial-level talks.

Authorities on Wednesday said bird flu virus was not detected in the dead chickens in Satherjhora-8, around 15 km south-west of the two bird flu outbreak sites in Sunsari. It was reportedly claimed that around 500 chickens had died in the past three days in the Satherjhora area from an unknown disease.

“Samples of dead chickens sent to the Regional Laboratory, Biratnagar, have confirmed that the death of the chickens was due to worms, not bird flu,” Chineshwor Meheta, the Animal Health Technician at the District Veterinary Office, said.

Authorities have detected germs that cause diseases like diarrhoea and cholera in drinking water samples collected from rural and city areas in Banke district.

Microbiologist Khagendra KC of the National Public Health Laboratory said they found the germs in water collected from tubewells and water pipelines. The laboratory said the germs were detected in 12 of the samples collected from 20 areas. The samples were sent for testing on November 5 to 8.

“Water in the (12) areas is not suitable for drinking,” KC said.

Ministry of Industry has formed a committee to study the impact of industrial pollution on locals at different industrial areas, according to secretary Uma Kanta Jha.

“Locals residing in the adjacent areas of industrial zones are facing difficulties due to pollution and hazardous chemicals produced by the industries,” he said, adding that even the rivers are contaminated putting the lives of locals at risk.

The industries should abide by safety measures according to the licence conditions, he added. “But most of them are found to be breaching the laws.”

In the village of Pithauli, surrounded by ripening mustard fields, a woman hauls a cow carcass on a trolley, drops it in an open field, then runs and hides in a nearby hut as dozens of vultures swoop down.

In under half an hour, the carcass has been reduced to picked bones by the dun-colored birds, occasionally squabbling as they feed.

The site is one of a handful of vulture "restaurants" opened to save the birds, which help keep the environment clean by disposing of carrion, from extinction -- and at the same time help impoverished villages become self-sufficient.

While government authorities on Sunday confirmed the H5N1 strain of bird flu in Khanar and Itahari in Sunsari district, similar outbreaks were reported in Phakphok in Ilam district and Faktep in Panchthar, where more than 400 chickens have died.

However, fowls in the affected areas are yet to be slaughtered, increasing the risk of the infection spreading to other localities.

India has the worst air quality in the world, beating even its neighbour China, according to an annual survey based at Yale and Columbia universities in the United States.

Of all the countries surveyed in the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), which measures the effects of polluted air on human health, India ranked the lowest at 132.

The study used satellite data to measure air pollution concentrations.