KATHMANDU: The Supreme Court of Nepal has declared rivers and streams as living heritage possessing the fundamental right to flow freely in their natural course, ruling that narrowing or altering their paths is illegal.
A division bench of Justices Mahesh Sharma Poudel and Srikanta Poudel delivered the verdict on July 29, 2023, with the full text released on Tuesday. The court stated that state mechanisms are obligated to protect natural water bodies from encroachment, warning that disrupting natural flows leads to severe environmental crises, flooding, and biodiversity loss.
The decision stems from a boundary dispute involving Mahadev Khola, which flows between Kathmandu Metropolitan City Ward 16 and Tarakeshwar Municipality Ward 11. Local residents led by Shyam Krishna Phuyal filed a writ petition demanding the stream’s boundary be fixed based on a 1965 survey map, which showed a width of 21 to 22 meters. They alleged that construction by Tarakeshwar Municipality narrowed the riverbed and pushed the stream toward Kathmandu, damaging private properties.
Although the court quashed the petition-ruling it impractical to rely solely on the decades-old survey map-it issued directive orders to government authorities to protect Mahadev Khola. The court ordered relevant agencies to prevent any narrowing of the stream by taking into account technical standards, official records, and legal criteria.
