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 also impacted by the industrial pollution from factories churning out everything from cement and steel to liquor.

“The farmers can’t grow rice, wheat, mustard, canola, potatoes or lentils, and have to feed their livestock contaminated water from the Tinau River,” he said.

There’s also a spiritual dimension to the problem: Lumbini is famed as the birthplace of the Buddha, and is also home to a population of sarus cranes (Grus antigone) a threatened species closely associated with the Buddhist faith.

Relief on all those fronts could soon arrive as Nepal’s Supreme Court has ordered the government to strictly implement a decade-old guideline to halt industrial development around Lumbini to protect its heritage and biodiversity — a move welcomed by local communities and conservationists, but one that has also raised concerns over jobs, investment and the impact on the local economy.

Responding to a public interest litigation petition, Justices Kumar Regmi and Sunil Kumar Pokharel also imposed restrictions on heavy truck traffic within a 15-kilometer (9-mile) radius of Lumbini, and ordered existing industries in the vicinity to shut down or relocate within two years.

The order comes amid a growing body of scientific data that industrial pollution from cement plants, brick kilns and steel mills in and around Lumbini are impacting the area’s cultural heritage site and its biodiversity.

“The decision was needed to protect Lumbini’s sacred heritage of Outstanding Universal Value [OUV], a special status under the UNESCO World Heritage Convention,” said petitioner and veteran lawyer Prakash Mani Sharma.

Despite studies showing degraded air quality and increased industrial water pollution, Sharma said no significant measures had been taken by the authorities to mitigate the impacts of pollution. This has put priceless archaeological artifacts such as the Ashoka pillar at risk, and also severely violated local people’s right to food, clean air and a healthy environment, as guaranteed under Nepal’s Constitution, Sharma said.

“From tourists to farmers and birds to aquatic species, the heritage site holds a significant value among people,” he told Mongabay.

According to a recent study, Lumbini province is home to 685 of the 690 sarus cranes recorded in Nepal. Although once abundant, reports show these bird species are rapidly declining due to wetland loss, urban sprawl and shrinking habitats.

Pathak said the farmers living around the industrial area have abandoned farming, some seeking out alternative livelihoods and others migrating to other districts or even countries in search of better jobs.

While the court’s decision brings some respite to farmers like himself, Pathak acknowledged that locals engaged as daily workers in these industries risk losing their jobs. There are currently around two dozen manufacturing industries that would need to be relocated under the court order.

The 15-km rule was introduced a decade earlier, but it was never properly implemented since, said Sanuraja Shakya, member secretary of the Lumbini Development Trust, the government body overseeing the Lumbini area.

The World Heritage Site was placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2024 following concerns raised in a 2022 monitoring report. However, it was removed from the list last year following government assurances that steps would be taken to address the challenges pointed out in the report.

Shakya said a few of the factories located within the 15-km radius have either shut down or relocated in recent years. “The court order will prove to be a milestone for Lumbini if implemented well,” he told Mongabay.

But the business community has criticized the order. “Our industries have operated on bank loans, and when they shut down, not only the industries and the banks get affected, but thousands of jobs will be lost,” Shovakar Hari Neupane, chair of the Ambe Group, a conglomerate that runs steel and cement plants in Lumbini, told local media outlet Bizmandu. “Relocation needs massive resources, and this is not possible without the government compensating for our loss.”

Mongabay reached out to industrial companies operating in the area for comment, but none responded by the time this article was published.

Despite their grievances, the court order will have to be implemented, said Khagendra Bahadur Basnet, environmental director at the Department of Industry.

“Implementation would need rounds of stakeholder consultations and a thorough road map,” he said. “Given that businesses have invested more than 30 billion rupees [$213 million], the practical process of relocation could actually be challenging.”

Cover Image: Sarus cranes photographed in Lumbini. Image courtesy of WWF Nepal.

Concrete sprawl in Buddha’s birthplace in Nepal threatens sarus cranes