Land Cover Change and Its Eco-environmental Responses in Nepal

Nepal, located in a unique transition zone spanning from plains to mountains and then to the plateau, is characterized by diverse and complex land cover. Based on an object-oriented method and decision tree classifier, a land cover product covering the whole of Nepal in 2010 (hereinafter referred to as the NepalCover-2010) was produced using 30 m-resolution Landsat TM images, consisting of 8 classes at Level I and 31 classes at Level II. The accuracy of the NepalCover-2010 product at Level II was validated using samples collected from high-resolution Google Earth images. The result showed that the overall accuracy of the product was 87.17%, with a Kappa coefficient of 0.85, making it the most accurate product among similar land cover products. The product can accurately reflect the spatial patterns of land cover in Nepal. Forests are the main land cover classes, accounting for 41% of the land, followed by croplands covering about 25%. The areal proportion of paddy fields to dry farmlands was approximately two to three. Topographical and meteorological factors presented as the determining effects on the spatial patterns of land cover in Nepal. With elevation uplift from south to north, land cover classes showed a vertical zonality ordered thus: paddy fields, evergreen broadleaf forests, dry farmlands, evergreen broadleaf shrubs, evergreen needleleaf forests, grasslands, sparse vegetation, and permanent ice/snow. Land cover mapping in Nepal contributes significantly to the basic data collection in this country, and can also be of a benefit to China’s international regional economic cooperation strategy entitled “the Belt and Road Initiative”.

Nepal is a typically mountainous landlocked country. In recent years, land cover in Nepal has changed significantly due to climate changes, population growth and economic development. This study used four periods of land cover change data (1990–2000, 2000–2005, 2005–2010 and 2010–2015) produced by the object-oriented change detection method, to reveal the spatial patterns of land cover change and its driving forces in Nepal since 1990. The result showed that the total change area from 1990 to 2015 in Nepal is 1665.58 km², accounting for 1.13% of the land. Among these changes, forests, wetlands and permanent ice/snow presented a trend of decrease, whereas croplands, artificial surfaces and bare lands had been continuously increasing. The prominent land cover changes included mutual transformation between wetlands and croplands, wetland class inner shifts and the conversion of forests to croplands. These changes varied among different development regions and during different periods. In general, the intensities of land cover change in Eastern and Central Development Regions were higher than in other development regions. The annual change area was 59.26 km²/year during 1990–2000, reached to 98.44 km²/year during 2000–2005 and turned to slowly decline after 2005. The analysis and discussion indicated that major driving forces of land cover change in Nepal include climate changes, natural hazards, population growth, urbanization, economic development and government policy implementation. A comprehensive understanding of the relationships between land cover change and various driving forces in Nepal was given in this study, which would be valuable for policymaking, land planning, resource development and protection. Simultaneously, it could be also benefit to China’s “Belt and Road Initiative.”

In rural Nepal, development efforts often mean increasing the production and productivity of Arable land. Therefore, the land resources remain often changing its use. This paper intends to analyse the change in land use and land cover categories due to the intervention of different development activities in the eastern hills of Nepal during the past two and half decades. Both analogue and digital data have been used from three different sources including the Land Resource Mapping Project (LRMP, 1986), toposheets from 1996, and Landsat imagery from 2010. The spatial data generated was verified in the field via observation, a ‘Reality Check Approach’ (RCA), and consultation workshops held in the four districts such as Bhojpur, Dhankuta, Sankhuwasabha, and Terhathum. An attempt has also been made to identify the possible factors responsible for land use changes. Five broad categories of land uses, such as arable land, forest, shrubland, grassland, and others (water bodies, snow land, bare land, rock and ice, settlement built-ups, and roads), have been determined, based on 1996 toposheets. In the Koshi Hills, significant changes have occurred particularly in forest land, with it increasing consistently over the past 24 years, whereas cultivated land first increased during 1986–1996 and then decreased from 1996 onwards. In agriculture, while traditional subsistence cereal crops have been replaced with commercial vegetables and high-value crops such as large cardamom, ginger, seeds, and fruits, particularly around the roadsides, what has also happened is that patches of abandoned agricultural land have been observed due to a tendency of local youths migrating outwards to areas away from direct road access. The Community Forestry Program, the construction of roads, and the introduction of improved agriculture development programs have contributed to the internal trading between major land cover/use categories. These have brought benefits like nature conservation, national and international trade of local products, and improved living conditions for local communities. It is therefore possible to exhibit spatial relationships between development interventions and land use change on a GIS framework.

This chapter explores the historical processes of land cover change based on the review of past documents as well measuring the change between 1954 and 2015 in the Chure–Tarai area using published maps from 1954, 1979, 1994 and satellite based land cover maps of 2015. Deforestation and reclamation of cultivable waste land in the arable lowlands, for the purpose of resettlement through processes of land grants, installing feudal institutions to collect revenues and cover territorial administration and various policy incentives to attract hill people and Indian immigrants to expand settlements and agricultural expanse, all represent the historical processes of land cover change until 1950. The end of the Rana regime, through establishment of democracy, brought reforms in land tenure and abolished anti-peasantry feelings, which consequently attracted hill people to settle in the lowlands of Tarai, Bhawar, and Duns. Following from the eradication of malaria in the 1950s and 1960s, planned resettlement programs and the implementation of development projects attracted people from food-deficit conditions in the hills to the lowlands, causing a large-scale change in the land cover as well as the cultural landscape. Time series land cover maps revealed the predominance of forest in all physiographic units except Tarai in 1954. Forest cover began to decline in the later decades in all physiographic units at the gain of cultivated land. Forest coverage in the hill slopes, inner river valleys, and Duns and Bhawar represented 92, 72, 48, and 79% of the total area in 1954, which reduced to 89, 43, 36, and 64% in 1979. Forest cover in Tarai reduced from 30 to 15% by 1979 over the same period. It further reduced to 85, 24, 29, and 58% respectively in 1994. Only 10% of the area in Tarai was under forest. Compared to 1994, forest coverage decreased to 82, 20, 28, and 54% in the hill slopes, inner river valleys, and Duns and Bhawar respectively, in 2015. It has virtually remained the same in Tarai over the last two decades. Hence the rate of forest decline over the last six decades was high in arable areas of river valleys and Bhawar. The highest rate of deforestation was observed in the west, compared to the east and central part of the Chure–Tarai region. The proportion of shrub/grass areas increased notably in the Chure hill slopes, inner river valleys, and Duns. This implies a degradation of forest, which is a threat to the ecology and stability of such fragile slopes and terrain. Although conversion from forest to cultivated land is a general trend in recent decades, reclamation of forest, shrub, or grass from abandoned or damaged cultivated areas represents quite a significant characteristic of the internal dynamics of land cover change. This is attributable to abandonment of cultivated terraces on marginal hill slopes and damage caused by floods, channel shifts, and bank erosion on low land. Apart from the historical drivers, contemporary drivers of land cover change are demographics, development and increasing physical access and mobility, and urbanization. Illegal settlements on public forest land or encroachment on the land mainly by the landless, poverty stricken, and disaster hit people, as well as political instabilities, a continued dependency on forest resources, over grazing, forest fires, landslides, erosion, and floods are also recognized drivers of change. Forest and land resource degradation, loss or threat to biodiversity, increased landslide and flood disaster, the disruption of river and wetland ecology, and the depletion of ground water resources represent noticeable evidence of the negative consequences of an environment associated with the processes of land cover change.

Growing natural vegetation on abandoned cultivated land is increasing in many parts of the world. Release of population pressure on marginal hill areas due to heavy outmigration in recent decades has resulted in growing land abandonment at marginal hill areas. Patch-level analysis is a useful method to identify the land abandonment situation. Patch-level data of abandoned and not abandoned cultivated land were derived from Landsat image. Descriptive statistics, abandonment ratio and nonparametric statistical tools have been used. Andhikhola watershed of the middle hill of Nepal is the study area. Land abandonment is higher at higher altitude and north-facing slope. Smaller patches have been more abandoned than larger patches. Even larger patches have been abandoned at higher-altitude regions. Although distance to highway and urban centre have a great influence on land abandonment, there are many other factors among which edge contrast, slope gradient and slope aspect are very important.

Nepal, a Himalayan country, is situated on the southern slopes of the central Himalayas and represents about one-third of its whole length. Nepal has a population of around 26.5 million and a large proportion of this rely upon land-based activities for their livelihoods. Its elevation ranges 60–8848 masl which constitutes 10 major ecoregions providing diverse ecosystem services crucial for its inhabitants as well as downstream populations. At the ecosystem level, changes in structure, function, patterns of disturbance, and potential impacts of climate change on species are notable concerns. Earth Observation (EO) technologies are being applied for the monitoring and assessment of Nepal on various scales. Since recently, EO supported assessments are also being linked to decision-making processes. In this chapter, we review the status of EO based assessment of key ecosystem components, including forests, rangelands, agro-ecosystems, and wetlands in Nepal. The chapter also looks at the current information gaps and potential use of upcoming satellite technology developments in the context of Nepal.

Vegetation in southern Himalayas is susceptible to both extrinsic (e.g., climate change) and intrinsic (e.g., earthquakes) factors. Analysis of spatio-temporal patterns and variability of net primary productivity (NPP) help to understand ecological functioning in this area. Based on MODIS net primary productivity data (MOD17A3H), we investigated the spatial distribution of NPP values and its spatio-temporal variation in southern Himalayas during 2001–2015 with the methods of gross statistics, correlation analysis and spatial statistics. The impacts of the Nepal Ms8.1 earthquake in April 2015 were also analyzed. The results indicate that: (1) in the past 15 years, NPP in southern Himalayas maintains a growth trend in general, with an average amount of 1.60 g Cm⁻² a⁻¹, while the tendency appears negative at lower altitudes below 1000 m, and positive in the mid-altitude areas and above; (2) NPP in southern Himalayas is characterized by vertical altitudinal belts, among which, NPP reaches to a maximum at the altitude of 1200–2700 m with an average of about 800 g Cm⁻² a⁻¹; (3) The average NPP values of evergreen broad-leaved forest, deciduous forest, coniferous forest, grassland, sparse vegetation in southern Himalayas were 835.0, 711.6, 623.9, 144.8, 25.5 g Cm⁻² a⁻¹, respectively, and their average growth rates are 5.08, 2.17, 1.135, 0.7086, 0.22 g Cm⁻² a⁻¹; (4) Along the major axis of high seismic intensive region, anomalous decreases of NPP could be found in a period of five years before earthquake (from 2010 to 2014). There is a positive correlation between these anomalous areas and average temperatures, but negative correlation with rainfall, which suggests that anomalous decrease of NPP may correlate with tectonic activity before the earthquake occurs.

Rainfall, temperature and snow cover are widely used indicators to define climate change pattern. This research analyzed a series of climatic and satellite data to determine the trend of climate, snow cover and vegetation cover dynamics in the context of changing climate. Also, community’s adaptation practices and challenges to face severe climate-induced disaster were explored for the Seti Khola catchment of western Nepal. Temporal Landsat images were used for quantifying snow and vegetation covers based on NDSI and NDVI indices. Household surveys, key informant interview, and direct field observation were used to verify the status of climate change indicators and to document community response for adaptation and reduction of existing and potential damages from climate-induced disasters. The annual average maximum and minimum temperature increases at the rate of 0.043 and 0.023 °C, respectively; precipitation is decreasing by 11.17 mm per annum with the erratic pattern. Melting of snow, occurrence of landslide and conversion of snow mountain to barren land and then vegetation are some distinctly noticed scenario associated with climate change. More than 25% people residing in the area seems highly vulnerable to floods and landslides caused primarily by climatic variability and an accelerated rate of snowmelt. Lack of knowledge, lack of political leadership and institutional mechanism were key issues for adaptation strategies. Regular monitoring of climatic indicators and assessment of damages and risks from the climate-induced disaster are important to formulate future climate change mitigation and adaptation strategy.

Geo-spatial technology as an emerging geo-information science was attempted to estimate the potential and actual soil loss and its correlative interpretation with land system units and land use and cover types in an agricultural watershed, Khadokhola, Eastern Region of Nepal. Among several empirical and physically based soil erosion models, widely used RKLS and Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) were employed to estimate the potential and actual soil loss in the present investigation, respectively. Forty years of rainfall, topographic contour, and soil map were basically used as source of information for in-depth investigation. Khadokhola watershed originated from Chure/Siwalik range was found highly sensitive or prone to soil erosion. A total of 253.1 and 27.9 million tons soil was potentially and actually estimated annually being lost from Khadokhola watershed. Erosion rates were found highly correlated with the slope of land system units. 64.41% of the total potential soil loss was mainly contributed only by land system unit 8 with the spatial coverage of 17% of the watershed area. This unit was characterized by steeply to very steeply sloping hilly and mountainous terrain having dominant slope greater 20°. Such land system unit was also found highest proportion of soil loss among the averages. Subsequently, degraded forest was investigated contributing significantly as of 64% total potential soil loss. Agriculture as a lifeline of livelihood of rural communities, spatially concentrated in 74.31% of the watershed area, was contributing significantly as of 28% of the total potential soil loss and 65% of actual total soil loss in the study area. Similarly degraded bush land and scattered tree areas contributed 34,162 and 21,994 tons/ha/year on a potential average, respectively. Undulating erosional alluvial fan upper piedmont and steeply to very steeply sloping hilly and mountainous terrain having soil loss highest must be given higher priorities for soil conservation and optimum land use planning required for sustainable agricultural development. Lower percentage of actual soil to the potential loss indicated the fact of contribution of crop management and erosional control practice factor in reducing soil erosion in existing situation.

The Middle Mountains is one of the regions of Nepal most vulnerable to water erosion, where fragile geology, steep topography, anomalous climatic conditions, and intensive human activity have resulted in serious soil erosion and enhanced land degradation. Based on the ¹³⁷Cs tracing method, spatial variations in soil erosion, organic carbon, and total nitrogen (TN) in terraced fields lacking field banks and forestland were determined. Soil samples were collected at approximately 5- and 20-m intervals along terraced field series and forestland transects, respectively. Mean ¹³⁷Cs inventories of the four soil cores from the reference site were estimated at 574.33 ± 126.22 Bq m⁻² [1 Bq (i.e., one Becquerel) is equal to 1 disintegration per second (1 dps)]. For each terrace, the ¹³⁷Cs inventory generally increased from upper to lower slope positions, accompanied by a decrease in the soil erosion rate. Along the entire terraced toposequence, ¹³⁷Cs data showed that abrupt changes in soil erosion rates could occur between the lower part of the upper terrace and the upper part of the immediate terrace within a small distance. This result indicated that tillage erosion is also a dominant erosion type in the sloping farmland of this area. At the same time, we observed a fluctuant decrease in soil erosion rates for the whole terraced toposequence as well as a net deposition at the toe terrace. Although steep terraces (lacking banks and hedgerows) to some extent could act to limit soil sediment accumulation in catchments, soil erosion in the terraced field was determined to be serious. For forestland, with the exception of serious soil erosion that had taken place at the top of slopes due to concentrated flows from a country road situated above the forestland site, spatial variation in soil erosion was similar to the “standard” water erosion model. Soil organic carbon (SOC) and TN inventories showed similar spatial patterns to the ¹³⁷Cs inventory for both toposequences investigated. However, due to the different dominant erosion processes between the two, we found similar patterns between the <0.002 mm soil particle size fraction (clay sized) and ¹³⁷Cs inventories in terraced fields, while different patterns could be found between ¹³⁷Cs inventories and the <0.002 mm soil particle size fraction in the forestland site. Such results confirm that ¹³⁷Cs can successfully trace soil erosion, SOC, and soil nitrogen dynamics in steep terraced fields and forestland in the Middle Mountains of Nepal.

Poverty reduction has been a significant and imperative task in developing countries. Investigating poverty–environment relationship from the perspective of geography provides an ideal way to in-depth understanding of the spatial distribution of poverty and its driving mechanisms. Based on latest district-level data and statistical analysis, this study reveals spatial features of poverty and recognizes the economic-impoverished types of Nepal. Main findings were as below: (1) The poverty incidence (PI) was gradually rising from the Eastern to the Far-Western with geographical differences. The Mid-Western and Far-Western presented higher PI and poverty depth than those of other three regions but with less absolute and relative differences on poverty distribution. By Lorenz curves of poverty distribution, the Central, Western, and Mid-Western Regions were more centralized on poverty population as compared to the whole nation, with the Far-Western Region more evenly distributed on poverty population. (2) A larger proportion of relative high and high poverty but a smaller proportion of low and relative low poverty districts were found in the Mid-Western and the Far-Western Regions. Mountain region was the only region where high poverty districts were observed while hill region held the lowest poverty districts. Tarai region was featured with most moderate and relative poverty districts. (3) All of the 75 districts were divided into three economic-impoverished types: Revealed Poverty Region, Hidden Poverty Region, and Specific Low-poverty Region. The stable revenue generated through tourism by the local government is considered a good and sustainable macroeconomic indicator in the Hidden Poverty Region, while local people have fewer opportunities to get involved in tourism development. As for the Specific Low-poverty Region, political struggles, and poor administrative management are identified as the main reasons for both low economic development and high poverty, forcing large number of people to look for better job prospects overseas.

Intensification of agricultural land use is the only viable option to achieve food security in countries possessing very limited arable lands such as Nepal. Since sustainable intensification has been policy targets in recent years, understanding agricultural land use intensity and its determinants would provide important support to policy formation toward sustainable agricultural development. However, the status and determinants of agricultural land use intensity in Nepal have been seldom investigated. Based on questionnaire surveys of 453 households, 12 key informant surveys and three focus group discussions, this study assesses cropping frequency, as an indicator of agricultural land use intensity (ALUI), in three agroecological regions in central Nepal. The results show that average cropping frequency in Khet land is 2.9, 2.6 and 1.6 in low-land Terai, mid-hill and high-hill area, respectively, while in Bari land is 2.4, 2.3 and 2.1, respectively. In addition, Terai region has significantly higher ALUI in both Khet and Bari lands than mid- and high-hill areas. Among a total of 18 investigated impacting factors, age and education of household heads, land quality and use of improved seed positively influence ALUI in Khet land, while distances from home to land and vehicle passable roads have negative effects. For the Bari lands, land quality, irrigation facility, tractor availability and improved seeds are positively associated with ALUI, but education of household heads, distances from home to land, home to market center and home to vehicle passable road are negatively influencing factors. This study provides an empirical evidence that agricultural modernization and access to infrastructural facilities are the major pathways to promote agriculture intensification in mid and high hills. Intensification of agricultural land use might be a preferable option to reduce poverty and food shortage in Nepal; however, there is a need of effective land management and agricultural policy, along with incentive programs to attract young generations engage in agriculture. More than that, education, training and awareness programs about the importance of maintaining soil fertility under intensified farming are greatly needed in order to achieve a sustainable agricultural in Nepal.

Changes in household livelihood strategies have provided a new research perspective for land utilization changes. This research uses questionnaire surveys, semi-structured interviews, mathematical statistics and other research methods to conduct a systematic investigation of the households and land plots of four typical villages located in the Melamchi basin of the central mountainous areas in Nepal. The study also analyses the different types of households’ livelihood strategies and land use patterns. The results show agriculture-dependent type and non-farming-dependent type are more efficient and livelihood diversity index is higher, so as a result there are relatively lower livelihood risks. Households’ land area, cultivating land structure, labor input and land yield-increasing input are all different. Since different types of households’ perceptions and strategies for livelihood improvement are present, their influences on land use are varied. Non-agricultural livelihood activities will not only reduce the vulnerability and risks of livelihood, but will also reduce the household’s dependency degree and land reclamation ratio, which will promote a change of land ownership and land redistribution and improve agricultural production rate. Given the environmental features in the mountainous areas of Nepal and unfavorable factors hindering the improvement in households’ livelihood, this paper comes up with feasible strategies for improving households’ livelihood and promoting the sustainable utilization of land at both household and regional levels.

People’s livelihoods in the villages of the mountain region of Nepal are based on agro-pastoral system, and such livelihoods are stressful. Most studies carried out on livelihoods in Nepal have analyzed the status of capital assets, but they have grossly overlooked the equally important aspect of shocks and stress on sustainable livelihoods. This paper highlights the diversification in the livelihoods of mountain people in the midst of consistent stresses and shocks that result from both natural and social factors plus familial incidents. The study is based on case material from two settlements namely Phalyak and Dhakarjong of Kagbeni VDC of Mustang district. Necessary socioeconomic data were collected from 50 households of the settlements. Apart from household surveys, information has been collected from key informant interviews, informal discussions and field observation carried out several times between 2013 and 2015. Findings suggest that households in these settlements amidst shocks and stresses have diversified their livelihood options from being primarily dominated by agriculture and livestock raising in the past to apple farming (cash income), vegetable farming, external migration and tourism based activities. Despite isolation in the past, people are now becoming more linked with external world through their changing economic efforts. As a result, their current livelihood pattern shows that they are not only aware of external world but that they are trying to strike a balance between continuation of customary livelihood and cashing the new opportunities generated by recent development adventures in the area.

Street vendors are defined as informal traders who sell their goods or services whether or not it has fixed location for conducting business. They are generally found in most of the cities of poor developing countries. In the Kathmandu valley cities of Nepal, the petty street traders consist of features such as temporary structure, small size, self-employment, low investment, low skills and marginal groups. They are also known as ‘invisible economy’ and contribute largely to the national economy indirectly. The data for this paper were acquired from standard observation protocol sheet, GPS, informal discussions with the vendors based on checklist and available existing documents. This paper explores that ‘convenient’ is one of the most crucial factors to determine the variation in the spatial location pattern of the petty street vendors in the Kathmandu valley cities. GIS and the nearest neighborhood technique were used to identify the spatial pattern of the petty street vendors. The paper also briefly describes the historical account of the evolution of informal marketing activities in the Kathmandu valley cities. It is found that the petty vendors are mostly migrants with petty trading as their only income source, and they are moving on through hardship life.

The Kosi River is an important tributary of the Ganges that passes through China, Nepal and India. With a basin area of 71,500 km², the Kosi River has the largest elevation drop in the world (from 8848 m of Mt Everest to 60 m of the Ganges plain) and covers a broad spectrum of climate, soil, vegetation and socioeconomic zones. The basin suffers from multiple water-related hazards including glacier lake outburst, debris flow, landslide, flood, drought, soil erosion and sedimentation. This paper describes the characteristics of water hazards in the basin based on the literature review and site investigation covering hydrology, meteorology, geology, geomorphology and socioeconomics. Glacier lake outbursts are a huge threat to the local population in the region, and they usually further trigger landslides and debris flows. Floods are usually a result of interaction between man-made hydraulic structures and the natural environment. Debris flows are widespread and occur in clusters. Droughts tend to last over long periods and affect vast areas. Rapid population increase, decline of ecosystems and climate changes could further exacerbate various hazards in the region. The paper has proposed a set of mitigating strategies and measures. It is a huge challenge to implement them in practice. More investigations are needed to fill in the knowledge gaps.

Koshi River basin, which is a trans-boundary basin shared by China, Nepal and India, covers an area of about 87,500 km². This study investigated the landslide locations in this basin by means of interpreting remote sensing images as well as field work. We could map 5653 landslides that are located within China and Nepal. Landslide caused different kinds of disasters including damage to public and private properties. The most common hazard pattern is supplying sources to debris flow, accounting for 48.38% of the number of landslides. The following patterns are soil erosion and blocking river, accounting for 25.18 and 18.98%, respectively. Cascading hazards related to landslides are very common in Koshi River basin. Three main cascading events were found there: landslide-dammed lake-outburst flood, GLOF-landslide and landslide-debris flow. These features make the disasters extend temporally and spatially. A framework for risk management in trans-boundary river basin was proposed to develop cooperation at academic and administrative levels among the involved countries.

The devastating earthquake that occurred in Nepal on April 25, 2015, caused widespread damage and ravaged rural communities and economy. It triggered numerous geohazards in the steep mountains and hills throughout the impact zone, including catastrophic landslides in the Langtang Valley. Potentially, these landslides can have devastating effects on humans, destroy infrastructure, obstruct river flows and cause outburst floods. In order to understand the effects of the earthquake-induced geohazards and their risk assessment, number of scientists have carried out numerous geohazard investigations using remote sensing approach. This paper presents evaluation results based on the study of earthquake-related geohazards. Later, three main geohazards related to the Langtang avalanche, landslide dam and glacial lake monitoring are discussed in detail. Finally, the zones around the two China–Nepal roads are selected as the study areas. A change detection method is applied to identify the geohazards occurred in these areas and to understand their spatial distribution pattern. The study offers awareness about the earthquake-induced geohazards in Nepal. Landslide is identified as the major geohazard induced by earthquake, and its regional impact will continue in near future.

Earthquakes are very unpredictable incidents and suddenly on April 25, 2015, the ground at Kathmandu shook so violently that they were once more reminded of the terrible earthquake (1934) of the past. It was later followed by an almost equally violent earthquake (7.3 Richter Scale) on May 12, 2015. The epicenter of May 12 was on Sunkhani, 3 km aerial distance (12 km road distance) from Charikot, district headquarter of Dolakha. Most of the structures of the area which had withstood first quake with some crack were razed entirely to the ground by the second quake. The present paper tries to describe the earthquake impacts along with mitigation measures adopted by government. The study is based on the field observation of the study area from June 26 to July 3 and September 17 to October 3, 2015, mainly through Key Informant Interview (KII), expert opinion, and literature review. In total, 70 and 95% of houses of urban and rural settlements, respectively, were damaged completely. Similarly, out of total 40 observed locations about 50% have totally damaged. The present study found that more damages occurred at the northern upper part than the southern part. The earthquake bought about significant number of ecological consequences such as triggering a number of dry landslides, and disturbances of wild life habitat causing increasing number of wild animal raids at the human settlements. The social development got more vulnerable specially on livelihood of basin people.