Kathmandu, April 30 -- Anyone following Nepal's mainstream press this week to find out what is happening would conclude that there was: a) an investment summit, b) a couple of by-elections, and c) another scandal involving Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane.

But there is a full scale national emergency that has got scant coverage - thousands of forest fires have been raging across Nepal for more than a month. They have done incalculable damage to the economy, the ecology, and reduced the average lifespan of Nepalis due to dangerous air pollution.

Any other accountable government would set aside everything else and go into fire-fighting mode on a war footing. Not here. There is no indication that state agencies have gauged or understood the...