Nature, in its raw complexity, offers more than ecological insight; it serves as a diagnostic mirror for human governance. In this piece, I, a field researcher at the University of Basel on governance and sustainability sciences, aim to draw parallels between the behavioral patterns of Dhole (the Asiatic wild dog, locally known as Bwanso) at Nepal’s Dhorpatan hunting reserve, predatory behavior of Nepal’s political institutions and a polity on the brink.
Based on my field research at the reserve, I can say that the Dhole’s surplus aggression, killing beyond necessity, barking without cause and obsessively marking territory reflects a drive for dominance untethered from survival.
Oversexed during the mating season (mating occurs up to 40 times a day), the lioness shows erratic shifts in her behavior. She growls and signals a breakdown in cooperative dynamics with her lion. These instinctual cycles of excess, fatigue and territorial assertion are not merely biological curiosities; they metaphorically shed light on the behavioral pathology of Nepal’s political institutions in chaos for over three decades.
A vicious cycle
Since Nepal’s political shift in 1990, governance has been under the domination of the Nepali Congress, UML/its factions and later the Maoists, each contributing to institutional decay. The Maoist insurgency, launched in the 90s with the promise of inclusion and anti-corruption, brought immense human, private properties and infrastructural losses but failed to deliver stated reforms. Successive governments engaged in corruption, enabled capture of public properties and weakened state institutions.
Leaders such as Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Sher Bahadur Deuba, Madhav Kumar Nepal, Baburam Bhattarai, Jhalanath Khanal, and late Girija Prasad Koirala presided over regimes marked by impunity and performative politics. Oli, now UML chairman and a multi-term Prime Minister, increasingly defies institutional norms, positioning himself as a national savior while his party cadre applaud his witty lines.
The bureaucracy has become a pawn for political groups, and public trust in this institution has eroded. Nepal’s political culture driven by dominance, exhaustion and erratic behavior mirrors the chaotic aggression of the lioness and the dhole. Lavish attention has led political figures to mistake flattery for stature, much like the donkey who, after receiving undue praise, believed itself to be a lion.
Economic paradoxes
The Ministry of Finance reveals that in 2023-24, Nepal’s total public debt (domestic and external combined) stood at Rs 2,434.57bn, rising to Rs 2,664.42bn in 2024-25, a 9.4 percent annual increase. Public revenue in 2024-25 totaled Rs 1,196.19bn, against a national budget of Rs 1,860.3bn.
Expenditures reached Rs 1,512.98bn, achieving an execution rate of 81.33 percent. Of this, current expenditures consumed most of the budget, while capital spending (18 percent) lagged far behind, reflecting a chronic inability to implement developmental projects effectively. On the trade front, imports reached Rs 1,841.20bn, dwarfing exports of only Rs 277bn.
Remittance increased 19.2 percent and the total amount reached by Rs 1723.27bn in 2024-25, constituting 28.22 percent of the GDP. The GDP increased modestly from Rs 5,705.10bn in 2023-24 to Rs 6,107.22bn in 2024-25, with agriculture contributing 25.6 percent, industry 12.4 percent, and services 62.2 percent. The overall economic growth rate of 4.61 percent is insufficient to absorb the expanding labor force or sustain developmental ambitions.
Despite modest growth, Nepal’s structural economy remains severely distorted. Infrastructure across economic, social and environmental sectors is deteriorating. The tourism industry continues to suffer from unreliable and costly connectivity systems. Domestic airfares remain disproportionately expensive, discouraging travel. Agricultural stagnation persists due to poor input supply, inadequate processing facilities, technologies and weak market linkages, despite heavy public spending. Each year, approximately half a million Nepalis enter the labor market, yet the domestic economy generates very few viable jobs.
Consequently, labor migration remains the default escape, with an additional 250,000 renewing their work permits annually. The economy, therefore, is sustained not by innovation or productivity but by remittances. This condition stands in stark contrast to the insights of the 2025 Nobel Laureates in Economic Sciences: Prof Peter Howitt, Prof Joel Mokyr, and Prof Philippe Aghion, who emphasises innovation-driven growth and institutional dynamism as the foundation of sustained prosperity that Nepal has already missed.
Myth of a directly elected chief
Nepal’s political economy is deeply compromised by state capture, corruption and impunity conditions that have galvanized the GenZ movement. The electricity billing crisis exemplifies systemic injustice: while industrial elites evade payment through litigation, ordinary citizens face disconnection after brief delays. Illicit invoicing and bribery further erode the tax base and institutional capacity.
GenZ activists have exposed the stark contrast between the opulence of political leaders with private gyms, swimming pools, stock of imported liquors, hoarded cash and the deprivation in rural communities lacking basic social/economic infrastructure, health, education and maternal care. Their call to bring the “Lion/Lioness and the Dhole to justice” reflects a broader demand for governance reform.
Among their proposals, the push for a directly elected executive has sparked debate. While the appeal for decisive leadership is understandable, Nepal’s fragile state institutions, uneven education and diverse social fabric and wrongful political fragility make a directly elected executive risky. Without strong institutional checks and balances, the state could slide into totalitarian and authoritarianism. The crisis is not merely government structural but rooted in moral hazard, as political actors manipulate democratic processes for personal and political group gains.
Nepal must first restore institutional integrity with strong checks and balances before mulling over a directly elected executive. The immediate priority is doing away with corruption, which is thriving due to the involvement of political groups and their leaders, and rebuilding public trust.
A moral and institutional renewal
Nepal’s salvation does not lie in adopting a new executive model but in undertaking a rigorous, impartial legal reckoning against widespread and unchecked corruption. The nation must confront the rooted networks of political and bureaucratic corruption that have hollowed out governance and state institutions. Only through the prosecution and removal of corrupt political leaders and officials, and the restoration of ethical governance can Nepal build a sustainable path toward peace, justice, inclusive development and prosperity.
Until then, the nation’s political stage will continue to resemble the wild drama of the lion/lioness and Dhole marked by instinct, exhaustion and unrestrained appetite, rather than by reason, discipline and the pursuit of common goods.
