On 18 March, the Supreme Court of Nepal removed a ban on the burial of non-Hindus in the Shlesmantak forest. A patch of woods located just across the revered Pashupatinath temple, the Shlesmantak holds a curious place in Hindu mythology. Shiva's manifestation as Pashupati, the Lord of the Animals, is said to have frequented this area, while his consort, Parvati, undertook penance among these trees to win Shiva's affections.
Shlesmantak has been used for Hindu burials when the traditional cremation is not favoured or allowed, such as for just-born infants or yogis and mendicants. Yet for all its connections with Hindu mythology, Shlesmantak has long been used as burial grounds by disparate groups. While Nepal's ethnic Kirant community does not practise Hinduism, it does believe in the sacredness of Pashupatinath, and has buried its dead in the forest since antiquity. In recent times, however, the number of Christian converts within the Kirant community has increased; in turn, their dead have continued to be buried within the Shlesmantak forest but in accordance with Christian ritual – establishing permanent gravestones, for instance, unlike the Kirant tradition.
These practices did not go unnoticed by the Hindu majority in Nepal. Taking particular note was the Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT), an autonomous body set up in 1987 to 'manage and develop' the Pashupati area. In 1998, the Trust began to remove the gravestones, on the rationale that they were non-Hindu and occupying limited space in Shlesmantak. Protests by the Christian Kirant community followed, and an arbitrary provision of allowing burials for three months longer turned into 12 years – until December last year.
At that time, PADT put into effect a ban on all non-Hindu burials in the Shlesmantak forest. Consequently, relatives of 40-year-old Jash Ram Rai, a Kirant, took up public protests both in and outside the Pashupati grounds. These demonstrations turned violent and 13 protestors were eventually arrested, including two lawmakers of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). The case was then taken up by the Supreme Court, which in March decided that the ban needed to be lifted. However, a counter-petition filed by Hindu activist Bharat Jangam against the court's order has stayed the ban, resulting in further protests by both the Kirant and Christian communities, demanding the right to bury their dead in Shlesmantak. In April, a five-member government committee was formed to seek an alternative solution to Christian burial rights, and the committee's chief, Rishikesh Niraula, was quoted as saying the committee would submit a report in 45 days. Although the committee has not yet tabled a report, the government reached a settlement on 1 May after it agreed to form a high-level panel that would 'manage burial grounds … for Christians at the earliest,' according to Niraula.