Before he was crowned in the wake of a 2001 royal massacre, King Gyanendra was an enthusiastic conservationist of the Hindu kingdom's mountainous wilds.

Most of those wild Himalayan areas are now under the control of Nepal's increasingly ominous Maoist insurgency. Many believe that Tuesday’s move, in which Gyanendra announced he was suspending democracy in order to save it, will only add grist to the Maoist mill.