The first team led by 1st Vice President Rana Bahadur Khadka had explored the possibility of developing new trails in Taplejung district. The team has designed an 18-day trek that begins from Fungling – the district headquarters of Taplejung – and ends in Tumlingtar of Sankhuwasabha. The trek passes through beautiful villages of Mitlung, Chhitruwa, Lelep, Selep and Olangchung Gola in northern part of Taplejung district and enter Sankhuwasabha district after crossing the Lambasumba Pass (5177 meters).

“We are hopeful that the trail will be popular among trekkers because it is a perfect blend of culture, nature and adventure,” Khadka said. “Besides, the trail offers the closest possible view of Mt Kanchanjunga.”

Similarly, another team of TAAN has designed nine-day trek in the Lower Manaslu Region. Gopal Babu Shrestha, executive member of TAAN and leader of the expedition team, said excellent mountain views and unique culture and lifestyle of Gurungs are the major attractions in the route.

“Dharche Danda in Lower Manaslu offers magnificent views of mountains – from Dhaulagiri in the west to Dorje Lakpa in the east.” Besides, beautiful villages of Gurungs in Laprak and Baprak are the major attractions in the route, he added. Both the teams also had representatives of SNV-Nepal, distrtict development committees of the concerned districts and local tourism development committees. Cartographers, videographers, photographers and report writers were also in the team.

The teams would publish separate maps, brochures and documentaries to promote the new routes. TAAN plans to unveil new routes on May 29, which is celebrated as International Sagarmatha Day.

Source TAAN e-news

The team reached Khalanga of Darchula, the last destination of the 1,700 km trek, on April 20, 23 days ahead of the schedule. The team finished the walk ahead of the schedule because they had to use an alternative trail to Khalanga due to massive snowfall on alpine routes in Bajhang, Bajura and Darchula, according to Prashant Singh of Himalayan Climate Initiative that organized the walk.

Apa and his team had started the walk from Taplejung district three months ago. According to Singh, Apa will organize a press meet in Khalanga before departing to Kathmandu via Dhangadhi. He is scheduled to meet President Dr Ram Sharan Mahat on April 23.

Climate Smart Celebrity Trek was organized to draw the attention of the world community toward the impact of climate change and global warming in the Himalayas.

Source TAAN e-news

Karsang did not appear to be sick or have any physical problems before Wednesday, when he complained of uneasiness and later died, Dambar Parajuli, who organized Namgyal’s expedition, told media persons. He was leading a team of 11 mountaineers, including three Iranians and a German. The team had left Kathmandu on April 10.

Karsang, was the elder song of illustrious climber Ang Rita Sherpa also known as Snow Leopard.

Source TAAN e-news

HIMAL DHUNGEL

SOLUKHUMBU: The adage, ‘earn while you learn’ may have a different connotation to the rest of the world, but when it comes to this part of Solukhumbu it means just the contrary. Take the case of 13-year-old Labindra Kulung, who comes to Nele bazaar to carry loads of luggage – or whatever his hands fall on – to meet the expenses of his studies. For Labindra reaching Nele bazaar was not all that easy. He walked two days from Cheskam village, where he is the resident, to reach his ad hoc destination. “Whenever I get time I come to Nele to carry loads of luggage to earn some money,” he said, adding, “I have to do it to manage the expenses of my studies.”

Similarly, 12-year-old Aashandhan Kulung of Bung has also come to Nele as a potter. He says he has been compelled to carry loads of luggage to meet the expenses of his studies. “I buy copies from the money earned by carrying whatever I get”, he said, adding, “But I even manage house hold expenses as oil, salt, soap and others from the same money.” Tales of children carrying loads of luggage is not confined to a village or two. In fact, many children from villages like Bung, Cheskam, Gudel among others are into this line of work as they get Rs 28 for carrying a kilogram of load. Most of them carry loads up to 35 kg in one go.

Even then everyone is not so fortunate to get jobs. There’s a competition in that too. Aashadhan was cheerful when he told THT, “Today I had only 20 kilogram of salt in the load.” He has already bought two pens and some copies out of the money he earned for the new academic session. Likewise, Ambir Kulung of Cheskam said that he was compelled to carry load when his parents fell ill. These children, who share similar age group, wish to do some business in future. They do not want to carry others’ load and be branded as potters. Twelve-year-old Pravinkala said,” If luck favours then we can become the owner of the shop some day.”

Even when the government and private organisations have invested huge amount in education sector, the plight of these children has hardly improved. They were compelled to become potters due to poverty. But the most heartrending aspect has been that most of them were compelled to leave their studies in between while pursuing this part time career.

source THT 12 april 2012

]]> http://www.aasraecotreks.com/children-porters-carry-high-hopes/feed/ 0 http://www.aasraecotreks.com/sacred-himalaya-meet-kicks-off-in-capital-2/ http://www.aasraecotreks.com/sacred-himalaya-meet-kicks-off-in-capital-2/#comments Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:43:26 +0000 admin http://www.aasraecotreks.com/?p=439 Kathmandu, Aug 18 – Four eastern Himalayan countries–Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and India– officially commenced a three-day high level technical consultative meeting in Kathmandu on the ‘Sacred Himalayas for water, livelihood and bio-cultural heritages’.

“The meeting is being organized by ICIMOD and Royal Government of Bhutan and expected outcomes will create a roadmap leading to the proposed ‘Climate Summit for Living Himalayas, Bhutan 2011,” read a press statement released by ICIMOD here Wednesday.

Opening the meeting, Dr. Jagadish Chandra Pokharel, vice president of the National Planning Commission (NPC), Nepal, congratulated the Royal Government of Bhutan for taking the initiative to develop a regional framework and national adaptation plans to climate change, to reduce the vulnerability of local populations living in the region, including the lowlands.

A board member of ICOMOD, Pokharel commended the role of ICIMOD in providing technical backstopping to the summit which had an important objective of assisting the populations in the eastern Himalayan region to adapt to climate change.

Dr. Pema Gyamtsho, Minister for Agriculture and Forest of Bhutan, said that the countries should work together in developing medium and long-term strategies as citizens of the eastern Himalayas.

“We share a common geography, common problems and a common destiny and need to take collective action to tackle the problems posed by changing climate. We have to start working together on an urgent basis, he added.

“We also need to gain a clearer picture of temperature rise and its local effects. There are heavy fluctuations in weather patterns and their implications at the local, national and regional levels are going to be significant. We have to work towards developing our own adaptive strategy at the regional level.”

Nawang Norbu of Bhutan presented the rationale for the proposed Climate Summit for Living Himalayas, Bhutan 2011 and its links to the process and the rationale for focusing on the southern slopes of the eastern Himalayan region.

www.egorkhapatra.com

KATHMANDU: Gaurishankar Area Conservation (GCA) has become the third Conservation Area as per the Nepal Gazette dated January 11, 2010.

Earlier, only Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA) and Mansalu Conservation Area (MCA) were recognised as conservation areas.

“Now, Gaurishankar will be conserved by NTNC for 20 years. We need to develop GCA,” said Juddha Bahadur Gurung, member secretary, NTNC. “We are trying to develop GCA as climate-friendly tourist destination,” he said.

According to the Nepal Gazette dated July 19, 2010, Gaurishankar Area Conservation responsibility has been entrusted to the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) for 20 years. ACA and MCA are already under the responsibility of NTNC.

GCA covers an area of 2,179 square kilometers and encompasses 22 Village Development Committees of three districts. Along with outstanding bio-diversity, GCA has been recognised as new tourist destination for the Nepal Tourism Year (NTY) 2011. “GCA is a wildlife corridor that connects to Langtang and Sagarmatha,” said Dr Siddhartha Bajra Bajracharya, executive officer, NTNC.

“It is a new tourism product. As the existing tourism destinations can not be sufficient for the tourism year, we need to promote GCA with special infrastructure development programme there,” Bajracharya said. According to Bajracharya, Gaurishankar can be developed as carbon neutral tourism destination as its main attraction.

“Compared to ACA and MCA, GCA has easy accessibility through roads as one can easily drive to the destination if necessary,” he said. Gaurishankar however, connects Langtang and Sagarmatha. It is relatively less visited and there is no exact data about the tourists arriving at GCA. Annually, more than 60,000 tourists visit ACA, while above 30,000 visit Sagarmatha and more than 10,000 visit the Langtang area.

Bajracharya said different tourist products can be promoted at Gaurishankar. He said, “Along with high-altitude, the region has a number of variations which need to be explored.”

“On an average, 1,000 tourists visits the area annually. However, the number can be increased with proper infrastructure and publicity,” he said. GCA can be developed for Trekking Tourism, Wildlife Tourism, Nature-based Tourism, Adventure Tourism, and Mountaineering.

www.thehimalayantimes.com