On a trek in the Garhwal Himalayas, I came back with lessons in micro-financing and community-owned tourism
It started off as my much-awaited trek in the Garhwal Himalayas and turned into an impressive first-hand account of a small, yet smart, initiative. The setting: Nanda Devi Sanctuary Trek against the backdrop of the spectacular 7,816-metre (25,643 feet) Nanda Devi peak, the second highest peak in the Indian Himalayan range.
But first, a peek into the history of this trek that has a direct bearing on the present. The Nanda Devi Sanctuary Trek retraces the pioneering steps of mountaineers Eric Shipton and H. W. Tilman through the Garhwal Himalayas in 1934. It's their exploration of the inner sanctuary that set the stage for all subsequent mountaineering expeditions. Till 1982, when the entire region around Nanda Devi was declared a national park and all human activity banned inside the inner sanctuary. The well-meaning conservation efforts had a devastating impact on the local economy.
In this backdrop, the Nanda Devi Campaign, led by (the locals) was launched in 1990s. After a long struggle, in 2003 the region saw the opening of the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve (NDBR) for limited ecotourism activities. The people of Nanda Devi, however, faced the daunting prospect of managing a community-based tourism trade with few of the resources, experience, and expertise enjoyed by the big tourist agencies.
This struggle has now moved into its decisive phase. And the big challenge? Capacity building and training of local youth---to ensure that the gains of this labour are not lost on the community.
Taking up this challenge is Mountain Shepherds, a cooperative initiative that was borne out of the Nanda Devi Campaign. To begin with, Mountain Shepherds has taken upon itself to train the local youth from Uttarakhand Himalayas at the prestigious Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM) at Uttarkashi to become local guides, porters and technical experts in search and rescue operations during trekking expeditions in the Garhwal Himalayas.
Leader of this initiative Dr Sunil Dutt Kainthola, says: “We are trying to evolve a model of community-owned tourism where the community is not a mere beneficiary but among the main stakeholders in the tourism enterprise of the region.”
To this end, Mountain Shepherds also directly plans treks to the sanctuary and takes care of your trip right from the time you land in Delhi. Thus our trip to the sanctuary was also ensured in association with Mumbai-based Odati Adventures.
From our first halt at Rishikesh, we are driven to Joshimath where Mountain Shepherds has a home stay facility. Here, we get introduced to our trek manager Mangal and his team of three main leaders Lakhpath, Hookie and Govind. These local boys were among the first batch of 38 boys to get trained at the prestigious NIM, through Mountain Shepherds initiative. The trained boys have pledged that they will develop tourism as envisaged in the Nanda Devi Declaration, which chalked out the biodiversity conservation and eco-tourism guidelines in 2001. Says Kainthola: “The boys who currently operate under Mountain Shepherds, which is headquartered at Lata village in Chamoli district, will eventually become partners in Mountain Shepherds”.
During the trekking season (June to October), the local boys earn about Rs 20,000-25,000 through portage. Their families earn similar amounts through selling carpets and about Rs 10,000 through home stays. Of this, Mountain Shepherds--which will soon be converted into a private limited company--earns a minimal profit which it then gives back to the locals in the form of micro-financing.
One such local boy, Mukesh, drove us from Rishikesh to Joshimath and thereafter to Lata Village in his own vehicle which he had bought through micro-financing.
After an overnight stay at Joshimath, we were driven 25 kms to Lata winter village. The road here is in good condition and along some curves we snatch views of great mountains like Dronagiri, Hathi Parbat, Bethartoli, Mrigthuni and Nanda Devi. The drive follows the Dhauli Ganga upstream.
We reach Lata Winter village, a small dainty village alongside the road, in the Dhauli Ganga valley. Most women here are seen cleaning rajma (kidney beans) one of the agricultural cash crop that is grown in this region. At Lata we also meet our 15 member porter team. Among these are experienced expedition porters like Kundan Singh who has walked with the renowned author Bill Aitken (who wrote ‘NandaDevi Affair’) and trained local boys like Sandeep, Gautam, Sidhu who accompany us on the trek.
We immediately organise our backpacks and do a short trek of 1.5 km to Lata Summer village situated at 2317 M / 7646 feet, the traditional gateway to the Nanda Devi trek.
Interestingly, Lata and its neighbouring village Reni is where the Chipko movement and thereafter Nanda Devi's ‘Jhapto-Cheeno’ campaign under the leadership of Dhan Singh Rana took shape. Unfortunately we were unable to meet Dhan Singh Rana but were fortunate to meet his mother Gwanchi Devi who still practices traditional medicine and his brother Raghuveer Singh Rana. Before we set off on our trek we pay a visit to the Nanda Devi temple and seek her blessings. After getting a taste of the village hospitality, we head into the forest above, frequently snatching views of the now diminishing village below. We reach our first camp at Kanuk at 10,640 feet.
As I walk with the porters, I realize for 17 year old Gautam and 14 year old Sidhu, trekking up and down from their home village Lata is a child's play. It's just a way for them to spend diwali vacations and in the process also earn some money through portrage. “Our school reopens on 12 th and so we decided to come along on this trek,” Says Gautam Rana who is currently in class 12.
Very few like Gautam and Sidhu are fortunate to continue with school. Some like 20 year old Sandeep have had to drop out of school after Class 8 and take up portrage or do agriculture of cash crops like Rajma, peas or potato to support his family. But, Sandeep says he is not sad of dropping out of school as he is now armed with an NIM certificate that will help him move forward. Most of these local boys have also learnt to speak little bit of English, as many of them have been with foreigners on expeditions. As they say you learn better when on job… it's true of these locals. The boys are well versed with their land and their history and most of them are able to converse well with the trekkers. While on one end they prefer the hills, they are also keen on knowing what is happening in the cities and especially more keen to know about Bollywood from us.
After a good night stay, we leave Kanuk early next morning and take a steep walk uphill towards Lata Kharak (Kharak also spelt Khark means a meadow in Garhwali) situated at 3689 M/ 12174 FT. We reach the top after a four hour steep ascent walk and only happy to spot a long log hut and we end our day's walk here resting. After lunch we decide we have lots of time to explore and decide to walk around Lata Kharak. From our log hut we can see the Chaukhamba range, Neelkanth Peak and Nar /Narayan Peak, Mana range, Hathi Ghodi Parvat, Barhmal peak and the Kuari pass area.
The boys then walk us up to the view point 'Saini Kharak' which is about an hour of walk from our log hut. As we climb up to the view point, the peaks of Dronagiri, Bethartoli, Nanda Ghunti, Trisul, Devisthan, etc. begin coming into view. The Rishi Ganga gorge below is one of the most formidable gorges in the Himalayas. We keep walking along the ridge over broken boulders. This is the most trying stretch of the trek. After short walk over here, we can see Nanda Dvei in its full glory. Peaks of Nanda Ghunti and Bethartoli Himal look like they are a stone's throw away, but the Rishi Ganga Gorge reminds us of the toil that one may have to endure to get there.
After a good night's sleep with temperature below freezing, the next morning we set off for Dharansi Pass which is at an altitude of 4250 M / 14025 feet. One hour away from the pass and the weather turns wicked and we are forced to return back to our camp Lata Kharak.
The next day we take a steep descent towards Kadvi Chaun through thick forests of Birch and Fir fighting our way through a heavy snow fall to our last camp Tolma, a small village on the slopes of the valley. Tolma is also our porter Govind's hometown and he has organised one-day home stay for us, thus ensuring that Tolma's locals have an equal opportunity to earn through tourism. The lessons of community tourism have been learnt well, surely.
You can check out my photographers click on the link below :
http://picasaweb.google.com/subanusha/NandadeviSanctuaryTrekNov2007?authkey=rwO4TyN8k0E
