Maoists vandalise school, police-post

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JUMLA, April 9 - The underground CPN (Maoists) vandalised the local Karnali Boarding School, which functions as a branch of Karnali Boarding School being run in Jumla Khalanga.

The Maoist workers looted the furniture and burnt the books and papers to ashes.

The Maoists are also issuing warnings to four private boarding schools in Jumla district to shut them down.

The fact that even peons of the government primary schools are sending their children to boarding school demonstrates the miserable condition of government schools in the district.

Meanwhile, Maoist insurgents burnt to ashes the Ilaka police-post located about 24 miles from the district headquarters. The police post was unmanned at the time when it was burnt.

The police had been living in a rented room belonging to Chandra Bahadur Budha. The police post had been shifted to Debalgaon about two months ago.

Pokhara sets example in garbage management 

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POKHARA, April 9 - Like in other areas, sweepers of this Sub-Metropolis do not come to scrub the streets of Bindhyabasini tole. Still, their area looks neat and clean. Locals here have learned to dump garbage into "give-me-litter buckets."

People residing around the Bindhyabasini temple have set an example by managing litter produced from their houses systematically. It has been two years that locals of ward No-1 of this tourism city have been campaigning on sanitation. Visitors from other areas feel pleasant when they enter Mohariya tole these days.

They sweep their houseyards and streets every day and collect garbage into the buckets placed in convenient locations. The municipality’s tractors appear at the area every two weeks to collect rubbish but they demand that the tractors should come every day.

People of all ages - children, women and men - take part in the sanitation campaign and hold discussions on the management of garbage on Saturdays.

Shambhu Karki, Chairman of the Sanitation Awareness Campaign, recalls the old days, "Before we began this campaign, the entire area used to be a dumping site full of litter and plastic bags. Now, we have converted the locality into a cosy and mosquito free place."

Two years ago, locals self-imposed ban on pasting posters and pamphlets on walls and wall paintings around the locality. In case any stranger is found to have thrown anything in the streets, locals request him to put it into the right place, that is , in dustbins.

"The sanitation campaign has been functioning on mutual understanding," Karki said. A local shopkeeper, Ramesh Dhwanju, said that it was not morally good to expect someone to cleanse the area that they made it filthy.

"If every body follows our footstep, the entire city will become a paradise to live in," Dhwanju said. Some of the neighbourhood have also followed the example set by the people from Bindhyabasini area.

Still, people of this naturally beautiful valley have to pave a long way to convert it into a garbage free paradise nestled on the lap of the Annapurna massif.

SLC centres shifted due to fear of Maoists

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DOLAKHA, April 9- Three SLC exam centres have been cancelled this year in Dolakha due to the fear of Maoists.

Education officials, however, deny the Maoist threat as being responsible for the shift. "The number of students taking the SLC exams has gone down by one-third, and this resulted in the cancellation of the centres of Namdu and Melung," said officiating District Education Officer, Krishna Subedi.

Last year’s exam centres at Shanti Adarsha Secondary School, Laduk, Baityashwar Secondary School, Namdu and Tribhuvan Secondary School, Melung have been scraped this year due to the intensification of insurgent activities in these areas.

The Laduk exam centre, in particular, had convenienced many students of the northern belt since its start last year.

Due to the possibility of irregularities and Maoist violence at the usual exam centres, even a proposed lower-secondary school at Naya Thaun has been declared a centre, something never practised before.

According to Subedi, the students of the northern belt will not be facing difficulties with the cancellation of Laduk centre as another centre at Singti, two hours distance from the previous one, has already been arranged.

Singti has a striking police base, and this provision of security has probably caused the shift, teachers say.

As Valli disappears, so does honey & money

By Khim Ghale

CHARTHAR, Lamjung - The maker of the world famous documentary film "Honey Hunter", Eric Valli donned the prestigious Gorkha Dakshinbahu from the hands of His Majesty the King. His documentary and the book won world market and made him a star overnight. But the star of the exhilarating hunting game and the hero of that adventurous film, Manilal Gurung (Chame Budha) continues to lead a desolate life in total shadow and obscurity.

For about one and a half decade, the isolated village Charthar of Dudhpokhari Village Development Committee in Lamjung remained away form the touch of other Nepali people as well as tourists, despite its nerve-racking story of collecting wild bees’ honey from precipitous and rocky cliffs. The villagers believe that Valli had intentionally hiddden the village from modern invaders.

Valli sold thousands of books, each costing US $ 300, but never mentioned the place where he took the photographs or filmed the documentary.

Neither Valli did anything to make the hidden place known to the world, nor could the locals do anything to bring semblance of development in the God-forsaken village during the past decade.

The village remains in the clutch of poverty. In addition, the wild bees seem to have forsaken them, too. The bees have stopped coming back to the cliff, their usual habitat. And, with the bee hives gone dry, the villagers’ source of income has also dried up. The naive villagers, unaware of the unprecedented fame they had gained,are still waiting for a miracle, which might bring back Valli, who turned his back three years ago and never returned.

The villagers wonder why on earth the bees lost their way back. "We are not sure, possibly it is due to the shooting of the film or withering of wild flowers," the superstitious villagers say.

The courageous honey hunter, who filled the pages of National Geographic magazine 15 years ago, is suffering from piles for the last three years. And he can do nothing but wait in vain for cure expecting the photographer who promised him to pay for the treatment to return.

Seventy-five years old Gurung has lost hope of being cured of the disease. "Gora (Valli) told me that he would pay for the treatment but he never returned. I have no honey, and no money. I don’t think I will survive the coming summer," he said.

Miles away from development activities and worldly changes, Manilal has with him only the book of his adventure, a token of gift by Valli with which he spends most of his leisure.

His four sons work as daily wage labourers to earn bread and butter for the 11 members of the family. "Our field is almost useless and we work daily in food-wage basis to survive."

Manilal is in Kathmandu trying to trace Valli, but has not been able to do so. He has wasted his hard-earned Rs 2000 in vain.

Meanwhile, several benevolent Nepalis have contributed financial assistance for Manilal’s treatment after a news story was published in Kantipur daily few days ago. One of the good Samaritans, Sish Bahadur ‘Nepali’ Pradhan has left Rs 5000 in cash at the Kantipur Publication’s office for Manilal’s treatment.

Maipokhari to be on tourist map

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ILAM, April 9 - A special programme is to be implemented to develop Maipokhari of Ilam as an attractive tourist centre and religious destination.

"Maipokhari Conservation Special Programme" has been devised and it is to be implemented for the development of Maipokhari, which is one of the famous pilgrimages in eastern Nepal.

Maipokhari Conservation User Committee has been constituted under the chairmanship of Sulubung VDC chairman and former president of Ilam DDC, Chakra Bahadur Sauden.

Trekking route around the pond and a waiting room will be constructed at the preliminary stage under the programme to be launched with the cooperation of the Ministry of Population and Environment.

According to the committee, an agreement has been signed with the government under which the government is to provide Rs 300,000 for the conservation activities. Voluntary labour worth Rs 100,000 will be mobilised from the local people to complete the programme. Maipokhari VDC lies about 13 kilometres north of Ilam municipality, headquarters of the district.

There is a temple of Mai Bhagawati near the pond which is unique because it consists of nine natural corners. Therefore, this site attracts a large number of devotees as well as tourists.

Another importance of this place is the abundance of bio-diversity and alpine vegetation found in the vicinity of the pond. Despite this fact, no solid plan had been drawn up to develop this area before this programme was announced.

Moreover, the rough and unmanaged road from the district headquarters to Maipokhari has posed difficulties for the people wishing to make the trip. Further activities on the part of district level offices, such as, Soil Conservation and District Forest Office, are also expected along with conservation efforts on the part of the local VDC to develop this attractive destination.