Bhaktapur heritage sans preservation

Negligence by the concerned authorities to clean up the different monuments at the Bhaktapur Durbar Square, a world heritage site, has led to the important monuments there turning into virtual jungle. The Bhaktapur Durbar Square is one of the major sites in the district visited by foreign tourists.

The famous Golden Gate, the statues of different deities, temples and shrines located at the Bhaktapur Durbar Square are found to be covered with lichen and weeds due to lack of cleaning even as the country is marking 2011 as the Nepal Tourism Year.

For instance, the main temples, ancient resting places, arenas and the various statues of the rulers dating back to the Malla period are covered with dirt and lichen. One can even see different kinds of weeds growing on the roof and nooks and crevices of the famous five-storied Temple there.

Weeds and lichen have virtually colonised the monuments in the Durbar Square making the place look ugly and untidy. But the Department of Archaeology and the Durbar Upkeep Office, the bodies responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the heritage site have turned a blind eye to all of this.

Even the Bhaktapur Municipality that collects revenue of Rs. 120 million annually from tourists by showing them around these places seems to be least cared about cleaning the monuments.

Toilets on Everest

An environmental group is asking the Nepal government to consider installing portable toilets on Mount Everest for climbers caught short at the roof of the world. Eco Himal says the thousands of trekkers who set off from the South Base Camp in Nepal each year would do a better job of keeping the place clean if they and their porters had somewhere civilized to go when nature called. "Human waste is a problem, of course," said the group's director, Phinjo Sherpa. "I am merely suggesting that if we have public toilets they can be used."

Many groups bring expedition toilet cans, but Phinjo Sherpa said porters were often left with little choice but the nearest snowdrift. Environmental activists say Everest is littered with the detritus of past expeditions, including human waste and mountaineers' corpses, which can take decades to decompose because of the extreme cold. Phinjo Sherpa said installing the toilets would be discussed as part of a wider waste management plan being prepared by the government that would encompass popular peaks throughout the Everest region. "If there could be two or three toilets that would be good but this is just at the planning phase. We will have to decide what is a good idea and what isn't," he said.

Climbers spend tens of thousands of dollars trying to reach the 8,848-metre (29,028-foot) summit of Everest, but campaigners say few pay much attention to the rubbish they leave behind. There is no definitive figure on how much trash has been left on the mountain, but the debris of 50 years of climbing has given Everest the name of the world's highest dumpster. The privately-funded Eco Everest Expedition, a Nepal-based coalition of environmentalists campaigning to keep the mountain clean, has collected more than 13 tones of garbage, 400 kilograms of human waste and four bodies since 2008.

Annapurna trekking sees an increase in number of visitors

The Annapurna trekking route is seeing a greater inflow of sightseers with the start of the tourist season. The route, regarded as one of world’s leading walking trails, is now seeing over 300 tourists daily, up from 200 in September.

According to the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) checkpoint at Bhulbhule, 200 tourists used to visit the route daily in September. “Along with the Nepal Tourism Year 2011, the beginning of the tourist season will see more tourists,” said ACAP official Brij Gurung. Local hotels along the trekking route including Khudi, Bhulbhule, Nadi, Bahundada, Jagat and Syage have been packed with the tourists from the beginning of October.

As per ACAP statistics, tourist inflow in the Annapurna route has increased 12.54 percent in the first nine months of 2011 compared to the same period last year. A total of 10,159 tourists walked the trail in the period January-September 2011 against 9,019 in the same period in 2010.

According to Gurung, the number has increased also due to the ongoing NTY 2011. Tourists from France, Germany and the US are among the main visitors in the region.

Despite a rise in tourist inflow, the target for NTY 2011 for Lamjung does not look achievable The district has aimed to attract 100,000 tourists in 2011. Hotel entrepreneurs blame the government for its failure to promote tourism in the region besides developing infrastructure required for tourism.

Hotelier Ram Kumar Shrestha said that the slow rise in tourist numbers was a result of the government’s apathy towards publicity and infrastructure development. “No efforts have been made towards NTY promotion or infrastructure development,” said Shrestha. “Hence, how can we attract tourists?”

ACAP statistics show that a total of 17,404 tourists trekked the Annapurna route in 2010. The region used to attract a large number of tourists till 2001. However, tourist arrivals declined during the Maoist insurgency. Tourism entrepreneurs said that even though tourist arrivals had improved in the last few years, they are far from satisfactory. According to ACAP, about 200,000 visitors have gone trekking on the Annapurna route since 1994.