Maoist insurgency and tourism Travelling inside Maoland: Reports

2005 Dolakha: Visitors robbed (July 2005) Terathum: Trekking in the time of terrorism (April 2005) Travelling across Terathum is now like going to Rukum (Apr 2005) Trekking through Nepal's changing political landscape (Apr 2005) Trekking to a trickle (Feb 2005) Maoists demand "donations"

Maoist rebels have robbed money and personnel equipment after from two visitors ,a Nepal and a Japanese national, of a slate mine in Dolakha district. The Maoist charged them their revolutionary tax before.

Until two years ago, the trail from Terathum to Milke Danda and Jaljale Himal in the rhododendron season would be one long line of trekkers and porters.

This year, the mountains are ablaze again with Nepal's national flower. The trees are sagging a bit under the weight of late spring snow here in eastern Nepal and it's not just red, there are blossoms of every shade from pure white to deep red. But there are few trekkers here to enjoy the sight.

This is also the route to Kangchenjunga Base Camp via Taplejung and where rafters used to come to raft down the Tamur and Arun. But this spring there has been only a sprinkling of mountaineers headed up the mountains.

Across the green hills of eastern Nepal, with its scented forests and grand vistas, travelers are lulled into dreaming that peace has returned to this land. But the numerous checkpoints along the way, the charred hulks of burnt vans and tree trunks by the side of the road prove that even here the conflict is never very far away.

For the first six years of the conflict, eastern Nepal was largely unaffected. But the violence creeped in stealthily like a dangerous unseen epidemic. By 2003, the hinterlands of Khotang, Terathum, Sankhuwa Sabha, Bhojpur, Taplejung and Panchthar were reeling under Maoist tactics of murders, bombings and blockades. The chief architect of the Maoist expansion in the Arun Valley has been Basu Sakya, whose intention was to make Sankhuwa Sabha 'the Rolpa of the east'.

The first time I visited Nepal in 1999, the people were shrugging the Maoists off as a flash in the pan. A year later they were seen as a nuisance. By 2002, villagers had fear written on their faces and in 2004, it had changed to a heavy feeling of despair, resignation and fading hope. They were fed up with extortion, the fall in trekking tourism caused by the insurgency and felt let down by successive governments in Kathmandu incapable of resolving the crisis.

The timing of the present crisis couldn't have been worse. February First happened just as bookings for the spring trekking season were firming up and the travel trade was looking forward to recouping losses of the past years.

Although there was a 12 percent increase in tourist arrivals last year with 380,000 visitors, it was still way below the 1998 peak of 500,000. Now, things are gloomy again.

There have been mass cancellations after news of the king's move and the subsequent Maoist blockade of highways. January had already shown a 16 percent drop compared to January 2004 and February's figures are expected to be worse.

After the emergency was declared, Kathmandu-based embassies have upgraded their travel advisories. Even the French, who have been the most laissez-faire about advisories on Nepal have posted warnings, mainly because of communication difficulties after 1 February.

External links

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