Tourism professionals waiting for snow

The highlands and mountains here are famous for snow sports. At this time, the mountains and villages of this region were seen playing in the snow. However, since there has been no snow this year, tourists have not climbed the hills here. Due to the lack of snow, tourism professionals are worried about the lack of tourists.

Last year, 20-25 tourists visited Madi Rural Municipality-2 Krapudanda daily to play in the snow. Now only three or four people can hardly reach it. Shiran Krapudanda in the tourist village of Tangting is the nearest destination for snow sports. Himal Gurung, a tourism businessman from Krapudanda, informed that the number of tourists has decreased due to the lack of snow so far. There are four hotels here.

"Last year at this time, the hotels here could not handle the number of guests, but this year only three to four people have come every day, this number is very low", said Gurung. According to him, tourists have to wait this year. "There is a lot of tourist traffic in Krapu during the snow season", said Gurung, a tourism businessman, "Last year, groups started coming after Dasaentihar, but now hardly three or four people come."

Bel Gurung, a local, said that tourists did not reach the tourist village Sikles because there was no snow. "The number of tourists has decreased after the lack of snow. More than 100 tourists used to come every day, but now 20-25 guests come every day", he said. Along with Sikles, the businessmen are worried because the number of tourists has also decreased in places where it snows like Hugugoth, Kapuche, and Kori.

Gurung said that there was a problem with farming in Sikles since there was no rain and snow. "It rained a little on Wednesday, but it did not snow. As a result, the tourism business has collapsed. There is also a problem in farming", said Gurung. According to him, crops such as potatoes, wheat, barley, potatoes, mustard, green peas, tomatoes, greens, etc. have not received spring due to a lack of rain and snow.

Tourism professionals in the region are worried after the decrease in the number of tourists during the Mardi Himal trek in the district. Amrit Tamang, the owner of Low Kamp Guest House and Restaurant, said that the tourists who go to play in the snow did not come for the hike. "This is the off-season for the park. Last year, the tourists who went to play in the snow stopped the business", Tamang said. Business is hard to sustain.” According to him, during the snowfall, more than 200 tourists used to come to the Mardi Himal trek to play in the snow. However, hardly 40-50 people have gone on tourism in this season.

Ghandruk village, another tourist spot here, has also seen a decrease in the number of tourists due to the lack of snow. According to Vikram Gurung, Chairman of the Ghandruk Tourism Business Committee, there are fewer tourists because of the off-season for tourists. "If it was a little colder, it would snow in Ghandruk, but when it snowed in the upper part of Deurali, far away, many people would go there", President Gurung said, "What happened this time?" It didn't even snow, there aren't that many tourists either."

Kaski's Kori, Kapuche, Hugugoth, Sikles, Krapudanda, Tangting, and Ghandruk along with the footpath leading to the base camp of the mountain, heavy snow falls in the villages and hills. However, due to the lack of rain this year, snow has not fallen in these places. Kedar Paudel, president of the Kaski Forest Technical Society, said that the main reason for the lack of rain and snow is climate change. "The temperature is increasing all over the world. "The temperature has increased by one degree Celsius compared to 30 years ago", President Paudel said, "Because of this, even if it rains, it will be a bit of fun or not." There has been a dry drought and the ice river has dried up."

Paudel, who has worked in the field of forestry and environment for a long time, said that if things continue like this, in the next 100 years, about half of the current glaciers will dry up. He said that due to the increase in the amount of carbon dioxide, the relevant agencies should be aware of this situation.