Tanahunsur: Emerging village tourism site in Nepal

Ek Raj Sigdel

Dhorphirdi 3, Tanahun

Tanahunsur village and adjoining areas are endowed with rich biodiversity, cultural and historical resources. The area has been emerged as a community based natural, cultural and historical tourism site in Nepal. Efforts are being made from local level towards safeguarding the natural, cultural and historical assets through promoting responsible tourism. To materialize the dream of conserving the highly valuable resources as well as alleviating the poverty, an integrated tourism plan is being prepared. It is believed that if tourism development takes places in a planned way no doubt this will be the only option for attaining the goal of conservation and development of this area.

Tanahunsur village and its adjoining tourism sites locate about 150 KM west from Kathmandu. It is placed at the middle of three major touristic areas of Nepal i.e Kathmandu, Pokhara and Chitwan National Park. Tourist can have opportunities of observing the historical palace and enjoying majestic view of various snow capped Himalayas such as Dhaulagiri, Annapurna and Manaslu. It lies at the wildlife corridor between Annapurna Conservation Area in the north and Chitwan National Park in the South. Community forestry program has been successfully implemented in this area which has provided safe haven for wildlife species, a basis for promoting ecotourism.   

To ensure conservation and sustainable use of forestry resources, the local communities through forming community forests user groups have initiated community forestry and leasehold forestry management programs for over 15 years. Sustainable supply of firewood, fodder and leaf litters to local communities is the prime objective of managing community forests, said Bir Bahadur Rana, a community forest user committee chairperson as well as inhabitant of ward number 4 of Tanahunsur VDC. After putting concerted efforts from various quarters, once declined wildlife species such as leopard, deer, pheasant are gradually being appeared in the forests. The greenery forests along with charismatic wild life species could be a basis for attracting tourists in this area. However, there are some challenges too such as, forest fire, illegal logging, and existence of environment un-friendly rural roads and unplanned settlement that needs immediate attention for promoting sustainable tourism in this area.

Horticulture, livestock and cereal crops such as rice and wheat are being cultivated in upper, middle and lower altitudes respectively of the 4000 ft Tanahunsur peak. The higher altitudes especially north facing slopes are found very suitable for cultivating citrus mainly oranges. Similarly, a middle layer is suitable for undertaking agribusiness. Agricultural practice has been followed traditional methodology that helps addressing subsistence need of rural poor. In the absence of adequate labor and skilled manpower, the productivity of these crops is also being declined over the years. However, Kalyan Dhionoj Adhikari, and K.B Thapa from Ward number 4 and 8 respectively of Tanahunsur Village Development Committee are reaping handsome benefits from orange farming in their respective sites for few years. To address the need of scarce water resources in the entire VDC, the villagers have a plan of establishing big water reservoirs at three different altitudes of Tanahunsur VDC in near future. Once the ambitious plan comes into effect, this will be milestone activity for promoting market based agricultural system. The plan for creating and maintaining water reservoir ultimately helps addressing climate change issues in a long term as well. In a short run, the strategy will help practicing organic farming and that will be a hot cake for catering to tourists.

The area is endowed with rich cultural diversity too. Magar, Newar and Brahman are the major ethnic group of this area. The different ethnic groups posses different culture and hence the diverse culture could be a strong foundation for establishing culture based tourism in this site. As said by the local communities, Panche Baja, Kaura, Dohori, Ghaatu, Pamdure/Maaruni are some the key cultural programs that are unique to this site. Tanahunsur bound tourists can experiences the cultural show while staying already established 9-10 homestay in Chandanithok and Bhorthok of Tanahunsur. Local people offer heart touching hospitality to guests. The home stay is being managed by different women group called ama samuha. Tourists can enjoy local culture, organic foods mainly kodako roti, dhido and local chicken curry and sadheko gundruk, said Bindu Thapa Magar, an inhabitant of Tanahunsur and owner of a home stay. According to Ms. Thapa annually about 150 domestic and international tourist experiences home stay facilities in Tanahunsur. During Chaite Dashain, a second biggest of Festival of Hiindus, large numbers of people throng at Tanahunsur Ancient Palace for worshiping Goddesh Kalika. During the period of Chaite Dashain, local people organize cultural show and other entertainment activities.

The suggested route for tourism promotion in this village is following Kathmandu – Dumre – Chundi – Tanahunsur – Ghasikuwa – Damauli – Pokhara and vice versa. In order to make the route functional, it is higly recommended to make the existing rural road more environments friendly. In addition, the dream project of constructing water reservoirs and zoning based agricultural practiced needs to be followed in a planned way. In addition, conservation and economic development strategy should pay attention towards retaining local youth and engaging them in tourism development activities. The upcoming tourism master plan should take account of the aforementioned issues and actions timely.