Backpacking with Hill Shepherds ; On a trek in the Garhwal Himalayas, BT's Anusha Subramanian comes back with lessons in micro-financing and community-owned tourism.

NOVEMBER 5, 2007

Lata Village, Niti Valley

It started off as my much-awaited trek in the Garhwal Himalayasand turned into an impressive first-hand account of a small, yetsmart, initiative. The setting: Nanda Devi Sanctuary Trek againstthe backdrop of the spectacular 7,816-metre Nanda Devi peak.

But first, a peek into the history of this trek that has a directbearing on the present. The Nanda Devi Sanctuary Trek retraces thepioneering steps of mountaineers Eric Shipton and H. W. Tilmanthrough the Garhwal Himalayas in 1934. It's their exploration of theinner sanctuary that set the stage for all subsequent mountaineeringexpeditions. That was till 1982 when the region around Nanda Deviwas declared a national park and all human activity banned insidethe inner sanctuary. The well-meaning conservation efforts had adevastating impact on the local economy.

In this backdrop, the Nanda Devi Campaign, led by the locals, waslaunched in 1990s. After a long struggle, in 2003, the region sawthe opening of the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve (NDBR) for limitedecotourism activities. The people of Nanda Devi, however, faced thedaunting prospect of managing a community-based tourism trade withfew of the resources, experience, and expertise enjoyed by the bigtourist agencies.

This struggle has now moved into its decisive phase. And the bigchallenge? Capacity building and training of local youth--to ensurethat the gains of this labour are not lost on the community.

Taking up this challenge is Mountain Shepherds headquartered atLata village in Chamoli district--a cooperative initiative that wasborn out of the Nanda Devi Campaign. To begin with, MountainShepherds has taken upon itself to train the local youth fromUttarakhand Himalayas at the prestigious Nehru Institute ofMountaineering (NIM), Uttarkashi, to become local guides, portersand technical experts in search and rescue operations duringtrekking expeditions in the Garhwal Himalayas.

Leader of this initiative, Dr Sunil Dutt Kainthola, says: "We aretrying to evolve a model of community-owned tourism where thecommunity is not a mere beneficiary but among the main stakeholdersin the tourism enterprise of the region."

To this end, Mountain Shepherds also directly plans treks to thesanctuary and takes care of your trip right from the time you landin Delhi. Thus our trip to the sanctuary was also ensured inassociation with Mumbai-based Odati Adventures.

From our first halt at Rishikesh, we are driven to Joshimathwhere Mountain Shepherds has a homestay facility. Here, we areintroduced to our trek manager, Mangal, and his team of three mainleaders--Lakhpath, Hookie and Govind. These local boys were amongthe first batch of 38 boys to get trained at NIM, through MountainShepherds initiative. The trained boys have pledged that they willdevelop tourism as envisaged in the Nanda Devi Declaration, whichchalked out the biodiversity conservation and eco-tourism guidelinesin 2001. Says Kainthola: "The boys, who currently operate underMountain Shepherds, will eventually become partners in thecooperative initiative."

During the trekking season (June to October), the local boys earnabout Rs 20,000-25,000 through portage. Their families earn similaramounts through selling carpets and about Rs 10,000 throughhomestays. Of this, Mountain Shepherds--which will soon be convertedinto a private limited company--earns a minimal profit, which itthen gives back to the locals in the form of micro-financing. Onesuch local boy, Mukesh, drove us from Rishikesh to Joshimath andthereafter, to Lata village in his own vehicle that he had boughtthrough micro-financing.

After an overnight stay at Joshimath, we are driven 25 km to LataWinter village. At Lata, we also meet our 15-member porter team.Among these are experienced expedition porters like Kundan Singh,who has walked with the renowned author Bill Aitken (who wrote NandaDevi Affair) and trained local boys like Sandeep, Gautam and Sidhu,who accompany us on the trek.

We immediately organise our backpacks and do a short trek of 1.5km to Lata Summer village, the traditional gateway to the Nanda Devitrek. After getting a taste of the local hospitality, we head intothe forest above, frequently snatching views of the now diminishingvillage below. Kanuk is our first camp at 10,640 feet; then is LataKharak at 12,174 feet. The boys then walk us up to the view point'Saini Kharak', which gives us a splendid view of the peaks ofDronagiri, Bethartoli, Nanda Ghunti, Trisul, and Devisthan. TheRishi Ganga gorge below is one of the most formidable gorges in theHimalayas; we keep walking along the ridge over broken boulders.After a short walk, we can see Nanda Devi in its full glory. Thenext morning, our forward journey to Dharansi Pass is cut short asthe weather turns wicked. We are forced to return to our camp LataKharak.

It's time now to start our steep descent towards Kadvi Chaunthrough thick forests of Birch and Fir to our last camp Tolma, asmall village on the slopes of the valley. Tolma is our porterGovind's hometown and he has organised one-day homestay for us, thusensuring that Tolma's locals have an equal opportunity to earnthrough tourism. The lessons of community tourism have been learntwell, surely.