A forgotten Nepali man in Saudi prison
A man from Dhankuta has been left stranded in a prison in Saudi Arabia for the past 13 years, unable to pay the penalty following a traffic accident. Dinesh Karki, 29, of Chaubise Rural Municipality, Dhankuta, had gone to Saudi Arabia five years ago. But after working for the company he was hired by for some time, he quit and found another job as a driver. Karki told ApEx over the phone from the Saudi prison that he was arrested after his involvement in a traffic accident. “I had the driving permits and other papers with me. But the authorities detained me since I had left my previous company and working illegally.” Karki had left his previous company after he did not get the promised salary and facilities there. The Saudi authorities have ordered Karki to pay 57,000 SAR (little over Rs 1.9m) in penalty. “I can’t afford to pay the fine,” said Karki over the phone. “I have been doing time for the past 13 months.” Karki was able to contact his home after he was recently transferred to a small prison facility. Before that, he was locked up in a large penitentiary, where phone calls were not easily available. After his prison transfer, Karki had contacted the Nepali Embassy, but his plea to intercede with the Saudi authorities for his release was ignored. “The embassy official I talked to told me that they come across many cases like mine and they cannot help me,” said Karki. “I was told to contact my family and social organizations.” Back in Karki’s village home, his father Ganesh Bahadur and mother Durga Kumari are worried sick about their youngest son. The couple’s two elder sons above Karki are also working overseas and they live alone. “He was out of contact for a whole year,” said Durga Kumari. “We found out just recently that he had been imprisoned.” Her husband suffers from illness that prevents him from walking. It is upon her to frequent the government agencies and social organizations to seek assistance for her son, who is locked up in a foreign land. “We cannot manage the money that is being demanded to release our son,” lamented Durga Kumari. “I pray the government to help us.” She recently submitted an application appealing for help at Dhankuta Municipality and the District Administration Office. Yubaraj Kattel, chief district officer of Dhankuta, said the government had started the process to free Karki from the Saudi prison. He also assured to contact the Embassy of Saudi Arabia to negotiate Karki’s release at the earliest.
Learning in Dhankuta’s waste management success story
At a time when the country’s capital city is grappling with its garbage problem, Dhankuta Municipality is doing exemplary work in waste management.
Dhankuta is spick and span, thanks to the efficient organization and staff involved in garbage collection and its disposal. But this is only half the story. The town is generating income from its trash.
The municipality operates a landfill at Salleri, where the town’s wastes are segregated into organic and inorganic matters. The organic waste materials are composted and the inorganic ones (plastics, rubber, glass, metals, etc.) are sold at a scrap value of Rs 12 per kilogram.
“We have tied up with a private company to sell the segregated inorganic waste materials,” says Upendra Khanal at the environment department of the municipal office.
Income generated from the trash is invested in development works. Dhankuta generates six tons of garbage daily. There are 39 municipal and contract workers who go from door to door to collect household waste. The collected waste materials are then transported to the landfill by three tractors and one truck. The operation runs like clockwork.
The garbage collection and landfill itself is a sight to behold. The place looks more like a park than a landfill. The municipality has grown plants and flowers on the land where it buries the town’s organic waste materials.
“The idea behind growing plants and flowers on top of buried garbage is to reduce methane emissions, which can be harmful to humans and the environment,” says Dhankuta Mayor Chintan Tamang. Dhankuta residents are also important contributors to the town’s waste management success story.
Ram Bahadur Thapa, chief administrative officer of Dhankuta Municipality, says the town wouldn’t be a clean city if not for the role of the local residents. “All this wouldn’t have worked as well had it not been for the support of the local residents,” he says. “They are helping us keep Dhankuta clean by not disposing of their trash out in the streets and neighborhoods.” The town’s households have adopted a strict rule against littering their communities.
No matter the quantity of waste accumulated in their house, they make it a point of waiting for the municipal workers to come pick it up. “Our streets and neighborhoods would be full of garbage piles if the local residents didn’t wait for the municipal workers,” says Thapa.
Khem Ghimire, a local resident, says it takes environmentally aware and conscious citizens to keep any town or city clean.“People here are civilized enough to throw their trash in wastebaskets even when they are outside their homes,” he says. Cities like Kathmandu can learn from Dhankuta.
The all-season paradise in eastern Nepal
“So many tourists come to my little restaurant these days, I can hardly cope,” says Raju Magar, who has been running a small eatery at Bhedeter bazaar for the past decade. Magar says he has in this time seen “an astonishing increase” in the number of visitors.
Bhedetar bazaar, a hill-station sandwiched between Dhankuta and Dharan, has of late become a year-round tourist destination. The guests who reach Bhedetar after navigating the serpentine mountain roads are welcomed by its crisp air that is cool through the year. Perched 1,425 meters above sea level, Bhedetar is the perfect viewing point for the green eastern hills, snow-covered Makalu and Kumbhakarna and the Saptakoshi River flowing in the gorge below.
Peekaboo
The constant fight for supremacy between the sun and clouds is one of the features of the place. “During the summer months, tourists come to escape the brutal Tarai heat and perhaps sip on cold beer, while during the winters they like basking in the sun all day,” says Jitendra Rumdali Rai, secretary of the Hotel Association of Bhedetar. In the peak summer season, up to 5,000 tourists visit Bhedetar daily, and 75 percent of tourists are Indians. “Earlier, most tourists would come in the morning and leave in the evening,” says Rai. “But now many of them stay for three or four days”.
In addition to being a popular picnic spot, Bhedetar is also an entry-way into eastern mountains. In this light, the place can be seen as the first pit-stop for travelers to these mountains. The motor road heading out of Bhedetar winds its way up to Panchthar and Ilam districts before reaching the mountains of Bhojpur, Sankhuwasabha and Terhathum districts.
Bhedetar first came into prominence when the heir to the British throne, Prince Charles, visited the place in the late 1980s. A view-tower was later built in his name, and it soon became the most favored spot from which to view the eastern Himalayas. The tower was badly damaged in the 2015 earthquakes; it is being rebuilt.
Investing big
Hoteliers have already invested over Rs 3 billion in Bhedetar, according to Rai. There are now around 150 big and small hotels there, of which 80 are considered of high standards.
Moreover, in the nearby Namje and Thumki, there are around two dozen home-stay facilities, bringing the total hotel capacity to around 1,200 guests a day. As local accommodations improve, Bhedetar is also becoming a venue of choice for regional trainings and seminars.
To further boost tourism the Hotel Association of Nepal has for the past six years been organizing a ‘local cuisines festival’ on the day of Gregorian New Year. The guests at Bhedetar are treated to local delicacies like gundruk (fermented vegetables), dhido (a wheat dish) and stinging nettle.
Places to go
There are over a dozen places visitors to Bhedetar can go to. Right next to Bhedetar bazaar is Thumki, a popular viewing spot for the scenery all around. Likewise, the temple of Shankhaswor Mahadev is another place that is always filled with tourists. Another favorite among religious tourists is Pathibhara temple two kilometer away, which must be visited on foot.
Then there is the historic Sanguri stone fort, the seat of power for the 10 kingdoms assembled under the erstwhile Limbuwan. The fort is at a walking distance of around 25 minutes from Bhedetar bazaar. Similarly, the nearby Magar villages of Namje and Thumki are famous for their home-stays, for those who prefer not to stay in expensive hotels. Namje is also famous for its sacred burial grounds of the Magars who still practice a form of animism. CNN found the small Namje village so piquant that in 2011 it listed the village among its global “12 best places you have never heard of”.
A trip of Bhedetar is considered incomplete without visiting the Namaste waterfall, which is 20-minute drive from Bhedetar bazaar. This middle-of-the-jungle waterfall has of late been welcoming above 1,000 tourists a day, many of them there for canoeing.
All these attractions make Bhedetar one of the tourist hubs of Province 1.
