Pokhara : The number of Indian tourists visiting Pokhara to escape the brutal Indian summer and to go to the Muktinath Temple in Mustang has drastically increased. Most of these tourists would have travelled to Nepal via road. Generally, few Western tourists visit Pokhara for trekking purposes in the ‘off-season’ between June and September. Before the 2015 earthquakes, Chinese tourists mostly compensated for the shortfall of the Western visitors.
“But after the earthquakes the number of Chinese tourists visiting Pokhara declined,” says Bikal Tulachan, the chairman of the Western Development Region Hotel Association (Pokhara). “But the number of Indian tourists visiting Pokhara for touristic and religious reasons has considerably increased,” he says. Most of them come via bus to visit Muktinath, the common pilgrimage of both Hindu and Buddhist devotees. The trend of Indian tourists visiting Pokhara in their own private vehicles has also increased.
Most hotel rooms in Pokhara are right now occupied by Indians. Of all the tourists who visit Nepal, 30 percent come to Pokhara; and nearly half those travelling to Pokhara are Indians, Tulachan informs. Gita Malankar of Gujarat in India, whom we caught by the Lakeside, says she was lured to Pokhara by its natural beauty. “I had heard that the temperature in Pokhara is mild and that it is filled with natural beauty,” she says. “I found that Pokhara is even more beautiful than I had expected.”
Likewise, Parth Malankar, also of Gujarat, informed he had come to Pokhara with another team of 90 Indians after visiting Pashupatinath Temple and Manakamana Temple. He says he came to escape the Indian heat which is “brutal this time.” The number of Indian tourists staying at the hotels in Muktinath has also increased, says Suraj Gurung of the Mutinath-based Grand Hotel. These days, various Indian religious leaders organize sermons at Muktinath’s Ranipauwa, which has added to the place’s popularity among Indian tourists.
Of the 700 beds in 22 hotels of Muktinath, which lies 3,710 meters above sea level, most are occupied by Indian tourists. Besides the Muktinath Temple, the majestic views of Dhaulagri, Nilgiri and Thorung La mountains are the other main draws of Muktinath.
By Krishna Mani Baral
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