Itahari, December 2 : Situated in the Province No. 1, the Himalayan district of Sankhuwasabha has its own unique identity in the tourism sector.
It boasts of the unmatched features like the world’s fifth tallest peak Makalu (8463m), world’s deepest valley Arun Valley and beautiful Arun river, among others.
In fact, the district has also various attractive touristic destinations which are yet to gain the required attention. Nundhaki is one of them. Once an independent local body with 9 wards, Nundhaki has been ward number 1 of Chainpur Municipality of the district. Still, Nundhaki has aggressively promoted its touristic treasures. Local people have been an integral part of this touristic drive. Prem Bahadur Thaklung Limbu, a retired British Gurkha soldier, has led this campaign. ”We waited for governmental support to promote our hidden tourism treasures”, said Limbu, who is actively promoting Nundhaki.
He added, ”But, we did not get adequate assistance. Therefore, we are doing ourselves on civilian level.” Nundhaki has multiple travelling points including Nepal’s popular Himalayan ponds named Guphapokhari and Lampokhari, a popular waterfall Tanglewa and an ancient sacred water spouts called ‘Tatopani’ (which roughly translates as hot water), among others. Likewise, popular hilltops of Province 1 like Milke and Menchhayayem are also part of Nundhaki. Among these, travelling point Tatopani has a recorded history of 435 years.
According to an inscription at Tatopani, it was maintained in 1642 BS (1585 AD) by local Jayaman Thaklung. Lok Bahadur Shrestha, the ward chairperson, said Nundhaki is lacking strong financial support both from governmental and donor agencies to finance its touristic infrastructures. ”We are so close to Chainpur and Guphapokhari. It is just within one and half hour drive from these two popular places.
However, the roads from both places are not blacktopped owing to budgetary deficiencies and delays’, said chair Shrestha. Prem Bahadur Thaklung Limbu said despite having great tourism potentials with indigenous roots of cultures, cuisines and lifestyles, Nundhaki lacks good accommodation from local hospitality sector and proper infrastructural connectivity.
He added, ”We are taking steps like establishing a community home-stay facility called ‘Yellow Villa’ and launching the online promotion of our tourist destinations by separate website called nundhakitatopani.com . This is playing vital role to further enrich the touristic image of the district .”
