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IPPG Newsletters: July 2000
The Backbone of Mountain Tourism |
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| Prakash Adhikari, IPPG Nepal Representative |
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Porters are the backbone of the mountain tourism in Nepal. Yet, they are suffering all kind of mountain hazards such as altitude sickness, snow blindness, hypothermia, frostbite etc. and there are some unnecessary deaths of the porter. They work hard, they sometime sleep in the caves and on the open sky, the food they have while on the trek has little nutrition.
Porters are traditionally from very poor family background and uneducated. However, these days some people with a reasonable education have also been in the trekking as porter, due to the severe unemployment situation. They hardly can save few rupees to buy some salt, mustard oil, kerosene for kerosene lamp, and may be some clothing on the way back home after they finish the season. Sometimes they go back home with bare hand if they do not have tips from the guest or they do not get more groups to work for.
Sometimes, the government builds roads, or some entrepreneurs operate helicopters to ship the goods to the mountain and the porters' employment is cut. Most of the time porters are neglected by the local lodge owner (some lodge owner and teahouse are reasonably kind too). Porters often cannot go in to the lodge and teahouse. Sometimes they even cannot buy food. It would be very nice if the teahouse and lodge owner on the trekking trail would think that the porters are also an important component of the tourism and that it helps them for their business.
IPPG was formed to promote porter safety and help minimize the unnecessary death of the porters that occur in the Himalaya.
Most of the porters are from remote villages around the mid hills of Nepal and they have some land to cultivate (not enough for themselves) and their small house. They work at home in the field and find some hard work around their villages in the winter and summer. In the beginning of spring and fall season they come down to Kathmandu, Pokhara and to other trekking starting points where there is a chance to find opportunity to carry the loads. Sometimes they have no chance. They wait and wait, they finish all their money and go back home with barehand while their family at home are waiting and expecting something from that person who went out for portering. I am so sad about the situation of the porter in Nepal. But I just can only be sad but cannot do anything except being involved in the IPPG in Nepal.
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