‘Guerilla trail’ remains neglected

The path used by the Maoist guerillas during the 10-year-long armed conflict was named ‘Guerrilla Trail’ in 2015. However, even seven years since the announcement of the foot trail no substantial progress has been made to bring the trail into full operation.

The Guerrilla trail passes through Baglung, Myagdi, Rolpa, Rukum and Surkhet districts. Diwas Gurung of Pokhara, who traveled on the trail for 35 days, complained that nothing other than minor infrastructure work has been done on the route. He also lamented that the foot trail was disappearing in some places.

“The government and tourism authorities should pay more attention to infrastructure development and adding facilities along the foot trail and protect the past history connected with the conflict period”, he said.

Likewise, Manish Rayamajhi, a resident of Baglung, who prefers to travel on the foot trail, said that it is necessary to put up information board for the tourists using the trail.

A group of four youths, including Rayamajhi, competed a trek on the Guerrilla Trail in 14 days. Due to lack of publicity and necessary infrastructure, the area is rarely visited by hikers and it is very difficult to go through dense forests and river ways, said Rayamajhi.

Chief conservation officer of Dhorpatan hunting reserve, Birendra Prasad Kandel, said that although some information boards have been placed on the guerrilla trail that crosses Baglung, Myagdi and East Rukum, where the Dhorpatan hunting reserve is spread, there is a need to put more information boards.

It is also necessary for stakeholders to come up with a special program to promote the foot trail that covers Dhorpatan’s Bunki, Phagune, East Rukum, Thakur, Pelma, Mykot, East Rukum’s Taksera village, Lukum, Rolpa’s Thwang, Jelbang, Sakulwang and Liwang.

Meanwhile, central member of CPN (Maoist Center), Krishna KC, said that the foot trail is not a priority of the government. “Though many leaders from Rolpa and Rukum were at helm of power the guerrilla route was not included in the budget or in the policy and program”, KC said.

It takes 21 days to reach the end of the trail starting from Myagdi, 14 days from Dhorpatan and 10 days from Rolpa.