Travel & Humanitarian Photos
Today’s Guardian reports news to bring golf courses, heli-skiing and paragliding to Nepal’s Annapurna region.
It is news that will send a shudder of disbelief through anyone who has ever been to the region.
Perhaps it is inevitable that the area, currently reachable only on foot or by air, will soon have road links that will bring thrill-seekers looking for “man-made theme parks” and “adrenaline sports like bungee-jumping and rafting” but I am not surprised that “conservationists and trekkers have reacted angrily”.
Developers agree that wildlife and plants will be destroyed, the number of trekkers will be reduced and porters and guides will lose their livelihood. The time will come, no doubt, when the gentle and hospitable people of the Annapurna and Manang regions will no longer invite trekkers inside their houses for a cup of hot, sweet Chai but will instead charge them a toll to pass through a turnstile.
I understand that you can’t stop people from wanting more and it’s all very well arriving in Nepal and declaring how quaint everything and everybody is from the comfort of a western way of life but one would hope that common-sense will prevail and that the Nepalese will appreciate what a rare, unspoiled and beautiful part of the world they are the caretakers of.
The speed at which areas like this are being lost is depressing. If you have ever considered visiting Nepal and perhaps trekking in the Annapurna region then maybe you should go now before the Pringle sweaters arrive.