Tharu Community : At the Forefront of Harnessing Mountaineering Waste
By Colonel Satish Singh Lalotra
‘Our attitude controls our altitude’ —–Anonymous
The ‘Terai region’ of our sub-continent is a veritable mix of varied ethnicities that has been always under a churn owing to Geo-political/ strategic reasons. According to famous historian of the yore, ‘Al-Biruni’ the dominant ethnic group amongst a plethora of human groups rubbing shoulders has been the so called ‘Tharu’ who have been living in the eastern Terai region since 10th century. They claim descent from the ‘Sakya’and ‘Koliya’ people who lived in ancient city of ‘Kapilvastu’. The ‘Rana-Tharus’ in western Nepal claim to be of Rajput origin and migrated from the ‘Thar’ desert of Rajasthan to Nepal’s far western Terai region after the defeat of Maharana Pratap against ‘Akbar the great’. But most of the scholars refute this claim.
In the Indian terai region they mostly live in Uttrakhand, UP & Bihar. The GOI recognizes these Tharu people as a scheduled Indian tribe. The word ‘Tharu’ is thought to be derived from ‘Sthavir’ meaning follower of ‘Theravada Buddhism’. They consider themselves as the original people of ‘Gautam Buddha’. It is quite possible too that the name is derived from the classical Tibetan words—‘mtha- rui- brgyud’ meaning the country at the border. Now this looks to be the most plausible definition for this intrepid race. Be that as it may, this particular community of Tharu has suddenly become visible by its yeoman’s service to the mountaineering fraternity, the mountains, ecology, economy and what not by its seminal work of harnessing the mountaineering waste that has been the wont of worldwide mountaineers on their mountaineering sojourn giving two hoots to the above mentioned sublime qualities.
The Himalayan Mountains are increasingly laden with mounting waste left by mountaineering activities over the years. There is no official data, but Nepal’s department of tourism (NDOT) estimates that on Mt Everest alone there is nearly 1.4 lakhs tons of waste. The world famous Hollywood movie ‘Vertical limit’ of the year 2000 directed by Martin Campbell & written by Robert king depicts in all its gore and details the rescue efforts as well as the mountaineering waste in the form of medical oxygen cylinders, dead mountaineers, torn tents, empty gas stoves, cans and ropes of all sizes strewn around the base camp of Mt K-2. In fact in a recent development the last surviving member of the first team to conquer Mt Everest ‘Kanchha Sherpa’ now aged 91 who was one among the 35 member team that put the famed New Zealander Edmund Hillary and his Sherpa guide Tenzing Nogay atop the 8849 meters peak in 1953 has voiced his bitter disappointment at the state of affairs in this high altitude terrain.
As per him it would be better if there are fewer mountaineers that head towards this peak and consequently less litter all the way to the top too. During the spring climbing season of 2023 there were 667 climbers that ascended this peak but that brought in thousands of supporting staff to the base camp between the months of March and May. There are rules that require these climbers to bring down their own trash, equipment, and everything they carry to the mountain or risk losing their deposit, but monitoring has been very weak. It is precisely this rag tag of waste that has been labeled as mountaineering waste and has now come under the cross-hairs of the Nepalese government as well as that of the Nepalese army who have now both launched since 2019 the famous ‘Safa Himal Aviyan’ (clean mountain campaign).
The mountaineering waste that is collected is either securely dumped if it’s bio-degradable or reused /recycled if it is not bio-degradable. It has been given to understand that now some of this mountaineering waste is finding its way to indigenous craftswomen thanks to an initiative led by ‘Avani center for sustainability’, a waste processing business in Kathmandu. The word ‘Avani’ rang a bell in my mind, when few years back I had gone to Pithoragarh /Uttrakhand as part to renew my old ties with that area while I was still serving in the army. This entity called as Avani, located at a place called as ‘Berinag’ is a joint venture between a husband –wife duo of Rashmi Jain &Rajnishjain which was visited by me and my wife in the year 2019; it primarily indulges into sustainable practices of alternative sources of power generation by means of pine needles.
Co-Incidentally both these entities going by the name of ‘Avani’ at Pithoragarh and at Kathmandu started their operations in the year 2019, albeit in different fields of sustainability. The one at Kathmandu has been spearheading its efforts towards waste recycling in all the ‘Eight thousanders’ i.e peaks more than 8000 meters (26,500 feet and above). In the league of such an elite club happens to be peaks like the Mt Everest, Makalu, Annapurna, Dhaulagiri etc. As per this organization, aluminum waste and other metals go through the re-cycling process without any hitch. The problem comes to recycle mountain ropes and cooking gas cans.
It was not before this ‘Avani’ center met and cross connected with an another equally important entity –‘Nepal Knot craft center’ that ultimately made Avani come face to face with these hardworking ‘Tharu ’crafts women who possessed exactly the type of qualities that would recycle mountain ropes and cooking gas cans into sustainable products for posterity. These Tharu women in turn are blessing themselves to no end to possess such crafts that would turn this waste management into a roaring economic opportunity. While this may seem insignificant compared to waste in the mountains, it’s a no mean start though. There is a lot of waste to sort out though in these Himalayan frontiers. According to Nepal army’s information desk, the clean mountain campaign has successfully retrieved 108 tons of waste from Mt Everest and 9 other similar mountains. After collecting garbage, including human waste, food remnants, cooking and oxygen cylinders, mountaineering gears, ropes and tents the role of these Tharu women begins.
There are retired trekking guides who having spent the prime of their youth as mountain guides to these scores of expeditions are now working over here. As per Avani ithas not been able to provide these Tharu women with as much raw material ( mountain ropes)as it would have made them more gainfully employed because the segregation and cleaning processes are costly and time –consuming. The project is still small scale –15 Craftswomen only till date. The careful segregation and organizing of ropes, shoes, gas cans and tent stands take place at ‘Tokha’ Kathmandu. The type of sustainable items which these Tharu women have been able to churn out from the mountain ropes include the following—
- Dinner mats.
- Small tool boxes.
- Decorative items.
- Pen and pencil stands.
- Table mats.
- Lamp shades etc.
The ultimate aim of Avani is to develop a troika of local expertise, mountain waste and local economy into an unenviable example of Nepalese initiative. Connected with this initiative is the bankrolling of these Tharu women into a viable rural force who till date were left to their own small initiatives that didn’t fetch them enough money for an honourable existence. The biggest advantage this Avani project has lent to the country is the mantra of ‘No waste to the landfill’ concept’ since almost the entire mountaineering waste is now recycled as mentioned above.
The finished crafts are sold at Nepal knot craft center’s outlets in Kathmandu and at craft exhibitions. The craftswomen are paid according to the number of items they make and sell ,earning an average of 400 Nepali rupees per half-day’s work-the equivalent of about $3 and a bit more than Nepal’s minimum wage. With flexible working hours, the project gives women an opportunity to earn money even as they maintain their household responsibilities. Eventually Avani hopes to expand the programme to involve more women and process more waste. Since it is still a small scale project the issue that has been gnawing at the back of this project is the lack of a sustainable business plan that could give it the required heft to be able to expand its foot prints all over the Himalayan frontier.
The ‘economy of scale’ concept can only trigger when a viable business plan comes to the fore. Since it’s a time consuming project that employs manual scavenging of mountaineering waste, it has been decided now to employ mechanical cleaning and processing of waste in the initial phase so as to provide enough of raw material to the Tharu women to help sustain their level of interest in this project. Just to lend credence to the dire necessity of this organization, India too should learn from such nascent but excellent initiatives that have been the wont of Nepalese people and employ such organizations at places like the so called highest battlefield –‘Siachen glacier’ which has now turned into a mountain of trash due to the ongoing OP MEGHDOOT for the last 40 years now.
Not only this, our entire mountain ranges are dotted with places like Joshimath, Manali, Dehradun, Kalimpong, Darjelling etc that are spring boards for many of foreign as well Indian expeditions to take off. These places ought to be developed into alternative sites of mountain waste management centers thereby gainfully employing lots of Tharu women and providing them glory under the sun as is in neighboring Nepal.
(The writer is a retired army officer and can be approached on his email…slalotra4729@gmail.com)
