A preview: The last episode on the Far West is an interesting mélange of short stories. From the women who take care of the community forest in Kailali, conservation of Blackbuck, women and old age home to a lady mechanic who repairs bicycles, the oeuvre is a fun and informative watch.[break]
Lands that were barren some ten years ago are now lush green at Geta Village in Attaria. Now its jungle also has occasional sightings of wild animals that cross over from India.
“We’ve raised the trees in the jungle as our children,” says Sushila Dahal, President of Gyanjyoti Women’s Community Forest, but complaining that now the government wants to take over. There are some 780 community forest user groups in that area, and even the federation of the community forest user groups is led by a woman, Apsara Chapagain.
It is the women who are more involved in the preservation of the community forests rather than the men in that area. The women of Geta prioritize their work in the forest above their household chores, and reach work right on the scheduled hour.
Besides the community forest worker, another noteworthy woman is Shrijana Chaudhary who runs a women’s and elderly help center. This is the only old-age home in all of the nine districts of Nepal’s far west.
“We operate through funds provided by some local businessmen. We provide everything from food, shelter and clothes. And we also provide them their choice of meal once a month,” says Chaudhary.
The old age home, which was established six years ago, has 37 senior citizens as residents and the oldest member is Parbati Joshi who is 94 years old.
Another lady who deserves much applause is Dhana Batala who runs a cycle repair shop. She has been a cycle mechanic for 18 years. Initially, her husband dissuaded her from working as a mechanic because he felt embarrassed by the way people stared at Dhana as she repaired cycles.
“There were people who commented as to how unfortunate it was that they had to ride a cycle repaired by a woman,” shares Dhana who believes that working for a livelihood is nothing to be embarrassed about. Dhana, who is now 51, got married at the age of 13 and moved to Dhangadi from Doti.
She mentions that her business is good and that she’s been able to take good care of her family because of it. She’s an independent woman taking pride in her work.
“I’m a good mechanic,” she says with a smile playing on her lips and mentions that women come to her expressing their wish to learn to fix cycles and she’s willing to teach them without charging fees.
Besides the women-centric series, the story about the Blackbuck will also fascinate you. Blackbucks have been classified as “near threatened” by IUCN since 2003 but there are some 200 Blackbucks in Dhangadi.
Moolchand Yadav, former president of the Blackbuck Preservation Committee, mentions that when they saw Blackbucks, they decided they had to do something to preserve them. There were initially 177 of them and the number came down to 45 after which they were even more determined to save them.
“The Blackbucks are threatened by stray dogs and even jackals sometimes. But we’re taking adequate measures to safeguard them,” says Ashok Kumar Shah, conservation officer at the Blackbuck conservation area which was established in four years ago.
The stories will enthrall you and make you think about certain aspects of life that you’ve never paid close attention to while making those in the capital aware of the fact that there is an entirely different life beyond the hills.
Nepali – A TV Blog airs on Avenues TV every Saturday at 8:30 am and on Sundays at 9:30 pm. The series hosted by Yubakar and directed by Tsering Choden will also be available on YouTube <youtube.com/user/nepalitvblog>
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