Tales of last buffalo herder in Hugu

By Shuvangi Khadka

Nov 18, 2022

One week last April, I read “Khabuj”, Nepali translation of Benyamin’s Malayalam novel about a protagonist forced to live a lonesome life in the desert of Saudi Arabia looking after flocks of goats. He writes about developing a strong affinity towards the goats so much that after his time with them he stops eating goats’ meat.

The week after, I met Man Bahadur Tamang by the banks of Madi river in Hugu, Kaski. He is the last herder from the group of buffalo herders who once swarmed those banks. Originally from Dhading, Tamang reached Kaski as a temporary worker with Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP). When the ACAP office was blown away during the Civil War, he joined the buffalo herders in Hugu. “I was a herder back in my village also. I thought maybe this was my fate.” Tamang shared.

It was Dhan Bahadur Gurung, proprietor of Namaste Guest house in Sikles, who first told me about the once dense settlement of buffalo herders in Hugu. “There were around 9-10 families with 50-60 members rearing 300-400 buffaloes.” He reminisced about the organic farming of potatoes, spinach, radish and apples. “One whole generation lived there.” Gurung said his family used to let the herders farm in their Hugu land in exchange for potatoes.

Buffalo herders seem to have a long history in Kaski region. In the book “Resources and Population” by Alan Macfarlane, focused on Gurungs of Thak village near Sikles, it is mentioned that although it is not certain that villagers in Thak have ever been large scale shepherds, they certainly once grazed large herds of cows and buffaloes. Macfarlane was told that some thirty years ago, a medium-wealth household would have some fifteen or so buffaloes and twice as many cows.

Tamang claimed that their small settlement in Hugu, some 25 kilometers away from Sikles, exuded much vibrancy, even more than one of the largest Gurung settlements i.e. Sikles. Herders would move all day, come and gather together to devour milk, ghee, honey, and any other dairy product. People from Sikles arrived early in the morning to buy fresh produce. 

But now Tamang doesn’t look after the goats to earn from the production. “I drink their milk only if the kid is dead or lost.” He lives most of the time alone except when others come to cultivate their adjacent agricultural lands.  Few years back he sold all his buffaloes due to road difficulty. He only has the goats now.

The settlement of buffalo herders came to an end primarily due to two reasons- a burgeoning trend of migration seen amongst younger generations of Gurungs and ever swelling Madi river which made it impossible to build proper way or live during monsoon. The river destroyed what little road that had been built. There was no way to walk buffaloes or sell them.

Migration has a long history in Nepal. For Gurungs, who were mainly a pastoral tribe before, from the early nineteenth century, the British began to recruit them into the Gurkha regiments. After 1947, they started getting recruited in both Indian and British regiments. Today their destination ranges from the Gulf to Europe. 

This external migration extrapolated with the sporadic internal migration. New villages were built on lower slopes further from the pastures. After his fellow herders died, Harka Singh Gurung moved from Hugu to Sikles. He now lives with his family there. “We didn’t have any land in our name (in Hugu). Later all the old people died.” He spoke slowly with a toothache. “Many people died and many before me left the herding. Due to my old age I couldn’t continue so I came to Sikles.”

Life as a pastoral tribe was also not free from movement. As per A Guide to the Gurungs written by Macfarlane and Indra Bahadur Gurung, in villages people kept large flocks following a migratory pattern. In April, before the monsoon began, flocks and herds were driven up to the high pastures on the sides of the mountains. The shepherds and herders built and lived in temporary encampments. In October and November, they returned back to the village with animals. Tamang also shared his plans to take his goats to the hill above Kapuche glacier lake instead of Kori, another increasingly popular destination, this monsoon. 

This migration is not optional. Kaski sees high intensity rainfall throughout the year in Nepal.  The monsoon of 2078 wiped away hundreds of sheeps in Hugu. The resulting flood in high water on the Madi river damaged a 44MW hydropower plant under construction. Along with damage to the powerhouse and headworks, 15 excavators, tipper trucks and other vehicles were washed away. 

The hydro power plant has a long history in Sikles with one of them in small scale built before the Civil war. “When entire Nepal was under the spell of load shedding, we had lights 24 hours.” Dhan Gurung said. The hydro power plant was one of three projects of the ACAP program. But later with increasing electricity demands they had to connect it to the central line.

The floods can be more extreme with possibilities of outburst floods from Kapuche, world’s lowest glacier lake. Initially a grazing land, this lake was formed much later. “When I was small, it was all land where the lake exists today. Ice fell from above and created a source in one corner. In that land, we let our sheeps graze. The sheeps that we reared in Sikles. But with climate change, gradually a lake formed there.” Man Bahadur Gurung, chairman of Conservation Area Management Committee, Parche said.  

As per Tamang, first there were three smaller lakes. It was only later, they all condensed into a single big lake. Dhan Bahadur Gurung said that there is not much inspection of the lake by the government. But many researchers visit Kapuche independently. Dhan Gurung himself had trekked to inspect and  research about the lake with a Japanese environmentalist Jiro Komori. 

Over an email exchange, Komori explained that while it is extremely unlikely that the lake itself will outburst, the collapse of the ice from the Annapurna glaciers above it is more likely to cause a risk of flooding downstream. “The lake is safe, but collapses from the glacier above it are frequent. In 2003 and 2004, a neighboring valley to the north of this valley also experienced a major glacier collapse, and flooding occurred in Madi Khola.” He wrote back.

“It is difficult to say with certainty whether there will be flood (GLOF). It depends on how rapidly the glaciers are melting and how much debris has accumulated. For this continuous monitoring is needed and locals have to be mobilized.” Sanjay Nepal, Professor of Geography and Environmental management in Canada said. 

Along with floods, tales of displacement are not new in Kaski region. As per incumbent Madi Ward Vice Chairperson, Bishnu Maya Acharya, the federal government had decided to provide Rs. 4 lakhs to people who were displaced by the floods but it has not materialized. She confessed about lack of budget to bring big programs for disaster management but said they work in coordination with other levels of government and ACAP for control of the river. However, the early warning signal for floods has still not been implemented. 

Disasters have changed forms and have been exacerbated with climate change. At the federal level, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) was established in 2076 maily to operate and manage activities related to disaster management in an effective manner. But the government still has limited resources and access for disaster preparedness and risk management, especially in mountain areas dealing with GLOFs. Organizations like UNDP, ICIMOD, USAID Tayar Nepal , etc. have been providing technical assistance and capacity building support to the government. In the process, these organizations need to mobilize and accommodate local and indigenous people in the research and study process, especially in places with no written, media, or scientific documentation. 

In Hugu, the lands where buffalo herders once lived are increasingly being used to establish hotels to cater people visiting for Kapuche trail. In Kapuche lake itself, a number of hotels are in the process of construction. The diamond that Man Bahadur Tamang had forecasted on seeing the Kapuche at first sight is on its way to bloom. 

“Years ago, a single family reared around 20-25 buffaloes. It was quite something. But people couldn’t prosper with such traditional forms of animal rearing. Nothing happened except eating ghee, honey, or sometimes meat. They couldn’t expand their sources of income because the road was still difficult so they couldn’t sell milk in the market. At that point, even mentally people were not prepared to do business. Also there was a lack of other infrastructures. So some migrated, some started hotel business.” Man Bahadur Gurung said. 

Now the barren lands are slowly being used by hoteliers. It is a booming business. But not without any danger of incoming monsoon, flood and possibility of avalanche. 

All is not bleak for the Gurung village. The jeep driver on my way from Kaukhola to Sikles, Chitra Gurung, had returned back after 50 years of toiling abroad. He said he had come on holiday from Kuwait but his visa expired during Covid lockdown.  “You have spent your whole childhood and youth in the gulf, baje ” the woman beside me exclaimed while listening to his experiences. He remarked “I have been away for so long that villagers don’t even recognize me. They think I am a new driver here.” It is true. When I mentioned his name to others in Sikles, they merely twitched their nose with unfamiliarity.

Another hotelier, Mahesh Gurung who runs Annapurna Guest house came back from the Gulf after working there for 8 years. “In the Gulf I worked in hotels. I was earning well but Ineeded to work for 12-13 hours. So I came back and started my own hotel.”

There are possibilities, waiting to be explored. As for Man Bahadur Tamang, when asked why he didn’t migrate or search for other opportunities, he counter questioned “Who will look after my goats then? I am very busy to run a hotel. ” For him it is not just an occupation but a way of life now.