{"id":60038170,"date":"2024-06-21T17:47:36","date_gmt":"2024-06-21T16:47:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/?p=60038170"},"modified":"2024-06-27T18:25:23","modified_gmt":"2024-06-27T17:25:23","slug":"it-benefits-investors-not-locals-indigenous-leaders-oppose-nepal-cable-car-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/justice\/it-benefits-investors-not-locals-indigenous-leaders-oppose-nepal-cable-car-project\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It benefits investors, not locals\u2019: Indigenous leaders oppose Nepal cable car project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By the time Indigenous activists managed to skirt police roadblocks and scramble through the jungle to reach the site, hundreds of trees had already been felled. Loggers, working since dawn, had cleared a path to make way for a cable car project on Mukkumlung, a sacred hill in northeast Nepal revered by the Kirat people. Two weeks later, on 1 Jun, freshly cut stumps gleamed in the fog and rain in a 15m-wide, 2km-long swathe that runs parallel to the stone path and steps leading to the hilltop. This hill, also known as Pathivara after the female deity that bears its name, is a site of immense cultural and spiritual significance, not only to the Kirat, but also to Hindus and Buddhists from Nepal, neighbouring India and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the local Indigenous Limbu people (one of the Kirat groups), Mukkumlung has been a power centre for millennia. They vow to protect it from the cable car development, but face an uphill struggle; the project has the backing of local businesses, major political parties and the government of Nepal, who argue it will boost tourism and the local economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will fight until our demand is fulfilled \u2013 that the cable car won\u2019t be built,\u201d says Khagendra Fembu Limbu, chairman of the Kanchenjunga Conservation Area Management Council. Recently, he led a group to examine the downed trees, which included eight to 10 types of rhododendron, Nepal\u2019s national flower. He claims the police stopped them from accessing the hill that day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March, a confrontation occurred when police tried to carry building materials onto the hill at night to establish a base for the project. Interviewed days later, the coordinator of the Mukkumlung joint struggle committee, Shree Linkhim, told Dialogue Earth: \u201cWe told them that we wouldn\u2019t move tonight, tomorrow, or as long as it takes.\u201d

He added: \u201cSeven months ago, the mayor told us: \u2018You can do what you want, but we\u2019re not stopping this. We\u2019re going to start cutting down trees anyway; this cable car is going to be built\u2019. That\u2019s when we started guarding the area.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n