Reserve area pits protection against people

·     http://www.montanakaimin.com/index.php/outdoors/outdoors_article/reserve_area_pits_protection_against_people/

Story by Amanda Eggert | February 11, 2009
Montana Kaimin

Now the Nanda Devi peak, considered to be a manifestation of Parbati, the bliss-giving goddess of the Himalayas, is absolutely off-limits to humans.

The restriction is part of an effort to preserve the integrity of the area’s ecosystem, which has been strained by decades of commercial exploitation, unsustainable agriculture practices and burgeoning tourism.

“Nanda Devi was the number- two climbing mountain behind Everest in the 1970s,” said Eric Legvold, a recreation and resource management major at UM who accompanied Bosak to India last summer as part of a Nature-Link study abroad program focusing on conservation, sustainability and development.

In the 1980s, the Indian government, and later the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), stepped in to protect what is now referred to as one of the Himalayas’ last great wilderness areas. The reserve was divided into two major zones: a 620-square kilometer core zone where people – native or not – are prohibited from entering and a much larger buffer zone in which some tourism and grazing are permitted, but heavily restricted.

Legvold said that there are about 14 villages located within the buffer zone.

The government’s restrictions passed economic hardship onto the Bhotiya people, Nanda Devi’s indigenous mountain-dwelling villagers. Grazing for the villagers’ goats and collection of medicinal plants was heavily restricted.

The relative economic prosperity that the Bhotiya enjoyed working as porters for mountaineering expeditions quickly dissipated under the government’s strict limits.

To remedy the situation, the Nanda Devi Campaign was formed “to develop a driving factor socially and economically for the communities to invest back into their environment,” Legvold said.

Through his work with the Bhotiya people, Bosak said he has found them to be “a typical mountain culture: very friendly, very helpful and open. Most of them don’t speak much English, but it’s still never been much of an issue. It’s hand gestures and laughing and smiling.”

Legvold said that the study abroad program in India is “one hundred percent cultural immersion” and an opportunity “to see what life is like outside of our pampered borders.”

Throughout the course, students learn about the region through readings, meetings with governmental officials, village elders and members of Mountain Shepherds, a community-owned eco-tourism company that was developed following the Nanda Devi Campaign.

“[The campaign is] a way for them to get economic benefit and still work within the confines of the policies of the reserve,” Bosak said.

Bosak said that he has been working with Mountain Shepherds since 2002 and that it has progressed to a world-class ecotourism institution. For its inauguration event in 2006, the company held a free women’s trek that 15 to 20 women from around the world participated in.

Mountain Shepherds is owned and operated by 44 high-altitude guides trained at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, Legvold said.

The business’s growth has also created a need for high quality gear to support it.

“They have all of these skills and they are highly professional guides, but they can’t really afford - nor can they really get - the kind of high quality gear that they need,” Bosak said. “If it’s a choice between a Marmot fleece and a wool blanket, most people would pick the Marmot fleece.”

To that end, Legvold is heading up a gear drive called “Gear for Garhwal” that takes off this spring.  The list of needed gear is long: tents, sleeping bags, climbing gear, warm clothing, backpacks and others. Legvold has solicited local and international businesses as well as private individuals to donate what they can for the cause.

Several gear drop-off boxes will be available around Missoula at locations like Pipestone Mountaineering, the UM Outdoor Program, Bob Wards and the Trailhead beginning mid-March. Both new and used gear will be accepted.

Part of the reason that the company is in such dire need of gear is that domestic business has increased. Bosak estimates that about half of Mountain Shepherds’ clients are Indian. This is due, in part, to the rapid growth of India’s middle class. Many Indians come from hot plains areas and are ill-equipped for high altitude trekking.

Legvold said that he sees what Mountain Shepherds are doing as a chance to bridge the gap between the metropolitan and high-altitude areas of India.