An ongoing Maoist insurrection has had little publicity outside Nepal, but could spell problems
If you keep an eye on the press you may have noticed something
recently, or rather you may not have noticed... Nepal, everyone's
favourite Himalayan trekking destination, has ongoing problems caused
by a Maoist uprising.
It's not a story that's made the UK's parochial media, but for the
last couple of years, the country has seen a series of clashes
between communist groups and the police and army. And while so far at
least, the major trekking areas have been largely untouched, there's
no guarantee that things will stay that way.
We're not saying that Nepal is about to be engulfed by the sort of
problems that overtook Peru in the early eighties when their own
Maoists, the Sendero Luminoso or Shining Path, rendered large parts
of the country off limits, however, if you're planning a trekking
trip to Nepal, you should keep an eye on the situation.
In its most extreme form, Maoist revolt encourages any action
which might destabilise the state including attacks on tourists and
development workers, though thus far in Nepal there's been little
problem with this bar a few isolated robberies on trekkers, which
probably weren't even political. According to the author of
Trailblazer's excellent guide to the Everest Region, Jamie
McGuinness, the Maoists appear to be actively avoiding targeting
tourism which employs an estimated 1 in 16 people part time and 1 in
110 people full time. You can read his full
assessment here on his excellent web site.
Briefly though he concludes that the main trekking areas are safe,
although there have been problems on the area near Jiri at the start
of the traditional, long, walk-in to Everest, though most people now
start from the airfield at Lukla.
Annapurna, Everest (except the Jiri walk in), Langtang, Makalu,
Kanchenjunga, Lower and upper Dolpo, Mustang and Manaslu regions
should be trouble-free, says McGuinness, although he advises 'going
off the beaten track into the middle hills would not be so wise and
it is perhaps better to avoid the walk from Dhorpatan to Dunai, the
Ganesh Himal trek and south of the Wild West's Rara Lake.'
Generally the heartland of the problems is in the west of the
coutry where a
group of Spanish trekkers were recently robbed. The Foreign
Office are advising British nationals not to trek alone in the light
of the murder of a solo UK trekker earlier this year.
To keep abreast of the situation, check out the excellent
Nepal News
site, which is currently reporting that Kathamandu has been
paralysed by a Maoist strike, the official Foreign
Office section on Nepal, the US
State Department or take a look at the warnings
and advisories section of our links database.
We are absolutely not advising you against trekking in Nepal, it's
a wonderful country, extraordinarily friendly and with incredible
mountain scenery. It's a sobering thought though that the most
effective way for any terrorist group to disrupt the financing of
this tourist-dependent state would be to attack the trekking
industry. Hopefully it won't ever come to that, but you should at
least be aware of the possibilities.
