How turmoil upended Nepal tourist season

capital of nepal: The famous Pashupatinath temple in the bosom of capital of nepal sees thousands of devotees from republic of india visiting the shrine every daytime around this time of the year; its parking lot full of tourist vehicles and chartered buses— most of them with Indian registration numbers. But these are the sights during normal times.

On Friday, the parking lot of the revered Hindu temple wore a deserted look, with neither a tourist nor any Indian number vehicle in sight.

Due to the ongoing turmoil in Nepal — which saw widespread protests and violence leading to the change of government in the Himalayan nation — the main temple has been temporarily closed for public. Instead of devotees, the temple complex in the middle of the country’ capital city was occupied by Nepalese army personnel, and the only civilians inside were those who came to perform the last rites of their loved ones at the ghats of the Bagmati river beside the temple.

Among them was the family of a police sub-inspector who was killed in the protests earlier this week. The violent protests in Kathmandu, mobs targeting hotels in the city and the anti-India sentiment in the valley have forced Indian tourists to flee the country by whichever means of transportation they could avail. The turmoil has left local traders who are largely dependent on tourists in a lurch.

“Nepal’s economy will be pushed back to many years because of this violence and the arson across the city. Tourists have fled Nepal. Normally there would be no space to park outside the gate due to large number of tourists. They would then go to Pokhara and other places before returning to India. Maybe it is due to the curfew that people have not come, but we know that even if the curfew is relaxed, Indian tourists are not going to visit anytime soon,” Umesh Neupane, a shopkeeper outside the temple, said.

Due to large number of Indian nationals returning home through the porous Indo-Nepal borders in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), the border guarding force of India, on Friday said they are starting a helpline for each border to aid those returning home.

In last few days, an Indian tourist vehicle carrying pilgrims returning from the Pashupatinath temple came under attack from a mob before it entered Maharajganj district in Uttar Pradesh. A Ghaziabad resident, Rajesh Gola, who jumped from the fourth floor of a Kathmandu hotel after a mob entered the premises, succumbed to her injuries. She too had come with her family to the revered temple. In another incident, a vehicle used by an Indian television channel was torched outside the Everest Hotel in the city after its journalists were dragged out by a mob and assaulted. At another place near the army headquarters, another media channel crew was stopped by locals.

Local residents speaking to the media outside hospitals and protest sites are wary of the international media. “We hope the foreign media will show that our sons were unarmed when they were protesting on the road. We don’t want the international media to give a wrong narrative. Currently, the whole country is speaking in one voice and our media is on our side. This is why we are speaking to only our national media. We want the corrupt leaders to be out,” Prakash Kharga, whose nephew Sulabh Shrestha was killed in the police firing, said.

Police officers guarding the charred stations (dozens of them) said mobs had stolen arms and ammunition, even uniforms, before setting the buildings on fire during the protests. “These weapons will be used by mobs to loot and scare people. Indian nationals should check with Armed Force Nepal personnel on the roads and move ahead towards their border,” a police officer at the Koteshwar police Chowky said.

The officer added that most Indian citizens who had checked into hotels across the city have already left. “The Indian flights are full. The mob targeted hotels this time so people were naturally scared. Hotels are almost empty in the valley. The Hilton hotel has been charred completely. There are some westerners staying put for the situation to be normal but they are also staying indoors,” the officer said.

Suresh Baral, president of the District Business Hotel Association, Kathmandu, said, “Hotels near the airport are full because of people wishing to take the return flight. But other hotels in the city are reporting a shortage of numbers. There are multiple hotels in Pokhara and Jhapa, which have been burnt and ransacked. Indian nationals are very important to the hotel economy. We will ensure that they are safe and can return home. We are in touch with Indian embassy. We spoke to the army about the safety of tourists.”

Even as curfew measures are in place during the day, the army has allowed movement of vehicles going to the airport. Officials at the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu said most Indian tourists left the city as soon as the flight services resumed on Monday.

The embassy had on September 9 issued two helpline numbers (both with WhatsApp calling facility) to ensure trapped Indian tourists can contact them on their Kathmandu numbers directly by just using WIFI facility. “Most queries received on the helpline are related to the opening of flights and the routes that people should take. They are confused and unsure which route to take back because there are many land routes to exit the Nepal border. There are only a handful of cases in which we requested the local administration about citizens trapped in hotels,” an official said.

Hundreds of priests at the Pashupatinath temple have suddenly found themselves without work due to fewer pilgrims — the only ones are those coming for the final rites.

One of them, Manik Sharma, a resident priest, who was watching the army personnel moving around the temple complex, said, “The temple complex is almost empty. There are more police here than pilgrims. The corrupt leaders have been punished. Something big is going to happen in Nepal. The time has come. We can feel it.”

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