Mustang Tourist Trail Renovation Underway

Mustang. The Chusang-Patangya trail is being upgraded. The Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) of the National Nature Conservation Fund has started the repair and upgrade of the tourist trails here for the easy trekking of foreign tourists visiting Upper Mustang.

The local Conservation Area Management Committees (CMCs) within the ACAP Lo-Manthang and ACAP Jomsom work areas are repairing and upgrading the tourist trail from Chusang of Baragung Muktikshetra Rural Municipality-3 to Tangya of Loghekar DamodarKunda Rural Municipality-5. ACAP Lo-Manthang Chief Umesh Poudel informed that two committees under ACAP have worked separately for the repair, improvement, and upgrade of the tourist trail from Chusang of Baragung Muktikshetra-3 to Tangya of Loghekar DamodarKunda Rural Municipality-5, which is about a nine-hour walk.

Chief Poudel informed that the Chusang committee is working on the trail from Chusang to Pa, and the Surkhang Conservation Area Management Committee is working on the trail from Tangya to Pa. ACAP stated that the work of repairing and upgrading the tourist trail from Chusang to Pa to Tangya, which is a tourist trail to Upper Mustang, started on Baishakh 15.

For the repair and upgrade of the trail, the local Conservation Area Management Committee has mobilized manpower with domestic tools. According to ACAP Lo-Manthang Chief Poudel, the repair and improvement work of the tourist trail from Chusang to Pa to Tangya will be completed within two weeks. He said that the trail is damaged every year due to flash floods and landslides caused by the rain during the monsoon season, and the trail needs to be repaired and improved every year. Gabion protection has been done in some places of the Chusang to Pa to Tangya trail, and wooden bridges are being constructed at two places on the trail.

Similarly, the Chairman of the Rural Municipality, Lopsang Chhomfel Bisht, informed that Loghekar DamodarKunda Rural Municipality has carried out the repair and upgrade work of the tourist trail from Dhe Khola to Tangya under the National Employment Program. He said that the rural municipality has deployed people for the repair and improvement work of the trail by providing daily wages according to the guidelines of the National Employment Program.

In recent times, tourist trails in Mustang are being destroyed due to road networks. The development of the national pride Corala road and its branch roads has led to the destruction of tourist trails here. The Kali Gandaki corridor road is an important tourist trail in Upper Mustang connecting Chusang, Tetang to Pa and Tangya on the west. In recent times, due to damage to the tourist trail by monsoon flash floods and landslides, foreign tourists going to Upper Mustang had to travel at great risk.

Various trekking agencies have been drawing the attention of the concerned bodies, demanding that the trail be repaired and upgraded. ACAP Lo-Manthang Chief Poudel said that the repair and upgrade work of the Chusang-Pa-Tangya trail to Upper Mustang will make trekking easier for foreign tourists.