Youths turn monsoon floods into business

ITAHARI, JULY 25

Monsoon-induced floods render huge loss of life and property in Nepal every year.

However, for some tourism entrepreneurs of Dharan, monsoon has become an opportunity.

Ram Rai, a licensed paragliding pilot, and Setu Silwal, a licensed river guide, have joined hands to launch new adventure tourism activities in Dharan. On July 21, they pioneered the first ever kayaking at Sardu rivulet of Dharan.

River guide Setu Silwal kayaked from Jholunge Pul, a spot close to BP Park to Dharan-Bishnupaduka area. The four-kilometre-long kayaking was inspired by monsoon-induced floods, said Setu Silwal, who has been active in river rafting in Tamur, Arun and Sunkoshi of Province 1. “Monsoon is off-season for mainstream rafting activities in big rivers such as Arun, Tamor, Sunkoshi and Saptakoshi,’’ said Silwal.

He added, “But, we can use this time to try out other rivulets where water level surges during monsoon.’’ Silwal said the July 12 exploration had proved successful.

Ram Rai, a member of Extreme Dharan, a group of adventure tourism professionals in this touristic town of Province 1, said, “Dharan has two rivulets, Sardu and Seuti. They have great potential for rafting and kayaking during monsoon. Our experiment of kayaking in the rivulets has been a success.’’ He said the adventure package, once commercialised, would be a good hangout for locals of Dharan with a population of around 200,000.

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A version of this article appears in e-paper on July 26, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.

The post Youths turn monsoon floods into business appeared first on The Himalayan Times.

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