POSSIBILITY OF NEW ZEALAND AID FOR NEPAL

Press, Volume C, Issue 29602, 26 August 1961, Page 18

POSSIBILITY OF NEW ZEALAND AID FOR NEPAL

Recommendations on possible New Zealand agricultural aid to Nepal under the Colombo Plan are to be made to the Department of External Affairs by Mr D. I. Glue, who has just returned to the Dominion after spending four months in the Himalayan kingdom at the request of its Government. His tour lasted four months, in which he explored the whole range of the country from the valley bottoms at the Indian frontier to the high mountains at the border with Tibet. Mr Glue, a former Christchurch man, is the farm advisory officer in the Wellington district for the Department of Agriculture. The chief objects of Mr Glue’s mission were to investigate the possibility of helping the Sherpas to make the most of their bleak mountain terrain, and to report on the desirability of New Zealand helping to establish a pasture research station to improve animal husbandry in the country as a whole. Mr Glue spent most of his time either in the lower parts of the valleys or up in the high mountain villages. This was because the climate between about 4000 ft and 9000 ft was considered to be sufficiently similar to New Zealand’s for the Dominion’s experience to be directly applicable. Some of the lower valleys, at altitudes between about 1000 ft (the lowest point in the kingdom) and 4000 ft, had been the scene of a marked rise in population over the last few years, said Mr Glue. This was because malaria was no longer such a problem. Steep Slopes Where the Nepalese had been established for many yeans, which was mostly in the mid-altitude valleys, the valley bottoms and lower slopes were almost all ta up by rice terraces. The steeper slopes, however, were in very rough grazing where domestic animals found the going hard—even at two or three acres to a beast. Eventually, it was to be

expected that the floors would be cultivated in every valley. At the moment, however, there was still a good deal of unoccupied bottom land, and it might be passible to experiment with pastoral farming in these areas to find a satisfactory way of grazing the steep hillsides. Potatoes, Radishes The problems of the Sherpas were quite difficult, Mr Glue said. In their lower valleys. around 10,000 ft, they grew a range of garden crops quite satisfactorily with the use of animal and human manure mixed with plant remains. As the altitude increased, however, the number of crops which could be grown dwindled successively until at the highest permanently occupied village, Pangboche, at 13,500 ft, the only things that would grow were radishes and a special strain of frost-hardy potato. The animals also thinned out. Cattle did very poorly even at 9200 ft, the altitude of the lowest village; goats and sheep, which were also kept, found the going more difficult as altitudes rose. Only the hardy yak thrived in Pangboche. Manure was applied in the upper villages just as it was lower down, but probably the climate was too cold for an efficient break-down of the material. Slaughter Problem Mr Glue said that animal husbandry ran into social difficulties among the Nepalese—both the upland Sherpas and the people of the lowlands. The Sherpas were Buddhists, and the lowlanders either Buddhists or Hindus. In consequence, they were not supposed to slaughter animals nor eat meat. The animals mostly died only of the starvation diet or old age. Nevertheless, a dead yak or other beast would be carefully salvaged, its flesh being cured in the upper smoke-filled part of the Sherpas’ chimneyless houses. It might be possible to find a way round the situation, especially with regard to sheep, the slaughter of which seemed not to cause quite such strong feeling of guilt. Katmandu Mr Glue spent some time in Katmandu, the capital, and his excellent collection of coloured slides includes many of that city. Katmandu was about the size of Christchurch, he said, and was fairly well spread out. rice fields being cultivated to within half a mile of the

centre. The gardens of "palaces” owned by the former aristocracy in the middle of the city were also cropped with rice. The transport system in Nepal was primitive in the extreme, said Mr Glue. The only road leading any distance from the capital was that recently built as a link with India.- A journey anywhere else must be by foot or by aeroplane, four or five airstrips near provincial towns being usable by D.CH’s except during the monsoon. Although Mr Glue used aircraft wherever he could, he still did a good deal of foot travel, visiting every 9herpa village over 10,000 ft as well as tramping between settlements in the lower valleys. He was accompanied by local people who helped to Carry his belongings, and by an Indian interpreter. Mr Bhanu Bannergee. Mr Bannergee was lent to him by Sir Edmund Hillary's party, which was in the area at the same time. The party was very helpful to Mr Glue in making necessary contacts with the Sherpas, as well as in many other ways. Refugees During Mir Glue’s time with the Sherpas, he met many of the 8000 refugees from Tibet who arrived in Nepal during and after the flight of the Dalai Lama to India. They were for the most part still living in tents, he said, and had little to do. this being a considerable problem. Numbers of the refugees were encamped at Thami, the village on the Nepalese side of the traditional crossing point. Most of them seemed to have come for religious reasons, as devout Buddhists, Mr Glue said. The border was now officially closed, but at night the Chinese guards withdrew and the traditional trade between Nepal and Tibet carried salt and wool coming over from Tibet and grain going in the other direction. When Mr Glue had finished his survey of the Sherpa villages, he decided to look at the high mountain pastures where some of the flocks are taken for summer grazing. He was given a place on a Swiss aircraft going up to the Mingfbo airstrip in a Sherpa summer settlement at 15,300 ft, the site of the Hillary party’s base for the attempt on Makalu. Mr Glue climbed upwards from the airstrip to the limit of rough grazing at 16,000 ft. and then continued past the Oreen Hut to the party’s Silver Hut, at 19,200 ft on the Mingtbo glacier.