The Great Himalaya Trail is a proposed trail of
more than 4500 km stretching the length of the Greater Himalaya range from
Nanga Parbat in Pakistan to Namche Barwa in Tibet thus passing through
Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet in China. When completed, it will be
the longest and highest alpine walking track in the world, As of July 2010,
only the Nepal and Bhutan sections have been walked and documented thoroughly.
The other countries are still being researched.
The concept of GHT was pioneered by Mr. Robin
Boustead together with his team members from Nepal, who later partnered with
the Himalayan Map House to produce sector specific maps. The idea was later
picked up and cashed by ICIMOD to develop development projects, so they can attract money from
the government of Netherlands. ICIMOD’s Netherlands funded GHT project failed
to meet its objective and ended up issuing an internal report, which was not
shared with other organizations involved in GHT development process apart from
few closed partners. This questins credbility of ICIMOD's work on this topic and how they are betraying mountain communities in the name of development.
Meanwhile, Mr. Boustead’s effort had multiple positive impacts in documenting local realities, developing sector specific maps, building capacity of local people as well as in promoting commercial treks across the Nepal and Bhutan sectors of the GHT. Fearing from Mr. Boustead’s success and increasing visibility, ICIMOD is reported to be sidelining him and trying to take credit of his works. According to a reliable source, Mr. Boustead’s was invited to give a talk ICIMOD by newly appointed Tourism Expert for ICIMOD staffs and few partners. However the planned talk at ICIMOD in early 2013 was cancelled after intervention from David Molden, Eklabya Sharma and Anja Moller Rasmussen of ICIMOD Senior Management Committee. It is further claimed that is was supported by Dutch organization in Kathmandu. Besides the talk ICIMOD and Dutch partners are feeding other less effective organizations to work on GHT issues to divert general people and expert’s attention from Mr. Boustead’s work.
Meanwhile, Mr. Boustead’s effort had multiple positive impacts in documenting local realities, developing sector specific maps, building capacity of local people as well as in promoting commercial treks across the Nepal and Bhutan sectors of the GHT. Fearing from Mr. Boustead’s success and increasing visibility, ICIMOD is reported to be sidelining him and trying to take credit of his works. According to a reliable source, Mr. Boustead’s was invited to give a talk ICIMOD by newly appointed Tourism Expert for ICIMOD staffs and few partners. However the planned talk at ICIMOD in early 2013 was cancelled after intervention from David Molden, Eklabya Sharma and Anja Moller Rasmussen of ICIMOD Senior Management Committee. It is further claimed that is was supported by Dutch organization in Kathmandu. Besides the talk ICIMOD and Dutch partners are feeding other less effective organizations to work on GHT issues to divert general people and expert’s attention from Mr. Boustead’s work.
Institutions and experts working in the Himalayas
need to be more clear and stronger in finding and acknowledging the true people
behind such noble works and ignore and expose the institutions who are known
for preparing useless glossy reports and misreporting donors about the work and take
credit of others work. More than that it is important to free up institutions
like ICIMOD from wicked leaders like David Molden and Eklabya Sharma who have
been sidelining experts with noble contributions, dividing Himalayan communities
and jeopardizing overall environmental development in the region.
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