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Tinjure Milke Jaljale, which is referred to as the “capital of rhododendron” has witnessed a footfall of more than 30,000 visitors on the eve of Nepali New Years.
TMJ holds about 28 out of 32 species of Rhododendron that are found in Nepal.According to the Chief District Officer of Tehrathum, Anoj Kumar Ghimire, who was present in-person at Basantapur bazaar, there were more than 30,000 visitors from many districts of Nepal. Prakash Shrestha, the owner of Hotel Basantapur Views, seconded CDO's estimation. He said, ''In previous year, the figure was close to one lakh however, this year, this was downsized to around 30,000.''
As TMJ usually gets a promising volume of visitors during the New Year celebration, stakeholders voice concerns on lack of monetization on these travellers. ''If there was a footfall of 30,000 visitors in a single day, that means that approximately one thousand rupees was spent on an individual basis, amounting to Rs. 30 million- which is not spent for the development of TMJ areas,'' claims Binod Bhattarai, a local journalist.
''There needs to be more voluntary spending avenues for travellers on various activities as we have seen in Sikkim and Darjeeling which is akin to TMJ in terms of topography,'' said Bhattarai. He added, ''just 100-percent hotel occupancy in Basantapur, Lasune, Myanglung, Chauki, Mangalbare and Guphapokhari, among others, are not enough.''
Santosh Niraula, a young traveller from Itahari to TMJ, said more human-made activities and varieties are needed to monetize the TMJ zone for visitors. ''If this natural beauty is not monetized by human-made attractive touristic activities, it will have nothing to do with touristic return not only to the locals but also to the tourism entrepreneurs of the locality,'' said Niraula who is also a tourism promoter of TMJ by printing TMJ-themed T-shirts . He added, ''For this, the local and provincial government need to encourage both private and public investment.''
Declared in 1997 as National Rhododendron Environmental Conservation Area by Nepal's Ministry of Population and Environment, TMJ now covers 15 percent rhododendron forest area. According to a 'Fact Sheet' of IUCN, TMJ spans over 585.26 square kilometres with an altitude variation from 1700 metres to 5000 metres. As Nepali New Year generally coincides with the flowering time of rhododendron, hundreds of people throng to places where rhododendron blooms on New Year eve. Rhododendron is Nepal's national flower.
