Chhiring Wang Di, 50, doesn't remember when he started tending yaks. For him, life in his village meant taking care of yaks, milking them every day and selling the milk to the local cheese factories.

Before the avalanche, which triggered by the catastrophic earthquake of 25 April, Chhiring used to sell at least 25 liters of yak milk every day. His monthly income was around Rs 60,000.

But all that is gone after the avalanche, which forced him to leave his homestead and village. After being displaced from the Langtang Valley, he is living at a temporary shelter at Yellow Gubma in Swayambhu for the past two months. For this man from the mountains, the summer heat of Kathmandu is making life 'simply unbearable'.

"I wonder how do people live here so comfortably? For me, the heat is too much to tolerate. My head has been hurting ever since I came to Kathmandu. Everything, from the air, food and water here are hot," Chhiring said as he wiped beads of sweat off his face while talking to Republica on Monday afternoon at Yellow Gumba. "Now I have to go back to rebuild my house and take care of my remaining yaks." Before the avalanche, he owned 25 yaks, but the avalanche claimed several of them and more painfully, he also lost his eldest son.

Similar is the plight of Choyni Tamang. She wants to go back to her village as soon as the monsoon ends because she is not able to cope up the rising Kathmandu heat. "I have nothing left in the village so I am forced to stay in this unbearable heat. I am just waiting for the monsoon to end so that we can go back to the mountains, where I belong," said Tamang.

Greatly troubled by the heat and hardships associated with displacement, some 40 locals of Langtang living in the makeshift tents at Yellow Gumba, are all set to return to Langtang to rebuild around 23-kilometer trekking trail starting from Lama Hotel, Ward No 9, Rasuwa to Kyanjing,, Ward No. 2, in Langtang. The Nepal Army has already removed the landslides along the trail.

All survivors of the avalanche in Langtang Valley were living at temporary shelters at the Yellow Gumba at Sano Bharyang, Swayambhu. Around 40 of them have already returned to the village last month.

"The District Development Committee has allocated Rs. 1.5 million for rebuild the 23-kilometer track starting from Lama Hotel to Kyanjing," informed Chirring Finjo Lopchan, vice-chairman of the Langtang Management and Reconstruction Committee. He added that the locals are united to rebuild the track properly so that they can restart their life after the monsoon.

Langtang Valley, which lies at the altitude of 3250 meters and 150 km to the north of the capital, is a popular trekking route. A deadly avalanche from the Langtang Lirung Glacier triggered by the magnitude 7.8 earthquake of April 25 swept away the entire settlement of Langtang Valley burying hundreds of residents.

Published on: 2 July 2015 | Republica