23 August, Myagdi. Dhaka hat on the head. Outside the Eastcoat, wearing tacky pants with a white beanie. A gumboot that covers the legs up to the knees. The activity of 81-year-old Lalbir Tilija, who is running behind the sheep and goats, is no less active than when he was young and adolescent.
Lalbir, who was found in Khayarkhola area of Annapurna rural municipality-5 of Myagdi at an altitude of 4,200 meters above sea level in the second week of August, had no time to follow the herd of sheep and goats that had moved from Khark to the grazing area.
"Sheep rearing started from Jiju's time and it has been four generations since it came to me," said Lalbir of Annapurna Rural Municipality-5 Paudwar, "The sheep that started living at the age of six has not left yet."
Currently, Lalbir, who has raised 160 sheep and goats, takes a mobile shed to escape the cold of winter and reaches Buki in the Khairkhola region at the foothills of the Annapurna and Barahshikhar mountains, where nutritious grass can be found in summer.
After getting old, Lalbir has built a joint farm with his nephew Tekjit Tilija. There are three flocks of Paudhar in Khairkhola and Nauloban areas. There are about two thousand sheep and goats. Ten days a week, relatives deliver food from the village to the shepherds who ascended the lake in May.
"Sheep rearing is the source of income for running the household and raising and educating children," Lalbir said, "He raised and educated nine children by selling sheep and goats."
Lalbir enjoys being a shepherd in a clean climate rather than the luxurious life of the city market. He said that although Dauntris went to join the Indian and British Gurkha soldiers, they were happy in forest farming.
Lalbir said that he and his children who are abroad bought a house in Pokhara and built a house with the income from selling sheep and goats.
"After my son told me that I went to Pokhara for a year and it looked like it was rotten, I returned the sheep I sold and started rearing them," he said.
At one time there were more than five hundred sheep and goats with him. Annually up to 50 sheep bulls, goats and goats are sold. Devotees who have fulfilled their vows buy bulls and goats from the barn to offer sacrifices in the fair held at Khairbharani lake during the Janai Purnima festival. The price of a saree ranges from 20 to 35 thousand rupees. During festivals like Dashain Tihar, Maghe Sankranti, Saune Sankranti, Bhume Puja, bulls and goats are sold for meat.
Due to the development of information technology, there is no need to be without contact with relatives for months as before. They listen to the radio and play mobile phones for entertainment. A mobile solar panel has been placed in the shed for lighting. To save sheep and goats from leopards and wolves, dogs of Bhote breed have been raised. At least three dogs are kept in one shed.
Lalbir said that the main challenge is the growing of poisonous grass in the Lekali area and lack of grass in the pasture area of Bensi in winter. It is Lalbir's experience that due to the increase in temperature, poisonous grass has started growing and there is a shortage of pasture in Bensi. The attack of wild animals and the loss of human resources for shepherding have also become a challenge for pastoralism including sheep farming.
Rasas (National News Committee) is the government news organization of Nepal.
