Let me take you to Koshi Tappu Today !
Do you know what your hometown is famous for? Or let me revise the question again, do I know your hometown without mentioning the nearest city or landmarks?
I have always encountered the issue of why people do not know about my hometown, which is Prakashpur despite the many tourism potential, religious, and one kind of biodiversity that exists in my hometown.
Prakashpur - My Birthplace
In 2007, I started exploring other different parts of Nepal, from east to west giving them touristic exposure in Social media and inspiring fellow travelers. I raised my concern about how I was stereotyping my hometown as ‘Najik ko Deuta Hela’ taking the extraordinary things that are close to us taken for granted. I did not think that my work as a photographer and filmmaker could help my hometown to give exposure to domestic and international tourism. As I started making names in the filmmaking and photography domain, people started asking where I was from. I found it difficult to pinpoint where Prakashpur lies, and what Koshi Tappu is, the oceanic-resembling place in Nepal covering 176 km² of wetlands in the Sunsari, Saptari, and Udayapur Districts.
After that, I started profiling the place on YouTube, and other Social media platforms. Many of you still do not know the actual beauty and potential of Prakshpur and Koshi Tappu, which have huge tourism potential, if the local and central governments emphasize promoting and constructing infrastructure. The place can be Nepal’s Goa, A beach getaway, youth, and an all-people-centric tourism hub. But the main potential is nature-centric tourism for bird watching, wild Buffalo (Arna), and the convergence point of all seven Kosi rivers, a holy place for Hindus.
The Koshi Tappu
Eastern Terai’s Koshi Tappu is filled with greenery and is a hub for agriculture. It comprises extensive reed beds and freshwater marshes in the floodplain of the Koshi River, and ranges in elevation from 75 to 81 m. It’s beautiful landscape filled with natural water and land makes it beautiful to travel and stay for a while.
Koshi Tappu is a wildlife reserve close to my hometPraown Prakashpur. It takes merely 10-20 minutes to reach the Koshi river. After crossing the Koshi River, one can reach Nepal’s smallest wildlife reservation. The place is known for the diversity of 500 species of birds and the Asian wild buffalo reservation. It is the best place to learn bird migration patterns, vegetation, and biodiversity. You can see the resemblance of beaches in landlocked countries like Nepal. If proper promotion and management take place, this would be a busy domestic and international tourism hub in the eastern part of Nepal.
The Hindu religion worships and has taken rivers as sacred and pure. The Koshi River, a convergence of seven rivers, is a very prominent place for Hindus. The place has already been a hub for the religion and many devotees come and worship at Barahakshetra Temple. The sacred place thus brings thousands of devotees every year. The infrastructure and beautification could do better to attract more people here.
The flood of 2008, was life-changing for many residents around the Kosi region. Many people were displaced and lost their home, livestock, and their land. Because of this incident, people only recognize the place as a natural terror region. Koshi Tappu is more than that. I want to say that Koshi Tappu is a naturally and geographically blessed region. The water helps to irrigate the entire region making the most fertile lands, people have easy access to food from Koshi river fishes of many varieties, and fishing has been the main occupation and source of income for the ‘Majhi’ communities and whatnot. We only need to thank nature and avoid disastrous floods from the disaster risk management approach that needs constant observation and involvement from the government sectors.
The beauty of nature, the holy water, the Bird diversity, water assets, the indigenous people, their culture, and life reliability on the water are precious and need improvement. In my eyes, the Koshi Tappu is a blessed region where nature provides essential benefits to human civilization, gives beauty to nature, irrigates the land, is itself a holy water, provides food in terms of varieties of fishes, and makes people depend on the Koshi despite its occasional natural calamities.
I portray Koshi Tappu as the way people live, people receive and give back in terms of gratitude for fulfilling their lives with food and water. It provides the essence of beauty, a place to live and thrive, a place to forget the materialistic worlds and connect with nature. Koshi Tappu is not just a place, it is a natural gate away where you find the overwhelming natural benefits of human civilization, a magical place where you see despite being a landlocked country a glimpse of the ocean as you can not see land on the far horizon. If you haven’t explored this place, you might be missing a window to respect where you find how nature and people live in harmony, yet there can be consequences if you try to become superior to nature.
Human and nature, this is the Koshi Tappu, a place for you to witness the Terai landscape with an Oceanic view amidst the conservation of the birds and wild buffalos.
Thank you for Reading. Go through these images and remember, I’ll be updating this page with more images and my stories often!
