By Madhukar Upadhaya Dadeldhura in far-west Nepal has more in common with the Garhwal and Kumaon hills across the border in India than with the rest of Nepal. The people on the two sides dress similarly and share a common dialect.
Water is scarce during the long dry season.
Natural springs have dried up, and most of the terraced farms have remained dry and fallow. But things are changing, and the transformation of some of these hills is remarkable. Thanks to a community forestry effort that is spreading across Nepal, the hills around Dadeldhura have tufts of green again despite the severe drought that affected the region in 1999. There is more water for drinking and irrigation. Further east, in Badikhel below the awesome Annapurna range in central Nepal, Amar Bahadur Pahari sells fodder to goat herders who take livestock to Kathmandu.