Nature – Tshering Tobgay

Bhutan for Life

April 13, 2019Monarchy, Nature

Our responsibility to look after our protected areas – that’s 51% of our country – just got easier. Bhutan for Life and GNHC signed a grant agreement for Nu 2.4 billion to finance conservation activities during the next 14 years. Most of this should be spent during the 12th Plan period to protect our national parks, nature reserves and wildlife sanctuaries, and to ensure that people living in them receive support to enhance their livelihood. I’m happy to have had the opportunity to tell our conservation story to the world and to take part in the fund-raising efforts. My…

Earthquake!

September 18, 2011Nature26 Comments

As we drove home earlier this evening, my wife noticed that Taba was in total darkness. And she observed that the residents were huddled, in the dark, outside their houses. It was an eerie sight. We were driving, so we hadn’t felt the earth move. A powerful earthquake, measuring 6.9 units, had hit the Himalayas. Its epicenter was reportedly in Sikkim. In Bhutan, thankfully, no major damages have been reported. But posts on Twitter indicate that the tremors were felt throughout our country. I’m concerned about our farm houses, old monasteries and dzongs - they, and their residents, are…

Crazy bear?

July 28, 2011Nature9 Comments

A bear recently wrecked havoc in the meditation centre in Tango. Thankfully, it did not attack any of the monks. But others have not been as lucky. Earlier this month, a bear mauled and killed a man in Dawakha. A little upstream, in Jabana, a farmer managed a narrow escape after stabbing a bear two times. Further upstream, in Shari (Haa), a man was severely mauled by a bear. And on the other side of the Wangchu, in Chapcha, another man was seriously mauled by a bear. Be careful when you venture into the forests. Never go alone. And…

Zoom on garbage

August 27, 2010Civil society, Nature11 Comments

Are you an important government official? If so, did you receive an invitation to attend Young Zoom on Garbage, the art festival currently on at the Clock Tower Square? And if so, did you make it to the festival? Chances are that you didn’t. Young Zoom on Garbage is meant to be an innovative and powerful way of drawing much needed attention to a very serious problem. So the organizers sent out more than 200 invitations for yesterday’s opening function. But only a handful showed up: barely 10% of the invitees were able to attend the inaugural ceremonies. That’s…

Social forestry

June 3, 2010Nature

Social Forestry Day is good time to reflect on the health of our forests, and to help nurture them by planting trees around our homes, schools, villages, towns, and in barren hillsides. So we – my family, that is – were happy that we had the opportunity to do something different yesterday: we saved a few trees! Yes, I’m being dramatic, I know. What we did do was uproot a few of the smaller trees (small plants actually, especially rhododendron) along the Taba - Langjophakha road and transplant them in front of our house. The trees were destined to…

Talkin’ Takin

April 5, 2010Nature

Takin, reindeer, yak calf, takin calf, sheep’s head, donkey, deer, drey daza, goat, sheep, lamb face, blue sheep, foal, cow calf, shaw, black foal, jatsham, mitun, thra –bum. The last Big Picture contest generated a rich variety of answers, including the right one, takin calf. “Karma S.” is our winner. The takin mother and calf was photographed in the Motithang Takin Preserve, a 20-acre sprawling blue-pine forest that was established in the early 1970’s to accommodate a pair of young takins that was gifted to Bhutan during the coronation of the Fourth Druk Gyalpo. The two takin thrived. And…

Happily exhausted

January 18, 2010Nature

I’m in Dorikha, totally exhausted. But I’ve had a hot stone bath, an extra large bowl of buckwheat noodle soup, copious amounts of o-ja (milk-sweetened tea), and a glass of Ani Gaki’s stiff ara. I’m sitting near a bukhari, typing, under the watchful gaze of three inquisitive nieces. And I’m already forgetting the pain of the last two days. Yesterday, after meeting the people and touring the village of Thangdokha, we decided to take a shortcut down from the remote village to Somchu, a tributary of Amochu. The “shortcut” isn’t a path; it’s lunging in an approximate direction downhill,…

Saving Thimphu

December 20, 2009Nature

The International Institute for Environment and Development, in their book Climate Change and the Urban Poor, have identified Thimphu as on of the world’s 15 most vulnerable cities to the effects of climate change. The IIED warns that climate change could cause floods, landslides and fire in our capital. This, obviously, is cause for concern. We must take the dangerous levels of our exposure to climate change seriously. And, we must do our best to work with the world to reduce global warming. But, Thimphu is vulnerable not just because of climate change. We, the residents of Thimphu, are…

Hidden beauty

November 23, 2009Nature

Yesterday, on my way back from Haa, I stopped at Chelela (altitude about 3,900 meters) to see the sun set over our western mountain ranges. These mountains above the Haa valley offer some of the best, yet least known, treks in our country. They include a trek to the legendary lake Nub Tshonapatra, which I hope to revisit and write about in 2010. UPDATE: Lampenda Chuup's comment reminds me of the beauty that can be seen in and from those mountains. So I've changed the title from "Hidden treks" to the more appropriate "Hidden beauty".

Another disaster!

September 22, 2009Nature

Today, on True Bap – the blessed rainy day – I join the nation in offering my prayers and support for the victims of the deadly earthquake that struck our eastern dzongkhags yesterday afternoon. BBS and Kuensel have reported loss of lives and extensive damage. The international media has also expressed concern. Government officials are already at work, contacting the gewogs and accessing the damage. The full extent of the earthquake’s destruction will not be known for sometime. But there’s one important sign of hope: since yesterday evening, no more deaths have been reported. I am in Dehi, en…

Coping with disaster

August 13, 2009Government, Nature

On 27 July 1996, six boys from Begana went on a picnic to Tango. They lost their way in the thick forests, and despite the best efforts of the rescue teams – soldiers had literally combed the jungles – the students could not be found. 12 harrowing days later, police stumbled upon four of the boys in the forests above Punakha. The mountains had, by then, claimed the lives of two boys. That shocking incident led Lyonpo Sangay Ngedup, who was the education secretary at that time, to formalize, improve and expand scouting in Bhutan. He believed that the…

Another tragedy

August 1, 2009Nature

There’s been another tragedy, this time from Wangduephodrang. A Class 11 student was swept away by the Punasthangchu. He and his friends had gone to the river to escape the mid-day heat. Officials and volunteers have not yet been able to recover the young student’s body.

Total eclipse of the sun

July 24, 2009Nature

I watched the solar eclipse, with my family and about a hundred other viewers, from Kuenselphodrang. By the time we got there, a little after 6 AM, it was already bright. But, the skies were overcast. And, as much as we hoped that the clouds would disappear over the eastern skies, they stood their ground, stubbornly. I secretly accepted that we wouldn’t be able to see the eclipse; that we'd miss the moment the moon overpowers the sun; and that we wouldn’t be able to put to use the eclipse glasses that we got, miraculously, only the night before.…

Electric cars

June 27, 2009Economy, Nature

I drove an electric car last week. It was a Reva, an electric vehicle manufactured in India. The Department of Energy is currently testing the car on Bhutanese conditions. The Reva is small. In fact, it’s not much bigger than a golf cart. So it can fit only two adults – that’s the driver and one passenger. The car actually has rear seats, where you can squeeze two little children. But if you do, you won’t be able to find space for even small luggage. Only this, and yet the car costs Nu 450,000 without taxes. Theoretically, the Reva…

Another bear cub is rescued

June 24, 2009Nature

I’ve just learnt that another resident of Haa will be arriving in Taba soon. Pema Tshering, the Forest Ranger in Haa, has just informed me that they’ve rescued another bear cub. This cub was discovered in the Tshaphey Lower Secondary School premises with its back to the wall, defending itself from a pack of dogs. Officials of the Forestry Management Unit arrived literally on time to save the little bear who, I’m told, appears to be fine. No one knows the whereabouts of the mother bear. So the cub will stay in the Wildlife Management and Rehabilitation Centre in…