Myagdi, 21 November: 73-year-old Tharchen Gurung of Tetang, Waragung Muktikshetra Rural Municipality-3, Mustang, used to consume salt from the mine on the banks of Narsang river and feed his cattle until 30 years ago. “Not only Mustang, but the salt of this mine was known as the salt of Bhote in Myagdi, Parbat, Baglung”, he said, “When salt mixed with iodine started coming, our mine’s salt is flowing into Narsang river and getting wasted.”
The salt mine in Waragung Mukti Kshetra Rural Municipality-3 has not been consumed. The mine, once known as ‘Bhotko Nun’, has been neglected. After walking for about an hour from Tetang village to Narsang river bank, you will reach the salt mine. At the foot of the high mountain there are four springs of salty water. Dhawa Gurung, a ward member of Waragung Muktikshetra rural municipality-3 and a resident of Tetang, said that the salty water coming out of the spring is being wasted in Narsang river because it cannot be used.
According to Gurung, with the easy availability of imported salt, the mines here have not been mined for three decades. “Earlier, the residents of Tetang used to stay in the mine for three months and extract 60-70 muri of salt a year”, he said, “now there are no people to extract salt.” It is also difficult to reach there because there is no road.” The locals used traditional techniques to dry the salty water and produce lump salt. The salt water was collected in a tank and dried in the sun to make salt. There are still structures to collect salt water from the spring through pipes to the tank.
Previously, the salt water, which was dried on empty land, was recently collected on tarpaulin and plastic. After mining stops, wild animals like Naur, Jharal, Ghoral come to mine to eat salt. Those who go to see the salt mine say that wild animals can be seen around. Tourists who have gone for sightseeing put salt water in bottles and take it home as prasad. Elderly people of Tetang say that because Narsang river floods in winter and snow falls in winter, they used to extract salt from mines in April, May and June. During the Rana regime, the then Subba Shankarman Sherchan of Thasang rural municipality-1 Tukuche was entrusted with salt mining.
After Sherchan and his children migrated to Kathmandu, mining stopped. Residents of Myagdi, Baglung and Parbat used to go on foot to Mustang every week to get salt. Kedar Paudel of Beni Municipality-5 remembers going to Mustang and bringing salt in exchange for rice. “Since there is no paddy field in Mustang, we used to carry rice from there and bring back one bag of rice and one bag of salt”, said 70-year-old Paudel, “Later, when the car came to Putlikhet, we stopped going to Mustang to bring salt. Now iodized salt is brought to the village by a car.
In the village, the elders tell the experience of going to the thakkhola to fetch salt for the vote. The salt of vote has now been limited to the story of Ekadesh. The settlement of Thakali community below Jomsombath is called Thakkhola. When there was a demand for salt, many people from Tetang found employment. The local people are demanding that they will be fine if they do not have to eat expensive salt by paying money along with employment.
In the year 2077, a team of technical engineers from the Department of Mines and Geology conducted an on-site study of salt mines in this area. The team confirmed that the salt of this mine contains 70.28 percent to 93.7 percent sodium chloride and that the salt here is edible. According to the department’s study report, there are salt reserves in an area of ​​two kilometers around Narsangkhola, near Tetang in Chusang, 30 kilometers from Jomsom. Somprasad Pandey, the then Minister of Industry, Commerce and Supply, himself came to monitor the salt mine.
According to Premprasad Tulachan, a former member of the House of Representatives, the Department of Mines and Geology called for a proposal for the excavation of a salt mine in 2077 with the aim of branding Mustang salt as ‘Himalayan Salt’ and selling it. According to the department, no company proposed to excavate the salt mine. Vinod Gurung, Ward President of Waragung Muktikshetra Rural Municipality-3 said that the issue of salt mine mining has been neglected since the private sector did not show interest.
“Though the geography is ours, the rural municipality ward does not have the capacity and authority to dig mines”, he said, “Mines can be protected and made into tourist spots.” There is a road problem for that.” There is a possibility that the salt water flowing from the mountain where there is road access and the salt mine can be brought to a convenient place through a pipeline. Although salt was mined traditionally in the past, it needs to be done in a modern way. Mined salt can be made usable by adding iodine.
The Chairman of Waragung Muktikshetra Rural Municipality, Rinjin Namgyal Gurung, said that there was a dispute when the residents of Tetang and Chusang claimed that the place where the salt mine is located belongs to their territory, and that the mine is on private land, so the government should make a policy decision. Earlier, the rural municipality had built three ponds to collect the salty water coming out of the salt mine in 2018. The temporary structure built by the municipality has been damaged by the Narsang river flood.
Bikal Sherchan, a member of the Gandaki Provincial Assembly elected from Mustang, said that since the land where the mine is located is owned by individuals, there will be a policy problem for building infrastructure there by government agencies. Mustang has not only salt but also uranium, coal and gas mines. As there is a gas mine in the Muktinath temple complex, there is a constant flame there. In the initial exploration conducted by the Department of Mines and Geology in the year 2070/71, uranium was found in the Lomanthang area in a length of 10 km and a width of 3 km.
A camp of the Nepali Army has been kept at Lungkhuphant in Lomanthang for the protection and security of Uranian mines. Uranium can be used as fuel and raw material for making nuclear weapons. There is a coal mine in Thini Lake near Jomsom. It seems that if the mines in Mustang can be excavated and protected in a systematic way, it will create jobs, reduce imports and contribute to the country’s economy.
