Buffaloes of the Far West to Kathmandu

"After selling the 8 snakes that I brought this time, I will go to the mountains in 1/2 day to bring another batch," said Kunwar, who was bargaining with big traders in the hot bazaar.

He said that there are hundreds of people in this business in the two districts of Terai, Kailali and Kanchanpur and 7 hilly districts in the far west. "We have to reach distant villages. Locals of the villages inform us over the telephone about who is selling. We reach here and buy after bargaining," he said. "It takes a long time to reach here," he said. After walking from most of the villages to the road, we bring it here by truck.'

Like Bhoj Bahadur Kunwar of Surnaya, hundreds of people in various districts of the Far West are involved in the business of collecting, transporting and buying buffaloes. From their village to Kathmandu, a network of collection and trade has been formed. Kunwar says, "There are our people in the village, they are in contact with the buying merchants, they do the bargaining when buying at first, then after we reach Chowkidanda, the big merchants buy them and put them in a truck and take them to Kathmandu."

According to Keshav Bhattarai of Patan Municipality-5, a neighbor of Surnaya, who has been involved in this profession for 15 years, most of the farmers in the hilly district sell their buffaloes after they get tired, get old and have problems with household expenses. According to him, most of the youths and men in the villages go to India in search of work, the fields are barren due to the lack of grain and there is also a problem of weeding. It has been found that Ranga is being sold .

Traders said that those who were left behind for medical treatment and also to pay for education expenses sold Ranga buffaloes. In some places, they sell them if they are for keeping, but they do not sell them for slaughtering.

'Buffaloes are not bought and sold based on how many kilos they weigh,' said Bhattarai, 'they are bought and sold based on their age, health and health.' is . "You have to work harder, run more, the income is not much," he added.

Annual turnover of 1 billion only from far away

In the hot market in Chowkidanda in Godavari municipality-3 of Kailali, buffaloes are traded day and night for twelve months . Haat Bazaar has been operated by renting 1 bigha of women's community forest along the east-west highway connecting Kanchanpur and Kailali. People's Community Animal and Agriculture Development Center Nepal was established in 2062 as a registered organization under the organization, but the market has been operating legally since 2067. Manager Balkrishna Bhattarai said .

'Hatbazaar's business has decreased slightly during the past corona period, but now it is increasing,' manager Bhattarai said, 'including five local people from Chowkidanda, 15 traders from Nepalganj, Dhangadhi, Mahendranagar and Bardia are selling the buffalo bought from here to Kathmandu for meat  ;.'

According to him, there is an annual turnover of 1 billion from the only chowkidanda hot market in Far West. "Throughout the year, 18/19 thousand buffaloes go to Kathmandu, the three cities of Kathmandu valley are slaughtered and supplied with meat," he said, "The buffalo brought from the mountains and bought at the market of Kailali at a minimum price of 30,000 is sold for 35/40,000 after reaching Kathmandu. There is not much profit, the expenses including transportation are high.

Manager Bhattarai says that there is more demand and sales in Kalimati, Dallu, Buddh, Patan. The sale price is also higher according to the physical size of the buffaloes. 'Up to 20 large buffaloes are transported in one truck, it takes at least 72 hours to reach Kathmandu,' said one of the workers from Birgunj, who goes to Kathmandu with the truck, unloads the load and takes care of the buffaloes on the way. Ibrahim says, 'We don't go during the day, it's hot, we only drive the truck at night, in places where there is daytime pasture and water, we take the buffaloes from the truck and give them water to let them relax, we feed them with straw and then we move forward only after sunset, so it takes up to 7 days to reach Kathmandu in one trip. It costs up to one lakh rupees to deliver 1 truck to Kathmandu. According to

manager Bhattarai, buffalo meat is sold at 340 to 350 per kg in Kathmandu. Bhattarai said that sometimes along with Kathmandu, if there is a demand, they are also sent to Pokhara and Nepalgunj. He has collected all kinds of things like Chowkidada here He informed that the places to be bought and sold are Tikapur of Kailali, Rambhapur of Banke, Gulria of Bardia, Jitpur of Bara, Sakuwa and others.

Farmers also sell their Padapadi like buffaloes. The owners of the hot market say that padapadi is bought and kept by local residents. The manager Bhattarai said that the hot bazaar here is also planning to raise Padapadi. He said that the highest demand for padapadi comes from Bardia and Nepalganj. Chowkidanda has a 24-hour hot market. It is the main center for buying and selling livestock.