Dhahachok

DHACHOWK AND INDRADAHA OFFER ENORMOUS POTENTIALS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM AND FOR THIS WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO THE GOVERNMENT TO DEVELOP APPROPRIATE PLANS FOR FUTURE
Covered with lush green vegetation and surrounded by breathtaking mountains, Dahachowk has enormous tourism potential. Situated in the western part of Kathmandu Valley, in between Chandragiri and Nagarjun hills, the spectacularly beautiful VDC is just 15 km away from the hubbub of capital Kathmandu and boasts of a population of about 9,000.

Stories about the origin of the name of the VDC abound. According to one popular belief, the VDC has been named after two famous ponds ‘Daha’ and ‘Cho’ — due to which Kirats call it ‘Dahachowk’ or ‘Hills’.
The VDC is important from the spiritual, historical, cultural, religious, as well as tourism point of view and is surrounded by Balambu in the east, Mahadevsthan in the north, Thankot, Kadebhanjyang and Dhading in the West and Ramkot in the south.
The VDC is inhabited by a mix of Brahmins, Chhetris, Newars and Dalits. However, a mixture of tribal population is also seen there.
The VDC also has one
more pond — Indradaha.The locals residing here, who predominantly follow Hinduism and Buddhism, go by the legend that taking a holy dip in this pond would wash away the sins since it is home to ‘Asta Naga’.
There are 2,865 eligible voters currently residing in this hamlet. Agriculture remains the major occupation for about 70 per cent of the inhabitants. The major food crops grown here are maize, rice, wheat, millet and barley. However, farmers also grow vegetables like potato, tomato, cucumber, bitter gourds, sweet potato and ladies finger. The VDC is also awash with apple, orange and other citrus fruit trees, the harvests of which are sold in Kalimati vegetable market and other centres in Kathmandu.
“The majority of the people are farmers although animal husbandry, small and medium scale entrep re n e u r s are also t h r i v i n g here,” said VDC secr e t a r y G a n e s h Khatri.
are farmers al though animal husbandry, small and medium scale entre scale entrep re n e u r s are also thriving here," said VDC secretary Ganesh Khatri. The VDC also has brick and slipper factories as well as rice mills. There are two consumer committees.Apart from these, the VDC has large areas of land under community forests. One of them is Kerauni community forest occupying 51.9 hectares of land and the other is Jhagajhiti.
“Historically, these community forests have been an important source of twigs, grasses and leaves,” he said.
Apart from these, mountains like Nilgiri, Annapurna, Sagarmatha and Langtang are important attractions for tourists, he added.
It is from this VDC that one can have a glimpse of the spectacular hills of Gorkha, Dhading, Nuwakot, Nagarkot and Nagarjun.
“Dhachowk and Indradaha offer enormous potentials for the development of tourism and for this we are looking forward to the government to develop appropriate plans for future,” said Khatri. The VDC has religious attractions too, including Mahadev, Radhakrishna, Panchakanya, Indra, Tinkanyadevi, and Setidevi temples.
Taxes collected from houses and factories are major sources of income for the VDC, according to Khatri. Apart from it, the ongo
ing land-plotting activities have added to the already increasing value of the land.The number of telephone subscribers has gone up to 15 per cent of the population while the users of electronic gadgets stand at a whopping 90 per cent. Similarly, the number of households connected by electricity has touched 100 per cent point. There is one post office and two banks in the area.

“The VDC gets revenue Rs 200,000 on an annual basis from the brick factory alone,” said, Khatri.
There are seven schools providing educational facilities to local students. However, there is no college which compels local students to go to other places
for higher education.“Constructing a college is one of the top priorities for us at the moment,” added Khatri. There are more works to be done to make this village a model village, according to him. He said that the housing pattern of this VDC is largely traditional with only about 10 per cent of the residents living in concrete houses. He said the entire work of the VDC is being carried out from just one room. Most of the roads are not blacktopped except for those in ward number 1, 2 and 3.
“We also need to develop e-governance, given its tourism potential,” said Khatri, adding that almost all the works are currently executed in traditional fashion. Preservation of open spaces and community forest are two other issues he underlined for the development of the VDC.
The internal income of the VDC is about Rs 16.44 million for the fiscal year along with the government fund worth Rs 22.55 million, and the total income of the VDC is about Rs 43.50 million.
However, the targeted income for next year as stated by VDC officials is about Rs 19.75 million which is the internal income alone. The increasing amount of the internal income on one hand reflects that the VDC is heading towards progress.
On the other hand, it also provides the clue that infrastructure development has been prioritized by the VDC.
Lately, the VDC has been witnessing a large influx of migrants from elsewhere notwithstanding its limited resources, thanks to the natural beauty of Dahachowk.