Myagdi’s Panchakunda Lake freezes

By Thakur Prasad Acharya,Beni (Myagdi), Dec. 2: The Panchakunda Lake in the northern basecamp of Annapurna I in Narchyang, Annapurna Rural Municipality-4, Myagdi, has frozen over. Located at an altitude of 4,195 metres above sea level, all 20,000 square metres of the lake has frozen over. This has delighted visitors who were seen taking pictures of the iced lake on Friday.

The freezing of the lake has served to attract domestic tourists, Tej Gurung, a tourism entrepreneur of Narchyang, shared, adding that people from Myagdi, Baglung, Parbat, Pokhara, Kathmandu, Chitwan, Jhapa and other districts had begun coming to enjoy the sight.

Amrit Subedi, chief administrative officer of Annapurna Rural Municipality, said that the construction of resting spaces, Chautaras and other infrastructure along the road to the basecamp also helped boost the number of Nepali travellers.

Meanwhile, a rally was organised at the Annapurna I base camp to promote tourism. To publicise Myagdi as a ‘virgin’ destination, a team of experts walked the Maurice Herzog trail to the base camp and returned on Thursday.

Officials of the National Natural Resources and Fiscal Commission (NNRFC), experts, elected representatives, journalists and local leaders participated in the rally led by Subedi. A total of 25 people participated in the rally that began on Monday.

“Even though the beautiful mountain is in our area, we are not able to get any benefit from it,” Bharat Kumar Pun, chairman of Annapurna Rural Municipality, said. 

“So, we organised this rally to urge NNRFC to distribute royalty from the mountain more evenly and promote the destination as well.”