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A Boy From Siklis: The Life and Times of Chandra Gurung MORE often than not, the theory of conservation is viewed in isolation as something that separates us from nature ‘out there’ and thus leading us to don the role of a saviour, but essentially as a separate entity.
This was the kind of conservation Nepal was in need of when Chandra Gurung stepped into the scene as a member of the Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation. It was the time when conservation was a wide-open term with the focus remaining firmly on saving rhinos and tigers alone that faced threats from royal shikars, now fortunately extinct. It is difficult to believe that the same Himalayan country has now set an example by holding its Cabinet meeting at the foot of Mount Everest to make its statement on global warming louder and clearer. An important link between then and now is Chandra Gurung, who rose from just another boy from this non-descript village called Siklis to be the head of the World Wide Fund, Nepal. A man who did not believe in spreading poignant messages through drawing room discussions but one who wooed people’s support by working hard; not exhorting people to join his cause but showing them the way and by giving them a chance to join in. The book is meant to be a biography of Chandra Gurung who met his tragic end in a helicopter crash in 2006. But in the process of tracing the life and deeds of Chandra through the places he lived in and the people he interacted with, Manjushree Thapa ends up chronicling Nepal’s conservation movement as a whole. In the process, Chandra ceases to be a mere environmentalist and becomes a metaphor for the people’s willingness to herald democracy. Manjushree is an avid storyteller and has this innate ability to carry her readers with her as she meanders through the subsoil movements that gave birth to Nepal to its sociological structures to Chandra’s messy personal life with a smooth flow, not letting the reader’s interest drift even for a moment.`A0 `A0 Though most biographies are written on the basis of facts accumulated from various sources, Manjushree has had this advantage of working with her subject. She met Chandra after her return from the US with a bachelor’s degree in photography and was hired to set up a display on Annapurna Conservation Area Project’s works at its headquarters in Ghandruk and ended up becoming a full timer in the same project two years later. Small wonder that the tone of the book is more towards his professional achievements and, of course, the charisma he exuded as a team leader and activist. Though, at times, the author makes some unsuccessful attempts to drag out more information on Chandra’s personal shortcomings from his first wife Sumitra, the book, by and large, maintains a stoic silence on that subject. Understandably so because Chandra, extremely extrovert by nature, preferred to keep his personal life segregated from his professional life. His highs and lows, joys and sorrows regarding his work were public knowledge, but nobody knew for sure when it came to his lonely phases or the serenades with his numerous lady friends. But then that’s what made Chandra Gurung the man he was, an enigma—to be loved, to be cherished, and to be followed.
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This boy from Siklis—Chandra
Gurung—teaches us otherwise. Nature is not just those pristine
forest covers with exotic flora and fauna, it is also the depleted
settlements we live in. Hence, to be successful, the conservation work
has to involve people and above all, it should benefit them.