Khaptad, nestled in the heart of farwestern Nepal, has just seen winter snowfalls, turning it into a stunning snow-covered landscape.

The colourful flowers adorn the Patans (highland pastures) that bloom in the summer and spring.

Nowadays, improved roads have made accessibility to the Khaptad National Park easier—including the Triveni, Baba Ashram, Kedardhunga, Khapar Daha, Nagadhunga, Sahashralinga, and Ghoda Dauna Patan.

But there are no tourists.

According to the Khaptad National Park, during the peak winter beginning in December, only eight foreign tourists visited the area.

In the first six months of the current fiscal year, beginning mid-July 2023, the park received 890 visitors. Among them, there were only 11 foreigners.

Most of them visited in October, the autumn, the country’s peak tourism season.

In the last fiscal year, Khaptad received 2,891 visitors, bringing in hopes and some cash to the local communities.

An international conclave was also hosted by the Khaptad Area Tourism Development and Management Committee.

Authorities have poured millions into the infrastructure hoping that the country’s pristine landscape would lure foreign as well as domestic tourists and boost the rural income.

While places like Sagarmatha and Chitwan attract more than 300,000 visitors annually, Khaptad has been grappling with numerous challenges including fewer resorts, lack of electricity, telephone and internet services, and poor and inadequate infrastructure.

Hoteliers say these challenges deter repeat visits.

The absence of customers has forced hotels on the trekking route to close down.

Prakas Rawal, director of Triveni Guest House in Lokhada, which is located en route to ​​Khaptadchanna village, said without tourists, their investments and time would have gone to waste.

In 2020, the authorities started constructing various infrastructures in the area.

As per one such contract, which has already been awarded, eight buildings, including three in Bichpani and five near the Khaptad Barrack are to be constructed. These infrastructures would facilitate more than 150 tourists.

The construction of prefab buildings was scheduled to begin in March 2020 and was supposed to be completed within 7 months, but due to the Covid lockdown, the project deadline was deferred to July 2021, with several subsequent extensions. Nepal Tourism Board had allocated Rs50 million for the development of basic infrastructures in the region in the fiscal year 2020-21. The deadline has been extended four times, but the work still has not been completed.

Saroj Mani Paudel, chief conservation officer of the Khaptad National Park, said although the construction of the new buildings has been completed, it will take more time to ready other facilities.

"The construction of water supply, fencing, and water diversion are yet to be completed.”

Millions of rupees have been spent in the past years too to make Khaptad an attractive destination, which until now remains largely untouched.

More than 30 buildings have been constructed in the Khaptad area alone.

But none of them are in use and most have turned into ruins.

In the past 15 years, the Tourism Ministry, Khaptad Tourism Development Committee, Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, Nepal Tourism Board, Sudurpaschim province and local municipalities have spent more than Rs1 billion in Khaptad for infrastructure development.

But the ruins and decreasing footfalls tell a different tale.

Instead of planned development, Khaptad now has earned an adage of becoming a fertile ground for political manoeuvrings and corruption.

Deepak Khadka, a hotelier from Doti who has been actively promoting Khaptad tourism, said that their hopes have turned into despair.

Narendra Singh, the chairman of the Buffer Zone Management Committee of Khaptad, said it is unfortunate that even food and accommodation are not properly managed in the area despite such a huge investment.

According to Singh, tourists do not go to Khaptad because the food and lodging arrangements are not good. “There has been no investigation of irregularities of the investment in the area."

Bhim Khadka, executive director of the Khaptad Area Tourism Development and Management Committee, said if the existing infrastructure in Khaptad is managed properly, it is possible to accommodate 300 to 400 tourists daily.

Development is strange in Khaptad. Infrastructure is initiated only to be left abandoned later on.

The private sector, however, is not allowed to enter the area for development. “If the private sector is allowed, they would promote the area and invest in it,” said Khadka.

“Investing in Khaptad would be pointless if there are no guidelines for the management of hotels and lodges in Khaptad,” said Khadka.