Silk Route Festival under the shadowof prolonged closure of Nathu La trade

NIRMALYA BANERJEE,  EOI,  GANGTOK / KALIMPONG, 14 NOVEMBER 2022  : Even as Kalimpong celebrated a Silk Route Festival spread over five days in the first week of  November, nearly 400  families  in  Gangtok depending  on  the  border trade between Sikkim and Tibet across Nathu La are facing difficulties because of the prolonged closure of trade since the lockdown of March 2020.

“For three years between 2020 and 2022 these people are unemployed. We have written to the Sikkim Government with the request to provide these unemployed people with some alternative employment,” says Tshephel Tenzing, general secretary of Nathu La Border Trade Association.

In a year, 400 trade passes are issued to traders in Sikkim to do business with traders in Tibet across Nathu La. Besides the traders, nearly 150 drivers ferrying merchandise between Gangtok and the trade marts in Sherathang on the Indian side and Rinchengong on the Chinese side are also facing a loss of income since the closure of the trade. Some of these drivers have now started driving taxis or buses on the mainline passenger routes in Sikkim, says Tenzing. 

Tibetan traders and labourers engaged in the Tibet Autonomous Region of  China have also suffered financial hardship because of the closure of the border trade, says Tenzing, who had interactions with these traders when trading was on. Since the beginning of the border  trade,  the financial conditions of these Tibetans had improved. 

Most of the Tibetan labourers engaged in the border trade come from Tromo County, an agricultural area and a part of Shigatse prefecture. By contrast, Shigatse is a city and Phari a business centre, where traders from mainland China dominate. Chinese traders travel only up to the trade mart inside China at Rinchengang while only Tibetan traders are allowed to travel up to the trade mart in India at Sherathang. The Tibetan traders and labourers in Tromo  have suffered the most economically because of the closure of the trade.

Since the beginning of the border trade across Nathu La in 2006, the first hiccup was in 2017 when trading was closed for 14 days because of the stand off between the armies of India and China at Doklam.

In the two subsequent years, trading was normal, before the pandemic intervened early in 2020. The continued suspension of trade even after the improvement in the Covid-19 situation has come as a surprise to the Nathu La Border Trade Association. 

“This year, we have written three letters to the Sikkim Government, requesting for the resumption of border trade. The Sikkim Government has forwarded the issue to the Centre.    Till now, however, there is no positive feedback,” says Tenzing. The Association is in the dark, however, if the continued suspension of border trade is due to China’s emphasis on a “Zero-Covid” policy or because of reasons of security in the aftermath of the Chinese incursions in Ladakh. There is an opinion that the security along the trade route is not too strict, says Tenzing. “When trade was open, every day 100 traders were allowed to cross over to the Chinese side along with 100 vehicles. Around 20 to 25 Indo-Tibet Border Police personnel used to escort  us till the other side.  

In 2018, the Chinese authorities introduced a system of biometric identification at the entry point, on the way to Rinchengang.”Organizers of the Silk Route Festival in Kalimpong are  keen that the old trade route across Jelep La was also reopened for the benefit of the hills of Kalimpong.  

Chairman of Mani Trust Subash Mani Singh, the main organizer of the festival, recalls the glorious days of Kalimpong when the trade route through Jelep La was open.

“Sandwiched between the two important tourist destinations of Darjeeling and Sikkim, Kalimpong has now lost prominence.” The resumption of border trade from Kalimpong  would generate employment and Silk Route Festival under the shadow of prolonged closure of Nathu La trade income, he says. President of Jelep La Trade Route Demand Committee Sebastian Pradhan is in touch with BJP M.P. of Darjeeling Raju Bista to ensure that the Jelep La route reopens for border trade. He is also keen that the Jelep La route is also opened for  tourism and pilgrimage. Known as the pioneer of home-stay tourism in the hills of Kalimpong and Darjeeling, Sebastian Pradhan argues this would increase the flow of tourists, both domestic and foreign, to Kalimpong and this would be a boost for the home-stays which practice eco-tourism.

Subash Mani Singh says the Kalimpong trade route is a legacy of both Kalimpong and Sikkim. From what he and Tshephel Tenzing say, however, there appears to be little effort at a coordinated approach between the stakeholders in Kalimpong and Gangtok for reopening of the Jelep La trade route and the resumption of trade through Nathu La. Tshephel Tenzing says the number of traders allowed daily across Nathu La to the Tibet Autonomous Region should be increased to preclude the break-neck competition among traders from Gangtok to secure the passes at the Nathu La gate.

Indian traders should also be allowed to spend a night or two in the Rinchengang trade mart in Tibet where the Chinese authorities have set up duplex shops where it is possible to stay overnight too. There should be better infrastructure on the Indian side for traders ,like medical facilities for someone falling sick. Updating of the items allowed to be traded and making them more contemporary is a long-standing demand among those engaged in border trade in Nathu La.