THE YAKHA: CULTURE, ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT IN ...

section looks briefly at how these three projects were regarded by the
Yakha of Tamaphok, and what their long-term implications were for
people's perceptions of the environment and of their identity within it.
The peop!e of Tamaphok only seemed to have the haziest notions of
the ODA project and what its staff were responsible for in Dhankuta.
The project had been operating for over ten years, and, as we have seen,
had made a major contribution to life in Tamaphok through the completion
of the road to BasantapurV1-, There had also been a suspension
footbridge bui 1 t with ODA funds across the Maya Khola between Tamaphok
and Madi Mulkharka, Other deve!opments in neighbouring pancavats had
indirectly affected Tamaphok, There was a new veterinary centre and
health centre in Mamling, for example. People sometimes brought cattle
to the veterinary centre (e.g, for artificial insemination), but the
health centre was not high in people's hierarchies of resort, There was
a well-respected Village Yealth Worker resident in Tamaphok itse!f, and
if people were really seriously ill such that the dhami could do nothing
more, they might consider going up to Basantapur and on to hospita! in
Dhankuta or the Tarsi.
It was the Community Forestry component of the 'K3' project with
which we became most familiar during our time in Nepal. The staff in
Dhankuta, as we saw in Chapter One, were mostly involved in working in
more densely populated parts of the region, and with Forest Department
staff. Since the nationalization of forest land in 1957, the ro!e of
the forest department staff had been one of keeping !ocal people out of
the forests. Underpaid, there remained much scope for their corruption
as loca! people tried to maintain access to the forest resources on
which they depended. A!though the 1561 Forestry Act gave provision for