Humla. The mules that were used as a major means of transportation in the mountainous district of Humla in the past are gradually disappearing. The mules used as the main means of transportation have started disappearing after the district was connected to the national road network.

The mules, which were used as the main means of transporting daily household necessities such as salt, rice, oil, food grains, clothes and other daily necessities to the villages, including the district headquarters Simkot, have now become useless.

Earlier, mule transportation was a part of the local economy, culture and lifestyle. The mules, horses and baskets that people used to transport supplies for their daily lives for years have been gradually disappearing, according to the senior citizens of the village.

Although Humla was formally connected to the road network only this year, most of the villages have already been connected by road. Harkadan Phadera of Adanchuli Rural Municipality-3 said that mules have been gradually displaced after the operation of short-route vehicles immediately after access to the road. According to him, mule transportation has become a thing of the past.

With the arrival of cars, jeeps, trucks and tractors, people have stopped using mules for transportation, Fadera said. According to him, the mule business is gradually extinct as a lot of works are carried out in less time and cost with the expansion of road construction and transport access.

Fadera said that he has been doing this profession for a long time and has been continuing the mule business even now. He said that due to lack of work, there has been a decrease in income, which is why it has become difficult to feed the mules.

Not only Fadera, who has been earning a living by rearing mules commercially, most of the traders in the district have now started driving vehicles and tractors. According to him, he had to operate jeeps, buses and tractors as an alternative as his income from the local occupation started decreasing with the demands of the time.