A tar between two rivers
In Nepali, a tar is a raised, flat terrace above a river, made of old river gravel, and Tumlingtar is one of the largest in the country. Its flat land and warm climate made it good farmland for rice, maize and fruit. In Nepal's Fourth Plan of the early 1970s it was chosen as the site of an airstrip to serve the far-off districts of the Koshi hills, which had no roads and could be reached only on foot over many days.
For decades the airstrip was the only quick way in or out of Sankhuwasabha. Porters carried goods from the planes up to Khandbari, Chainpur and the villages toward Makalu, and the trails out of town were busy with loads of rice, salt, kerosene and cloth. Roads from Hile and the south arrived later and changed the town again, with jeeps and trucks taking over much of the carrying, and Tumlingtar became a road junction as well as an airport town.
Tumlingtar's newest chapter is water. The Arun is one of the great rivers of Nepal, rising in Tibet and cutting through the Himalaya, and hydroelectric schemes have been planned and built along it for years. In the 1990s an earlier Arun III scheme became the first case brought to the World Bank's new Inspection Panel, and the Bank later withdrew. A 900 MW Arun III plant has since been under construction by India's state-owned SJVN under an agreement with Nepal.
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