The Kumals’ primary livelihood is fishing in the Naryani. They are also masters at weaving nets and using them to fish in the river. They are subsistence fishermen but try to catch a consistent surplus to sell in neighboring villages.
They carve their long "dugout" canoes out of Saal, a strong, native wood that resembles the white oak (Quercus alba) of North America. They have amazing and even enviable skills, even the youngest, handling the dugouts efficiently in the swift current. The dugout have flat bottoms which makes them much more stable than a conventional canoe.
At the time we visited the Kumal hte Nepal government was in the process of forcing them to move from their ancestral home, here where I photographed them on the east bank of the Naryani, to make more space and river access for the Chitwan National Park that was nearing completion when I was there. They were also being forced by the government to cut down on fishing quotas because the government was leasing fishing rights to contractors just down the river in India to create revenue.
Friday, March 20, 2009
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