That in Other Words

Rural-urban migration is a good indicator of many things gone wrong. People just do not leave their ancestral homes without solid reasons.

In Bhutan there is an old proverb, which goes rang yue zampai woglu inru ga (རང་གཡུས་ཟམ་པའི་འོག་ལུ་ཨིན་རུང་དགའ།) – one would love his/her village even if it is located under a bridge. And that says a lot. People just don’t abandon their homes without concrete reasons!

And some of us blame these people as if most we are born and bred here altogether. I think when people make that big move of abandoning their ancestral homes and leave for cities, they will have thought a lot about it. People just don’t leave their homes!

My grandmother, after spending many years in the city, with her sons, and daughters and grandchildren, two years ago, decided to go home in the village. That is where her heart really is although half her children and almost all her grandchildren are in the city!

That goes to show how most of us are here in this so-called towns with no choice.

A field free of wild animals would mean the farmers would be able to harvest all that they have grown and reap the benefit of their hard work. On top of being able to feed their families, they would also be able to earn additional income from the sale of their surpluses. But this is not so. As if wild animals have a stake in the farmers' crops, they come in time and eat and plunder everything grown in the fields. Where is the hard work? What is the use of feeding wild animals?

So, you see, people leave their villages for reasons!

Today, in some pockets of rural Bhutan, farmers are provided with electric fencing. I find that as one of the most effective solutions to solve the problems of crop predation by wild animals in our rural villages. Electric fencing powered by solar will help a great deal in fighting this menace. And just like the farmers, animals would thrive in their rightful places.

That's one of the many solutions to curb the menace called Rural-Urban migration.

Note: Pictures by my former classmate Tshering Tobgay, Teacher at Shingkhar Primary School, Zhemgang

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Nawang P Phuntsho

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