Despite being average in agricultural production, Baglung is known as a good district in meat, milk, and eggs. A campaign is underway to make the district's livestock raised for meat disease-free.

The district, which is already self-sufficient in meat, is now aiming to export to China. For that, Baglung has been conducting regular vaccination campaigns for a decade to make it a 'disease-free' district.

Keshav Prasad Poudel, Animal Technical Officer at the Veterinary Hospital and Animal Health Office, Baglung, informed that no disease was found in the 250,000 livestock counted in Baglung. He said that if the district is declared 'disease-free', there is a plan to build a 'mega slaughterhouse' of livestock in Baglung and export it. 'Since Korla is the nearest district to the border and is disease-free, meat can be exported soon,' Poudel said. 'For that, a campaign has also been launched in Baglung to expand buffalo and goat herds.' He said that the local level and the veterinary hospital are also leading the plan to increase the number of livestock within 30 months and make them suitable for meat.

Baglung has become self-sufficient in milk, meat and eggs. Some of the products have also been sold outside. Out of the 2.72 million liters of milk required per capita at the rate of 91 liters per year, 2.3 million liters are being produced. Out of the 3.6 million kg required for meat, 3.9 million kg are being produced. 1.2 million eggs are being produced annually. Senior Animal Development Officer Rishiram Sapkota said that these eggs are also sufficient in proportion to the population.

Dhaulagiri Hospital in Baglung has been listed as a specialist service for the last 6 years. After the upgrade in the corona containment, treatment services including all types of operations are in operation here. More than a dozen specialist services including ICU, dialysis service, pediatrics, gynecology, and orthopedics are available here. Hari Khadka Trauma Unit has been established and more than 100 head injuries are treated and sent to Bir Hospital every year. There is no need to leave the district for operations such as kidney stones and maternity services. Mental health services are also in operation. More than 200,000 patients receive services here every year. Dhaulagiri Ayurveda Hospital here provides dozens of services and operations, including acupuncture.

More than 60 health posts in Baglung provide safe maternity services. Most of them have baby warmers, modern beds, and maternity waiting houses. Galkot Nagar Hospital also provides services including operations. Since a house has been built where pregnant women and their families, including the new mothers, can live before and after delivery, the assistants do not have to look for accommodation.

Tuberculosis tests are conducted at Dhaulagiri Hospital and Burtiwang Hospital in Baglung. HIV infected people are treated and cared for at the ART Center here, and they are helped to take their medicines. Efforts are being made to make the district a 'no home delivery' district. A fully vaccinated district has also been made in the last four years.

Schools in rural areas of Baglung also provide quality education. Not only state resources, but also parents have made the schools better by raising donations. Dozens of students are admitted from private schools to Tribhuvan Secondary School, 65 km west of the district headquarters. As the quality of education here has improved, the demand for technical education has also increased. The school has prepared a revolving fund of Rs 50 million to add other technical subjects besides crop science, which was started a decade ago. Most of the schools here have concrete buildings.

Dhaulagiri Multiple Campus in Baglung offers education up to master's degree. Courses like BBA, BCIT, BSC, ABA, MA and MEd are being conducted here. This is the only government campus in the four districts within the then Dhaulagiri.

Baglung is also becoming a leader in the tourism sector. From Nepal's only hunting reserve Dhorpatan to the famous Baglung Kalika Bhagwati Temple, Panchakot, Shaligram Museum, Bhairavsthan, Bhakunde, Gajako Daha, Ghumtelek, there are dozens of tourist sites.

Apart from hunting, more than 30,000 tourists visit Dhorpatan every year. More than 1 million devotees and tourists visit Kalika Temple every year. City and district tourism development committees have been formed to develop the tourism sector. In order to promote the tourism sector, hiking trails and roads have been constructed, publicity has been done, and QR codes have been placed at some places. Tourists can get information about the importance of those places through QR codes.

Baglung, a hilly district, has a population of 249,211. Most of the people of Baglung are employed abroad. There is a wave of people going to Japan, Europe and Australia. Apart from that, there is no shortage of people working in the Gulf countries.

The eternal torment of the mid-hills
The track of the Baglung Ghodabandhe road, which was opened in 2054 BS through the Food for Work program, was converted into a rural road and the Baglung Burtiwang road into a mid-hill highway. A 25-km section of this road has been abandoned for years. In 2068 BS, the 'Drilip' project run by the then District Development Committee had graveled this section alone at a cost of Rs 110 million. No drains were built on the road. Due to this, the road collapsed immediately. The locals suffered from mud in the rains and dust in the winter.

In 2070 BS, this section was listed as a Mid-Hill Highway. After that, different contracts were awarded for widening and blacktopping the road. Till now, a 20 km section of this section is lying idle. After two contractors who took the contract in 2072 BS left this road section idle, it has been cancelled without work despite repeated extensions. When ‘Siddisai Bharat Samyukta Nirman Company’ and ‘Surya Construction’ did not work, their contracts were cancelled and new contracts were awarded, but the road is still the same. There are potholes on the road. Almost 70 km of the road from Ghodabandhe to Burtiwang, which has already been completed, has also collapsed.

After the highway was built, people and vehicles from Rukum East and West, Jajarkot and Rolpa ply on this road. With hundreds of vehicles plying daily, the residents around this road section have suffered even more. Locals repeatedly block roads and stage protests to draw the government's attention to the road's problems. 'Repeated protests have ended with assurances, now we are not going to give up,' said local Krishna Kandel, 'We should black-pave this road in time and free the people from the problems.' Every leader who travels this road has promised to take the initiative. In the upcoming elections, all parties have an election agenda of getting this road black-paved.

Strategic roads are in abeyance
Strategic roads here are in abeyance due to lack of budget. The road to Bareng via the courthouse, Sigana, and the road connecting Harichour, Malm, and Pandavkhani have not been completed. These roads were discussed in the previous elections as well. Still, locals are not able to travel on standard roads.

The paved bridges of Daramkhola and Bhujikhola, which are connected to the highway, have been abandoned for years. Due to the failure to build these bridges, students who go to school daily have suffered, while locals have been taking risks in their daily commute.

Expectations for policy reforms in monkey control
Rural settlements have been emptied due to increased migration over the years. Jaimini Municipality here is the municipality most affected by migration. Most of the settlements in this municipality, which had a population of 31,430 in 2078, have been emptied. Tunibot Village in Ward 1 has become a human void.

Locals have complained that they have had to migrate due to the monkey terror. Jaimini Municipality has prepared to build a monkey park after it was not possible to control the monkeys even after holding a town conference. The goal is to turn the old village of Ward 8 into a monkey park.

When reaching all 10 local levels of Baglung, the problem that rural residents say is monkey terror . For that, the Wildlife Act needs to be changed . Locals have complained that they are not allowed to remove even trees and bushes from their own fields to control monkeys . The Forest Act has a provision that permission from the forest should be obtained for cutting trees .

Farmers from Jaimini Municipality, Kathekhola Rural Municipality and Galkot have complained that they are not allowed to cut down trees that have grown in their own fields when they try to cut down old trees and cultivate oranges and other crops  . The candidates from Baglung Constituency No. 1 said that they will consider amending the Forest Act  to address their demands  ‘Before doing development work, it is necessary to amend the Forest Act, I have sought votes with a commitment to lead that work,’ said Bhim Shreesh, Congress candidate from Baglung-1, ‘What is the point of doing politics if the people cannot be kept in the villages?’ For that, the wildlife law should be amended and animals that harm agriculture should be separated.’ His agenda has also been supported by UML candidate Hira KC.

Leading the construction of the Baglung Stadium, which has been stalled for years due to the lack of trees to be cut while trying to build an important plan, has become the party leader’s agenda this time. Even the plan to convert the Banggechaur playground of Baglung Municipality-1 into a stadium has been frozen for years due to the lack of cutting of some pine trees.

No data on suspension bridges
In general knowledge, Baglung is known as the district of suspension bridges. But there is no data on how many suspension bridges there are in Baglung in the last decade.

Many suspension bridges have disappeared due to lack of maintenance. Some are dilapidated. The concrete bridges built after the expansion of the road network have also eliminated the existence of suspension bridges. After the construction of the high suspension bridge connecting the district headquarters Baglung Bazaar to Titiang, the previous bridge has disappeared. No one has been traveling on this bridge for 10 years. Since it has not been repaired, only logs remain. Since you have to walk uphill to the river, no one goes on the bridge.

The suspension bridge connecting Kathekhola Rural Municipality-2 and 6 has also become non-existent. After the bridge was built on the highway, the road leading to the suspension bridge was also eliminated. The bridge connecting Jaimini Municipality-1 and 2 in Baglung has also stopped functioning. Recently, neither the work of keeping records of those suspension bridges nor their conservation has been done . 

According to the data of the District Coordination Committee and the then District Development Committee, there were 495,000 suspension bridges in Baglung before 2074 BS . There is no integrated data on the bridges built after that . Amar Thapa, the head of the District Coordination Committee, said that during the monitoring, old suspension bridges were being covered up and the opening of roads was starting to make them unusable . Some of the old suspension bridges were built with iron chains made by the Bishwokarma community of Rangkhani and Khunkhani in Baglung .  

No relief or grant for flood victims
On Bhadra 17, 2077 BS, 126 houses were washed away by the flood in the Bhuji River in Dhorpatan.  The victims have not yet built their houses . According to the District Administration Office, only 18 families have taken the installments for building houses so far . Other victims have not even received the relief money to build their own houses. As they could not meet the criteria, they could not even come to collect the money given by the state. In the upcoming elections, the victims have even sought to have their houses built. ‘We are forced to live in a shed because we cannot meet the documents and criteria,’ said Mangali Sunar of Dhorpatan Municipality-8. ‘What can we do to get money by arranging documents, there is no one to support us.’ Political party leaders have assured that they will support the campaign to build houses for the victims when they go to seek votes here. However, they are not yet confident that the assurance will be fulfilled.

River exploitation not stopped

Illegal exploitation is increasing in Kaligandaki. Excavators are being used to extract sand and gravel from a river of religious importance. Contractors are exploiting the river contrary to the rules that allow river resources to be extracted only on the basis of an environmental impact assessment report. The administration and local levels are acting as if they have not seen these incidents.
The local level has not prepared the IEE and EIA reports. Neither has the provincial government made a law and sent it. District Coordination Committee Chief Thapa said that contractors are helping each other and encouraging exploitation in collusion.