They will wobble over boulders, past buses on the opposite side surrendering to the rough track and unloading their passengers, who will make steadier steps uphill. The 18 kilometres down to the nearest town of Dolalghat takes two hours to reach, the same amount of time as the 65-kilometre journey from there to Kathmandu. There is no electricity here. That is what Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary would have seen in the early 1950s on their ascent past Chaubas to the peak of Mount Everest, Netra tells me over a plate of kheer, sweet rice pudding seasoned with pepper. Netra is known here as ‘thulo bhai,’ or ‘big younger brother.’ A few years later, the transition to community forestry began as the plantations were later handed over to local community forest user groups (CFUGs) to nurture and use.