How Marble Danda became a local tourism engine: A former quarry tests whether community-led tourism can grow without repeating the environmental damage that once defined it.

By Sanjog Manandhar | Kathmandu, Nepal

At the foothills of Phulchoki Hill, what was once a scarred landscape of extraction has begun to rewrite its story, but whether it rewrites that story sustainably remains an open question.

For decades, Marble Danda was synonymous with marble mining. The quarry carved into the hillside stood as a symbol of industrial activity, leaving visible marks on the terrain. But when operations ceased in 2020–21, the site was abandoned, its machinery left to rust and its future uncertain. No environmental remediation was carried out.

Today, that same site tells a different story,  though not always a simple  one.

On weekends, groups of young people from Kathmandu Valley and beyond, make their way up the short, forested trail. The hike takes less than half an hour and leads to sweeping views of the valley below. Sunsets have become a particular draw, pulling in photographers and casual visitors alike.

The transformation is also about livelihoods.

Kanchi Tamang, 53, has sheltered under a plastic-roofed stall at Marble Danda for over four years, selling everything from beverages to snacks. She arrives between eight and ten in the morning; Saturdays are her busiest days, though sales remain modest—many visitors come with their own food. For her, the hikers and other bike tourists are not just foot traffic. They are a livelihood where none existed before.

Youth in the area are finding ways in too, some offering informal guiding, others promoting the destination through social media. But this organic, infrastructure-light growth also means environmental oversight falls to no one in particular.

In previous reports, officials from Godawari Municipality have acknowledged the site's growing popularity but admit that formal planning has yet to catch up. The hazards are real and include: exposed rock faces, unstable spoil heaps, and rusting machinery remain from the quarry era. Basic facilities, waste management, maintained trails, safety signage are limited or absent. No environmental impact assessment has been conducted since the quarry closed.

Environmental experts warn that unregulated visitor pressure could damage the fragile ecosystem that has begun to recover since mining stopped, threatening the forest cover, wildlife corridors, and bird habitat that make the Phulchoki ridge ecologically significant.

"There is potential here," says one advocate, "but without proper management, the same place that was once damaged by mining could face new risks from overuse."

A sign at the hilltop warns that littering carries a fine of Rs 5,000. A few metres away, plastic bottles and packaging are burned in open piles, the smoke drifting across the valley below. Tamang says that in four years of daily presence at the site, she has not seen a single penalty enforced. There is, she explains, hardly anyone to monitor it.

The story of Marble Danda is, in miniature, the story of unplanned tourism across Nepal's urban fringes. Communities can reclaim landscapes once defined by extraction and turn them into spaces of recreation and income. But without formal management—environmental monitoring, waste infrastructure, safety remediation, enforceable rules—the site risks trading one form of damage for another.

The question now is whether Godawari Municipality and the community will act before the next wave of growth makes the environmental cost irreversible.

For now, as the sun sets over the valley and visitors gather at the hilltop, some leaving their bottles behind, Marble Danda stands as a symbol of change: a place where the past and future meet, and where the difference between those two outcomes may still be decided.

Civil society organisations could play an important role in shaping that outcome. In Nepal, groups such as the NGO Federation of Nepal have been working to strengthen civil society engagement in disaster risk reduction and climate resilience with support from Forus. Through training and awareness initiatives, this work has helped sensitise civil society organisations about the risks posed by disasters and climate change, as well as relevant policies, programmes and the spaces available for CSO engagement. These efforts have contributed to identifying practical measures including the construction of earthquake-resilient infrastructure, the prevention of floods and landslides, the preparation of preparedness plans for disaster-prone communities, and strategies to build stronger collaboration between civil society and local governments. Boosting local capacities has been recognised as a critical priority in expanding the role of civil society in disaster risk management and climate action. In places like Marble Danda, where environmental management and tourism development intersect, such strengthened civil society engagement could help ensure that community-led initiatives grow sustainably while reducing environmental and climate-related risks.

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