The Village of Katran
Katran is a village in the Leilek District of the Batken Region of Kyrgyzstan.
In 2009, its population was 5,095 people. There are legends that the bushes of katran, which grow abundantly here, have saved local residents during times of famine. The village was named in honor of this plant.
The village is located at the beginning of the Kuzu-Baglan River, over which a bridge was built by the Ministry of Transport in 2017. The opening ceremony was attended by the Minister of Transport, Jamshitbek Kalilov, and the advisor to the President of Kyrgyzstan, Ikramzhan Ilmiyanov, who grew up in this village.
The bridge connecting the villages of Katran, Baul, and Ozgorush had been in operation for over 50 years and was in a state of disrepair.
The estimated cost of constructing a new one was 15 million soms, fully financed from the republican budget.
The Katran rural district is one of the most remote municipalities. There was only one kindergarten in Katran, which was attended by just 132 children, although there are more than a thousand preschool-aged children living in the district. At least two hundred of them come to school unprepared every year. This issue was identified as the most important and urgent during public hearings in the district organized by the Development Policy Institute, with financial support from the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) "Civil Society Support Fund."
Through the joint efforts of local self-government bodies, village residents, the kindergarten staff, and, of course, the contribution of the GIZ "Civil Society Support Fund," amounting to one million soms, a long-awaited, vital preschool institution for the district was established.
The festive opening of the new kindergarten "Altyn-Beshik" took place on May 8, 2015 – the doors of the preschool institution opened for the first time for 75 children aged 2 to 6 years.
It is here, at the foot of the mountains and along the banks of the turbulent Kuzu-Baglan River, near the small village of Katran, that the caves of the prophet David are located, one of the attractions of this area. Few people know about this place, but the locals revere it and treat it as a shrine and one of the monuments of antiquity.
In 2012, near the village was the geological exploration camp "April," located at the gold ore deposit of the same name. The April deposit was located in the upper reaches of the Kuzu-Baglan River, which supplies drinking water to the surrounding villages. The villagers feared that the development of the deposit would pollute the water. This led to a conflict between the local population and the geological exploration camp. The development of this deposit was carried out by a joint Russian-Kyrgyz company "A.Z. International."
After the conflict, work was suspended.
