Bajura, July 10

A settlement at Maimatola of Badimalika Municipality in Bajura is at high risk of landslides due to roads that have been built haphazardly in the area.

As many as 10 houses of the settlement can be swept away by a landslide triggered by monsoon rain at any time. Family members have abandoned their houses fearing a landslide and are living in makeshift tents. “We thought the building of roads would bring development, but it brought trouble in our lives,” said Nare Bista, a victim.

A huge chunk of cultivable land has been buried under debris due to haphazardly built rural roads in Gaumul Rural Municipality. “As the local representatives used bull dozers to open passage for roads without meeting the criteria, we have been left in a lurch,” said Maimatola folks.

Dozens of villages in Bajura are at high risk of landslide. “Unplanned construction of roads has been a bane for many of us leaving hundreds of families in the lurch. The dozers were used randomly without necessary consultation with technicians. There are at least three human settlements at high risk of landslides in Chhededaha Rural Municipality alone,” said Surat Thapa of Chhededaha -2.

Bajura District Forest Office Chief Dan Bahadur Shrestha said a huge area of forest was destroyed in the name of road construction in rural areas of the district.