DHADING, JULY 1

As incessant rainfall has pushed up the water level in the Trishuli River these days, locals can be seen competing with each other to collect floating logs in the flooded river in Dhading these days.

According to Tirtha Silwal, a local from Malekhu, even wage-earners from other places come to collect wood from the river.

“As it rains almost every day these days and the flooded river brings with it tree logs, people are risking their lives collecting the floating wood from the river,” said Silwal. Further, Silwal cited cases of people losing their lives while trying to collect the flotsam and suggested that they should be careful.

Juneli Nepali of Gajuri Rural Municipality said families like hers make some money by selling flotsam to highway hotels and homes.

“The collected wood is turned into firewood and sold to hotels and homes, but as hotels are closed nowadays we fear we won’t be able to make money this time,” she said, adding that the money that they make by selling wood collected for three months during the rainy season can last them for six months.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on July 2, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.