Ramechhap, August 10

At a time when continuous rainfall and attendant disasters have been causing loss of life and property in most parts of the country, farmers of Manthali, Ramechhap, are offering puja to god for rainfall so that they can cultivate paddy.

As rainfall hasn’t occurred here till now making it impossible for them to plant paddy, farmers here today offered a Rudri puja at the local Ranajor River, hoping that conducting the traditional rites would bring rainfall. Yesterday, farmers had offered puja at the temple of the goddess at the source of the river.

“As we have to solely depend on rainfall for cultivation, lack of rainfall so far this year has got us very desperate. That’s why we took to those traditional rituals hoping that the puja would bring rain,” said local farmer Basu Subedi, adding, “The paddy seedlings that were already planted have also started wilting for want of rain.”

Around 150 farmers of Manthali participated in today’s puja.

Meanwhile, it’s not only in Manthali but also in other villages of the district that farmers have been unable to plant paddy due to lack of rainfall.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on August 11, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.