Mahendranagar, June 27:

The indefinite strike called by people displaced in the Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve in Kanchanpur’s east-west Mahendra Highway that began yesterday continued today as well.

The District Forest Office had evicted 2,587 families from the area, where they had been living illegally.

Nearly 400 protesters gathered on the highway and blocked traffic. They planted paddy on the Banara and Bani bridges along the Attariya-Mahendranagar road section as a symbolic protest against the authorities’ indifference to their demands.

The agitation committee has formed a youth panel to enforce the chakkajam on the highway.

Five hundred passengers of over 40 vehicles were stranded in Banara and Bani today due to the chakkajam, the president of the All Nepal Trade Union in Kanchanpur, Narahari Nath, said.

President of the Reserve Land Problem Solution Committee Dewan Singh Bista said the committee has identified 1,200 bighas of land and has sent a file to the government requesting it to rehabilitate 2,587 families there. The committee in May-end had decided to allocate 10 kattha of land to 1,700 families and five kattha to 800 families.