Tusker terror could not have come at a more inopportune time for the villagers in Rautahat when floods caused by incessant rains in the Chure and upper areas are ravaging many parts of the Tarai district.
This year's monsoon rains have already wrecked more havoc than what they caused during last year's entire monsoon. The country witnessed huge loss of lives and damage to public and private property, including roads, bridges, farmlands and houses, in the first week of the monsoon rains that started on June 13. The Melamchi and Helambu areas in Sindhupalchowk and Manang and Lamjung were the worst hit, where the floods triggered by the torrential rains in the Marshyangi and Dordi rivers damaged most of the hydropower projects under construction.
According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs on June 30, 26 districts are in the grip of floods, landslides and inundation, while as many as 32 people have already lost their lives and 26 are still missing, many of them in the Melamchi area.
A total of 462 houses have been destroyed and 110 others partially damaged as a result of the floods and landslides triggered by the monsoon rains. Reports from various Tarai districts in Province 2 suggest the incessant rains have inundated settlements and submerged recently planted paddy fields. The Prithvi Highway, Mungling- Narayangadh Highway and BP Highway, which serve as lifelines to the federal capital, have been blocked due to landslides at several places.
A meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Bishnu Prasad Poudel on Thursday decided to immediately open the damaged national highways, power plants, communications facilities and other services so that the search, rescue and relief operations can be launched across the country without obstruction. The Department of Roads has already started installing two Bailey Bridges in the Melamchi area so that the damaged headwork of the Melamchi Drinking Water Project could be repaired at the earliest.
The meeting also directed the concerned government agencies to come up with a detailed work plan for search, rescue and relief operation within three days. The ministry has also assigned the National Disaster Reduction and Management Authority (NDRMA) to give top priority to reconstructing the private houses damaged by the disasters.
While it is the duty of the government to launch search, rescue and relief operations immediately after a natural disaster, the NDRMA should come up with a long-term plan to resettle and rehabilitate the families displaced by the natural calamities. At the same time, the general people should also heed the daily weather forecast being made by the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology. The weather forecast by the department has proved highly useful in saving the lives of many people living in the landslide- and flood-prone areas in recent years because of its accuracy. While the people in the hills suffer most from landslides, the people living in the southern plains bear the brunt of inundation during the monsoon due to blockage of the natural flow of flood waters at the Nepal-India border. In order to address the inundation problem faced by the people in the Tarai region, Nepal and India must work together to allow the drainage of major rivers and rivulets as per the bilateral deals reached in the past.
Tusker terror
Tusker terror could not have come at a more inopportune time for the villagers in Rautahat when floods caused by incessant rains in the Chure and upper areas are ravaging many parts of the Tarai district.
A lone elephant has been rampaging through the villages in the central and northern belt of Rautahat, terrorising the villagers and damaging crops and property. At least seven houses are said to have been damaged by the elephant in a village when it ran riot for hours on Friday. Although a team from the Chitwan National Park has been deployed, it has not been able to corner the elephant and end the trepidation.
Tusker terror is nothing new to Nepali villagers, with elephants from our own national parks or from the neighbouring Indian jungles rummaging through the villages in search of food. Destruction of property apart, lives are also lost at times. During such raids by the elephants, emotions run high, and there is a tendency to attack and kill them. Electric fences that allow people and cattle to pass freely but stop elephants have proved effective in preventing them from raiding crops. Erecting such a fence along the elephant's route in Rautahat would allow the villagers to sleep in peace.
A version of this article appears in the print on July 5 2021, of The Himalayan Times.