Dharamshala, Pakhrin village, Haddol and Sanjel villages of Bethanchok Rural Municipality-4, which look golden with orange blossoms, are now deserted. The landslides in the second week of last October have destroyed the hills here. The landslide that came from Dharamshala hill has washed away hundreds of orange trees and carried them to Haddol river.

To develop it as a pocket area, the farmers made some improvements by using pruning, godmel, sewage, and pesticides by conducting orange improvement program. Farmers, who are hoping for an increase in income, are disappointed this year as the fruits are growing well. Farmers are worried after the landslide washed away the orange trees that have been providing income for years.

43-year-old Shankar Sanjel of Bethanchok-4 Sanjel village planted 150 orange trees in 6 plantations. He was earning only 50,000 to 60,000 rupees from oranges in the past year and thought that this year it would be up to 100,000 because of the good fruit. On the contrary, when the flood swept away the trees, it has added to his concern.

Out of 150 plants in his garden, 100 plants have been swept away by the landslide. "Now, if we plant oranges, there are landslides everywhere, if we stop living here because of the fear of landslides, how are we going to plant the plants when we don't have a place to live," he said. 68-year-old Kanchi Koirala of Bethanchok-4 Haddol planted 300 orange trees in 25 plantations. Out of which 40/50 orange plants of 4 plantations have been planted.

"It was good". After taking the training, we thought we could get 6 lakhs, but the landslide has washed away the trees and taken them to the river,' she said, 'It is very difficult to save the remaining plants, the hills are torn, it is difficult to save lives.' story Because of the risk of staying in the break village, she gave an orange bag to a businessman for 350,000 rupees and now she is living in Panauti Khopasi . 'There is no other source of income except agriculture,' she said, 'I was worried about whether something would be good, such a disaster happened when the fruit was harvested, one tree used to give income for 10/12 years, the tree itself has been swept away, the name of the field is unknown, how to distinguish the border  ? There is concern about how to do agriculture in the village now.'

68-year-old Kanchi Koirla of Bethanchok-4 Haddol showing the damage to the orange orchard caused by the landslide in the second week of October. Photo: Jyoti Shrestha/Kantipur

Bethanchok-4 Ward President Krishna Bahadur Lama has been cultivating oranges for 4 decades in Pakhrin village. Initially, 122 plants were planted in 27 plantations, starting with planting oranges from 8/9 plants. Farmers of Bethanchok 4 were suffering from problems such as some years yielding well and some years not yielding, diseases and insects.

After he became a representative of the people, he was determined to improve Suntala. To make Ward 4 of the rural municipality an orange pocket area, he conducted an orange improvement program and provided training to the farmers of the village. Before picking the ripe oranges, the landslide swept away the orange tree. The landslide also damaged his garden. He said that 28 orange trees were swept away by the landslide.

He said that there are potila and juicy orange seeds in the trees saved from the landslide. He said that he is discussing with the municipality and the Agricultural Development Office on how to provide relief to the orange farmers after the landslides. According to the agriculture branch of the rural municipality, oranges are planted in Bethanchok-4, 5 and 6. Branch technician Madhusudan Dahal said that 216.44 metric tons are being produced annually from orange cultivation in an area of ​​6.08 hectares across the municipality. According to him, it has been reported that orange trees have been damaged in an area of ​​114 plantations across the municipality due to the floods in August.

Like Bethanchok, the pain of Namobuddha's orange farmers is the same. Farmer Prem Lama of Dandagaonweshi located in Namobuddha municipality-9 has planted 135 orange trees in 5 plantations. He was also earning good income from oranges. He said that he earns between 8 to 10 lakhs annually from oranges.

The landslide in the second week of October has also damaged his orange garden . According to him, the landslide swept away 17 orange trees. This year, he said, he sold the remaining oranges from the orchard for 185,000. According to him, it was sold until February and this year the oranges were released in December.

Prem Lama has operated a multi-purpose agricultural farm of Sambridhi Prem Batika . He said that thousands of plants in the farm's nursery were swept away by the landslide. 'Many coffee plants have been damaged,' he said, '500 coffee plants were washed away by the landslide, now only 47 plants are left, Buddhachitta plants and plants have also been washed away. According to the agriculture branch of Namobuddha Municipality, oranges are specially planted on 2, 8, 9, 10 and 11. According to the branch, it is estimated that around 6 hectares of land has been damaged by the flood due to planting oranges in an area of ​​about 13 hectares across the municipality. The agricultural branch of the municipality has said that the exact details of how much damage has been done so far are yet to come.

000

Panauti Municipality, Dhulikhel Municipality, Namobuddha Municipality, Bethanchok Rural Municipality and other municipalities of Kavre are considered special pocket areas for orange production according to the District Agricultural Development Office. Out of the total area of ​​the district, about 1,300 hectares of oranges will be planted, said Kul Prasad Dawadi, Head of Agriculture Development Office, Kavre.

According to him, about 7 thousand metric tons of oranges have been produced annually. Comparatively, he said that in this financial year, he got feedback from the farmers that oranges have grown well in different places of the district.

'We got the information that oranges are growing well from the orange improvement program conducted in various municipalities,' he said, 'but, the floods of Asoj have damaged orange orchards in many places, the areas of Namobuddha, Bethanchok, Sunthan, Kushadevi, etc., which are considered to be pocket areas of oranges, have suffered major damage. The orange groves were washed away by floods and landslides According to him, based on the improvement seen in oranges, it was estimated that 7,500 metric tons of oranges would be produced this year. However, due to the damage caused by the disaster, it is estimated that only about 7 thousand metric tons of oranges will be produced in the district.