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The Mechi Bagar area around Bahundangi East Nature Park is currently covered with piles of riverine material. In more than half a dozen places around the park alone, tall hills have been built by piling gravel-sand.
Mechinagar municipality had issued a public notice on May 14 and had named 9 canals and ghats and prohibited the excavation stating that the specified amount of river material had been excavated and collected.
'For the financial year 2081/82, since the amount of river material has been collected from Timai, Ninda, Hadia, Mechi rivers within this city in the amount determined by the IEE report, no mining should be collected from the following checkpoints. Action will be taken if excavation is collected," the city instructed through a notice.
The notice included the names of 9 nakas and ghats and was the first number to stop excavation, Mechi Khola Nature Park North-East Bahundangi. On May 14, the city gave instructions not to extract river materials from the north-east of Mechi Khola Nature Park. 11 days after that, when we reached there on Sunday, May 25, river-derived materials were being collected uninterruptedly from about one kilometer north of the nature park.
Nature Park North Dozens of tippers using excavators were hauling riverine material. They didn't care about anyone. The Nepal Police was stationed at the checkpoint where the collection was taking place. But they were not stopping the transportation of river products. Even though they reached there with a city police vehicle under the municipality, they did not stop. How much river material is being extracted from here? The regulatory body was not interested in where it was being taken.
According to the city's planning and administration branch, the contract of river products in this area was taken by the Purvanchal Nirman Service Mechinagar-8 Jhapa. Excavation and collection work is currently being done there under the receipt of the same company. According to the said branch, the Purvanchal took a contract for 1 crore 71 lakh 99 thousand 998 rupees on February 5, 2081 to get the right to excavate river materials from 17 places. It is mentioned that 32 thousand 423.29 cubic meters from Mechi river, 8 thousand 8.91 cubic meters from Hadia, 23 thousand 818.55 cubic meters from Ninda and 17 thousand 340.05 cubic meters from Timai can be extracted and collected.
The Purvanchal claims to have excavated the river material only as per the agreement with the city, i.e. as specified in the IEE report, but this is not found on the ground. Sometimes a pit is made by extracting a lot of material from a single place, while in some places, a mountain of river material is made. Which can be easily seen if you reach the Mechi river. It has been found that some local youths are stocking river products separately by taking box contracts.
Because of the process of stocking river products in different places, Mechi's Bagar now looks like a place where gravel-sand is piled. On the other hand, a large pit has been formed in the Bagar of Kakadvitta North-East Mechi due to the excavation of a large amount of river material from one place. Moreover, previous practices also do not show that only the quantity determined by the IEE report is being mined in Mechinagar. Earlier, a teacher of Mechinagar-3 had died after falling into a deep hole dug during excavation of river materials in Ninda river.
Agniprasad Adhikari, the chief administrative officer of the municipality, claimed that the mining of river materials has been stopped. He said that the river products have been stocked for the Asian Highway in Mechi Bagar and they can be used later after stocking the specified quantity of materials. You cannot enter the river from June 1. Since then, the specified quantity of materials can be kept in stock. The stock there belongs to the Asian Highway," he said. "We are more careful than before regarding the illegal theft and export of river materials.
Anant Prakash Wasti, head of planning and administration branch of the city, also said that if it is found that excavation of river material has been stopped, action will be taken after necessary investigation. He said that many holes were dug in the same place in the Bagar of Mechi, and he has inspected the matter and alerted the relevant parties regarding the incident.
