Even after 4 years of clearing 105 hectares of forest for the construction of the airport, the airport is yet to be built. After deforestation of 156.11 hectares of Shivalaya Religious Forest, Kang Community Forest and Motihayi Community Forest in Triyuga Municipality-1 and 2 of Udayapur, this area has now been turned into a grassland.

The then Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's cabinet meeting on Bhadra 25, 2078 BS allowed the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal to clear 156.11 hectares of forest area for the construction of the physical infrastructure of the Sagarmatha Domestic Airport, said Ghanendra Shrestha, head of the Division Forest Office, Gaighat.

It is said that the timber cut during deforestation was taken by local consumers through the community forest group and more timber was sold elsewhere. Timber is still stored here and there in the airport construction area. Timber that has been left unattended in the grassland for a long time has started to deteriorate. Neither the Community Forest nor the Division Forest Office has exact details of how much timber was distributed to consumers and how much was sold during deforestation.

Lalit Bishwakarma of Jogidaha, Triyuga Municipality-1, suspects that a lot of timber was sold illegally in collusion with the Community Forest Office and the Division Forest Office. He says, "All the wood that was used and used was sold elsewhere, and a large area has now been converted into grassland after deforestation to build an airport."

The grassland that was converted into cattle grazing is now at risk of encroachment due to lack of protection. Although the Division Forest Office Gaighat said that the land has been transferred to the name of the Civil Aviation Authority, Dubindra Prasad Baral, head of the Land Revenue Office Udayapur, said that the land has not been registered in the name of Sagarmatha Airport. "The land in that place has not been registered in a way that the Land Revenue Office has a record," he said. Since the ownership of the grassland that was desolated after cutting down trees has been transferred to the Civil Aviation Authority, Shrestha, head of the Division Forest Office, said that it is also responsible for its protection.

According to him, the trees in the forest area were cut down after an agreement was reached between the Ministry of Forest and Environment, Department of Forest and Soil Conservation, and the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal on 24th Magh 2078 in accordance with the Forest Act 2076, Forest Regulations 2051, and the Procedures for Using National Forest Areas for National Priority Projects with Standards 2076.

Locals have alleged that the area has now been converted into grassland after the then government cleared a large amount of forest on the pretext of building an airport without a plan. Rudra Adhikari, a local who is also the treasurer of the preliminary committee formed to provide local support for the construction of the Sagarmatha Airport, said that the forest area was cleared in the name of the proposed Sagarmatha Airport based on the preliminary phase of the airport construction 'pre-feasibility' study report. He said that the locals are now grazing their livestock in the grassland where candidates used to promise to build an airport by clearing forests during elections.

Kushalbabu Basnet, President of the Community Forest Users Federation, Udayapur, said that it is sad that the forest area has been made desolate without preparing the DPR of the Binasthal Yojana. 'All this was done for election propaganda, a detailed study was never done for the construction of the airport, and now it has been made uninhabited by raising the slogan of airport construction for political interests,' he said.

The then Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Badri Prasad Pandey, who came for an inspection in 2081 Paush, had said that the work of the plan could not be taken forward due to lack of budget. Along with the minister, Civil Aviation Authority Director General Engineer Pradeep Adhikari, Ministry Secretary Dr. Ganesh Prasad Pandey, Federal MP from Udayapur Constituency No. 1 Dr. Narayan Khadka and other members of the team had come to the airport construction area. The observation team was advised by Mahendra Bahadur Basnet, the chairman of the airport construction committee formed at the local level, to prepare a cost estimate and allocate a budget for the local, provincial and federal governments to start the construction of the airport.