Busy settlements in the name of squatters

They are dividing the land into 30 meter long and 15 meter wide sections. With the increase in settlements, the destruction of forests in the Chure area has increased.

After occupying the land in the name of squatters, the settlement is increasing by building big houses. The land has been taken by measuring the side of the road and the inside has been occupied arbitrarily. Even those who own land for a decade have encroached the stolen forest by becoming squatters out of greed to build a house on the roadside. Encroachment of forests and cultivation has also started. Houses have been built by tearing down the road and moving it upwards.

The concrete houses on the encroached land cannot be counted on the fingers. Some concrete houses are under construction. The Madan Bhandari highway connecting Hetaunda via Dharan, Chatra, Sindhuli has maintained the road that was pushed by the encroachers and has also been blacklisted. "The Chure forest has been destroyed in the name of squatters," said Mangle Danuwar, a local. "Tathabatha came forward, gave us the back," he said sadly, "those who are in front have become big castles, but those who are behind us are not a bush." Since the adjustment of fighters, the Nepali Army's environmental group has been sitting at that place.

Locals have said that the encroachers encircle the Sal tree by laying bark at the bottom of it in the first year, and after the tree dries up, it is felled. Even though it is being destroyed every year, no one cares. Those who have been living as squatters for years and have built their houses complain that the land owners have not received any compensation.

In the name of squatters, those who are occupying the land based on access. Those who can have taken 5 to 15 kathas. Some of them, who have been under siege for more than four decades, seem to be limited to that. There is Bolwala in that area of ​​Navsukumbasi. Their fields are plentiful. According to the locals, more than half of those living in the name of squatters in Chandanpur and Jhunga also have land elsewhere. However, they say that most of them have become squatters because the river washed away their fields and landslides washed away their houses. According to local Basanti Dunuwar, she says that real squatters have been killed. She says, 'Years have passed but they have not been given parts.' In some places, demolition has taken place only recently. Everyone is silent because of the fear of having to stand up when making a complaint. The concrete structures that have been built are up to four stories high. Locals say that the squatters cannot build a concrete structure by spending crores of rupees. They have demanded that the government should identify the real squatters and provide them with land owners. Some have complained that they could not build an earthquake-resistant house because of the lack of real cohabitation identity and lack of spare parts.

Head of Sindhuli Forest Division Office Prahlad Prasad Dhital says that Special Taxforce will be mobilized to prevent encroachment. "Since encroachment and felling has been happening for a long time, we should all stop together," he said, "The Land Commission says that those who have been living there for 10 years will be given land, we say encroachment should be returned and stopped, how can we fix it?" He said. According to the data of the office, 3383 hectares of forest in the lower part of Chure forest have been completely destroyed. Of the total 247 thousand 834 hectares of forest area in the district, 1 lakh 64 thousand 258 hectares are in Chure area.

Jitlal Adhikari Danuwar, former ward president of Kamalamai Municipality-14, has also been registered as a squatter. He took a piece of land 30 meters long and 15 meters wide where the forest had been torn down and built a house on that land. Former ward president Danuwar, who has a large farm on the banks of the Kamala river, says that at that time he moved to the forest due to the fear of floods. "We came here more than 20 years ago," he said. "First we moved for safety, now it has become a settlement," he added.