Five villages of Gulariya Municipality-10 are at high risk after the water level in the Babai River rose on Tuesday. With the water level falling, the villages of Ratnapur, Jhagrupur, Rangipur, Nayapur and Mahajadiya in this area are at high risk due to river erosion.

The Babai River has started to be eroded at a place where the work was stopped due to Indian obstruction while the former Babai, Bhada, Orahi River Management Office, Bardiya was constructing an embankment near Dashgaja. Farmer Deepak Chaudhary of Gulariya-10 Ratnapur said that the river has changed its course due to Indian obstruction in the construction of the embankment in this area and five villages are at risk.

‘With the arrival of a major flood, the river erosion will increase and this area will be at risk of being submerged,’ he said, ‘It is necessary for the concerned bodies to immediately construct an embankment in this area.’ The south-facing embankments constructed by the Babai, Bhada, Orahi River Management Office are also at risk of erosion. While the project was planning to build an embankment in this area, the office was shifted to Dadeldhura on 1st Shrawan last year. After the project was shifted, the embankment work in this area has been affected.

The work of this office is currently being handled by the Irrigation and Water Resources Management Project (formerly Karnali River Management Project, Rajapur). Project Chief Sudin Muktan said that even if he does not receive information about the river erosion from anywhere, he will reach the area and try to prevent it. ‘Many are not aware that the former Babai, Bhada, Orahi River Management Office Liaison Office, Rajapur is looking after it,’ he said. ‘That is probably why we have not received information about the Babai erosion.’ Local farmer Jagdish Lodh said that more than 40 bighas of cultivable land of local farmers have been eroded in the past seven years.

Local Raghubir Mallah said that there is a constant fear of crop erosion as the rainy season will last until Asoj. "The government has made a big mistake by transferring the Babai, Bhada, and Orahi river management projects to other places without completing them," he said. "When will the embankment be built and who will do it? Until then, our fields will be washed away by the river."

The village, which is located near the Nepal-India border, produces rice, mustard, wheat, vegetables, and corn. The villagers have been demanding the construction of a permanent embankment to stop river erosion. Although the embankment work was planned to start last fiscal year, the project remained incomplete after the transfer.