The residents of Tilgaon in Limy Valley, Humla Namkha-6, who have been leaving their homes for two months and spending the night under tripals in the square across the village, have taken a collective decision to leave the village. Even though there is no rain, 18 families are left homeless due to the damage caused by the flood and landslides that occurred on the night of 1st May.

  5 bridges of Tilchung River have been washed away and 15 KW hydropower house has been damaged. About 400 plantations were irrigated by wells, and water lines were damaged.

Local Chhiring Chhimel Tamang says that it was decided to leave the village collectively, concluding that it is not suitable to live in a place where there is a risk of floods and landslides. "The locals have decided to leave the village and go to Kathmandu after holding a meeting," he says. "Everyone has agreed to leave the village after October/November." The expert team that went from Kathmandu made a preliminary conclusion that floods and landslides occurred in Tilgaon due to 'thermokarst' (melting of the bottom of the frozen snow).

 They are living in the safe area of the village and say that they reach home in the morning after working and return to sleep in Tripal at night. There were 40 households in the past, but now only 23 households live in Tilgaon. The local Chiringba Lama said that it was agreed to leave the village in Kattik because it would take time to manage sheep herds and livestock. 

According to ward president Paljor Tamang, the residents of Tilgaon, who refused to leave the village before, have reached the decision to leave the village due to the fear of avalanche. According to him, it has been decided to stay and leave the settlement. They hold meetings for any work and decide. Ward president Tamang says that the situation can be stopped because the locals have already made a decision even though they asked not to leave the village. "It is certain that Tilgaon will be vacated, even though the ward tried, we could not," he says. 

The village has become empty after the residents of Jang in Limi have left. 15 years ago there were 63 households in Jang, now only one family is left. After most of them moved to Kathmandu, China, Nepalgunj, this village was abandoned. "After 5-6 families migrated every year, the village has now become empty," says Tamang, Ward President, "Until two years ago, there were 17 houses, last year the village was empty, now there are only one resident."

Humla Namkha-6 Halji village in the Limy valley, where the population of the village has increased, after the increase in migration, the population was 812 in the 2078 census, and now there are only 400 people left. Photo courtesy: Rajan Rawat

  Kunchok Sewang Lama, who migrated, says that he was forced to leave the local village due to inconvenience. "There were no facilities in the village, children and young people were forced to go to the city for education," he says, "only the old and the women have to suffer in the village." "There is no other way except helicopter charter, the expenses cannot be afforded, that's why everyone left the village," he says.

The residents of Haljigaon in Limmy have also started migrating from this year. According to Ward President Tamang, only this year, three houses of Nimatenjin Tamang, Lopchang Tamang and Konurb Tamang have left the settlement from Halji.

Because of the 1200-year-old historical monastery of Limy, the people of Halji were not willing to leave the village easily. Camne Tamang, a local, says that people have started leaving the village due to the fear of floods and landslides and the lack of services. "The residents of Limi, the last village of Humla, have started to leave because they have to depend on China for everything," he says.

Namkha's Ward No. 6 has been formed after the federalization of former Limy gavis. There are Jang, Til and Halji villages here. One has to walk for more than 4 hours to reach these villages in the same ward of Halji. Until a few years ago, the village of Limika, which is bordering Tibet, was doing well. Migration has continued in recent years.

 The main occupation of the locals is sheep rearing and trading towards Taklakot. Located 50 kos away from Humla headquarters, Namkha-6, inhabited only by the Buddhist Lama community, has three main villages namely Jang, Halji and Til.

The ward office is in Halji village. According to the census of 2078, the population of the ward was 812. According to the ward president Tamang, the population of the ward has dropped to 400 recently. Most of them have moved to Taklakot, while the rest live in Kathmandu and Nepalgunj. Chief District Officer of Humla, Narayan Pandey, says that after the incident on May 1, two technical teams reached the spot and studied it, but the district administration has not yet received any information about what to do there.