Even though the government has formed 32 commissions so far, the problem of displaced people has not been resolved. The number of displaced people is increasing with each commission.
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Amar Bahadur Bista, who was out of his house to look after his wheat field at midnight last Saturday, saw an elephant enter his field. By then, the elephant had already destroyed his wheat field. The elephant did not stop at the field, but soon destroyed his house. The lives of his wife and daughter were saved.
He informed the villagers that a tailless elephant had entered the settlement. The elephant also started demolishing another house nearby. Parvati, who was inside the house, was trying to wake up her granddaughter and escape. The eldest granddaughter ran away on her own. She was taking her younger sister, 6-year-old Rejina, with her. At that moment, the elephant attacked. The seriously injured Rejina died during treatment at Navajivan Hospital in Dhangadhi on Sunday morning. Parvati is undergoing treatment.
‘We could not inform everyone at night, it took its life while watching,’ said Bista. ‘Every night has passed like this for us, we are only being deceived.’ He was displaced from Tarapur area of the former Pipladi VDC in 2058 during the expansion of the eastern area of the park.
The Dhaka camp within Shuklaphanta National Park is in fear of elephants for twelve months. Incidents of destroying houses, damaging crops and sometimes even taking lives are frequent. Four years ago, Khagraj Rana, who lived in Dhaka camp, died due to an elephant attack.
Since the residents who were displaced during the expansion of the then Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve (now the park) could not be resettled, they are still living in huts in Dhaka, which is in the 'core' area of the park. After not being resettled for a year after their displacement, they have been living in huts in that area since 2059.
The issue of relocating the residents here has been the main agenda of parties and candidates in every election. However, instead of solving the problem, they have always turned the displaced into 'vote banks'. Recruitment centers for political party workers have been set up in the name of various commissions to solve the problem. Even though the residents here changed their votes in the elections in the belief that the problem will be solved, their fate has not changed. Incidents of injuries and deaths due to wild animal attacks have become commonplace for them.
‘A lot of politics has been done in our name, many leaders have won elections, but our home is in the forest,’ said Motilal Dagoura, coordinator of the Reserve Victims’ Struggle Committee, ‘We have to live in fear in the forest, sometimes wild animals come and take our lives.’ According to him, there is just as much fear of snakes and insects during the rainy season. More than 600 families live in the camp.
The eastern area of the then Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve, which had an area of 150 square kilometers, was expanded to 305 square kilometers. In the meantime, the displaced people have not yet been rehabilitated. The displaced are living in 14 camps. The government has formed 32 commissions so far, but the problem has not been resolved. The number of displaced people is increasing after each commission. The last commission formed showed the number of displaced people at 2,027. The previous commission showed that 2,473 families need to be resettled. ‘Even now, leaders have started coming, saying that we will resettle them and leave, but no one comes back after winning,’ said local Prem Shahi. ‘We have to live with wild animals, we never know when which animal will die.’
