The Banakariya community, who have been living in Musedhap, Manahari Rural Municipality-4, Makawanpur for two decades, are worried that they will not be able to live there after Chaitra 12.
What you should know
As election fever approaches, concerns about the livelihood of the endangered forest community are increasing.
The foresters, who have been living in Musedhap, Manahari Rural Municipality-4, Makawanpur for two decades, are worried that they will not be able to live after Chaitra 12. There are 22 households of this community in Musedhap, Hadikhola.
With the aim of bringing the foresters, who were living a nomadic life in Chureghanach, into the mainstream, the then government had provided 9 hectares of land through the District Forest Office, Makawanpur, on Chaitra 12, 2062, under the concept of a contractual forest. The government had provided the land to the foresters for 20 years to earn a living. There are only 50 days left before the expiry of the land given to the foresters by the Forest Office.
The park has been verbally requesting the District Forest Office, Hetauda, not to provide the land, which is located in the buffer zone of Parsa National Park, to the foresters again. The park had also put up a notice in the past for the foresters to relocate from that location. ‘The time given by the forest office to settle is about to expire, so what should we do now?’ said Santoshi Bankariya, a community leader. ‘The village is full of elections, but our settlement is worried about settlement.’
Rakesh Prasad Chandravanshi, head of the District Forest Office, Makawanpur, said that 9 hectares of land were provided on Chaitra 28, 2062, to raise the status of the foresters. He said, ‘The deadline will expire in one and a half months. Nothing has been done yet on whether to extend the time or not. Discussions will be held after the election.’ Parsa National Park has been requesting the Ministry of Forests to remove the foresters from that location. But the foresters have been adamant that they will not move from that location.
The Banakaria community has been requesting candidates from ward members to members of the House of Representatives to provide ownership of the land they have been cultivating for a long time and the huts they hide their heads in. Santoshi, a leader of the endangered Banakaria community, who lives only in Makawanpur, says, "No matter which party's candidate comes to us to seek votes, our first demand is a red paper. Before the elections, all the candidates also came to the village to seek votes. They did the same thing to them and won. Our problem is the same."
Candidates have now started reaching the settlement with tin roofed huts. Another leader of the community, Santamaya, expresses her anger, "We don't have a piece of land in our name, we don't even have a hut with a roof. They ask for votes sometimes for the village, sometimes for the province, and sometimes to form a government." Our work is never done after winning, they have always been swinging like this.'
The state's attention was drawn to this community, which had been living a nomadic life in the thickets of the Churiya forest for three decades, after which the news came. After that, the period of land given by the District Forest Office was about to expire, but they have complained that they have not been able to settle down. 'The period of the land given to them by the District Forest Office, Makawanpur, which they earned and gave them is ending in 50 days,' said Santoshi, 'We are in trouble, where will we go to live, will this land be provided to us? We don't know anything, the problem of living has started to bother us.'
There are 61 voters in the Wanakariya settlement. There are about 150 voters, including Chepang and Tamang, living around the settlement. Pampha, who was the first SLC passer in the Wanakariya community, complained that she only received assurances during the elections. ‘The land title deed has not been received yet. During the elections, everyone says we will do it, but after winning, they will not return.’ The government has been allocating Rs 30 to 40 lakh annually to build houses for the forest dwellers under the Janata Awas program. The money allocated for the construction of buildings under Janata Awas has been frozen for 13 years because they do not have land in their name.
The employees argue that there is a problem in building buildings there because they live on land within the buffer zone of the park. Under the Janata Awas program, the government has built and handed over 622 residential buildings to the Chepang community in Makawanpur in the past 9 years. Parsa Wildlife Park is pressuring the forest dwellers living in Musedhap to leave the place, while on the other hand, floods are surrounding the settlement from both sides. The embankment built to protect the settlement has also been washed away, causing floods to enter the settlement. ‘Since we do not own even a single plot of land in Banakariya, we were not able to live in the house built by the government,’ said community leader Rammaya. ‘The river has entered the place where we have been living from both sides. Even when we came to the settlement from the forest, we could not feel safe.’
The Banakariyas living in Chureghanch have been living in Musedhapam via Twangra in Hadikhola for 31 years. Santamaya has 9 children. She raised 8 of them in the forest of Chureghanch. After Syawe started living in Twangra in Hadikhola, the government granted citizenship to the Banakariyas in 2059 BS.
The population of the forest workers, which consists of 22 households, has now reached 91. So far, 7 forest workers, including one male and 6 female workers, have passed the SEE. The government has been providing Rs 4,000 per month as social security allowance to the forest workers for the past 14 years with the aim of bringing them into the mainstream. The government has been providing Rs 4,000 per month per person to 10 endangered castes, including forest workers.
