A video of the incident of 44-year-old Dhanadevi Dhami of Baspani, Godavari Municipality-4, Kailali, being pushed off a cliff by forest office employees on Saturday has gone viral. Dhanadevi had been selling goods in the tempo.
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The video of a tempo pushed by forest office staff in Godavari and thrown off a cliff has gone viral on social media. The incident took place on Saturday. After the video went public, people from the general public to lawmakers are criticizing the behavior of the forest officials in the incident.
The tempo of 44-year-old Dhanadevi Dhami of Baspani, Godavari Municipality-4, was pushed off a cliff by forest office staff. Dhami said that despite her repeated pleas, they pushed her tempo off a cliff. Dhami used to sell goods in a tempo on the roadside at Gaimare Danda on the Bhimdatta Highway near her home.
The employees of the Division Forest Office, Dhangadhi, claimed that the tempo was encroaching on her too and threw it off the cliff.
Before pushing the tempo off the cliff, the forest officials had unloaded the goods from the tempo. "I will take the tempo home instead, no one wanted to listen to me even when I pleaded that I would not come here to sell goods from now on, the employees pushed it and threw it off the cliff," Dhami said. "Those around me were happy to take videos, no one told me not to do it."
Meanwhile, the forest office has stated that the tempo was removed as part of a campaign to remove forest encroachment. Krishna Bohara, head of the Sub-Division Forest Office Attariya, said that the tempo was removed a month ago. He said, "It is not a tempo that is in working condition for carrying passengers, but she had been running a shop using the damaged tempo as a hut."
Dhami said that her son bought the tempo a year ago. "Now all my three sons have gone to Bangalore, India to work as laborers. Only me, my elder daughter-in-law and my husband are at home." I used to sell tea, eggs, noodles, water and other goods,' she said, 'I used to support my family with the income of four to five thousand rupees a day.'
Dhami is understood to have never used the tempo for transportation. Dhami herself also said that she did not know how to drive a tempo. 'My husband and I do not know how to drive a tempo. Some days I would leave the tempo there and come home, some days I would ask a neighbor to drive it and bring it home,' she said. 'My son bought the tempo a year ago, I do not know how much it cost, my son is now in Bangalore,' Dhami said.
The Sub-Division Forest Office Attaria has stated that 47 structures have been removed so far under the campaign to remove encroachments on forest areas. But there are reactions that if the tempo had been seen to be in trouble rather than being thrown off the cliff, the forest office staff would have taken control and taken action.
The Division Forest Office, Kailali, has come out in defense, saying that the incident has been exaggerated. A press release issued through a press conference on Sunday said, 'On 2083/02/29, while the campaign to remove encroachments was underway, the forest team tried to forcefully move the tempo that could not be driven. In the meantime, we would like to inform you that the skeleton of the Kawadi tempo became uncontrolled and accidentally fell off the cliff due to the steep geographical surface and imbalance.'
