Sukni Devi Chaudhary, one of the women who went missing while searching for mushrooms and blackberries in Shuklaphanta National Park, said, ”We all sat in a circle at the foot of a large tree. It was raining on one side at night, and on the other side we spent the night in fear of snakes and wild animals.”
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Sukni Devi Chaudhary of Bhimdatta Municipality-19, Bagphanta, has her house near Shuklaphanta National Park. Across the park is Gobaraiya River and her house on the other side. During the rainy season, she secretly enters the forest of the park to pick mushrooms and black mushrooms.
On Sunday, along with her daughter Sunita, daughter-in-law Lakshmi and 14 other people from the village, she entered the park around 11:30 after having lunch. When she entered the forest, she reached the dense forest area in search of mushrooms. When those with her told her that there were more mushrooms to be found further away, they had already reached a long way from the settlement.
It had rained heavily in the morning. The sky had not cleared due to clouds in the afternoon. They did not realize that evening had fallen because the sun had not risen. When it started getting dark, they could not find their way back home. She said that she decided to stay in the forest after searching for the path until eight or eight-thirty.
‘Somewhere, the sound of elephants started coming, and again, it was impossible to find the path in the dark due to the bushes everywhere in the forest,’ she said, ‘We all sat in a circle at the foot of a big tree. It was raining on one side at night, and on the other, we spent the night in fear of snakes and wild animals.’ According to her, even when the leaves of the tree fell at night, the sound of elephants roaring nearby made her feel even more scared. But there was no way to escape. She said that everyone sat in a circle in silence. ‘We tried to survive and nothing happened, there was no hope of returning home at night,’ she said, ‘We spent the night quietly, and when it got light, then some hope came.’
When it got light in the morning, the search for the path started again like the previous evening. The elephants, which had encountered each other twice while searching for the path on Sunday evening, were also seen from a distance on Monday morning. At that time, everyone was trembling with fear. Sabita Chaudhary, a neighbor of Sukni, said that two to three hours had passed while walking east and west. It had rained a lot in the morning. They said that they did not stop searching for the path even after getting soaked in the water.
They had assumed that the search for them might have begun because they did not return home until the second day. But the security team could not find those who had lost contact. After finding the path while walking around 9/10 am, they were able to reach their home. ‘Even after finding the way, it took three to four hours to reach home,’ said Sukni’s daughter-in-law Lakshmi, ‘The whole night in the forest, the fear of wild animals on one side, and snakes and insects on the other, made it very difficult.’
She said that although she heard the sound of a vehicle moving in the morning, the vehicle was not visible for a long time. She said that she found her way based on the sound of that vehicle. None of the 14 people who went with her were carrying a mobile phone. She understands that if they had carried a mobile phone, they would have been able to contact their family. One person was carrying a mobile phone, but since it did not have a SIM card, she could only check the time.
‘If even one of us had a mobile phone, we wouldn’t have had to live in the forest,’ said Lakshmi, ‘Living with wild animals in the dense forest has become very scary, now I’m scared even thinking about it.’ She said that she had come across a herd of five wild elephants three times while searching for her way home on Sunday evening. She said that she had reached the place where the roaming elephants had been. But she said that she was saved because the elephants did not see her.
9 Tharu community and 5 women from the Pahari community of Dasharath Chand Tol, Bagphanta, Bhimdatta Municipality-19 had gone missing while picking mushrooms in the park. They had gone missing on Sunday and reached home only around 1 pm on Monday. The Nepal Army, police, Armed Police Force, Shuklaphanta National Park staff, and drones were used to search for them. But they could not be found .
Similarly, 3 women from Beldadi Rural Municipality-2, who had gone to pick mushrooms, survived by sitting on a tree all night . They were contacted after they called the police in the morning and informed them that they were sitting on a tree . After that, the police rescued them, said SP Netramani Giri of the District Police Office, Kanchanpur.
During the rainy season, residents of the park's edges secretly enter the forest to pick mushrooms and black mushrooms . In this way, those who enter the forest are attacked by wild animals and become uncontacted . Some have brought poisonous mushrooms and eaten them and even become sick . "There is a settlement adjacent to the park, no matter how much you do, you can't stop it," said Purushottam Wagle, the park's conservation officer. "During the rainy season, a large number of locals live inside the forest, so you should be aware."
