Encroachment on community forest area has intensified in ward number 10 of Prithbinarayan Municipality, Gorkha district since the Gorkha earthquake. An additional 50 temporary settlements have been set up in the Barhakilo area of the Wakhlepakha Community Forest after the earthquake by persons posing at quake victims.

 

Immediately after the earthquake, around 25 settlements were set up by quake victims in the area. However in the recent days additional 500 meters land has been encroached by locals who claim to be quake victims.

 

These locals claim that as quake victims, they have full right to construct their own temporary shelters in the area. Their claims of being quake victims are however yet to verified by concerned authorities. District Administration Office (DAO), along with other concerned authorities, deny rights to settlement in public property, even if they are genuinely quake-victims.

 

"Their claims of being quake-victims are yet to verified. Even if they are genuine quake victims, encroaching public land without authorization from concerned authorities is illegal," said Uddhab Timalsina, Chief District Officer of the district. "This will be investigated immediately," he added.

 

Despite being a forest area, the District Forest Office (DFOI) claims that the area is beyond its jurisdiction. Bignath Poudel, District Forest Officer said that they have not been able to evict the encroachers from the area because they do not have the authority over the usage of the forest areas that are near main roads.

 

While authorities are still divided over who should be taking actions against the encroachers, settlers are planning to set up market-place and constructing permanent houses in the area.

 

Though the community forest is supposed to safeguard the forest area from encroachment, it has been promoting the settlement by charging Rs 300 per month for every plot of land to the settlers. The community forest donates this amount to Chandra Jyoti School.

 

Trend of encroaching the land is increasing every day. "Locals encroaching the forest area have been increasing everyday. A lot of the villagers have been marking their land area and using it for their own purposes without any obstructions," Tek Bahadur Surkheti, a local said adding that the encroachment has increased more due to the area's closer proximity to the market.

 

 

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had directed concerned authorities to remove the houses built in the forest area last August. The directive, however, remains unimplemented.

 

Sources at the district's Road Division Office (RDO) claimed that implementation of the directive has been stalled due to lack of consensus between the RDO and DFO over who is responsible for implementing the directive. RDO considers DFO should take the responsibility to evict the encroachers as the encroached area is a community forest while DFO claims that the RDO should be responsible for areas near the main road, the RDO said.

 

In its directive, the CIAA had also asked the community forest for not encouraging the encroachment by charging the encroachers in the name of aiding local school. However, the community forest has not desisted from doing so, while encroachers are taking initiatives to build permanent structure in the area without any legal documents.