Sliding Land – by Sikuma Rai

Photo: Sikuma Rai/ photo.circle

SLIDING LAND: It had been raining non-stop for two days, and Shankar Deula, 43, was worried about his house. Built on a cliff in Pashupati Tole, Dhapakhel, Lalitpur, everyone in the neighbourhood thought his house was vulnerable to landslides. As the rain continued, he quickly moved his family and their belongings elsewhere. At 2 PM on 20 July, his house was partially destroyed by a landslide, but it was his next-door neighbour, Sher Bahadur Shrestha’s house that slid off and vanished completely beyond the cliff.

“The house that I built with my life’s sweat and struggle fell down right before my eyes. We are now homeless. What can be more painful than that?” says Shrestha.

Local government officials have identified 10 houses as unsafe in Pashupati Tole. The cliffs around the neighbourhood have lost walls built to keep landslides away. The neighbourhood has requested the district administration office to test the soil to decide whether reconstruction is allowed, and if not, to provide them with options to resettle somewhere else. “With the monsoon, and the pandemic still going on, I wonder when that will happen”, says Deula.

Multimedia and Text: Sikuma Rai: @sikuma_rhiannon

Copy Edit: Nisha Rai @nishastoryteller

Edit: Mallika Aryal @mikaness

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