(Photos: Harihar Singh Rathaur)

With the two phases of local level elections over and agricultural works also almost done, youths from around a dozen districts have reached the banks of Trishuli River hoping to make a decent earning through digging and extracting sand.

Youths from Dhading, Banke, Bardiya, Dang, Kailali, Rolpa, Rukum, Salyan, Makwanpur, Bhojpur, Sankhuwasabha, Ramechhap, Dolakha, among other districts, have reached the river bank in numbers for digging sand. Digging sand from the swollen river might be risky but the rewards are also lucrative.

It takes three hours for three workers to load a tipper with sand from which they can earn Rs 7,000. One worker said, on average, a worker earns Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 in a day by extracting sand.