The hillside villages of Lasi, Chujhad, Kaya and Gaun at Kanda Rural Municipality in Bajhang are in danger as they sit above a slope where multiple landslides have broken out these past few weeks.

The villagers are living knowing the threat lurking downhill because they have no other place to go. The authorities, meanwhile, have not taken any steps to evacuate the homes that are at high risk of getting swept away by landslides.

Around 120 families reside in the four villages.

Phugu Bohara of Chujhad said the landslides were getting larger because of rainfall.

“About 25 families are now living with their neighbours because the landslides had approached dangerously close to their homes,” he said.

Landslides are not uncommon in the area, particularly during the monsoon, because of its geographical feature. But it was in the previous two years when landslide-caused losses were must felt by the locals; ten homes were destroyed and 18 families were displaced because of landslides in the area in that period.

Rajendra Dhami, the recently elected chairman of Kanda Rural Municipality, said the local administration and the District Natural Disaster Rescue Committee had not responded to the repeated requests of the villagers to resettle them elsewhere.

“Time and again we have made the danger faced by the four villages known to the concerned authorities, but they have ignored us,” he said.

Displaced families demand relief

Eight families, who were displaced by a landslide that was triggered because of track opening works of Chainpur-Dipayal road at Thing Village in Thalara Rural Municipality-4, have demanded the District Administration Office to provide them compensation for their losses.

The displaced families have been living in makeshift shelters for the past one month. The landslide had also damaged a local drinking water project and farmland.