The Bio-corridor Protected Forest Conservation Centre, Bardiya has protested against the ongoing construction by India of a dyke stretching 80 kilometre along the Nepal-India border.

Nepali authorities said the Indian Forest Department has been constructing the structure against the principle of international biological corridor. The centre has demanded demolition of the construction on the no-man’s-land.

Chairman of the centre, Krishna Pariyar said he had asked Indian authorities to stop the works on the border. “The trench has been constructed in Dhodhari VDC in Bardiya which obstructs the corridor to the south,” he said. There is a dense forest in the area. Police said India has already constructed a 60 km long trench which is one-metre wide and two-metre deep. Indian officials said they plan to control the smuggling of timber from the Indian soil. They charged that Nepali smugglers had been cutting down trees rampantly on the Indian soil.

The Indian Forest Department claimed that it has constructed the trench in its own territory. But, in the rainy season, the structure will inundate land on the Nepal side.

Locals are enraged after the construction on the no-man’s-land. They said the government had not protested the Indian move. Chief District Officer Binod Bahadur Kunwar, however, said they have taken up the matter with the Indian authorities. Kunwar agreed that the dyke dug along the international border would inundate Nepali territory during monsoon.