By Our Correspondent
Sindhulimadhi, June 12: The Bagmati River bank, which was like a desert until 10 years ago, is now becoming as expensive as gold for the locals of Hariharpurgadhi Rural Municipality, in Sindhulimadhi, in Sindhuli district.
Flowing through the border of Sindhuli and Makwanpur districts, the river has now been turned into a fertile land by the hard work of the family of Bir Bahadur Ghalan, a resident of the municipality. He said that his 15-member family now survives on the crops grown on the river bank.
He said that he has been cultivating maize and paddy in about one bigha of land on the river bank and has been selling about 4,000 kgs (50 muri) of leftover rice and maize a year.
Recalling the condition of his family five years ago, he said, "We migrated from Chisapani hill and settled here by destroying ditch. After that, the family made a living for five or six months from the produce of their old farmland. No one ever thought any crop can be cultivated here.”
The financial condition of the family has improved a lot since they started farming.
The local farmers said that everyone is keeping an eye on the Bagmati River as it is a public land but produces good crops.
Another local farmer, Ganesh Bahadur Ghalan, said that more than 400 families are cultivating crops on some 1,000 hectares of land on the bank. He also said that his 16-member family survives from the income earned from the farming.
Farmer Ghalan said, "Without river bank, we will have no food and shelter. I sell about 1,600 – 2,000 kgs (20-25 muri) of maize a year, in addition to 60 muri of rice. As we have a large family, we can consume rice ourselves.”
However, the farmers complain that they suffer from the flooded river time and again, especially during the rainy season.