Kathmandu, Sept. 6: An unidentified group destroyed banana trees of Namobuddha Agriculture Farm in Hetauda Sub-Metropolitan City Tuesday night.Balaram Bal, proprietor of the Namobuddha Agriculture Farm, informed that around 600 of 750 banana trees of his farm were destroyed by cutting them down using sharp weapons.

For commercial banana farming, Bal had planted 750 banana trees in more than 13 katthas of land some five months ago. He had brought banana plants from Jeetpur, Parsa.
Bal has provided required water, fertilisers and other ingredients to the banana plants expecting to harvest banana fruit by April next year. All the money spent on purchasing plants, fertiliser and other labourers went waste in a single night, Bal said.
Bal had purchased each banana plant at Rs. 50 some five months ago. The total investment in the farm has reached around Rs. 700,000, including the cost of plants, he added.
“I had some confident that something can be done by engaging in agriculture, but the incident has frustrated me,” he said.
A day before the damage in the Bal’s banana farm, a group of local youth had destroyed four banana trees with their fruit in Mahendra Lama’s farm.
“I have told them not to repeat such activities again, but another huge loss has occurred. Whether the same group has involved in the damage is yet to be investigated,” said Mahendra Lama.
After causing damages to the banana trees of Lama and Bal, chickens were also stolen in the same village. With the series of destructive incidents happening in the village Nepal Police reached the village Wednesday afternoon.
In the support of local residents, police took the four persons under control for investigation.
Lalit Ghalan, chairman of Ward No. 12 of Hetauda Sub-Metropolitan City, said that the incident was designed to discourage the farmers.
He stressed the need for providing compensation to farmers by booking and punishing the guilty. Farmer Bal also demanded action against the guilty and compensation to the incurred financial losses.