Landslide triggered by haphazard digging of a road displaces families

Baitadi Correspondence, Baitadi, Sept.3: Two houses and livestock were buried when a landslide hit a rural Kathnoli, triggered by a haphazard digging of a road by a bulldozer.

Although 16 family members escaped and saved their lives, 90-year-old Godawari Chand sustained injuries in the accident.

Balaram Pandey, Information Officer at the District Police Office, Baitadi, said that the injured Chand was referred to Dadeldhura Hospital as he could not be treated at the District Hospital, Baitadi.

A landslide on Sunday afternoon buried the eight-room house of local Girish Chand and the four-room house of Rekha Chand, along with livestock, in Kathnoli (Chaupata), Surnaya Rural Municipality-2.

Local Dev Bahadur Chand said that although the family members managed to escape the landslide that occurred in the afternoon, houses of both Chand families, five cows, four calves, and 15 goats were buried in the landslide.

The displaced family is taking shelter in a neighbor's house.

 Social leader Chand said the landslide occurred due to incessant rain and a bulldozer digging a road.

The construction of the Kathnoli rural road from Satbanj-Sribhawar road to Surnaya has been underway for two years.

Locals complain that even water sources have been buried in winter due to the dozers digging up the road haphazardly.