DistantNews
Support us
🇳🇵 Nepal /Disasters & Emergencies

Nepal farmers face crop loss as landslides destroy homes, farmland

From Kathmandu Post · () English

Translated from English, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Sources not specified Ongoing story
  • Farmers in Jajarkot, Nepal, face crop losses as landslides destroy homes and farmland.
  • Landslides have damaged 34 houses and affected about 90 farming families, leaving many displaced and sheltering in schools.
  • Authorities are struggling to manage the concentrated disaster, raising concerns about food shortages and disease outbreaks.

In Jajarkot, Nepal, the earth's fury has left farmers in a desperate predicament. Devendra Karki, like many others in Bheri Municipality-2, stands by his ready-to-harvest maize fields, unable to bring in the crop. His home was destroyed by recent landslides, forcing him and his seven-member family to seek shelter at a local school.

The rain has not stopped and the landslides keep coming. Even if I harvest the maize now, I do not know when the shelter will be buried.

— Ratna Bahadur KarkiA local resident describing the ongoing threat of landslides after his temporary shelter was endangered.

Devendra's neighbor, Ratna Bahadur Karki, shares a similar fate. Having already lost his house to the 2023 earthquake, he now watches as landslides creep closer to his temporary shelter. "The rain has not stopped and the landslides keep coming," he said, fearing even a harvested crop would be unsafe.

Even the maize we harvest may not be safe.

— Govinda KarkiA local resident expressing concern about the safety of harvested crops due to continuous landslides.

The disaster has devastated 168 households in ward 2 of Bheri Municipality, destroying 34 homes and rendering fields of ready-to-harvest crops unusable for about 90 farming families. Another 134 houses are at high risk. Local officials warn of a severe food shortage this year, with some families losing both their homes and their food stocks.

Some families have lost their houses as well as farmland. In some cases, food stocks were buried when houses collapsed.

— Bhim Bahadur KarkiThe ward chief of Bheri-2 highlighting the dual loss of homes and food sources for affected families.

Authorities have sheltered 251 displaced individuals at Tribhuvan Basic School and others in various municipal buildings. However, the concentration of displaced people in a small area presents significant challenges, including the risk of infectious diseases, sanitation issues, and shortages of food and accommodation. Some maize fields are even being cleared to make space for temporary tents, highlighting the dire need for immediate relief and long-term solutions.

This time, the damage is concentrated in one ward, but the number of displaced people is higher. Managing so many people in a small area has raised the risk of infectious diseases and created problems with sanitation, food and accommodation.

— Suresh SunarAn undersecretary at the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority explaining the challenges of managing a concentrated disaster.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Kathmandu Post in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

More Stories

From Our Blog