By Nabin Rijal, Dailekh, Oct 18: Anyone who has been to Kashikandh Gadigaun in Dailekh before would be heartbroken to find out how this beautiful hamlet has turned into a desolate place over the last few years.

Located in Mahabu rural municipality-5, far from the district headquarters, Gadigaun has but only few people, mostly the elderly ones. Although there are locked and empty houses in the settlement, there is very little human activity here.

“The whole settlement has become empty. Weeds and thicket has grown in the courtyard of many houses these days,” lament the few elderly people who call Gadigaun their home. The village has become deserted due to the outmigration that peaked in the last one decade.

The situation is such that it is even hard to find enough people to carry the body to the cremation ghat if someone in the village died, not to mention of the farm workers.

The people of this village were once yearning for road connectivity. Now the village has road connectivity, but no adequate population to cultivate the fields and grow crops, fruits and organic vegetables to be supplied to the market using this very road.

The government, which is seen ahead in physical development, is not paying the due attention towards containing the exodus from the rural settlements, bemoan the village elders. The Rijal, Acharya, Khattri, Raut and Bajhkharka settlements in Gadigaun are almost deserted at present.

As per the National Population Census 2021, Gadigaun had a population of 366 comprising 38 households. There are only 17 households and 120 people in the village at present.

“Before, the village was full of people and agog with activities. People from children to youth to the elderly used to gather together during festivals. The agricultural production too was decent. Now-a-days people have started to migrate to the towns and cities, looking for better facilities and job opportunities, and the village has turned into a ghost town,” said Dhan Bahadur Thapa, the village elder.

Dan Bahadur Rawat, 70, also echoes Thapa, and adds: “Life has become difficult for we people, especially for the elderly ones. I am alone in the house. It is hard to spend time. There are neither fellow friends nor any neighbours to talk to.”

Daneshwar Khattri, 69, of Kashikandh, Mahabu rural municipality-5 has similar experiences like Rawat.

“Almost all the youths in the village have gone to the cities in search of work and better facilities. There are no employment opportunities in the village. The youths took their families along with them to the cities, emptying the village,” he expressed his despair.

Like Rawat, Khattri also is alone in his house. He further said, “Leopard killed all the goats that I had and thought of selling during the Dashain time. The monkeys and boars destroy the maize and other crops. Even those people who remain in the village have hard time, as the wild animals that have made inroads have been killing their livestock and destroying the crops, compelling them to also migrate out.”

What do you eat when you have no crops to harvest and take home, he questioned.

Chairperson of Mahabu rural municipality-5, Deep Bahadur Shahi, said with the increasing trend of migrating to urban areas, the village has remained empty. The rural municipality has been increasing investment in agriculture to stop the migration, he added.

Though the local government was ready to carry out activities at the partnership of farmers as modernization in agriculture was necessary, very few farmers are involved in commercial farming.

Shahi mentioned that the rural municipality has selected maize, cardamom and potato pocket areas as well as pocket areas for animal husbandry and stated working in this regard.

Menace of wild animals is also one of the reasons behind the empty of rural settlement. In recent years, the locals of rural areas have left their land barren after wild animals like monkey and boar used to destroy their crops before ripening and the locals started to visit urban areas and cities as well as India in search of work to fulfill the need of their family members.

“Earlier, maize, millet, wheat as well as other crops planted on farms was enough for us for a year, but the lands are now remained barren due to wild animals in recent years. The locals have started to migrate to cities in search of work as well as they have started teaching their children in schools in urban areas,” said Tul Bahadur Rijal of Mahabu rural municipality-5. (RSS)