The lack of health centres, schools and roads in the villages means that the villagers have to walk for days even to avail of basic amenities.
Barun Paneru: Center for Investigative Journalism-Nepal
Nepal’s updating of its political map has suddenly dragged the remote, sleepy villages of Chhangru and Tinkar, in far-western Nepal’s Darchula district, into a geopolitical controversy in Nepal and India. But how are the villages and their residents faring socially and economically? Even the local level is clueless about the conditions of the villagers, let alone provincial and federal governments.
The entire area falls under Ward-1 of Vyas Rural Municipality in Darchula district. Chhangru is reachable after a seven-day walk from Darchula, the eponymous district headquarters. Bir Singh Bohara, a local, is worried about how to feed his family this year. “The potato we’d grown in the family farm rotted, and buckwheat, maize-necked barley and finger millet yielded little crop this year,” Bohara said. “How are we to survive?”
The main problem of the residents of the two villages is the scarcity of food. Their lives can’t sustain on the food produced in the village. Dilip Bahadur Budhathoki, the chief of the rural municipality, said he had been attempting to get food grains delivered on a helicopter. “We face starvation as there is hardly any food production in the village. The state must establish a food depot in Vyas immediately,” Budhathoki said.
There are 120 households in Chhangru, 72 in Tinkar. According to the Vyas Rural Municipality Profile, 2074, Ward-1 has a population of 1,200 people.
The other towns closest to Chhangru and Tinkar are Dharchula/Champawat in India or Taklakot in China. Both towns are reachable after seven days of walk.
Each year, before snowfall begins in October, they sell their fruit and herb produces in Indian or Chinese towns and purchase food grains with the money they earned. Since the Vyas region becomes uninhabitable due to heavy snowfall during six months of Winter, they descend to the headquarters. Only one crop can be cultivated in a year in Chhangru and Tinkar.
For the Sauka indigenous community that descends to Darchula, Dharchula, or Pithauragarh in October and returns to Vyas in April, it was a double whammy this year. They could not visit either Darchula or Pithauragarh or even Taklakot due to the lockdown imposed to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.
Similarly, after the updated map was published and the border issue raised, they started facing problem travelling. Chhangru and Tinkar can be reached from Dharchula only via India. “It’s so difficult to reach our own village,” lamented Lok Bahadur Budhathoki, a Tinkar local.
The residents of these villages face a severe lack of access to education and health apart from the problems of food and housing. “Let alone physical infrastructure such as roads, it’s difficult for people to survive here,” Dileep Budhathoki, the chief of the rural municipality, said, adding, “Nationality can’t be secured only by including the territory in a map. The government must think about how to ensure that people on the borderlands get enough food to eat.”
The villagers are scared of visiting Indian towns after Nepal published the updated map, and the transactions of locals with Taklakot have come to a standstill due to the lockdown. “Our problems have doubled now. If our produces can’t reach Indian or Chinese markets, we’ll have no option but to leave the village entirely,” said Dan Singh Tinkari, a resident of Ward-1.
Four hours for fever test
There is no health service in Tinkar. It takes four hours of walk to reach the nearest health post in Chhangru. The situation is so dire that the locals have to walk for four hours to Tinkar or cross over to the Indian side of the border just to do a fever test. After the arrival of representatives at the local level, the first demand of the citizens was the establishment of a health post. “The ward council has decided to establish a health post, and it will be inaugurated soon,” Binod Budhathoki, the secretary of the ward.
No tests for coronavirus have yet been performed in Chhangru or Tinkar. “A health worker is about to visit there. The reason we didn’t perform the test was that there are no new people in the village, as everyone has gone from the headquarter,” said Budhathoki, the secretary, whom CIJ met at Darchula bazaar, the headquarters.
As per the Vyas Rural Municipality Profile 2074, only 45 percent of the locals have access to healthcare. According to Hema Bhatta, the deputy-chief of the rural municipality, only 33% of women have access to maternity services. Bikram Bohara, a local, said pregnant women start to live in the headquarters three months prior to their delivery dates. Ramsingh Tiwari, another local, added, “The health workers spend only three months in the village and the rest in the headquarters.”
Even the two schools of Vyas Rural Municipality-1 are located in the headquarters. Kailashpati Primary School, operated in Darchula bazaar, is registered in the name of Vyas-1, Chhangru. There are a total of 175 students in the school, 50 percent of whom are from Chhangru. “Even though the school was opened in the headquarters, it belongs to Chhangru,” said Lalit Bohora, the president of the school’s management.
Likewise, Moti Mahila Union Primary School, which is registered in the name of Tinkar village, is also situated in the headquarters.
Let alone the school, even the office of the Vyas Rural Municipality-1 is situated in the headquarters itself. Budathoki, the ward secretary who ferried the files and other materials from the ward office during the third week of October 2019, said, “People from different wards come to the headquarters. There is excessive snowfall during October/November. Along with locals, government authorities also shift to the headquarters. All institutions, including the police, the health post and the ward office, operate frm the headquarters.
Even the police station that was opened for border security in Vyas Rural Municipality-01 is compelled to shift to the headquarters due to excessive snowfall. The police station was established under the leadership of the Deputy Inspector of Police on January 24, 1973. During the Maoist insurgency, the border administration office, the border police office, the police station and the small customs were all displaced. But even though the insurgency has ended and the police station has been rehabilitated, other government offices are yet to return. The government has established a camp under the leadership of an inspector by ferrying 25 armed police personnel via helicopter at Gagabagar in Vyas Rural Municipality on May 13, 2020.
The rural municipality doesn’t seem to have benefited much from the development programs of local and provincial level governments. The funds spent for the rural municipality in the fiscal year 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19 were Rs 73 lakh, Rs 52 lakh and Rs 35 lakh respectively. Much of the budget was spent on seminars organised at the headquarters. “The budget is finished before doing any work. How can the ward office, which is seven days afar, implement the budget from the headquarters?” asked Dan Singh Tinkari, a local.
The Sudurpashchim province government had allocated a budget of Rs 75 lakh for Gaga embankment project in the fiscal year of 2019/20 in Vyas-1, Chhangru. The provincial government had also allocated a budget of Rs 1 million under the fiscal year 2019/20 for the Jyakti horse path construction and telephone tower caretaker’s home. “The budget comes, but I have no idea how it is being spent”, said Budhathoki, the ward secretary. He further added, “There must be some work going on in the hills.
Due to multiple settlements, there is also a challenge in budget implementation.” Across the border of Vyas-1, there is an Indian market. On the Indian side, there is a motor road from Dharchula to Kalapani. The Indian Army has built health centers there along with a school and a hospital. But, across the Mahakali on the Nepali side, the locals have to struggle for their survival, carry their belongings and move to Darchula via India’s road during excessive snowfall and again return via the same road once April begins.
Although this place is the tri-junction of Nepal, India and China, it doesn’t have communication services throughout the year. The only Sky Mobile network tower in Chhangru has been blocked for the last six months. As this tower doesn’t cover as far as Tinkar, locals are even deprived of mobile and telephone services.
“As development work can be carried out for just four months (Ashad-Shrawan and Chaitra-Baisakh {mid-June to mid-August, and mid-March to mid-May}), there’s only so much we can do,” said Budhathoki, the chief of the Vyas Rural Municipality. Ashok Bohara, the chief of the ward, said the major reason for the lack of development was the settlement in the village for only six months. As the village remains empty for six months, the rural municipality has decided to keep a caretaker to look after the village.
To the village via India
Even today, several places of the Vyas Rural Municipality-1, including Chhangru, Tinkar, Gunji, Kalapani, Lipulek and Limpiyadhara are reachable only through the Indian road. For this, one has to cross the Mahakali River, which flows along the border, a few metres away from Khalanga.
Walking across the Indian territory is also a struggle, as one has to seek a travel pass from the Indian police. “It isn’t possible to travel en route Chhangru and Tingrung even inside Nepal,” Dileep Bahadur Budhathoki, the chief of the rural municipality, lamented. “There’s no proper roadway inside Nepal, and we have to seek permission of Indian Police each time we need to travel. It’s very hard.”
These days, tractors reach Sunsera, the centre of the rural municipality, which is 40 km away from Khalanga. Even today, it takes around seven days to reach Tinkar Bhanjyang from Khalanga via the Indian road. On the Indian side, a proper road links Pithoragarh district’s Dharchula to Kalapani directly.
The Council of Ministers on April 26 decided to hand over the construction of the 65 km roadway from Khalanga to Ghantibagar to the Department of Roads, and the 87 km track from Ghantibagar to Tinkar Bhanjyang to the Nepal army. A survey was conducted and construction work began for the 130 km Darchula-Tinkar road in 2007/08. But 11 years later, not even a third of the work is completed yet. Last year, the duration of the project was extended by three years.
“A road is essential for the development of the Vyas area, but it is yet to be completed,” said Gyalbu Bohara, a member of the Sudurpashchim Provincial Assembly. “After federalism, some budget was spent in the village, but development is a far cry as yet.”
There’s only 13 percent of cultivable land in the rural municipality. “Therefore, our first priority is to procure food,” said Budhathoki, chief of the rural municipality. “We can conduct small development works on our own if the government manages to build a road at the very least.”
The areas of Ward-1 of Vyas Rural Municipality that Nepal has added in the updated map include Gunji, Nabhi and Kuti. Three thousand residents of those villages hold Indian Aadhar cards at the moment. The Vyas Rural Municipality Profile, 2074 does not include the population and statistics of those villages. Binod Budhathoki, the secretary of Ward-1, said there are two schools and two health institutions in those villages.
India has deployed the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) in Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura, with the total number of military and paramilitary personnel reaching five thousand. The Indian Seema Suraksha Bal has border posts at Tabhaghat, Ghattebagar, Lamari, Bundi, Jhyalek, Garbyang, Gunji, Nabhi, Kuti and Kalapani.
