Plotting to plunder

At the edge of the dense forest overlooking Bhaktapur, the sound of chirping birds and the wind rustling through the trees have been replaced by the growl of dozens of bulldozers.

This Kakrabari Community Forest behind Suryabinayak shrine was carefully protected and managed by the local Tamang community for centuries. Today, heavy earthmovers claw noisily at the slope, opening it up like a big red wound.

With little land left in the densely populated city, developers are venturing further afield to the valley’s rim and forcibly taking over forests that local communities have depended on for fodder, firewood and to protect their watershed.

This project of Nic Vujicic Housing Company in Suryabinayak’s Kakrabari Bhanjyang is just the latest and most blatant example of encroachment of forests by real estate developers in collusion with local government officials.

“One day, they just came and bulldozed my house,” says Shanta Lama of Ghising Danda, whose family has been living in a tent since March. “Company workers gathered my belongings, deposited them in this tent and demolished my house.”

Unlike some of her neighbours, Lama refused to give up her home, but stood no chance against the heavy machines and strongmen mobilised by the company.

Adds Shanta: “I have not signed any document of agreement, the company keeps telling me that they will settle the paperwork later.”

Her neighbour Bal Bahadur Tamang, says a bulldozer razed his house while he was out grazing goats in the forest. He recalls: “My wife shouted to the neighbours for help, but no one heard her.”  

The company used strongarm tactics to try to force Bal Bahadur to sign away his small plot at the edge of the forest that the housing company needed. The family refused, so the property was simply taken over.

“Many families have been forcibly evicted from their homes and moved elsewhere to make way for the new housing colony,” says Bal Bahadur. But such is the fear of the young vigilantes employed by the company, that they are afraid to speak out. 

But there appears to be a generational divide among the local community in Ghising Danda. Many young men have migrated to the city or abroad, but those that remain have been promised jobs and a piece of land by the company, and support the project. 

For centuries, Suryabinayak communities have tended to the land, and the land has tended to them. The protected trees provide them with livelihood, prevent landslides on the slopes above and recharge ground water so the springs do not go dry.

But this historic connection was severed in January when the excavators arrived to chop down trees and dig up the hill, razing 1.1 hectares of the community forest and surrounding settlements. 

Much of the forest is now gone, and recent rains have washed the red mud down the mountain like a bleeding gash. On a recent visit excavators were levelling the slope. 

Nic Vujicic Housing is owned by Purna Bahadur Limbu, Prabin Kusma and Dillidhwaj Baraili. It had parcelled 14.6 hectares in the neighbouring Palanse village three years ago, and was even awarded by the municipality for the project. 

Now, the company is clearing 27 hectares of private property and community forest in Ghising Danda without a planning permit either from the municipality or the Kathmandu Valley Development Authority (KVDA). 

In fact, its application has been pending at the Authority since last October. The company has dangled a lollipop by promising 21 out of the 451 private plots to the government. 

Nepal’s 2015 Basic Standards for the Development of Settlements, and Urban Planning and Building Construction by-laws stipulate that land transactions, construction projects, and housing development via land consolidation require approval from either the KVDA or local government. 

Projects involving land up to 0.1 hectares require permission from the local level, and those of up to 2.5 hectares require approval from the district authorities, and plans exceeding that area need a permit from the KVDA. 

Nic Vujicic Housing’s director Dillidhwaj Baraili, is a member of the Federation of Nepalese Industries and Entrepreneurs (FENIE), and close to the ruling UML party. 

While the company did consult with locals, conduct an EIA, tested soil quality, and conducted a hydrological study of the area, these were perfunctory and incomplete for a proper permit application. The approval of private landowners and the municipality as well as project details were missing. 

The company had excavated half of Ghising Danda without permission when the local community started raising questions. Only then did it seek permission from the ward, which directed it to apply for a planning permit from the Suryabinayak Municipality. 

“We are yet to verify whether all the documents submitted by the company are in order, which is why the application is still pending,” Rajendra Prasad Nepal, the municipality’s information officer, told Nepali Times. 

But the lack of a permit does not seem to deter company director Dillidhwaj Baraili, who uses convoluted semantics to justify using excavators on private and community land.  

“It is the plotting of the land that requires approval from the KVDA, we do not need permission from local authorities to operate heavy machinery on the project site,” Baraili told us.

However, Ward 9 Chair Bhagwan Khatri says no such permission to use excavators and bulldozers have been given without first obtaining a planning permit.

“The housing project is illegal because it has moved forward without a planning permit,” says KVDA’s District Commissioner for Bhaktapur, Safal Shrestha.

When the bulldozers started felling trees in the community forest in March, a joint task force of four local guthi put up a resistance, and demanded that the housing company ensure that there would be no mudslide danger downslope during the monsoon.

It also wanted the company to make sure the flow of water in springs were not affected, and to set up a boundary along the community forest to prevent further encroachment. It also demanded compensation to displaced homeowners. 

But Nic Vujicic Housing paid no heed, and sent in excavators. Last month, the Kakrabari Community Forest Users Struggle Committee wrote to the Bhaktapur District Administration Office, Suryabinayak Municipality, and the Division forest Office to halt the project.

In response, the housing company put out a press release accusing residents of spreading rumours, but the statement presented contradicting information about the status of its planning permit at various levels of the government.  

It has taken a month for the local government to even send an inspection team to the site. But the team concluded that the forest had been encroached upon and asked the housing company to halt its activities immediately. 

The company refused to comply, and on 9 May the Police was sent to shut down the project. Baraili maintains the forest was levelled with the consent of all four Guthi as well as Ram Krishna Tamang of the Kakrabari Community Forest User group. Tamang told us he has given no such go-ahead. 

“How could we have permitted the operation of construction machinery in the community forest when the Nepal government itself does not allow the destruction of public property?” adds Tamang.

Because of the controversy, the company is now trying to use a carrot and stick approach by placating the local community, while also intimidating those who speak out.

“Even though we had obtained permission, perhaps we should have not started using our heavy machinery yet,” Baraili admitted. However, the company is trying to silence dissenters in the community with threats.

The company has deployed local youth who have been promised jobs to convince and cajole outspoken community members in Ghising Danda.  

One of them is Chewang Tamang, who says jobs are more important, and lashes out at locals for being “anti-development”.

He says: “There is no point sitting around complaining that a few trees have been cut. The only people who are opposed to this project are those who do not want this place to develop.”