Kathmandu, June 11 -- On July 19, 2o2o, Chitwan National Park officials, backed by Nepal Army personnel, demolished and even burnt the houses of indigenous Chepang people in Kusumkhola of Madi Municipality in Chitwan.

While the residences of Khan Bahadur Praja and Deep Bahadur Praja were torched, houses of eight other families were knocked down using elephants. Ten families were rendered homeless by the authorities, claiming they had encroached the national park's land.

Over the years, 160 Chepang families from Kusumkhola have been forced to leave the place they were living in since 1991. They were relocated to Pyauli, Raidanda, Kharkatta and Parvikhola within the municipality with the assurance of proper housing. But a recent study by ...