Kathmandu, May 5 -- A heavy silence has fallen over the informal settlement tucked behind the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Maharajgunj. It is not the silence of peace, but of paralysed fear.

Following a series of megaphone announcements by the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) ordering an immediate eviction, the two-decade-old neighbourhood has been plunged into chaos. Families are frantically wrapping worn utensils in bundles, while others wander the streets in a desperate, often fruitless search for a new place to call home.

Among those caught in the upheaval is 24-year-old Nischal Thapa. Born and raised on this small patch of contested land, Nischal once believed that the key to a better life lay in a cleaner government....