Moreover, as two among the four families living in the ward have started packing their bags to migrate elsewhere, the families of Kalpana Nepali and Jeet Bahadur Nepali are set to be the only ones who are compelled to live in the almost abandoned ward. Durga Bahadur Rana of Hansara-8 said these families too would leave the left the village if they were in good financial condition.

“However, the situation is such that even the two families cannot continue to live there anymore. They were once forced to stay back due to lack of better alternatives,” Rana said, and appealed to the government to provide basic facilities in the ward in order to put an end to the trend of mass migration and save the villages in the district from being abandoned.

Owing to the increase in migration caused mainly by the lack of basic facilities such as road, electricity and water supply, the number of households at Pamphu village in Hansara-8 and 9 has dropped to 51 from 82 in the past two years. While most residents have migrated to Butwal, eight of the remaining 51 are planning to move to Tanahun. Likewise, the number of households in Hansara-6 has reduced from 24 to 12 in the past two years, VDC Secretary Tanka Acharya said. According to Acharya, as it was not possible to connect Hansara-5, 8, and 9 with roads, the only way to minimise the trend of migration was to provide locals with basic facilities such as electricity and drinking water that were earlier denied to them. Meanwhile, social facilitator Gita Neupane said most of the families living in the area migrated to Butwal while the rest have started a new life in the bazaar area of Hansara.

In the meantime, there are only 270 houses in Jayakhani, a village in the district which was recently connected to road. According to the 2001 census, the village with a majority of its population comprising of Janajatis had 600 households. Likewise, there are only 310 households in Arkhabang, another village located in the remote part of the district.

Meanwhile, coordinator of District Census Coordination Committee and Local Development Officer Hari Prasad Gyawali said improvement in the quality of living as indicated by the Human Development Index could be a key factor contributing to the trend of migration of people from villages to towns and cities. Apart from that, the inflow of remittance could be another factor that has led to large scale migration, he said.

The trend of outbound migration has also affected the gender balance in the district, said Nawaraj Kandel of District Public Health Office.