An acute shortage of foodstuffs has gripped many rural villages of Bajhang, a district in the far-western Nepal,forcing the people to eat wild fruits for survival. The people of the affected villages including Kanda have started eating wild fruits and Sisnu plants (urtica dioica) for the survival.

There is no supply of foods to rural parts of the district for many days. Ironically, traders here are busy with supplying beverage when the Dashain is in its fifth day.

Northern parts of the district like Nyuna, Balaudi, Latton, Kol, Rajada , Saingaun, Bichhada, Dhalaun, Airadi, Parali and Daugaun have been hardest hit by the acute food crisis as in the past. Shops here have put bottles of beverage for a sale, not food, said one Umesh Bohara of Kanda VDC. He said traders switched into beverage import as it gives them more profit than from the sale of food stuffs.

"I have not eaten rice for the past five days," he shares.

Villages facing a severe food crisis here lack land suitable for paddy plantation and maize, millet and potato crops were destroyed by wild animals before the harvest time, one Ram Bahadur Bohara of Kanda VDC-3 shared his sad story.

The people of northern Bajhang need to walk for four days to reach the district headquarters Chainpur where, according to them, a kilogramme of rice is sold at Rs 160.

Local trader Rajendra Bohara admitted that they were importing liquor products for the Dashain as they can make more profit from such products than from the import of food stuffs.

The Nepal Food Corporation Depot at Melbisaina had been closed during the Maoist insurgency. The locals have vented ire at bodies concerned for making no effort to supply rice to the district. RSS