The northern settlements of Byas Rural Municipality, a remote local unit in Darchula district, are reeling under a shortage of rice and other essential commodities.

Food crisis has hit wards 1, 2 and 3 of Byas Rural Municipality, as a foot trail linking the wards to Khalanga, the district headquarters of Darchula, has been disrupted by landslides and floods for the past two months, and tuins (improvised cable crossing) that connect with India are not in operation.

“Local residents would cross over to Indian markets to buy food and other essentials. But currently, tuin crossings are prohibited. The Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) personnel cut off all tuins across the Mahakali river around two weeks ago,” said Prabhat Budhathoki, a resident of Dumling in Byas-2. “Residents of several settlements in the upper region of Byas have started facing a shortage of food and other daily essentials.”

According to him, there were eight to nine tuins in the Byas area and all of them were cut off by the SSB after Jaya Singh Dhami went missing in the Mahakali river.

Jaya Singh Dhami, 33, of Malghat in Byas Rural Municipality plunged into the river on July 30 as he was trying to cross the Mahakali river using an improvised cable crossing, the only means to get to the district headquarters Khalanga from where he was planning to travel to Kathmandu. The victim went missing in the river after a member of the SSB reportedly cut off the tuin he was using to cross the Mahakali river.

Residents of the crisis-hit area on Saturday held a gathering and urged the ward office, rural municipal office and the provincial and federal governments to supply food and other essential commodities to the area at the earliest.

The locals, according to Prabhat, warned of protests if the authorities do not address their problem immediately.

Dhiran Singh Budhathoki, the spokesperson of Byas Rural Municipality, said that wards 1, 2, 3 and 4 have been facing a shortage of food and other commodities, as these settlements do not have access to the district headquarters.

The villagers have to use Indian territory to go to Khalanga and buy essential commodities. They have been hit hardest after the disruption in the foot trail and the tuin service.

The foot trail connecting Byas to the district headquarters has been severely damaged in around 15 places since the start of the monsoon season this year.

There are government food depots at Sunsera and Rapla but they do not have rice grains in stock at the moment.

“We have already informed the provincial as well as federal governments about the empty depots but we haven’t heard from them. Five hundred quintals of rice meant for the locals of Ward No 2 was transported last year. The depots are empty now,” said Budhathoki.

Nabin Singh Dhami, a resident of Byas, said that the crops grown in their fields could not last more than three months and they are unable to transport daily essentials from the Indian markets.

“Foot trails have been damaged and vehicular movement has been obstructed in the Tinkar road due to multiple landslides. We have been unable to transport daily essentials from Khalanga and we cannot even install wire crossing along the riverside. We have asked for help from the government authorities to manage food grains for us,” said Dhami.

Local residents have been unable to walk to Khalanga because of multiple landslides in several sections of the Tinkar road.

Dilip Singh Budhathoki, chairman of the rural municipality, said the rural municipal office has requested the federal government to manage food grains in the villages.

“We have told the Food Management and Trading Company Ltd to establish food sales centres at Tinkar and Dumling of Byas,” Budhathoki said. “We have also demanded that the government immediately supply food grains via helicopters to the four wards affected by food shortage in the rural municipality.”

On July 26, the District Administration Office in Darchula had notified the Dhangadhi-based provincial office of the Food Management and Trading Company to supply food grains to the locals of Byas Rural Municipality Ward No. 1.

“On Sunday, we have again requested the company to supply food grains to the ward immediately,” said Siddhraj Joshi, chief district officer of Darchula. “We have also asked the company to manage food grains to the rural municipality through air services.”