Locals have raised concern as the trees in Rishikhola Community Forest and Mahabharat Forest in Dadheldhura district headquarters are being cut down. 

“Deforestation has continued in these forests in the name of conservation,” said Hari Sarki, a Dadeldhura local.

A local community forest work procedure called ‘katani chhekani’ directs that the trees that are either obstructing the growth of other saplings or are dead should be felled.

“But what is happening is trees are being cut down haphazardly,” Sarki said.

The locals have repeatedly informed the District Forest Office about the deforestation going on in the two forests, but the office hasn’t paid any heed, locals said.

Officials from the District Forest Office present the example of these forests as conservation efforts, but when it comes to stopping the deforestation, they have done nothing to prevent it, said Sanjay Jairu, a member of Amargadhi Municipality’s executive committee member.

According to Jairu, around 500 trees are being felled daily in Rishikhola and Mahabharat forests and the logs are being sold as firewood.

“If this rate of deforestation continues, the whole community forests will be destroyed in a few years,” Rajendra Joshi, a local conservation activist, said. 

“The onus of conserving these forests lies on the District Forest Office to protect the forest, but it has turned a deaf ear.”

Meanwhile, officials at the Division Forest Office said that the adopted work procedure was not promoting deforestation, as locals and conservationists have claimed. 

The division office deploys an official to supervise the programme, Pushpalata Acharya, a forest ranger, said. 

“We have directed the supervising officials to carry out the works according to the established criteria,” Acharya said.

He added the areas where Rishikhola and Mahabharat forests lie today used to be barren before 1990 and that the community forest model had helped restore their greenery. 

According to data from the District Forest Office, out of the district’s total area of 153,800 hectares, about 75 percent is covered with forest.