The local administration destroyed 136 huts belonging to squatters in Rajapani Community Forest in Gajehada VDC in Kapilvastu district on Sunday. Security personnel of the Armed Police Force and Nepal Police along with forest guards destroyed the huts charging the hut dwellers of forest encroachment. Some 500 hut residents have been forced to fend for themselves under the open sky in scorching heat following the incident. How do I feed five members of my family as I have no land and house after my hut has been destroyed, lamented Raghu Tharu, a displaced victim. We are forced to vacate the forest by destroying the huts as the hut dwellers defied repeated warnings to leave the area and stop encroaching the land, Krishna Prasad Pokharel, officer at the District Forest Office said. People pretending to be squatters have been occupying 25 bighas of the land by constructing huts in the forest for the past five years, the DFO source said. As fake squatters were occupying the forest, we destroyed the huts to stop encroachment of the forest land, CDO Laxman Kumar Thapa said. http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=+136+huts+razed+in+Rajapani+eviction+drive&NewsID=246239 (7 June 2010)

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