Kathmandu. The people of Nepal now seem to be very eager to leave the village and enter the city. Due to people’s fascination with cities, the population is city-centric, so the villages are becoming empty.

A report on urbanization and development in Nepal released by the National Statistics Office has shown that the population growth in urban areas is faster than in rural areas.

From 2068 to 2078, the population living in rural areas has decreased from 82 percent to 33.8 percent. In urban areas, it increased from 17.1 per cent to 66.2 per cent, according to data released by the Statistics Office.

It is now seen in Sangla village of Tarakeshwar Municipality-1 and Dulal village of Tokha Municipality-1 in Kathmandu Valley that development has risen and people have started to move.

The settlement in the village itself has also troubled the people of the village. In these villages located in the Kantha region of the Valley, weeds are now growing in empty and ruined houses and courtyards of houses.

Although there are people living in the village, the originality seems to have disappeared. According to locals, most of the original and traditional houses were lost due to the 2072 earthquake.

Dipendra Dulal, a local of Dulal village, said, “Earlier there were 120 houses here, but after the earthquake, most of the houses were vacated, many people sold the fields and built houses in the fields, some built big cement houses in the village. ‘

Despite living in Kathmandu, the area, which was once very rural and remote, has now got electricity and roads. Ram Prasad Dhakal of Sangla Sallegaun recalls that he first walked to Tokha to collect straw and daily necessities for cattle.

Dhakal said motorable roads and other facilities have arrived but there are no people in the village. He said that many people of Kantha area have built houses by selling 40-50 muri paddy fields and I have also sold 7 acres of land to build houses.

Rudra Sapkota of Sangla Sapkota village said that all the fields in the plot were built.

Photo: Nepal Photo Library