Chitwan park authority accused of burning huts of landless squatters in Madi

Local government criticise the park officials for trying to evict poor families during monsoon.

Dan Bahadur Praja Chepang, a resident at a squatter settlement in Kusumkhola in Madi, was on his way back home from Kirtanpur around 5 in the evening on Saturday. As he approached the settlement, he saw around 20 people riding on seven elephants enter the settlement, which was an unusual sight for him. “As I got closer I saw houses on fire. They had torched my house and my uncle’s and vandalised other houses too,” said the 20-year-old Dan Bahadur.