The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Around four households in Guma-Wolokha chiwog under Punakha Dzongkhag have still not received land substitution for land which was slashed off during last September’s earthquake.
According to the Gewog officials, there was delay in giving the land substitute as the community themselves had disputes on land, which was supposed to be given as substitution.
The authorities had decided to give land substitution from the area above Zangdopelri resort, but Guma Gup Namgay Tshering said that public raised the land as public land.
However the area was surveyed and the affected parties’ lost land were also surveyed and everything was in place to give land substitution. “But the public was not willing to give the land which was owned by public,” said the Gup.
The Guma Mangmi Bago Dorji said that the gewog officials along with Agriculture and Forest officials will visit the site soon and discuss how to give the land substitution.
He said the land substitution located in Balay Jangsa is a publicly owned land and proper consultation among the public should be done.
The cut off land was used for paddy cultivation and was wet-land. Villagers under Guma-Wolokha chiwog said they waited for the government to give them the land substitution.
Meanwhile they cultivated paddy from the remaining land left behind by landslide as they have to sustain livelihoods on agriculture products.
One of the villagers from the chiwog said it’s difficult to sustain the livelihood from the limited land left by the landslide.
Above all the value of land is tremendously increasing with the installment of Punatshang Chhu Hydropower project.
The Punakha residents said the land value had escalated to Nu 50,000 per decimal and the land with proper road facilities are around Nu 70,000 per decimal.
Residents on the other side of the river Punatshang Chhu said that the severe landslide occurred after an earthquake followed by heavy rainfall.
More than one acre of land was slashed off and the situation remains the same even now.
Meanwhile the villagers said more than two truckloads of saplings were planted in the affected areas by the villagers in collaboration with Department of Disaster Management (DDM).
