Browsing by Subject "Bhutanese refugees"
Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Impact of Bhutanese Refugee Settlement on Humse-Dumse Community Forest: A Case from Beldangi, Damak, Jhapa, Nepal(Department of Environmental Science, 2012) Subedi, SandhyaUnited Nations High Commissioner for Refugees defines four main reasons for refugees flows: political instability, economic tensions, ethnic conflict, and environmental degradation. Movement of thousands of people and the establishment of refugee camps often has a serious impact on local environment, as well as on the welfare of nearby communities. Nepal has also hosted Bhutanese refugees in the eastern region since 1990. In this context, Humse-Dumse Community Forest was selected to study the impacts of Bhutanese refugee settlements on the forest, as three refugee camps (Beldangi I, Beldangi II and Beldangi III) have been established inside the forest. The reconnaisance survey was conducted during October 2010 and field survey during January 2011. Vegetation analysis and questionnaire survey (to both refugees and Community Forest User Groups) were done by using stratified random samplings. Socio-economic status of the Bhutanese refugees and CFUGs, their resources (fodder and fuelwood) need and access, and their extraction practices are highlighted in the questionnaire survey, and status of forest resources and its supply scenario are highlighted in the vegetation part. The camp settlement inside the CF has reduced the forest area by one fifth. As the refugees had no strong income source, they had no other better alternative (for the fuel resource) than extracting fuelwood from the nearby village, Community Forest and from market. From the CFUGs, landless were more depended on the C.F for both fodder and fuelwood. Annual extraction of both fodder (2896.07 t/yr) and fuelwood (1503.74 t/yr) by the Bhutanese refugees are quite higher than that of CFUGs‟ (fodder; 1792.53 t/yr and fuelwood; 289.16 t/yr), outstripping the forest‟s annual sustainable supply (fodder; 152.83 TDN in t/yr and fuelwood; 1087.79 t/yr). Absence of refugee settlement would greatly reduce these extractions so that the C.F resources do not get overharvested. Moreover, the refugees‟ illegal activities such as slice cutting of trees stems, uprooting of regenerating species and small herb saplings, collecting twigs and broken branches for fuelwood, collecting fodder for their livestock were increasing pressure load for the forest resources. All these activities of the refugees in longer term will definitely decline the forest‟s sustainability to a very high extent. Therefore, there is an emerging need of strong policy amendment regarding these settlements inside the community forest. Key words: Bhutanese refugees, CFUGs, extraction, forest resources, sustainability, vegetation analysis, UNHCR.Item Rizal's Torture Killing Me Softly: A Story of Trauma and Recovery(Department of English, 2014) Karki, ChitraThe present project entitled “Rizal’s Torture Killing Me Softly: A Story of Trauma and Recovery” dramatizes traumatized, dehumanized and problematized life of the Lhotsampas people in particular and all the Bhutanese people in general due to cultural clash and conflict caused as a result of ill governance and discriminatory laws. The root causes of trauma in the life of people include some of the policies of the government that protect and promote the Ngalongspeople and their Drukpa culture discarding and excluding others by implementing no objection certificate (NOC) for getting jobs and buying and selling property, no voting right for the Lhotsampas, Marriage Act, Land Act, Citizenship Act and use of mind control technology through electromagnetic radiation (EMR).Discrimination and ill-behaviour to the Lhotsampas people haunts them throughout their life and throughout the world wherever they go as the third country settlement of refugees thereby discarding their originality and identity, and leaving them no option to work through their trauma except to share with their friends, relatives and family members about the ongoing problems. In this sense, Torture Killing Me Softly is a saga of trauma and its recovery of Bhutanese people resulted due to failure of the government to respect democratic norms and values, and due dearth of far-sighted vision.Item Socio-Economic Impact on the Local Community Due to Settlement of Bhutanese Refugees in Sanishchare Camp: A Case Study of Sanishchare Village of Morang District(Department of Rural Development, 2018) Gandharba, Sachinji“Being a refugee is not a choice; it is the absence of the choice”, says Ms. Carina Hoang, a former Vietnamese refugee and an award winning author of refugee stories. Citing Ms. Hoang’s statement, we can say that Bhutanese refugees have been living a life of no choice since early 1990s in the refugee camps of eastern Nepal. And with no doubt, their settlement has some impacts on local communities. The research or the study aimed to assess the socio-economic impact on the local community of Sanishchare village of Morang district due to settlement of Bhutanese refugees in Sanishchare Refugee Camp. For the accomplishment of the study, exploratory and descriptive research designs were opted. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from primary and secondary sources. As a sample size, 80 households of the local community were selected by means of simple random sampling. Field visit and observation, household survey, key informants’ interview and focused group discussion were undertaken as data collection tools and techniques. And, tabulation and charts were used to analyze quantitative data. Findings show that anti-social activities like prostitution, gambling, theft, alcoholism and crime; adverse economic impact like price hike on daily commodities, unhealthy competition at work places and unemployment problem; and environmental problems like deforestation, soil erosion and pollutions increased remarkably after the arrival of the refugees in the camp, and their involvement in such issues is noted. However, as to mention positive aspects, the refugee community has provided the easily available labor/work force at low cost. Also, the refugee arrival has indirectly contributed to market expansion, road construction and school establishment in the local community. Thus, it can be concluded that the settlement of the refugees has both positive and negative socio-economic impacts on the local community. However, the negative impacts are a bit more than the positive ones. The UN agencies and CBOs can be recommended to work on the mitigation measures regarding the negative impacts. The UN and the GoN need to address the repatriation call raised by a group of the refugees to avert potential untoward incidents. The community area can still be a suitable study site for future researchers as new socio-economic impacts are likely to arise following the departure of all refugees from the camp.