Effects of Earthquak -2015 in Livelihood of People: A Case Study of Barpak, Gorkha

Abstract

The thesis entitled “ Effects of Earthquke-2015 in livelihood of People .A Case Study of Barpak , Gorkha” has been prepared for the fulfillment of Master Degree in Rural Development from the Central Department of Rural Development, T.U., Kirtipur. Its entirely based on the field survey in which researcher has exercised to highlight the impact of Nepal Earthquake -2015 and how people coping from such situation .

Nepal is one of the disaster- prone countries in the world, Nepal’s proximity to earthquake hazards is mainly due to her young and fragile geology. Haphazard and unplanned settlements and poor construction practice are the other reasons that have made her highly vulnerable to earthquake impacts. Nepal is ranked 11th in terms of Earthquake in the world. The general objective of the study was to analyze the impact of earthquake 2015 on livelihood of people and how they coping in such situation in Barpak , Gorkha District and used the purposive and Random sampling method is selected four wards of Barpak. The primary data were collected using questionnaire through the field survey in the study area and secondary data from various sources. Barpak is located in the western part of Gorkha district is highly populated of Ghale , Gurung village. It is a pleasant as picturesque village situated upon the hilltop about 1,900 m above sea level and approximately 45 km away from Gorkha Bazzar.It is famous among tourists for watching wonderful landscape of mighty Himalayas and excellent home stay. Along with it is also a wonderful variety of natural and cultural beauty crowded into one small area ,is one of the stopover village routes of trekking around Manaslu. The study identified that physical, social and infrastructure sectors are badly affected.. Farming of food crops is major occupation of people. After earthquake, import of foods has increased. Trend of livestock farming has also been on decline. People are currently involved in reconstruction as labours for construction. Practice of going foreign employment and army is popular. villagers who are more dependent on agriculture are affected and face limited options of alternate livelihoods. The earthquake has had a major effect on reducing labour availability for agricultural tasks. An important reason for this was that household members were too busy to built shelter for themselves. Livestock is a major component of livelihoods both as source of food and income. Production of animal products also has been reduced due to stress condition, lack of feed and shelter. People who conducted home stay and hotels are affected due to collapsed of their houses and damaged of trekking routs, hazardous transport due to landslides. The negative impact of the disaster is likely to translate into a reduced number of tourist arrivals over the next few years significantly affecting income. Out of 60 households only 25% completed rebuilding of their houses. Many of households are still forced to live under tents and tarpaulin roofs. Though the wealthy people of the village built their houses on their own but the underprivileged lots have lost hopes of building their houses. Some schools still conduct under the temporary structure whereas Shree Himalayan higher secondary school has been rebuilt which is supported by JICA. Likewise there was a state funded health post which was also destroyed so people now depend on health camp instead; they depend on readily available traditional lama Jhakri to cure their illness. The main coping strategies of people in Barpak are growing more crops, borrowing money from relatives and friend who are in foreign employment likewise engaging in additional income generation activities. work. Cash for work is very popular in Barpak. People are currently involved in reconstruction as labours for construction. Practice of going foreign employment and army is also practice against coping. Getting from Ex army’s pension, elder allowance and retirement are also supporting to Barpakis livelihood and also getting susidy for loss of life and fully damaged of house. Hence all the sectors like social sector (health, education, nutrition, housing and human settlement), productive sector (agriculture, tourism, irrigation, commerce and industry, financial sector), infrastructure sector (electricity, communication, transport, water, sanitation and hygiene) and cross- cutting sector (governance, employment and livelihood, social protection, gender equality, environment and forestry) are badly affected in Barpak. .