Chitwan, July 22 -- Kajiman Chepang, 51, was one of the victims who lost his home in Kusum Khola on Saturday when officials from the Chitwan National Park set fire to two houses and destroyed eight others with the intention of evicting the residents. Ten families were rendered homeless in the incident.

The park officials on Saturday had given the residents of Kusum Khola a week's notice to vacate the area, which they say falls under the park's territory.

Kajiman had come to Kusum Khola around three decades ago after his house in Chitwan was swept away by a landslide.

"I don't know the exact year or the date when I built a hut here but it has been more than twenty years," he said. "The hut was home to my seven-member family."

Over the ...