Udayapur, Feb. 8 -- After crossing a foot bridge over the Gideri stream from Banadanda of Belaka Municipality-22 in Udayapur district, the narrow trail opens onto Srilanka Tapu, a riverine island formed by the country's biggest water system-the Saptakoshi.

Life in Srilanka Tapu is shaped by two recurring fears-wild elephant menace in winter and flooding during the monsoon. For the residents of this river-locked settlement, survival depends on countering both threats.

Tetru Rajbanshi, originally from Prakashpur in the neighbouring Sunsari district, now lives in a bamboo-and-thatch house on the island, tending to his vegetable farm. "We spend the whole day working in the fields, but at night marauding elephants arrive and destroy everythi...