Kathmandu, Aug. 6 -- For the past three weeks, the only thing that has been on Hom Bahadur Thapa's mind is a massive boulder sitting on a sloping hill, roughly 100 metres above his house. The boulder had come tumbling down the hill during a landslide on July 12.

In Thapa's village of Niharey in Gulmi district, every year monsoon means heavy rainfall-and then rain-induced landslides. This year was devastating.

When local government officials came to inspect the landslide area, they told Thapa what he already knew-another landslide would send the boulder tumbling down, crashing into Thapa's house.

"They said it was too risky for us to continue living in the house," Thapa, 29, told the Post over the phone from his village in Gulmi. So Tha...