Although his body is quite weakened by age, he had been working tirelessly since dawn, occasionally stopping to catch his breath.
"The earthquake destroyed my house and food grains have been buried. All we have is the fields. If I don't plow it now, what will we survive on?" he asked. Miya intends to finish cultivating his small plot by Monday evening. He said he had no choice other than to plow fields after the earthquake robbed off what little he had.Similarly, Dev Maya Rokka, 65, of Taple VDC-3, had been working in her field since five days and has now begun sowing seeds. She has been doing a man's work despite having two male members in her family of four. One of the male members is dumb while the other is suffering from paralysis. Her sister cooks food. "We received only received a sack of rice in relief. If we do not cultivate our land, we will starve to death," she said.
The devastating earthquake of April 25 with its epicenter in Barpak caused damages to around 60,000 households, completely destroying 48,000 of them in Gorkha district. After food grains and other edibles too were buried in the debris of their houses, they are only left with vegetables and other grains growing in their fields. Those vegetables and grains also did not receive proper care as the farmers were scared for life.
Shittal Shrestha, a local, was spraying pesticide in her orange farm on Monday evening. If she fails to give proper care and grow oranges this season, she would have to bear the loss of around Rs 200,000. But if everything works out for her, she would earn a profit of Rs 900,000.
Like them, many other farmers in the district are gradually returning to work.
Related story
Gorkha's quartz crystal to be installed on Gorkha Durbar premis...
