Chepang community in Makwanpur district (Khabar Bitra ko Khabar)

Traditionally the Chepang people’s survival has depended on their skills to harvest the resources available to them in the surrounding forest. In recent years, however, government conservation policies have limited their traditional practices and little guidance has been provided to the people to help them find alternatives to replace their traditional lifestyle. The forests are now managed as Community Forests and Leasehold Forests solving some conservation issues but creating new problems for the Chepang people. The culture, language and their identity has been related to the jungle and land for Centuries. Now, they have neither their own land nor jungle. They are deprived from the right of land use in spite of being based on the land for centuries.
 Chepang communities can still be found in Dhading, Gorkha, Chitwan,and Makwanpur Districts. The total Chepang popoulation is estimated to be 52,237. Sixty-one percent of Chepang people are said to be suffering from malnutrition. The most deprived are in the remote southern part of Dhading District, primarily villages in Jogimara, Dhusa, Pinda, Gajuri and Mahadevsthan Village Development Committees. The Chepang community in the south of Dhading district has been found the lowest in terms of economic and social status as compared with other poor people in Nepal.