"We're all very happy with the relocation," he says. "Although the relocation of Laldhang inexplicably took 20 years to complete, at least it's happened!" Saini remembers that even as a child, his family and other villagers wanted to leave their native village. "Everyone was looking forward to the shift and for 20 years, we postponed house-building and other plans hoping that we'd be moved soon!" I wonder aloud why Saini sounds so detached talking about the place in which he'd grown up. "Oh we liked our village all right," he says. "It's the jungle we didn't like..."
Being so close to the jungle has always been a huge problem for people like him, he explains. For starters, being on the periphery of the forest, the villagers never felt safe from animal predation. "We'd wake up to find elephants had torn down the solar electric fencing the government installed for our safety, or that a herd of wild boar had destroyed half our crop," he recounts. "We were always in fear of leopards, elephants and tigers..."
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Saini recounts how once he had to report for work very early in the morning: "I set off on my bike at dawn, only to find a tiger sitting across the path. Now for tourists this would be an amazing sight, but for me, it was just a nuisance that was making me late for work. I honked and honked, but the animal didn't budge..." Eventually, his heart pounding, Saini had to squeeze past the tiger, so close that the animal could have swatted him if he chose. "After that, if ever I had to work late or report early, I'd spend the night at the resort where I work," he says.
The remote village also lacked basic infrastructure and facilities. "Other than farming, there was little for us to do in Laldhang!" he says. The nearest market was over 20 kilometres away, and most villagers travelled 30 kilometres to Ramnagar to work, he said. "Our children had to walk six kilometres to get to the nearest secondary school," he says. "We only allowed them to go in large groups, it wasn't safe for them to go anywhere alone..." The monsoons were particularly hard, as the seasonal rivers would fill up, adding to their woes.
When 10 years ago, all the landowners of Laldhang were offered alternative land in Haldua (a village relatively far from the jungle), the village rejoiced. But while they were relocated, Saini and other landless people of the village were left behind. "Life became even harder then," says Saini. "The village, already quiet, became even more lonely. And, of course, the uncertainty of our lives was quite tiresome to say the least..." Finally, the last remaining people of Laldhang, including Saini, were relocated earlier this year. "We've all been given some land as compensation, even though we had none in Laldhang," he says. "All of us are happy with the change."
In the meantime, the forest has swiftly reclaimed the area vacated by his village and the three others in the vicinity - Jhirna, Kotirau and Dhara. Grasslands have emerged there, resulting in a dramatic increase in the numbers of deer species. Consequently, the region has seen the return of tigers and leopards. "Now, finally, after all these years, the animals have their habitat, and we have ours," he says simply.