Where The Trees Remember: Stories of disappearance, memory and resistance from Bardiya

During the height of Nepal’s People’s War (1996–2006), especially after the declaration of the state of emergency in 2001, Bardiya District became the national epicenter of enforced disappearances. Out of 1,350 officially registered disappearance cases, Bardiya alone accounts for 258 persons. Nestled in the mid-western Tarai, Bardiya was subjected to intense “counter-insurgency” operations led by state security forces, including the Royal Nepalese Army.

For the indigenous Tharu community, who made up the majority of the local population, daily life was shrouded in terror. Arbitrary night raids, warrantless detentions, and extrajudicial roundups were widespread. Intellectuals, schoolteachers, community leaders, and social workers were systematically viewed with suspicion by military forces, who conflated indigenous social awareness and advocacy with Maoist allegiance. Young, educated, and sharp Tharu boys and girls who were active in community forest groups or sewing societies as social mobilizers were arbitrarily targeted. Towns and villages lived under a shadow of uncertainty, where being detained by army patrols meant vanishing without a legal trail.