About 350 acres of land in Logchhina Gewog, Chhukha are tsamdos belonging to people of Naja Gewog in Paro. Ten villagers Naja Gewog have tsamdos in the seven Chiwogs in the Gewog. This, Logchhina Gewog officials, said was inconvenient especially when demarcating the areas as community forests. They said the owners did not want their tsamdos to be registered under community forest.
“With increasing number of households, there is not enough water sources in the Chiwogs. So we have to look for sources in the tsamdos. But the tsamdo owners do not allow our villagers to use the source within their tsamdos saying they need it for their cattle,” said the Gup, Indra Lal Ghalley.
He added that in the past, the Gewog office also faced problems like the villagers’ cattle grazing in tsamdos. As a result the tsamdo owners had to be compensated through various means. “When it comes to providing tsamdos, it would be convenient if the preference could be first given to the people of the Dzongkhag and then later to others,” added the Gup.
The Gewog also has about 15 acres of land including orchards registered under the name of people from other Dzongkhags as well.
The Gewog Mangmi, Birkha Bahadhur Limbu said, while few have been paying their land tax regularly, there are others who have not paid the tax since 2006. “People have land in our Gewog but they live in other Dzongkhags like Thimphu, Paro and Punakha. We don’t have numbers to contact them for reminding them about the tax. There are about 14 houses involved.”
The Gewog office is planning to approach the Land Commission for due procedures.
