Danda Kakanai residents travel 60 km to post letters

BD Kasniyal

Pithoragarh, July 3

In the age of cellphones and instant money transfer, more than 10,000 residents of the Danda Kakanai area in Champawat are still dependent on the manual postal service to send messages to their relatives. They cover 60 km on foot to post a letter as the area lacks a connected road.

The problems do not end here only as the remote villages in the area are deprived of every facility that is necessary for mere survival in this contemporary world. Everybody here faces one problem or the other; water, dilapidated roads, insufficient electricity and absence of educational institutions. And from these arise several problems of livelihood. In the absence of roads, these residents are disconnected from the rest of the state. The situation gets worse when a natural disaster strikes.

“Even a postman, locally known as ‘harakara’, travels on foot to deliver letters,” said a resident of Danda Kaknai village, which is the remotest village of the district. “The postal delivery system began in the Kumaon region during the British era and is one of the oldest in the region. However, some villages in Danda, Gumdesh and Tamli areas of the district are still deprived of connected roads, which further delays the delivery of letters,” said Dinesh Pandey, a Champawat resident.

The first post office was established in Champawat subdivision (now district) in 1820 by Britishers, who later linked the Abbot Mount, Devidhura, Lohaghat and Khetikhan areas with postal services by opening sub post offices there. The village postal system received a boost when areas were linked with roads in 1950. However, some remote areas still continue to remain cut off from the mainstream and are dependent on ‘harakaras’,” said Pandey.

Villagers complained that in the absence of a connected road, the postman could not deliver the letters in time. He comes once or twice in a month. “Postmen face many hardships in reaching these remote villages. Sometimes they fall victims to anti-social elements as they have to pass through dense forests,” said Prakash Joshi, a resident of Danda Kikai village.

On the other hand, administrative officials said the problem of the late delivery of letters in the Danda area was due to the new system adopted by the postal department. The department has appointed contractual postmen on these route, who were overburdened with work.

“We have sent a proposal to open a sub post office at Taliabanj village in the Tallapal bilon area, which would lessen problems being faced by villagers,” said Champawat District Magistrate Dependra Chaudhary.