Some villagers looked at the massive and sudden forest collapse as an ominous sign.
Villagers in western Nepal’s Banke district say that nearly 3,000 trees in a single forest fell over within a 10-minute period, according to a report on the London-based eKantipur Web site.
Initial reports said there were no strong winds at the time of the collapses on Sept. 8, leading to speculations that the trees were knocked down by a supernatural force.
Mystified residents said that the local District Forest Office (DFO) appeared to be taking no action to determine what caused the phenomenon.
But a subsequent report said that a DFO official determined that a sudden whirlwind was responsible for the tree collapses in the Shrikrishna community forest.
Gopal Chaudhary, who said he was grazing his cattle near the forest when the trees fell, was quoted by eKantipur as also saying that a “strong gale” uprooted the trees.