- Resorts to be removed from CNP core area
- To be given activity rights from buffer zone on tender basis
- Bank guarantees to be sought at time of awarding contracts
- Expert team to dispose of rhino horn
The recommendation was made at a consultative meeting convened Monday at the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation (MoFSC) by the ministry secretary. “We will discuss the recommendation with the minister and take it to the cabinet. But we are bound by the decision to be taken by the parliamentary committee on natural resources and means, which should not delay a decision any further,” Yubraj Bhusal, secretary at MoFSC, told myrepublica.com.
The recommendation was made on consensus basis. “There was consensus at the meeting that there can be no compromise in this regard. We have urged the government to take a prompt decision on the basis of the recommendation,” a senior conservation expert present at the meeting said.
The experts have also recommended that the resorts be given activity rights from the buffer zones, such as for safaris, through a tender process. For this, 11 entry points, timings and areas would be determined by park warden offices. Similarly, they have pointed to the need to seek bank guarantees before awarding any contract so as to avoid default on government revenue. Of the seven resorts, three or four have not paid any revenue into state coffers.
The meeting also discussed the rise in poaching activities in the resort peripheries. As per one WWF statistic, the most rhino poaching has occurred for the last eight years in the jungle lodge areas. “Although this is a subject for further research and it is difficult to identify direct involvement of the resorts in poaching activities, it is seen that every year rhino poaching is high around the resort areas, especially the Island Jungle Lodge,” Shiva Raj Bhatta, spokesperson at the department, said.
Expert team to dispose of rhino horn
Meanwhile, the meeting also constituted an expert team to determine ways to dispose of more than 200 rhino horns, tiger skins and elephant tusks collected so far. The team will study, evaluate and recommend the disposal options as per rules under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
“Nepal can sell the collected items to a third country or research centers but under certain criteria set by CITES,” Diwakar Chapagain, a CITES expert at WWF Nepal, said.
According to Chapagain, a state interested in selling such remains must submit a detail report to CITES six months before its general convention. The report is first analyzed by the CITES secretariat, it then goes to the animal committee for approval and is finally decided on by the general convention. The next CITES meeting is to be held in March 2010 in Qatar. The government is already under pressure to meet the six-months-in-advance report submission deadline.
“This is a long process, and we will convene a meeting Tuesday to discuss the options before us,” Chapagain added. He said that to sell the remains, CITES authorities have to be “fully convinced” that it is a “genuine collection.”
Also, there is a CITES provision which allows the state to destroy the remains and receive a partial refund from CITES itself.
“The horns are worth Rs 1 billion,” a NA source told myrepublica.com. The source added that besides the two options, the meeting also discussed the possibility of the remains being put in a museum or being disposed of in the form of gifts.
akanshya@myrepublica.com
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