Nation»
Another national park in country’s crown
NEPALGUNJ, JUL 29 -
On the occasion of the World Tiger Day, the Banke National Park (BNP) opened its head office at Owari in Banke’s Mahadevpuri town on Thursday.
The BNP office was inaugurated by lawmaker Ashok Rokaya amid a function attended by the leaders of different political parties, forest officials and locals.
Although the government decided to establish the BNP a decade ago, the plan had not be implemented owing to the Maoist insurgency. The BNP—which covers nearly 898 square kilometres in Banke, Dang and Salyan districts—is expected to provide a suitable habitat for the dwindling population of tiger and other wildlife.
BNP officials said the national park would have 12 Nepal Army posts and six range posts to secure the wildlife.
Meanwhile, a clash erupted between the police and community forest users at Kohalpur as the latter tried to disrupt traffic to protest the office inauguration. The number of injured could not be ascertained.
The government announcement of the national park has riled the beneficiaries of 68 community forests in the three districts that will be a part of the BNP buffer zone. The beneficiaries believe they would no longer be allowed to utilise the forest resources once the community forests become part of the park.
“That won’t be the case though,” BNP Chief Tulsiram Sharma explained. “The people in the buffer zones will have access to the forest resources. The protest was staged in their failure to understand the deal.”
Some 343 sq. km. area of the park has been delineated as the buffer zone. The remaining forest area measures 549 sq. km.
Posted on: 2010-07-30 08:09
Headlines
Advertisements
