Oped»
Whose idea was that?
AUG 09 -
Arecent report published by Animal Welfare Network Nepal (AWNN) has shown a massive ecological impact created by the release of laboratory-bred rhesus monkeys in Shivapuri Nagarjuna National Park. Monkeys were released from the Nepal Biomedical Research Centre after the government implemented the release of 263 monkeys in early 2010. According to the report, 35 monkeys have already died, and the rest are living in great peril. They also pose an increasing threat to the ecosystem and farms situated close to the national park.
The government decision to let loose 263 monkeys in an ecologically sensitive area has demonstrated a blatant disregard of its important responsibility of environment conservation and utter disregard of its legal obligations.
The irony of the release is perplexing. The monkeys set free in the national park had been bred with the intention of exporting them to the US for biomedical and radiation research. However, after widespread objection from conservationists and a writ petition at the Supreme Court, the government prohibited their export. However, letting the monkeys die a miserable death after banning their export is beyond comprehension.
The fact that the government prevented export of the monkeys suggests that it is committed to their conservation. In addition, the government has legal obligations which lay down the specific course of action it has to undertake while dealing with laboratory-bred animals before releasing them into the wild. Under international environmental legal obligations, the government of Nepal was obliged to take precautionary measures, which has by now attained the status of customary international rule, before releasing the monkeys in the national park. Indeed, the obligation to take precautionary measures as a scheme of conservation and environment protection is so delicate that even in the absence of clear scientific evidence that certain acts will have an impact on the environment or conservation measures, it does not relieve the government from taking adequate and effective action.
In this context, the government was required to take effective rehabilitation and reintroduction actions before dumping the monkeys at Shivapuri. There is no debate that the monkeys let loose in the national park were bred in a closed laboratory condition that did not have any semblance of a wild environment. As outlined by IUCN, the government should have carried out effective reintroduction plans to re-establish a self-sustaining population of primates in the wild and to maintain the viability of that population. This the government did not do.
The government also violated another significant obligation. Under the Convention of Biological Diversity, to which Nepal is a party, the government is required to carry out an ecological impact assessment for minimisation of risks and adverse impacts that the release of the monkeys would have caused in the national park. However, once again the government did nothing.
It was necessary to apply a multi-disciplinary approach and carry out a re-introduction project by involving primatologists, local communities and representatives from government and non-governmental agencies. Such representation could have effectively calculated the risks, benefits or/and costs related to the re-introduction plan, provided advice regarding the mitigation of such risks, and made sure that the true objective of re-introduction was achieved. Similarly, after releasing the rehabilitated species, post-release monitoring should also have been carried out. This would have monitored the behaviour, demography and ecology and also considered the socio-economic impact of such an action on the human population living close by.
However, the government failed on every front. As a result, the very objective of prohibiting the export of monkeys has been defeated and has rendered the act inconsequential. Conservation efforts at Shivapuri have suffered a setback, the human population around the national park and the monkeys (both recently released and those already there) have come into conflict as pointed out by AWNN, crop raiding around the national park has increased since the release, and the locals are preparing to take as drastic an action like poisoning the monkeys.
Thus the release of the monkeys was unplanned, careless and maladroit. It has sidelined all conservation objectives while suggesting that their being set free was mere dumping as their life did not have any worth. Therefore, it is high time that the government became sensitive towards its conservation obligations and devised a comprehensive policy and guidelines to ensure that future cases of wildlife rehabilitation are dealt with in a responsible manner.
(The authors are with the Law Students Society which has filed a writ against the release of captive-bred
rhesus monkeys at the Shivapuri Park)
Sudip Pokharel & Apurba Khatiwada
Posted on: 2010-08-10 09:07
Headlines
Advertisements
