UML STANDNG COMMITTEE MEET 23 DEC. UPDATE

UML STANDING COMMITTEE MEET 23 DEC.

Kathmandu, 18 Dec.: UML standing committee will now meet 23 December.
A scheduled meeting Sunday was postponed.
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NO PRIVATE ELEPHANTS IN CHITWAN NATIONALLPARK
Kathmandu, 18 Dec.: Chitwan National Park (CNP) has decided not to allow the entry of private-owned tuskers for now after all political parties unanimously opposed the government decision to allow private elephants in CNP, Ramesh Kumar Poudel writes in Republica from Chitwan .
CNP was preparing to allow entry from Monday after the government gave its permission despite serious concerns raised by conservation activists about the negative impact of the movement of private-owned elephants on bio-diversity and animal conservation.

But the park office was forced to postpone the implementation of the government decision after an all-party meeting at the District Administration Office opposed the government decision Sunday evening.

The Chief District Officer (CDO) himself called CNP after the all-party meeting Sunday evening urging it not to do any preparations for allowing private tuskers in the park, according to Chief Conservation Officer at CNP Jhamak Bahadur Karki.

“We cannot allow the elephants owned by hotel owners outside the park when even the hotels inside are to be shut down by mid-July,” Chitwan Chairman of CPN-UML Krishna Khanal stated.

“The private-owned tuskers would have similar negative impact on the animals and bio-diversity as the hotels inside the park,” Khanal added.

Hoteliers had urged the government to allow the entry of private tuskers inside the park to support tourism.

The government had formed a five-member taskforce under Karki and took the decision to lift the ban on private tuskers on October 24 following the report by the taskforce that was dominated by hoteliers of Souraha and their supporters.

“The whole conservation process would be derailed if we allow private tuskers for the sake of tourism as demanded by the hoteliers and tomorrow allow locals to take fodder for promotion of dairy business,” Khanal argued.

The government was planning to allow the entry of only 10 private tuskers for two months in the beginning and CNP has already issued identity cards, valid for two months starting from Monday, to mahuts.

Karki said the decision to lift ban was also postponed because UNESCO has asked whether CNP has done any study about the impact of allowing private tuskers and camels inside the park. “We will not do anything on allowing private tuskers until we reply to UNESCO´s query and get their response to our reply,”
Karki added.
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