Minister for Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation Minister Rabindra Adhikari used to go for a morning walk every day prior to his appointment as the minister. Every morning he was sighted walking briskly on the pedestrian’s path at Hattigaunda Chok, Kathmandu. Sometimes he used the right walkway and sometimes the left at Chakrapath-Budanilkantha road stretch. But now he has moved to Pulchok-based ministers’ quarters.
There must be enough open space and walkway at the ministers’ quarter for physical activities. Of course, he has access to secured space and pavement for exercise. He is just a representative; we understand that all our party leaders including Prime Minister go for walking either in the morning or evening. Because we need to keep our body healthy.
Tourism Minister Adhikari, who go for walking every day to keep his body fit, is preparing to clear the green forest that are habitat to rare wildlife species in the name of building an international airport. Just imagine honourable minister, how does it feel if you always have to stay inside house. If the human race needs open space and footpath for morning and evening walks to keep their health in check, then don’t the wild animals need it? This sounds a little unfair your Excellency.
Notwithstanding these issues, you and your mechanism is all set to strip the wildlife of the forests where they roam around, play, hunt and exercise. To put it simply, you are going to destroy the forest. And you’ve already made this announcement in Monday’s Parliament meeting. You declared that the modality for the construction of the airport would be prepared within two weeks, and of the total 2,500,000 trees, around 5,00,000 would be cut down in the first phase.
The tasks we’ve undertaken in the name of development are not going to make Nepal prosperous but will gradually make it ugly. Now let’s look, for instance, at the rivers of the Capital including Bagmati, Mugling- Narayangadh road stretch, exploitation of rivers, the plight of Chure and haphazard use of bulldozers. These are the result of the failure to take heed to the environmental aspects. People are forced to deal with various problems and will be dealing in the future.
If Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and his group are seeking the similar kind of prosperity, then you are on the wrong path. Sustainable development and prosperity is not impossible in a country where forests are destroyed, and existence of wildlife animals, aquatic, and wildlife are not acknowledged. The forest land separated for airport construction and sustainable development is highly important from the perspective of biodiversity. It is not possible to elaborate the details in this small write-up.
However, the report on the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) prepared for the airport construction has made key overall discussions of the area. The area selected for airport lies within the dense CharkosheJhadi (Dense forest). The dense forest is home to biggest mammal Asian elephant, one-horned rhino, and Royal Bengal Tiger. These animals roam around the place from East to West, hunt and take rest.
The elephants of Parsa National Park move through the biological path of the forest and reach up to KoshiTappu Wildlife Reserve. There are instances of animals reaching Jhapa of KoshiTappu. Experts take the obstruction of wild elephants’ path as a serious disaster.
The proposed airport construction site is the main corridor of wildlife. A few decades earlier the population of wild animals was huge. But Charkoshe forest bore the impact of growing migration of people to Terai. Encroachment, massive deforestation, timber smuggling and poaching destroyed Charkoshe forest that resulted in massive decline of wild animals.
The forest of this region was saved and the animals living here started rejoicing only after tireless efforts on the part of conservationists and agencies striving to revive the history. Mainly after 2016 (2073 BS) rare species of tiger and rhino started appearing in the forests. Besides, there are a number of small rare species of wildlife and birds who have made this region their home.
Even before the conservations could draw up plans for increasing the wild animals, the government itself is out to nip it in the bud by making a plan to axe 25,00,000 trees. The government should have been cognizant of the fact that hundreds of Nepal people have lost their lives in the attack by elephants crossing Nepal-India border from Mechi River.
The elephant activities have caused damage to physical property worth tens of millions of rupees. Even after spending millions of rupees, neither of the countries has been able to tame the elephants or manage them. These are the consequences after the human encroachment upon their habitat or the building of infrastructure, and they are continuing. Unfortunately, the government is going to invite such misfortune by destroying their biological passageway. Its consequence is definitely not going to be good.
Your excellency Tourism Minister, we are not telling you to stop the airport construction. All we are saying is that the place and area your government has chosen for building the airport is totally wrong. You must be aware about the directives of International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) that prohibits building the runway near wildlife reserves. But the proposed forest is just next to Parsa National Park. There is national park on the northern side of the East-West Highway and the proposed airport construction site on the southern side. The national park and the airport is separated only by the highway, while according to ICAO, national park is more vulnerable than wildlife in from the viewpoint of conservation. The government is also turning a blind eye to it.
Another huge fault in choosing the site is that the 80 square kilometers area selected for airport construction has Lalbakaiya River in the East and Pasaha River in the West. It is your logic that the construction can’t be moved on either side—East or West—because of the river. So why was this place picked? If the site can’t be move on East-West, it is requested to shift slightly towards South. Because of that around 2 km forest on southern side of the highway could be saved and the wildlife can easily move across East-West. It is advised not to completely wipe off their corridor.
It is strange that you politicians are not open about adopting this alternative under any circumstances. But why? Perhaps because, if the construction site is moved southwards, it will encroach the human settlements. Such a step will fuel discontent among the locals, and it will be to address the problems. There are also opinions that the step will affect the vote-bank. The idea to not move the proposed airport site towards the South seems to have been motivated by the mindset that the wildlife and trees won’t express discontent and they won’t stage protest. You could have been thinking that your vote-bank won’t be affected and the airport would be constructed. Why do we need nature and environment? Isn’t it?
The other reason behind your reluctance to move the airport site to southward is a huge amount of money necessary to pay in compensation for acquiring the land. That won’t be possible. How could the general people be convinced that the government is poor who is building another international airport in Nijgadh while two other international airports are being built in Pokhara and Lumbini? How to believe that the government can’t pay compensation? Why should the government be worried if the environment and bio-diversity could be conserved by spending a little more money?
It has also heard that India will raise objection if the airport site is moved southwards. If that’s the case, what should the runway be made North-South? Why don’t you make it East-West? This is totally a technical query of the writer. If the rationale is that the East-West length won’t be enough for runway, what triggered the thought to build the airport by destroying the forest of Nijgadh? Was it because of the robust Sal trees? EIA report states the market price of all the trees would be an estimated Rs 596 billion, and would earn an income of 15 billion if sold at government royalty? Is it because of this profit, the political leadership and administration of Forest Ministry gave a silent nod?
Where are the reports of feasibility studies done for the identifying the international airport construction site? It has been learnt from sources that seven others places, apart from Nijgadh, were identified for the construction of airport. If that’s true, why weren’t the other alternatives explored? Attempts have been made to keep the entire process of airport construction in dark? Strangely, it is difficult to even find the EIA report of the project, which is considered a public document, but why?
It is true that Nepal needs to build an international airport near Kathmandu airport for an emergency landing or an alternative runway. In order to give justification for building the airport, a section of people say, “Had there was an international airport in Terai, the US-Bangala aircraft won’t have crashed and there won’t have been such a huge casualty. Their rationale could be right. But there is no need to construct the airport by destroying the forest of Bara. Many other open spaces in Terai could have been acquired and the airport could have been made East-West. There are many alternatives. Only lack of willpower and the attempts to shrug off the responsibility towards conserving the environment have been seen. Perhaps because of his experience of leading the Development Committee of the parliament, Tourism Minister Adhikari is stricken by the attitude that anything apart from development is not an issue.
That’s not the end. According to EIA report, a total of 61.27 million plants planted to replace for cutting 24,50,000 trees in a ratio of 1:25. The plants should also be taken care of until they grow. For that, 38,294 hectares of land is required. But the land has not been finalized yet. Even so, Minister Adhikari has declared that 500,000 trees would be felled in the first phase. It’s strange that the government appears to be in a hurry to cut down the trees without finalizing the place and responsibility for planting the trees in replacement. Statistics show the forest administration has spent Rs 1.55 billion in the past eight years to plant 114.6 million plants. However, there is no data on how many plants grew to become a tree. This shows that there is no guarantee that the trees felled in Nijgudh will be replaced. There is no basis to believe that another forest area will developed by planting the new plants.
Furthermore, Nepal Army has been given the responsibility to cut down the trees. EIA report states this. When we look at the history of conservation, all the remaining national parks and wildlife reserves have been preserved Nepali soldiers. Nepal Army has played a vital role in the conservation sector and the world has been viewing the army as a responsible body in Nepal’s conservation effort. What kind of message is the government trying to send by handing over the responsibility to Nepal Army to cut down the trees of the forest known for its bio diversity? Has anyone paid attention about the message the step will send in the world? Nepal Army itself should analyze the issue even as questions have been raised about the army’s involvement in development activities.
Minister Adhikari has agreed to cut down the forest. The government has finalized the plan to build the international airport by clearing Charkoshe forest. The dream of prosperous Nepal shown by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to the people won’t be fulfilled with such a short-sighted development plan. Therefore, you should once think yourself about the ways to save the trees, plants, animals and birds of Nijgadh airport. Please think before Nepal Army uses the axes on the trees.
Translated version of article appeared in Nagarik Daily on August 17
