Kathmandu – The concerned authority has not been able to control wild animal attacks in the recent time due to lack of human resources. Chiefs at the District Division Forest Office said the challenges have emerged in controlling the wild animal attacks especially leopard owing to lack of trained human resources at the District Division Office.
Mohan Kafle, Chief at the Division Forest Office, Lamjung, said the leopard attacks have been increasing lately and there are no trained human resources to control such attacks. According to the Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation, the leopard attacks have increased in Kavre, Tanahun, Lamjung, Kaski, Syangja and Arghakhanchi, among other districts.
The human resources capable to control wildlife attacks are only in the national park. But the problem of wildlife attacks is increasing outside the national park.
Kafle said that they have urged the Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation to control and rescue the wild animals. Only the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, Chitwan National Park and Bardiya National Park have trained manpower who can control the wild animal attacks. District Forest Chiefs of Kaski, Syangja, Tanahun, Arghakhanchi, Lamjung, Dang and Nawalpur lamented that they did not get the human resources when they want.
Earlier in November 2018, a team of national park had reached Bhanu of Tanahun to control the leopard that had been attacking children in the past few months, four days after the locals urged the Division Forest Office to send a team to take the wild cat under control. Division Forest Office Chief KedarBaral said that the office could not send the team on time due to the lengthy bureaucratic process. “We have to tell the Department of Forest. The Department will urge Department of National Park and Wildlife and then the National Park will send the team,” he said.
Bishnu Prasad Shrestha, Information Officer at the Department of National Park and Wildlife, said the department could not send the team on time in all the places due to lack of human resources. He said that there is need of capable human resources to control and rescue the wild animals as the cases of wildlife attacks have been increasing day by day in various districts. “We have already informed the Ministry about the shortage of capable human resources. The demand of capable manpower has been increasing,” he said.
Labyrinthine procedure is the another reason that the concerned district could not get the human resource on time.According to administrative structure, the Division Forest Office falls under the province government. The Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation is under the federal government. KedarBaral, Chief at the Division Forest Office, Tanahun, said that Division Forest Office should demand the concerned agency at the province for the human resources. The human resources will be fanned out only after the province urge the Department of Forest under the federal government and Department of Forest requests the Department of National Park and Wildlife.
The most interesting thing is that the government has deployed 9,242 Nepal Army personnel to protect 12 national parks, one hunting reserve and one wildlife reserve. According to Department of National Park and Wildlife, Nepal government and donor agencies spend around Rs 2 billion in the national parks and wildlife reserves.
Wildlife attacks on the rise
AmritGurung, 10, of Dhalkebar, Bhanu Municipality-2, Tanahun, died in a leopard attack on December 1, 2018. Earlier on November 15, 2018, four-year-old RanjitaLamsal of Jokhane, Bhanu Municipality-4 also lost her life in a leopard attack. According to KedarBaral, Chief at the Division Forest Office, Tanahun, three children were killed in a span of nine months.
According Division Forest Office, Arghakhanchi, 14 children had died in the attack of big cat in the last five years. Earlier, Aryan Ghimire, 4, of Dhikura, Bhumisthan Municipality-9 died when a leopard attacked him on November 3, 2018. Like Arghakhanchi and Tanahun, 23 children lost their lives when leopard attacked them in the last six years in Baitadi.
Department of National Park and Wildlife said the attack on human beings and domestic animals has increased in the hilly areas like Lamkung,Tanahun, Kaski, Syangja, Arghakhanchi, Baitadi, Kavre and Kathmandu in the last few years. But the problem of rhino, tiger and elephant, among other animals, has been increasing in various districts of Tarai.
Chandra Bahadur Rana, Chief at the Madhyabindu Municipality, said that wild animals that came from the Chitwan National Park in Nawalpur district have been destroying the crops and have been attacking the human beings. BinayaTribeni, Kawasoti, Gaindakot of Nawalpur and Shivapur Municipality of Kapilvastu and Gadhawa and Rajpur of Dang and Rapti Rural Municipality have also been facing the same problem. Director General at the Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation Man Bahadur Khadka said that there are many incidents that human beings and wild animals clash in the settlement near the jungle of Tarai as the wild animals often go to another jungle outside the national park.
Plight of local government
Local government has been facing a big problem due to the clash between human beings and wild animals. Dambar Bahadur GC, Chief at the BinayaTribeni Municipality, Nawalpur, said that they have been facing two challenges at present—to protect the crops from wild animals and conserve the wild animals. “People come to us with the complaint that the wild animals destroyed their crops. But we have not been able to do anything for them,” he said, adding, “All we can do is provide the compensation.” GC said that 15 km area of BinayaTribeni Municipality is connected with the national park.
GC said that he alone cannot do anything to resolve this problem. He said that installing fence wires has already been started with the Rs 700,000 provided by the government.
However, some municipalities have started doing exemplary works to protect the wild animals and to protect the crops from wild animals. Kawasoti Municipality, Nawalpur has started constructing walls in 17 km area connected with the buffer zone. Chief Administrative Office at the Kawasotu Municipality Roshan Gyawali said that they have already spent Rs 10.1 million to construct the walls. He said that they are planning to construct the walls from Kawasoti-11 to Kawasoti-17. He added an agreement of Rs 70 million has already been signed to construct the 7-km wall. “The Municipality started constructing the walls to protect the wild animals and protect crops from the wild animals,” Gyawali said.
Earlier on March 16, 2019, Tek Bahadur Raut of Rapti Municipality-9, Dang, was injured in a beer attack at Kuthruke. He spent Rs 100,000 for the treatment. Rapti Municipality Chief NumanandaSubedi said that the municipality provided Rs 4,500 to Raut for medical treatment. “People come at the municipality office with different kinds of problems, but we don’t have human resources to resolve all kinds of problems,” Subesi said, adding, “The problem of wild animals should be resolved as this is the issue of national level.”
