Forest Minister Mahammad Wakil Musalman has recently approved a controversial plan to allow elephants owned by hotels operating in the buffer zone of the CNP, not actually-protected area, into the park for two months. [break]
Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation (MoFSC) has already informed CNP officials to allow privately-owned elephants from the buffer zone to enter the park.
However, the MoFSC has categorically asked the CNP officials to not allow more than 10 elephants into the park at one time. As safaris are generally conducted twice a day, 20 private elephants can enter the park every day with approval from the MoFSC. Currently, various hotels operating in the buffer zone own about 40 tuskers.
There are already almost 100 elephants -- around 60 owned by the government and some 35 owned by hotels operated in the actual conservation area -- within the CNP. The government´s decision means there will be more elephants jostling for space in the park area, posing threat to the eco-system and biodiversity of the park.
Although the MoFSC has fixed the number of privately-owned elephants from the buffer zone for their collective entry into the park for now, conservation experts fear that it could still be detrimental to the unique biodiversity of the park, which has been listed as a world heritage site by the UNESCO.
“Taking into consideration the monopoly of the government-owned elephants inside the CNP, privately-owned elephants must not be stopped from getting into the park,” says biodiversity expert Dr Tirtha Bahadur Shrestha, adding, “However, an assessment needs to be done before allowing mass entry of private elephants.”
Dr Shrestha says, “The government has already made a big mistake by not assessing the chances of new diseases while allowing the entry of camels into the park. It could be another mistake if the government allowed herds of elephants into the park just for the sake of generating more revenue without looking into possible dangers.”
The plan for lifting the ban on the entry of privately-owned elephants into the park was prepared after a panel submitted a report to the MoFSC.
However, conservation activists have rejected the authenticity of the report on the ground that the panel, headed by then chief warden of the CNP, included many of those hoteliers who wanted free entry to their elephants into the park.
Related story
CIAA files corruption case against 12 officials for allowing co...
