National park authorities have failed to claim the national park's area from encroachers and remain indifferent to the growing encroachment. Areas near Kohalpur, Mahadevpuri, Kanchanpur, Khaskusma, Nauwasta, Chisapani have been massively encroached with new settlements in these areas increasing rapidly. Chet Bahadur Oli, a ranger claimed that around 80 percent of public land being used for personal use by the encroachers belongs to the national park.
"Land belonging to the national park has been used for house, toilet and some have even farmed fish, goat and pig," Oli informed. Along with that some swaths of the national park's land has been used for storing construction materials like stones, sand and wood by local businessmen. Park officials estimate that around 150 hectors of land is encroached alone in Banke district. Officials claim that two hector land of Pushpanjali Madhyawarti community forest of Banke Mahadevpuri-6 have been encroached alone.
Besides Banke, large swaths of the park's land have been encroached in Dang and Salyan districts, officials claimed. While the park is optimistic in reclaiming its land from the illegal settlers in Banke, they claim that it difficult to reclaim land in Salyan and Dang districts. Due to remoteness of the areas and lack of road transportation in those districts, the officials claim that it is hard for acquiring territorial data of the park and removing any encroachers.
Responding to the increasing cases of encroachment, the National Park is preparing to document its property and removing illegal settlers from its territory from the current fiscal year. Park's Warden Lalbahadur Bhandari alluded the rampant encroachment to unstable political situation of the nation but claimed that the park will remove all encroachers once it documents its territories. He informed that in the first stage, the national park will document its territory data from Banke and than the suit will follow in Dang and Salyan districts.
Bhandari informed that they the park has already issues notices to the encroachers and claimed that the park will take legal actions against those who don't cooperate.
"For now, we have asked all the encroachers to clear their settlement from the national park's area," he said adding further, "if they don't than we will take legal actions against them." Despite Bhandari's assertion that the park will remove the encroachers, the ground reality is different. The encroachers, which include local political leader, teachers and intellectuals, have built permanent structure on the encroached land and have demanded compensation from the national park, if they are to abandon them.
Photo Caption: Banke National Park
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