It has been revealed that of the total 907 rifles (3.3 rifles) and 65 pistols currently in possession of the Department of Forest (DoF), 207 rifles and 25 pistols are completely dysfunctional.
The DoF has also not received the weapons it had provided to the Nepal Police during the Maoist insurgency. It had then given 451 rifles and 25 pistols to the police. The DoF has seized 16 rifles and 5 pistols lately.
- Total 907 rifles, 65 pistols in DoF possession
- 207 rifles, 25 pistols don´t work
- 451 rifles, 25 pistols submitted to Nepal Police
- Request for 674 rifles, 66 pistols and ammunition with Defense Ministry
- DoF seized 16 rifles, 5 pistols lately
- None of the weapons with nine men in Sah case worked
The DoF had sought additional weapons for the guards way back in March and wrote a request letter to the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation (MoFSC) on March 22 seeking additional supply of arms and ammunition. As per the request, the Ministry had sent a similar request letter to the Defense Ministry on April 14 asking for an additional 674 rifles and 66 pistols along with 67,400 rounds of rifle bullets and another 1296 rounds of pistol bullets. It is yet to receive a reply.
"Even after eight months of making the request we have not heard from the Defense Ministry," Krishna Chandra Paudel, the chief of the Department of Environment at MoFSC and the then Director General of DoF told myrepublica.com.
According to Paudel, the districts now facing most threat from poachers and encroachers are Rautahat, Kailali, Bara, Bardiya and Udayapur. He added, "We must arm the guards to save the forest."
The issue came to the fore after the 39-year old Ram Lal Sah, a ranger of Brindaban range post of Chetnagar area forest office, was killed at Bathan check point in Rautahat on December 19. He was a local of Pathuwa Maheshpur.
Asked to comment, Minister of Forest and Soil Conservation said, "The weapon that our guards carried just did not work." He said that the incident could have been "averted" had the guards been fully armed.
Meanwhile, Defense Ministry Spokesperson Shreedhar Pokharel said that he is "not aware" of the issue.
akanshya@myrepublica.com
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