The CNP ordered the resorts -- Tiger Tops Jungle Lodge, Machan Wildlife Camp, Chitwan Jungle Lodge, Gaida Wildlife Camp, Island Jungle Resort, Hotel Narayani Safari and Temple Tiger Camp -- to stop their operation after their lease contracts expired on July 15. Tiger Tops had signed a 20-year lease contract in 1989, whereas the other resorts were operating under 15-year lease contracts signed in 1994.
"We have long been demanding the government to relocate hotels operating inside the park. Similar is the demands of conservationists. We will strongly resist if the government extended the lease contract under the pressure of influential people,” said Hari Bhakta Ghimire, president, Sauraha Regional Hotel Association.
Ghimire also said that hoteliers outside the park had joined hands against the ones operating inside the park because they believed that the resorts operating inside the CNP were spreading false notion that only they were providing good services to the tourists.
More than five dozen hotels are operating outside the CNP in Sauraha.
"We are preparing to launch protest against the government, as Minister for Forest and Soil Conservation Deepak Bohara has hinted at extending the contracts during a recent meeting with us," Shankar Sainju, another hotelier of Sauraha, said.
Sauraha hoteliers claimed that the benefits of tourism from the hotels operating inside the CNP could not trickle down to local communities even after decades of their operation.
The hoteliers have also threatened to take the issue to the court if the lease contracts were renewed.
"We will be compelled to search legal remedies because the extension of lease contract would be against the existing National Park and Wildlife Conservation Act," added Sainju.
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