Lease out through competition

The seven resorts inside Chitwan National Park (CNP) have remained closed for more than a week after the expiry of their lease contracts on July 15. An intensified lobbying for and against the renewal of contracts has polarized even ministers and bureaucrats. The Prime Minister’s Office has been dragged into the matter. The seven resorts – Tiger Tops, Machan Wildlife Camp, Chitwan Jungle Lodge, Gaida Wildlife Camp, Island Jungle Resort, Narayani Safari Lodge and Temple Tiger – have blamed that the government has given them a raw deal by “suddenly” closing the resorts, ignoring the fact that they have invested millions of rupees in building infrastructure.



Both the Ministers for Tourism and Civil Aviation, Sarat Singh Bhandari, and Minister for Forest and Land Conservation, Dipak Bohara, have taken sides with the resort owners and have even lobbied with the prime minister to immediately renew their contract. Minister Bhandari has even argued that if the contract is not renewed immediately, it will be a setback to Nepal Tourism Year 2011 and Nepal’s wildlife tourism. But the bureaucrats in the ministry and wildlife management bodies have opposed renewal of the contracts and have instead called for awarding fresh contracts through international competition.



We support the position of senior bureaucrats on this since it’s the most legitimate view. The resorts should not have been inside the national park in the first place. But since these resorts have been there for so long and many tourists come to Nepal to experience a rare luxury of staying inside the national park, it might be reasonable to argue for continuation of this practice. But the government must fulfill two conditions: First, it should award contracts through international competition to maximize the revenue and royalty, and second, the resorts should be made to strictly follow environmental norms so that they do not harm the ecological balance of the national park.



We are appalled by the argument of the current resort owners that the resorts were closed suddenly. The Buffer Zone Management Regulations and National Park and Wildlife Conservation Regulations clearly state that the contracts to operate resorts inside the national parks will be awarded through competition once the current contracts expire. So how come they were ignorant of what was coming? We are also equally shocked by the revelations that some of the current resorts have not paid revenues and built permanent structures inside the national park violating the national park regulations. The government should immediately take measures to collect the dues and penalize them for creating permanent structures like swimming pool and concrete buildings. Everyone should be treated equally before the law of the land.

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