Resham Chepang, 40, of Piple-2, Chitwan was killed in firing when the group escaped as the patrol tried to nab them, according to Colonel Ram Chandra KC of Nanda Baksh Battalion, which is deployed for security at CNP. [break]
The incident occurred near the confluence of the Rapti and Lothar rivers at around 7:30 P.M.. Chepang was shot in the head and seven sal logs were recovered from the spot by the patrol.
“We don´t need any sal logs. He must have gone there for the money promised for carrying the logs,” claimed Chepang´s wife Nir Maya. The Chepangs, who had been living for years at Piple-2 had just acquired a new house with corrugated iron roofing under a government project.
Nir Maya claimed that the landless couple had been working for daily wages and raising three children. Chepang had gone to Malaysia for work but returned six months before completing a two-year stint for lack of a good job.
“Someone else had gotten him to carry the timber and he has lost his life,” said member of the Nepal Chepang Association,Yaman Chepang. Sunita Chepang, a local, said that Resham must have been tempted into the risky work because of poverty.
Four persons have been killed on the charge of poaching timber in the last six years and all of them are impoverished folks living in the vicinity of the CNP. Felling trees inside CNP is illegal and security personnel can open fire at those who enter the park without tickets or through an unauthorized entry point.
A former officer at the CNP says that poor locals are lured by smugglers into timber poaching. “A few top level individuals involved in smuggling rhino horn have been arrested but all those arrested in timber smuggling are poor folks lured into carrying the wood for a few hundred bucks,” the former officer claimed.
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