KATHMANDU, Nepal- With the number of wild animals increasing, the concerned government and non-government agencies share happiness with each other. And, of course, this is a reason to be happy, as earth is the common home for all and for balanced eco-system we need them as well. But for some families who live near by the jungle, National Parks and Conservation Areas, the rising number are always the alarm for upcoming problems. Many times life threatening too!
And, according to conservationists, this human-wild conflict is the reason that Nepal has not achieved much in the field of conservation of wild animals specially declining ones.
At least five people were killed and six injured at Pandavnagar of Gardi-4 in Chiwan district due to attacks of wild animals straying out of the Chitwan National Park (CNP) in the past seven months, reported the vernacular daily Kantipur in its Wednesday edition.
As a result, nine families have been displaced from the village while those living there are also restricted to their houses in the evenings.
The villagers have a woeful plight of homelessness and restrictions to free movement.
A wild elephant named Dhrube caused havoc in villages adjoining the CNP, killing a man named Ramesh Adhikari and a Bote couple (Budhai Bote and his wife Jariya) seven months ago and damaged property and crops worth thousands of rupees. Though the government and locals have launched a hunt for it, whereabouts of Dhurbe is still unknown. But the villagers are still feared to the day if it comes again?
After Dhrube, other wild animals are troubling locals these days. Jen Kumar Bote, chairman of the Bote Society, said local Somal Bote was killed when a rhinoceros attacked him last week. Somal was fishing in the Rapti river in the evening when the incident occurred. Similarly, a wild bear attacked local Gore Chhetri one month ago. Chhetri died while undergoing treatment.
Indra Prasad Kafle, Gardi VDC secretary, said many villagers are migrating to safer places due to wild animals’ attacks of late.
At Bardiya National Park, locals are wasting their time on running after the wild animals that entered in their farms to destroy them. The population of wild elephants has dramatically increased there in the last few years which is enough for the rampagers invade into villages and farmland of locals living in the BNP buffer zone.
Local forest office in assistance of different agencies had built electric fencing the areas to restrict animals from entering the villages and farmlands.
CNP’s Chief Conservation Officer Kamal Jung Kunwar said they are planning to prevent wildlife from entering the village. “We will fence the village with electric barbed wire soon,” he said.
