Govt grants new lease for CNP resorts

The ministerial meeting held on Tuesday has granted the permission for the seven resorts inside the Chitwan National Park (CNP) to operate their business as usual for three more years. The hotels had remained closed since July 15 due to the controversial issue of contract renewal.

Deepak Bohara, Minister for Forest and Soil Conservation said, " The government decided to allow the resorts to operate as usual till 2012 after which they have to quit,” said. He said that the three years was ample time for them for preparing for an exit and relocating their businesses outside the park area.

Following the controversy, the case was taken up by the Public Account Committee (PAC) for investigation. The PAC at first recommended the government to allow the hotels to operate till that year keeping in mind the importance of Nepal Tourism Year 2011 but the parliamentary committee on natural resources intervened halting the implementation of the PAC decision arguing that the matter was a concern of the natural resource committee.

According to article 3 of the National Park and Wildlife Conservation Regulation 1973, CNP has the power to permit any lodge and resort inside the CNP but it has to follow a tender process. But under an agreement, which was renewed in 1993 for 16 years, the resorts had been allowed to operate inside the CNP without going through a formal tender process.

Minister Bohara said that after the new decision, there was no need of a tender process. “Resorts inside the park will leave in 2012 once and for all," he said.

The resorts inside the CNP are blamed for degrading natural habitat of the wildlife and are even blamed for being involved in poaching wild animals. A majority of the staffers at the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation (MoFSC) along with the local residents and conservationists had solidly backed the proposal for the closure of the resorts.

The cabinet meeting has also decided to declare two more conservation areas — Gaurishanker Conservation Area (2,035 sq km) in Dolakha and Ramechhap, and Api Nampa (1,900 sq km) in Darchula district, said Shanker Pokharel, Minister for Information and Communications.