Forest ministry demands army deployment in CNP buffer-zone as poaching increases

Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation (MoFSC) has requested Ministry of Defense (M0D) to deploy army in Chitwan National Park’s buffer-zone to curb poaching.

At an emergency meeting held at the defense ministry, Monday forest minister Deepak Bohara stressed on the need of army deployment in the buffer-zone after three rhinos were killed by poachers in CNP and surrounding area in a span of two weeks.

Nepal Army looks after the security in eight national parks and three wildlife conservation areas across the country. But, it does not look after the security of the buffer-zones.

NA had been reluctant to deploy army in the buffer-zones as it needs to take permission to deploy army outside the national park areas from the Joint Monitoring Coordinating Committee (JMCC) for arms and army management as per the Agreement on Monitoring the Management of Arms and Armies and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

However, after the rise in poaching activities NA has agreed to deploy its personnel in the buffer zones.

At the meeting, defense minister Bidhya Bhandari agreed to instruct NA for army deployment as per the law.

Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) Chhatra Man Singh Gurung, and Inspector Generals o f Nepal Police and Armed Police Force (APF) Ramesh Chand Thakuri and Sanat Kumar Basnet, respectively, who were also present at the meeting, said they were ready deploy security forces at the buffer zones as per the instruction of the government.

The rare one-horned rhino is in the list of endangered species and is found only in Nepal and India. According to the latest rhino count, there are a little more than 400 rhinos in the country.

The number had been reduced to 372 in 2006 from 544 in 1996 as the army had to shift focus from curbing poaching activities to fighting insurgency.

Rhinos are poached for its precious horn.