- New guidelines intended to streamline relief and compensation for human-wildlife conflict victims in Nepal have instead created a bottleneck in the process.
- Implementation challenges arise as forest offices lack budgets under the new arrangement, hindering their ability to provide compensation.
- Human-wildlife conflict remains a significant challenge in Nepal, with more than 200 fatalities reported in the past five years, prompting discussions on alternative solutions such as insurance-based schemes
KATHMANDU — New rules that were supposed to make it easier for Nepalis affected by human-wildlife conflict to receive relief and compensation have created a bottleneck in the process instead.
The guidelines on distribution of relief and compensation in human-wildlife cases, which came into effect July 17, 2023, allowed people to claim compensation and relief for damages from the provincial forest office close to their area of residence rather than visiting the office of the nearest protected area.
“The forest offices have been unable to provide compensation and relief, as they haven’t received a budget from the provincial government following the new arrangement,” said Bed Kumar Dhakal, spokesperson for the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation.
In Nepal, while protected areas fall under the jurisdiction of the federal Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, the divisional forest offices, under provincial forest ministries, look after forested areas outside national parks.
“We receive a lot of calls every day seeking compensation for damages, especially by monkeys and leopards,” said Bishnu Prasad Acharya, head of the divisional forest office in Dhading. “But we have been unable to provide any compensation, as we haven’t received any budget from the province,” Acharya told Mongabay.
The new guidelines included 16 types of animals, up from 14 in the previous guidelines. Nilgai antelope (Boselaphus tragocamelus) and monkeys, seen as pests by farmers in Nepal’s southern plains and middle hills respectively, were new additions to the list.
The other animals are elephants (Elephas maximus indicus), rhinos (Rhinoceros unicornis), tigers (Panthera tigris), bears, leopards (P. pardus), snow leopards (P. uncia), clouded leopards (Neofelis nebulosa), wolves (Canis lupus), dholes (Cuon alpinus), wild boars (Sus scrofa), wild water buffalo (Bubalus arnee), mugger crocodiles (Crocodylus palustris), pythons and gaur cattle (Bos gaurus).
The guidelines stated the government must provide relief and compensation to Nepali nationals if their livestock, including fish and fowl, are attacked, provided they’re on private land. People are also entitled to compensation if their stored food items or crops planted on private land are damaged.
Human-wildlife conflict has emerged as a major stumbling block for conservation in Nepal, where people continue to be killed or injured or suffer losses due to wild animals such as tigers, elephants and rhinos. Farmers also have to deal with crop damage by animals such as monkeys and nilgai. However, receiving compensation and relief from the government isn’t easy due to bureaucratic red tape and the necessity to travel long distances to file complaints.
Over the past five years, more than 200 people have been killed in wildlife-related incidents, and the government has distributed 645 million rupees ($4.9 million) in relief and compensation, according to the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation.
Spokesperson Dhakal from the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation said his office is in talks with the provincial governments to take ownership of the compensation and relief program outside of protected areas. But that has proven to be a challenge, he added.
“There’s no option for us to switch to insurance-based schemes sooner or later.”
Banner image: Two sloth bears (Melursus ursinus). Image by Janice Sveda, Smithsonian’s National Zoo via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
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