RTL Today – Government issues regulation: Nepalese nature threatened by new development impulse: nature conservationists

Nepalese conservationists on Thursday condemned new regulations allowing hydropower and hotel projects in protected wildlife reserves, saying they threatened to damage the habitats of tigers and other endangered animals.

A fifth of the Himalayan republic’s total land area has been designated as protected areas established to ban infrastructure projects that could harm the environment.

Nepal is praised worldwide for its fight against poachers and wildlife conservation, which has helped it bring several species back from the brink of local extinction.

However, the government last month issued a regulation allowing it to approve infrastructure projects in national parks, forests and other protected areas.

“The number of endangered tigers and one-horned rhinos in the country has grown tremendously thanks to these protected areas as they found a favorable environment,” Rampreet Yadav, a conservationist, told AFP.

“This decision allowing the construction of infrastructure will certainly have an impact on their habitat.”

Yadav, who is also the former conservation chief of Chitwan National Park, Nepal’s premier wildlife sanctuary, said the decision was driven by the “vested interests of political leaders”.

“We will have nothing to show and give to our next generation,” he said.

Thanks to Nepal’s protected habitat laws, the country’s local tiger population has tripled to 355 since 2010, while the number of one-horned rhinos has also increased from around a hundred in the 1960s to 752 in 2021.

Forest cover almost doubled between 1992 and 2016 following rampant logging.

Nepal is keen to develop its hydropower industry following the construction of dams since the turn of the century, which has given the country an installed capacity of more than 2,600 megawatts.

The country signed an agreement with India in January to export 10,000 megawatts of hydropower to its energy-hungry neighbor over the next decade.

Tourism is also a major source of income for Nepal, which attracted a million foreign visitors last year following a post-pandemic recovery, and investments are being made in hotels and airports to cater to travelers.

Ministry of Environment spokesperson Badri Raj Dhungana said the new regulations have been introduced to strike a balance between environmental protection and development.

“They will not be built in very sensitive areas. We need a work plan with appropriate maps,” he said.

But Padma Bahadur Shrestha, a lawyer specializing in conservation-related lawsuits, said the decision showed the government was determined to brush aside environmental concerns in its rush to development.

“It wants to destroy Nepal’s biodiversity to create new infrastructure,” he said.