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The environment in Chitwan National Park is considered suitable for rhinoceros. Similarly, Koshi Tappu Wildlife Sanctuary is famous for wild water buffalo, locally known as Arna. Likewise, Shuklaphanta has a suitable environment for swamp deer. These wildlife species thrive in these natural habitats. Of late, there have been efforts to translocate them to new locations, but these efforts have failed to deliver desired results.

In the past 36 years, 120 rhinos have been translocated from Chitwan National Park to Bardiya National Park. Of these 120 rhinos, only 38 remain. Similarly, four rhinoceroses were translocated to Shuklaphanta National Park in 20021 and another 10 in 2016. Shuklaphanta's rhino population has reached 17. In Bardiya, the number has decreased significantly.

Likewise, of the 15 Arna brought to Chitwan National Park (three from Central Zoo, Kathmandu, and 12 from Koshi Tappu), none survived. Four swamp deer brought from Shuklaphanta to Chitwan also couldn’t survive. 

At a time when translocation efforts are not delivering desired results, efforts are underway to take two rhinoceroses from Chitwan to Koshi Tappu. While preparations are underway to relocate two rhinoceroses rescued and raised by the park officials after they got separated from their mothers, conservation activists have been saying that wildlife relocation efforts have not been successful in Nepal. 

Rampreet Yadav, the former Chief Conservation Officer of Chitwan National Park, said translocations were being carried out without proper study and discussion. He said that is not in favor of translocation. “Rhinoceros population didn’t increase in Bardiya and Shuklaphanta. Likewise, swamp deer and Arna brought to Chitwan didn’t survive. This shows translocation efforts were not delivering desired results,” he added. “Proper consideration should be given to habitat, environment, and grazing grounds before translocation.”

Nepal had sent rhinoceroses to Dudhwa National Park in India after being denied relocation by Kaziranga National Park in Assam. But in Nepal, rhino translocations have been ongoing without assessing their success.

Nepal first translocated rhinoceroses to Bardiya in 1986. More rhinoceroses were moved to Bardiya in 2003 and 2017. In 2005, Bardiya had 67 rhinoceroses. The number dropped to 22 in 2008. As per the 2021 count, Bardiya has 38 rhinoceroses. National park officials say rhinos move from Bardiya to Katarniyaghat Wildlife Sanctuary in India.

Ten rhinoceroses were translocated to Shuklaphanta in March 2017. The number has grown to 17. Conservation activists say the population didn’t increase as expected because the habitat there, mainly composed of large grasslands, is not suitable for rhinoceroses. “Translocation would have made sense had there been a huge population of, say, 2,000-3,000 rhinos. Translocation is not a good move given the small size of the rhino population. It has not yielded any success,” Ram Kumar Aryal, former chief of National Trust for Nature Conservation, Sauraha, said. “The rhino population increased significantly in Chitwan, but it is decreasing in Bardiya.”

According to Aryal, more translocations will only invite more challenges for conservation. The two rhinos being prepared for translocation, Pushpa (four years) and Anjali (2.5 years), were rescued by conservation workers when they got separated from their mothers. These two calves were raised in NTNC Sauraha Office and released in the Lamital area of the national park. Pushpa and Anjali are being translocated to Koshi Tappu on Wednesday.

Tourism entrepreneurs in Sauraha have expressed dissatisfaction with rhino translocation. “Who will be responsible for the loss in rhino population due to translocations in the past?” Suman Ghimire, former president of the Regional Hotel Association of Nepal, Sauraha, said. “We are not against translocation. But a proper study and discussions should be held before relocation.”

June 6, 2005 is a day that lives in infamy. On this day 17 years ago, a jam-packed passenger bus was caught in an explosive ambush set up by the then Maoist insurgents in Bandarmude, Chitwan. The bus was carrying 120 passengers, of which 39 lost their lives on the spot, six others died in later dates, and 72 people were seriously maimed or injured. 

Krishna Adhikari, one of the survivors, is unable to shake off the memory of that fateful day. Though his wounds have healed, it still pains him to think that the persons who committed the heinous crime are still free. 

Most of the victims were civilians, with no concern whatsoever with the war between the Maoists and the state, Adhikari says. 

“Yet, we were attacked. Where are the people responsible?” he asks. 

Adhikari, like many other survivors and families of those killed in the incident, has been fighting tooth and nail for justice. But 17 years on, this struggle for justice has made little if no progress. 

Today, a concrete cenotaph stands on the incident site to commemorate the victims. Similarly, the incident’s anniversary is observed every year. But the promises made to the victims by the government and politicians, including CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, remain unfulfilled. Those promises included healthcare, jobs, and education.  

In the run-up to the 2017 parliamentary elections, Dahal had admitted that the Bandarmude incident was a grave mistake committed by his party during the insurgency and pledged in writing to redress the grievances of the victims. The three-point pledge never came to pass. 

Kanak Mani Dixit, writer and human rights activist, says the Bandarmude incident was not caused by some random booby-trap explosives. 

“It was a planned attack on a bus that was carrying mostly civilians,” he says. “The attackers saw the bus approaching the ambush site and pressed the detonator from a distance.” 

He has no explanation as to why even the local leaders are not speaking out to deliver justice to the innocent lives lost and destroyed in the incident. 

Sushil Pyakurel, another human rights activist, says the survivors and family members of people killed in the Bandarmude blast have been failed by the state. 

“The state has abandoned them. It’s as simple as that,” he says. “A passenger-carrying bus is ambushed intentionally, taking so many innocent lives. The guilty party has been established, and yet they remain unprosecuted.” 

Bishnumaya BK, another survivor of the incident, was traveling on the bus with her 13-month-old baby, on her way to see her parents in Pokhara. Her journey was cut short by a tragedy that changed her life forever.

She gets agitated if someone mentions the incident to her. 

“I have heard enough talks and promises of justice,” she says. “I am struggling to raise my family here. What good will a word of assurance do? Nobody is going to do anything.”

Inhabitants of Bandarjhula, located in the middle of a forest in Madi Municipality-9, have for years been asking for land-ownership certificates. But their demands have fallen on deaf ears.

Interestingly, the issue of land ownership makes its way to the top of political parties’ agenda every election season. Around 700 registered voters in this place are assured of certificates during elections but the promises are soon forgotten.    

Former Coordinator of Bandarjhula struggle committee, Rajkumar Praja, says many promises of land certificates since 1998 have gone begging. “The government allocates the budget, and another government agency stops it. And if our votes are legal, how can our lands be illegal?” he asks.

CPN (Maoist Centre) Chaiman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli had reached Madi with the agenda of party unification ahead of the last federal election in 2017. From the same podium, the two leaders had promised to address the problems of the residents of Bandarjhula—again to no avail.

Dahal, who has been frequently visiting Madi, last month reached Bandarjhula and expressed his worry over the issue. However, he is silent even as the National Park and Wildlife Conservation Act 1973 poses a hurdle to their land-ownership. Bandarjhula lies in a wildlife corridor. The act bars development and farming in such a corridor. Government officials say the place is not appropriate for human settlement.

This place lies in Chitwan election constituency-3, which Dahal won in 2017. In July 2020, Former Prime Minister Oli had claimed that Madi is the birth place of Lord Ram. Attempts are now being made to popularize Bandarjhula as Hanumanjhula.

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Before the last federal elections, another charismatic Rastriya Prajatantra Party leader Bikram Pandey was elected from here. The current provincial chief of Lumbini Province, Amik Sherchan, had become deputy prime minister after being elected from the same constituency. Prior to that, Nepali Congress leader Narayan Sharma became the Minister for Water Resources, and his predecessor Tirtha Bhusal is also from Madi.

Madi has elected many politicians who went on to hold influential positions, and the country has turned into a republic, but the plight of Bandarjhula inhabitants remains unchanged. The settlements are yet to be electrified and the Chitwan national park has been obstructing development works in the ‘transgressed’ or ‘captured area’.

The majority of people living in this place are from Chepang, indigenous and Dalit community. People from Makwanpur, Parsa, Lamjung, and Tanahun, among other districts, migrated to Bandarjhula which now has 660 households. Prior to this, Nepal Army personnel used to live there. Landless squatters moved in after the army left.

“We are being treated as foreign citizens in our own country,” says Sarada Acharya, Chairperson of Bandarjhula Struggle Committee. “All that we want is to be allowed to stay here. If that is not possible, let us be resettled in another place.”

As the demands for land ownership certificates were not heeded, the settlers had staged a relay hunger strike for four nights at Maitighar Mandala in Kathmandu. The protests culminated in a three-point deal between the National Land Commission and Bandarjhula struggle committee. The commission has pledged to provide land survey documents after completing all the required processes.

Last week, a group of foreign tourists visited the Park Safari Hotel in Sauraha. 

Hotel owners in the area say they are rejoiced to see foreigners return to Sauraha after a long time. Tourist arrivals had almost stopped for two consecutive years. 

The group, which comprised around 20 tourists from South Asian and European countries, brough given some rays of hope to the Covid-19-affected local businesses, they say. 

“Amid the doom and gloom in the tourism business, we see the return of tourists as a positive step,” says Mahesh Khanal, manager at Park Safari.

When Nepal went into lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, tourism, the mainstay of the town located close to the Chitwan National Park, was severely affected. While hundreds of hotels and resorts shut, thousands were left unemployed facing an uncertain future as the pandemic’s effects spread across the world. 

But with the vaccination drive picking up and infection rates going down across the country, tourism entrepreneurs in the area hope more tourists will come to Nepal and eventually to Sauraha, where domestic tourists have kept some businesses afloat during the weekends.

Other than the weekends, Sauraha, home to 160 hotels and resorts, these days is virtually silent. This silence continues to hurt businesses.

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Damodar Regmi, manager of Hotel Nature Heritage, says he is hopeful things will start getting back to normal soon. "I think the market will pick up again.”

The recent government decision to issue on-arrival visas to foreign tourists has also rekindled hope among local businessmen. Shyam Mahat, manager of Hotel Central Park says, “The decision to issue on-arrival visas will help tourism, and it will make things easier for all.”

But flying in to Nepal is still expensive compared to the pre-covid days. There are fewer flights connecting Nepal to the rest of the world and airfares are almost twice as expensive as in the past. 

Suman Ghimire, former president of the hotel association’s Chitwan chapter, said that it would be easier for foreign tourists to come to Nepal only if airfares are slashed. "When the number of flights increases, only can the tourism business prosper," he adds.

“In the last fiscal year, 92,209 people visited Chitwan National Park, out of which 1,364 were from SAARC nations. Of the 178 tourists who visited in July and August, 98 were from SAARC countries,” says Lokendra Adhikari, information officer of the park.