Mourning the best of Nepal's conservation people

[Guest guest]

Animal Nepal mourns the death of 20 conservation friends and 4 crew

members during a copter crash in Kanchenjunga on the 23rd. We pray for

the souls of the departed and wish their relatives and friends much

strength and compassion.

 

We knew many of those who passed away. During our campaigns we regularly

met with reps of the Min of Forestry including Dr Maskey, Dr Gurung,

Poudel and Parajuli. The loss is enormous as the best of Nepal's

conservation people are among the deceased.

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The Shree Airlines helicopter carrying 24 people on board missing since

Saturday morning has been located two kilometers south west of Ghunsa in

Taplejung district. According to the Nepali Army Public Relations office

a seven member rescue team located the crash site. None of the

passengers have survived the crash and only two of the bodies are in a

recognizable state. Rescue attempts had been hampered due to bad weather

since the day of the crash. The chopper had lost contact minutes after

taking off from Ghunsa and locals had reported hearing a loud explosion

causing fears that it might have crashed.

 

The helicopter was carrying some of Nepal's top conservationists

including noted geographer Dr Harka Gurung, World Wildlife Fund for

Nature Nepal's country representative Dr Chandra P Gurung, former

director of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation

Dr Tirtha Man Maskey, Minister of State of Forests and Soil Conservation

Gopal Rai, his wife, Acting Secretary – Ministry of State of Forests and

Soil Conservation Dr Damodar Parajuli, Director General of Department of

National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Mr Narayan Poudel, Director

General of Department of Forests Mr Sharad Rai, Charge d’Affaires

Embassy of Finland Pauli Mustonnen, Deputy Director, USAID Ms Margaret

Alexander, Program Development Specialist USAID Bijnan Acharya,

Conservation Director WWF UK Dr Jill Bowling, Coordinator, WWF UK Ms

Jennifer Headley, Managing Director, EHEC, WWF US Mingma Norbu Sherpa,

Program Officer, WWF US Matthew Preece, Mrs Yeshi Lama from WWF Nepal,

Mr Vijaya Shrestha from FNCCI, Mr Hem Raj Bhandari and Mr Sunil Singh

from Nepal Television, Chairperson of Kanchenjunga Conservation Area

Management Committee Mr Dawa Tshering, and four crew members consisting

of two Russian pilots and two Nepali crew members.

 

The team had gone to the remote area of Ghunsa in the north-eastern most

district of Taplejung for the official handing over of the management of

the Kanchenjuna Conservation Area Project to the local community.