Nepalese royals misused National Trust for Nature Conservation, says audit report

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:

 

 

Nepalese royals misused National Trust for Nature Conservation, says

audit report

 

KATHMANDU--A three-member audit committee on March 26, 2008

confirmed years of rumors that the Nepalese royal family had

extensively misused the King Mahendra National Trust for Nature

Conservation.

Examining financial records from 2000-2006, the audit

committee reported that, " Millions [in Nepalese rupees] were spent on

travels abroad and lavish parties, " summarized the Nepal Horizons

News Service, in an account also internationally distributed

verbatim by the Indo-Asian News Service.

" Money meant for boosting Nepal's conservation efforts was

instead spent by Queen Komal when she went to Britain for her annual

health checkups; by King Gyanendra during his foreign trips during

his army-backed absolute rule; and by Crown Prince Paras, "

Gyanendra's son, " who went to Austria and France with his wife and

became embroiled in rhino diplomacy, " the Nepal Horizons News

Service said.

Gyanendra, the present king of Nepal, surrendered his reign

in 2006. He headed the NTNC from formation in 1982 until his

ascension to the throne in 2001, when Paras succeeded him in charge

of the NTNC.

The NTNC audit report was released just two weeks ahead of an

April 10, 2008 election, in which Nepalese voters are to decide

whether to retain a constitutional monarchy or to become a democratic

republic.

Charles Haviland, the Kathmandu correspondent for BBC News,

questioned the sources and timing of the audit report.

" While many Nepalis will find the report plausible, it has

not come from an entirely objective source, " Haviland objected.

" All three of its authors are Maoists, as the ministry which

controls the conservation trust is now headed by a minister from the

former rebel group. A recent newspaper article alleged that the

trust was now staffed with many Maoist supporters or activists who

have minimal conservation expertise. The article said some foreign

donors were suspending their co-operation as a result. "

But the audit report allegations chiefly add detail to

matters already on the public record.

Paras, recalled the Nepal Horizons News Service, " was sent

to Austria in a bid to improve Nepal's strained ties with western

governments after King Gyanendra seized power through a bloodless

coup, " soon after Crown Prince Dipendra, an avid hunter, on June

1, 2001 shot nine members of the royal family, including the

previous king and queen, and then shot himself.

Paras and his wife took two endangered Nepalese one-horned rhinos to

the Schonnbrun Zoo in Vienna. State-run Nepalese media depicted this

as an official state visit, but international and independent media

soon revealed that no ranking Austrian government representatives

were involved.

" Since King Gyanendra's ascension to the throne, " Nepal Horizons

News Service continued, " the nature trust spent over one million

Nepalese rupees on alcohol and hotel bills. Three laptops, a

[desktop] computer, an air compressor and four vehicles, "

collectively valued at about $90,625, " were carted away by staff of

Nirmal Niwas, the residence of the crown prince, and never

returned. "

Published NTNC financial statements from 2005 and 2006 show

expenditures of $47,597 and $45,170 on " international promotion and

travel, " apart from other promotional costs, and $11,617 and

$11,913 for " entertainment, " but give no further details.

" Much of the money released by the fund was used for entertaining

the royal family, " affirmed NTNC secretary in charge Bimal Kumar

Baniya in a statement to news media.

Added the Nepal Horizons News Service, " The probe also found that

after Crown Prince Paras was named in a hit and run accident, in

which a popular folk singer was killed, money from the trust fund

was used to repair Paras' damaged vehicle. "

The accident, on August 6, 2000, was initially reported as Paras'

second fatal hit-and-run while driving drunk, and later identified

as his fourth.

The vehicle, a jeep, was registered to the NTNC. The victim,

Prabin Gurung, was knocked off his motorcycle. A soldier, Khadka

Bhujel, claimed to have been the driver, despite having no

association with the NTNC. Gurung's widow issued a statement

exonerating Paras after accepting cash compensation. Charges were

filed against Bhujel, but were later withdrawn, after a month of

public protests against the alleged cover-up.

The case became a landmark in the sequence of events leading to the

2006 loss of royal power. The royal handling of the case led to

widespread skepticism of Paras' role as the only unscathed ranking

survivor of the 2001 palace massacre.

Founded in 1982, the NTNC manages Nepalese wildlife and nature

conservation projects, cultural heritage sites, ecotourism, and

" sustainable development. " The NTNC operates 16 national parks,

the Central Zoo, the Nepalese access points for Himalayan climbing

and trekking, and a major gender equality program that provides

education and jobs for women, especially in rural areas.

The NTNC raised about $3 million in 2005, the last full year

under royal control, and $3.7 million in 2006, dropping the royal

name and affiliation in October 2006. About 40% of the NTNC income

in 2005 and 2006 came from foreign grants and investment. Most of

the remainder came from tourism fees.

King Mahendra ruled Nepal from 1955 until his death in 1972.

He abolished all political parties in 1959 and reigned thereafter as

an absolute monarch. Mahendra had no direct role in creating the

NTNC, but was instrumental in the evolution of two of the most

renowned NTNC holdings.

he Central Zoo, now attracting nearly 900,000 visitors a

year, almost all of them Nepalese, was founded in 1932 as a private

menagerie by then-prime minister Juddha Sumsher J.B. Rana. The Rana

family dominated Nepalese politics for several decades before the

re-ascendance of the monarchy in 1951. In a popular gesture symbolic

of the Rana downfall, Mahendra opened the Central Zoo to the public

in 1956.

Royal Chitwan National Park originated as a Rana hunting

preserve. Mahendra designated part of it as a rhino sanctuary in

1963, and authorized the creation of the park, Nepal's first, in

1970, but died a year before it actually opened in 1973.

Representing Nepal in dealings with the World Wildlife Fund

at least since 1976, Gyanendra with his wife Queen Komal Rajya Laxmi

and his daughter Princess Perna in June 2002 sacrificed a buffalo, a

goat, a sheep, a duck, and a pigeon at the Goddess Kamakhya temple

in Guwahati, Assam. The actual killing was done by royal priest

Acharya Raguhunath Aryal, who flew to Guwahati from Kathmandu for

the ceremony.

Gyanendra returned the following day to sacrifice a second goat.

Gyanendra had previously sacrificed animals at the Kalighat temple in

Kolkata, but " abstained from sacrifice " in Kolkata after protest

greeted his visits, Compassionate Crusaders Trust founder Debasis

Chakrabarti wrote to ANIMAL PEOPLE in November 2004, and reaffirmed

to the Indo-Asian News Service in November 2007.

Gyanendra continued to sacrifice animals in Nepal, however,

killing a goat in October 2007 to initiate the annual Dashain

sacrificial festival.

With the Nepalese parliament dissolved, Gyanendra in May 2004

decreed a " Wildlife Farming, Reproduction and Re-search " policy that

authorized ranching barking deer, spotted deer, black buck,

sambar, hog deer, wild boar, antelope, gharial crocodiles, and

five species of pheasant, including the Impeyan pheasant--the

national bird.

The Gyanendra government had already issued permits for

commercially breeding rhesus macaques, snakes, and vultures.

The macaques are raised for export to U.S.

laboratories, in collaboration with the University of Washington

Regional Primate Research Center. The project, begun in September

2003, is funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Only

captive-bred macaques may be imported into the U.S., but after

several years of constructing facilities, the Nepal Bio-Medical

Research Center started breeding macaques in 2007 with 300 captured

from the wild.

The snakes are raised for medicinal use, including both the

production of antivenins and traditional remedies made from snake

remains.

Efforts were apparently made to breed vultures in anticipation of a

market for captive birds to facilitate " sky burial " by Parsees and

others whose traditional disposal of human remains has been

jeopardized by the declining Indian vulture population.

--Merritt Clifton

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

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Fax: 360-579-2575

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