(IN-NP): After jumbos, tigers bare fangs between India, Nepal

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http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/002200907161422.htm

 

*After jumbos, tigers bare fangs between India, Nepal*

 

Kathmandu (IANS): After marauding elephant herds created bad blood between

Nepal's border villages and India, now big cats are threatening to strain

ties between the two neighbours.

 

Nepal's lawmakers are concerned about reports that India's Uttar Pradesh

state, which borders part of Nepal in the south, is planning a tiger reserve

along the open border.

 

" There is a possibility of the tigers straying into Nepal's border

villages, " said Nepali legislator Padam Lal Bishwokarma. " What is even more

alarming is that there are indications the proposed tiger park extends right

inside Nepal. "

 

Last month, after a spate of reports in the Nepali media that India's border

patrols were wreaking havoc in Nepal's border villages in Dang district,

Bishwokorma led a team of seven more MPs from the major parties to the

western region for a first-hand assessment.

 

" In the forests of Bankata-Bharsaiya, we found the trees have been painted

yellow, " the Maoist lawmaker told IANS. " It was obviously some sort of

marker. "

 

The parliamentarian delegation held talks with Shakti Singh Thakur,

assistant commander of the 18th Gorkha Company of the Indian Shasatra Seema

Bal across the border, to discover the reason. They were told it was done by

the forest division of Uttar Pradesh in preparation for the tiger reserve.

 

" It is an obvious encroachment on Nepal's territory, " the Nepali MP said.

" The proposed tiger reserve has come right inside Nepal. "

 

The Uttar Pradesh government, the Nepali team was told, is planning to build

the tiger reserve in its Balarampur district adjoining Nepal.

 

" We are going to bring this to the notice of Nepal's parliament and foreign

ministry, " Bishwokarma said. " Then the foreign ministry will be asked to

take up the matter with the Indian government. "

 

The proposed tiger reserve controversy comes close on the heels of a growing

furore over the death of at least three wild elephants in eastern Nepal's

Jhapa district.

 

About 10 days ago, the herd entered Jhapa's Baundangi village, apparently

driven by heavy rains in India's Assam state.

 

The tuskers destroyed over 200 huts and destroyed crops worth millions of

rupees, causing the enraged villagers to drive them out.

 

While one elephant was killed by an electric fence, two others died due to

the standoff with the villagers.

 

It has created a storm in India with wildlife activists demanding humane

treatment of the herds.

 

Nepal's wildlife rights activists say the two countries should jointly come

up with a compensatory mechanism to appease the villagers, who are accusing

the Indian authorities of deliberately unleashing the herd on them

 

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