NP: Bardia elephant polo fails to attract visitors

[Guest guest]

Pls note very last para - elephants received only few days of training.

 

Entrepreneurs upset on elephant polo

RUDRA KHADKA

http://theweek.myrepublica.com/details.php?news_id=12512

 

When Krishna Bhattarai, the manager of Jungle Heaven Resort, learned

that elephant polo matches were going to be held at Thakurdwar in

Bardia, he began to wonder if the 16 hotels in the area could

accommodate the large number of tourists who would come to see the

game. With a combined overall capacity of 350, the hotels of

Thakurdwar also had other regular tourists to worry about.

 

Bhattarai, also the chairperson of the Eco Tourism Development Forum

(ETDF), had already planned to pitch tents for polo viewers in case

his hotel ran out of space.

“But after the games started, we were all proved wrong. We didn’t get

a big audience like at the Elephant Polo competition in Chitwan,” said

Bhattarai. Disappointed by the lack of business, he continued, “Maybe

it’s because Bardia is hosting elephant polo for the first time and

there was more talk about the game than the promotion of businesses.”

 

The International Elephant Polo Competition, which started on Monday,

November 30, shifted its location from Meghauli in Chitwan National

Park (CNP) to Thakurdwar in Bardia National Park (BNP), after hotels

inside CNP were shut down. The competition is being coordinated by

Wildlife Safari Lodge and Tiger Tops.

The teams participating in the event are from Nepal, Australia,

Austria, USA, UK, United Arab of Emirates, Thailand, Hong Kong, and

Scotland. Representing Nepal are two teams—one from Tiger Tops and the

other from BNP.

 

When the World Elephant Polo Association (WEPA) decided to hold the

game in Thakurdwar, local hoteliers were anticipating a rise in their

businesses.

“Even though it didn’t turn out as we had expected, we’re happy to

have the Elephant Polo in Thakurdwar for the first time,” said Khem

Khadka of Tiger Tops. “It’s important to promote Thakurdwar than

hotels right now since it’ll benefit us in the future,” he added.

 

According to hotel entrepreneurs, nearly 120 international tourists

have come to Bardia solely to watch the Elephant Polo competition.

With 73 of them being participants, the number is far less than

anticipated. Despite the lack of foreign tourists, the locals have

shown much enthusiasm in the game with nearly 3-4,000 people coming to

the grounds each day.

 

Entrepreneurs surmise that one of the reasons for the low turnout at

this year’s Elephant Polo competition could be Thakurdwar’s own

far-off location in west Nepal which makes it a rather expensive

destination from Kathmandu.

 

“From Kathmandu to Nepalgunj via airplane, and then by road to

Thakurdwar amounts to quite a bit of money,” said Santosh Pokharel of

Forest Hideaway Lodge.

“Moreover, the decision to hold the competition here was decided only

two and a half months back and it wasn’t properly advertised

everywhere,” stated Pokharel, who feels that the focus this time

should be on the overall development of the tourism sector. “In the

years ahead, the number of tourists will surely increase,” he put in

with much hope.

 

Local businessmen also blame the government for not putting in any

effort to attract tourists to the area.

 

“The government should support the eagerness of the locals,” asserted

Khadka of Tiger Tops. Additionally, the number of domestic tourists

occupying rooms in the local hotels is next to nil.

 

“We’re having a lot of problems owing to the lack of progress in the

domestic tourism sector,” he expressed. “There are hardly any visitors

from the nearby cities.”

Lack of proper roads leading to BNP also a hindering factor that has

discouraged tourists to come to Bardia, said many locals. BNP is the

largest and least disturbed wilderness area in the Terai.

 

On the contrary, some entrepreneurs believe that it is the

organizer’s—Tiger Tops—poor coordination which failed to bring in

tourists to attend the Elephant Polo competition.

“It would’ve been better if more than one hotel had been allowed to

manage the event, and if everyone had had equal responsibilities,”

said Bhattarai of EDFT. With all of its 21 rooms packed, Tiger Tops is

currently operating at full occupancy and has also set up 30 tents,

whilst none of the other resorts and hotels in the area received

visitors due to the event.

 

Although this year’s Elephant Polo competition is being held in

Thakurdwar instead of Chitwan, the site for the upcoming year is

uncertain.

 

“It’ll take place wherever WEPA chooses to hold it,” informed an

employee at Tiger Tops. The representative of WEPA, who is in Bardia

at the moment, hasn’t made any announcements so far.

Bardia residents consider the event to be to “good for the future” of

the district.

“We hope that the Elephant Polo competition will contribute to the

development of the area,” said Shanti Ram Chaudhary, a local resident.

Like in Chitwan, he hopes that the games will be held there every

year.

 

A total of four trained elephants were taken on foot, all the way from

Chitwan to Bardia, for the six-day international competition which

will end on Saturday, December 5. Out of the other 16 elephants being

used in the game, nine belong to the organizers, while the rest are

from BNP and the National Trust for Nature Conservation. The Bardia

elephants received training only a few days before the competition.

Organizers feared complaints from participants but so far no one has

reported on the inexperience of the elephants.

 

 

--

Lucia de Vries

Freelance Journalist

Nepal - Netherlands