Madi folks find Park Act unfriendly to local development

Chitwan, Dec 19,, The Madi people as well as stakeholders have blamed that the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act-2029 BS (1973) has become a barrier to the development of Madi area considered a remote part of Chitwan district.
The stakeholders complained that the Act has multiple ‘unnecessary’ provisions which hamper the local development endeavours as they claimed that several projects meant for the development of Madi were in limbo due to the ‘unfriendly’ Act.
The deadline (two-year) for the construction project of 15.2 km pitched road from Riu Bridge of Bankatta to Pariukhola, Devendrapur is ending next month, but the Chitwan National Park (CNP) has already directed the local government not to implement the project citing the environment impact assessment (EIA) issue. Works of building boundaries and developing sewage, however, were already carried out.
“Around a dozen of projects have remained incomplete as the contractors were not in position to continue them due to ‘unfavourable’ Act,” said Madi Municipality Mayor Thakur Prasad Dhakal.
Likewise, the construction of 7.8 km Jeevanpur-Bagai Bus Park road has been impeded due to the same cause.
The CNP has already issued directives for the authority concerned to stall 11 bridge construction projects.
But the accusation of mayor Dhakal is that the park administration just wants to delay the pace of development in Madi in the name of EIA and other international provisions.
He said, “It has been demanding the EIA for the construction of grassland on the bank of Riu River.”
“The Park does not allow anyone to extract aggregates from the rivers and mines in our area,” said Dhakal adding that no development works could be carried out without paying royalty to the Park.
He viewed that the Act relating to the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation should be rewritten incorporating the demands of Madi folks.
“If the hindrance is to continue till December this year, we will turn to agitation, warned Dhakal, claiming that they were trying to obstruct development works in the name of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
Likewise, Bharatpur-Madi-Thori Postal Highway Stakeholder Committee president Shyam Bista blamed that the Park had created issues in all development projects after Madi was declared the buffer zone. Buffer zone stretches from Sauraha to Rapti River Bank in Meghauli.
Asserting that the rules and regulations have been imposed on Madi folks, he questioned, “EIA was not needed for the buffer zone but only for us? What kind of rule is this?”
CNP Chief Conservation Officer Bed Kumar Dhakal said big development projects could not be initiated without the EIA as per the instructions of Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation and the UNESCO.
Dhakal admitted that development works were delayed in Madi due to the tendency of giving contracts without meeting the basic criteria and conditions.
Stating that talks were ongoing for the amendment in the Act, he said that there was no way the talks at warden level could help in amendment of the Act.
According to him, the excavation of aggregates was halted for two months given the mating seasons for the alligators. “Approval was issued to build Madi Bridge on the condition of building a bio passage for the animals but we have received the instruction from the higher up not to construct the bridge without EIA.”
According to Dhakal, Madi was always prioritized as it was usually affected by the Park.
—