Dipayal, October 16

A museum set up in Khaptad National Park for tourists and researchers has been left in utter neglect.

The museum had been set up temporarily five years ago in a narrow room of the National Park Office, but the facility remains to be well-managed and expanded because of the negligence of the Khaptad Tourism Area Development Committee.

“KTADC spends millions of rupees here to promote tourism, but it has done nothing to upgrade the museum. The facility has been unused since its establishment,” said Khaptad Buffer Area Development Committee Chairperson Ram Prasad Upadhyaya.

The museum houses various species of herbs and animal parts of species found in the national park, such as parts of the green lizard, the body of an endangered frog species Bajhantipaha, and Baghpate Nigalo.

KTADC Account Officer Dharendra Singh conceded that the office had failed to upgrade the museum. “The reason behind our inability to upgrade the museum is the frequent changes of government,” he said.

Further, Singh underscored the need to upgrade the museum to keep records of the species found in the national park.

“As some of the species have are on the verge of extinction now due to climate change, the museum is the only expedient way of keeping the records of the animals for the future,” he said, adding that upgrading the museum would further help promote tourism.

An independent study conducted in the national park stated that over 135 species of flowers are found here. While the number of birds species found here is registered at 278, over 567 plant species are said to be found here.

The national park is spread over 225 square kilometres.