Kathmandu, April 12

Residents of Shivapuri-Nagarjuna National Park are willing to relocate to areas outside the national park.

According to a preliminary report prepared by Shivapuri-Nagarjuna National Park, around 700 households living in the park area have expressed their willingness to be resettled if given proper compensation.

Chief Conservation Officer of SNNP, Kamal Jung Kunwar, said, “They have demanded adequate compensation so that they can build new houses,” Kunwar told The Himalayan Times.

If everything goes as planned, four villages of the national park’s core area — Mulkharka, Chilaune, Okhreni and Kune — with around 700 households will be relocated. SNNP office said budget for the plan would be finalised after picking possible areas for relocation. Earlier in March, a task force headed by chief warden of SNNP had been entrustedwith preparing preliminary report on the relocation plan.

After receiving the letter from the Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation in January, Shivapuri-Nagarjuna National Park had conducted first consultation with locals on March 7.

“We are ready to move from the park area if government relocates us by fulfilling our demand,” said chairman of Sundarijal-Shivapuri Buffer Zone User Committee, Narayan Shrestha. “We are not against relocation, but we want a place to live in.”

Park officials had proposed Nayapati, Gagalphedi, Jagdole and Sundarijal’s lower part as possible relocation sites.

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