Chitwan, March 20

The Environment Protection Committee of Parliament today visited Tikauli and Kasara of Chitwan to come up with recommendations on proper measures for the management of body parts of rare wild animals.

Various parts of rare wild animals have been kept at the Armed Forest Guard Training Centre in Tikauli and Kasara of Chitwan National Park.

The team comprises 30 members, including committee members, chiefs and representatives of the Ministry of Forest, Department of Forest, Department of National Park and Nature Conservation Fund, among others.

Chief of the parliamentary committee Janak Raj Choudhary is leading the team formed to conduct the field study.

“After completing the study, the team will submit recommendations on measures to be taken for proper management of valuable skin, bones and other parts of wild animals,” said Choudhary.

The parts, which have been badly damaged, will be burnt, while parts still in good condition will be kept in the museum for research. “Though the body parts are valuable, sale of such parts could encourage smugglers.

Hence, we have decided not to sell any part,” said Choudhary.

Committee Secretary Rabi Sharma clarified that they will classify the parts as per CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) principle. The good ones will be conserved while the damaged ones will be disposed of.

Joint secretary Bijay Raj Poudel of Department of Forest said that the parliamentary committee will submit a report based on the field visit to the Parliament.

Phanindra Raj Kharel, director general at the Department of National Park, argued that disposing of the animal parts will be wiser as it was too difficult to conserve animal parts.

“We have to think about conservation of living animals instead of managing parts of dead animals,” he said.

However, Resham Bahadur Dangi, director general of Department of Forests, said, “We should conserve the body parts of rare species and discourage smugglers from dealing in animal parts.”

Organs collected by the offices under the Department of Forests were stocked at Tikauli and those collected by national parks were stored at Kasara. These parts include rhino horn, skin of striped tiger and tusk of wild tuskers, among others.

Earlier, the government had destroyed animal parts in Tikauli in 1998. As per the data from both the centres, as many as 369 rhino horns, skin of 69 striped tigers, 493 leopard skin, 185 tusks of elephants, 36 musks , 45 biles of dear, among others, have been stored there. As many as 111 organs of various rare species have been kept at the centres.

Earlier, a team had presented a field report recommending that the government dispose of the damaged items and protect the good ones.