Taplejung, December 26:

The Kanchanjanga Conservation Area Project (KCAP) has handed over 70,000 hectares of forest to the local community.

The move was taken to make people aware of the need to protect forest and wild animals.

In course of two years, the KMCP has handed over 22 community forests to the local communities.

“We handed over the forest to the community, thinking that wildlife and the forest can’t be preserved without participation of the locals,” said manager of the Kanchanjanga Conservation Area Project Bheshraj Oli.

Yugkishor Thakur, acting conservation officer of the KCAP, said the KCAP has also been imparting training to members of community forest consumers’ committee on the management of forest and wildlife.

Handover of the forests has also helped keep poachers, who come from Tibet and Sikkim, at bay, Thakur said.

The handover has also helped stop deforestation and smuggling of herbs. Thakur said poachers, hunters and wildlife traders have been compelled to return empty-handed after the handover of forests to local communities.