Statues of 24 personalities to be erected

Taplejung, July 23:

The Taplejung chapter of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) has said it will be constructing a park and building statues of 24 conservationists who died in a helicopter crash in Ghunsa on September 23 last year.

The Conservation Park will be constructed at Suketar and will be inaugurated on the first anniversary of the crash, the FNJ branch said.

“The then Minister for State for Forest and Soil Conservation Gopal Rai had awarded the Taplejung Federation of Nepalese Journalists branch with the Abraham Award-2006, just a day before the helicopter crashed and therefore to commemorate the conservationists, the FNJ branch has decided to erect their statues in the Conservation Park,” Taplejung FNJ president Kishor Kumar Rai said.

Local social worker Narayan Prasad Gurung has donated one ropani of land worth Rs 800,000 for the construction of the park and artists Manjul and Kalpana Miteri are volunteering to prepare the statues of the conservationists.