A delegation led by the Minister for Forests and Environment and Chairman of NTNC, Hon. Ain Bahadur Shahi Thakuri, accompanied by the NTNC Member Secretary Dr. Naresh Subedi and team, interacted with major stakeholders of Jhapa district this week in Mechinagar Municipality, on issues concerning human-elephant co-existence.
Important participations at the interactions included, Koshi Province's Minister for Tourism, Forests and Environment Hon. Sadananda Mandal, Member of Parliament of Jhapa Constituency-1 Hon. Biswo Prakash Sharma, Mayor of Mechinagar Municipality Mr. Gopal Budathoki, Province Secretary Mr. Bishal Ghimire, chief district officer of Jhapa and district security chiefs, senior park and forest officials, the Red Cross president of Jhapa, among other senior local representations.
At the discussions, Hon. Minister Thakuri made known the high priority he placed for finding sustainable solutions to address the long-standing and recurrent issue in the elephant conflict-heavy district of Jhapa in eastern Nepal. The need for better local, provincial and federal level mechanism to jointly address elephant issues was discussed as a necessary way forward.
NTNC’s member secretary shared his experience and expertise regarding the work that NTNC was doing in the district over the past few years, along with discussing challenges faced in implementing effective conflict mitigation strategies.
As part of the visiting agenda, the team led by the Hon. Minister also visited the major entry point area of migrating elephants near the Nepal-India Border along the Mechi river, in Mechinagar Muncipality Ward No. 4, Bahundangi, where they talked to local stakeholders.
They also monitored the ongoing construction site of the Jhapa Solar Electric Fencing in Birtamode Municipality Ward No. 6, Buttabari. This year NTNC is adding another 9 km solar electric fencing in Jhapa as part of its human-elephant co-existence efforts. The team took updates about the fencing technology in use, construction activities, and progress being made.
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Related photo links:
Stakeholder and field interactions: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19JBGm4xGJ/
Site monitoring: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BM2EEsgn5/
