Model for post-Covid ecotourism

Halt to road project in fragile bio-diversity hotspot revives conservation hopes

Ornithologists Carol Inskipp, Rupendra Karmacharya and Prem Thapa with a follow-up about how their lobbying has halted a controversial road project in a northern Chitwan forest, and restored hope for the rare Spiny Babbler and other endangered wildlife.  

In April 2019 our report in Nepali Times highlighted the serious threat posed by a new road through the Gadi-Siraichuli watershed and its rich wildlife habitat in the Mahabharat Range. Last week, the Ichakamana Municipality in Chitwan district halted its construction and re-routed the road to save the forest. 

The road serves the remote, under-developed region inhabited mostly by the Chepang people, and the road had been forcefully constructed by the people of Mathlo Kaule to Chisapanitar and Gadi. 

Extract taken from Nepali Times article dated January 12, 2021

Read the full article on Nepali Times here