By Basanta Parajuli

Bharatpur, Feb. 27: Due to the delay in formulating the procedure for the destruction of hunted wildlife parts (trophy hunting), Chitwan National Park (CNP) has been facing a serious problem destroying them.

Chief Conservation Officer of the park, Ana Nath Baral, said that the fear of spreading disease because of the stench stemming from the parts had been raised if they were not destroyed in time.

"Some of the hunted parts have started rotting. If they don’t get destroyed in time, they might have detrimental effects on health of other animals, humans and on the park as a whole," he said.

The parts cannot be destroyed without the decision of the Council of Ministers. This is so because the park has not yet formulated a procedure towards the same, even though the park had enacted regulations in 2071 BS.

Haribhadra Acharya, information officer of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, said that the procedure was delayed due to the complexity in hunting management.

Acharya informed that the ministry was set to formulate working procedures in coordination with the department. Hunted wild animal parts from all over the country are stored in CNP. According to the park, the problem came into being after some parts in the warehouse started producing foul smell.

At the moment, the park has 16 tiger skins, 93 leopard skins, 44 red panda skins, 411 elephant tusks, 149 rhino horns, 1286 rhino hooves and 75 bags of chiru hair.In addition, 95 kg of tiger bone, 19 kg of bear bile, 11 pieces of musk deer glands, 241 kg of Salak carp, four pieces of tiger skin, three pieces of dragon skin, two pieces of snow leopard skin and three pieces of crocodile skin are in storage.

The park has allocated five rooms to store wild animal parts at its head office in Kasara.Back in the year 2074 BS, following the decision of the Council of Ministers, the park had destroyed the collected parts by burning.The park has stated that there would be a problem in storing more hunted parts.