- On July 14, residents of Bharatpur on the fringes of Chitwan National Park burned a vehicle of a survey team, mistaking them for officials planning a controversial railway project reroute.
- The government’s decision to reroute the railway through Bharatpur to avoid Chitwan National Park has sparked local protests due to fears of displacement and inadequate compensation.
- Bharatpur’s rapid development and population growth have heightened tensions, with residents demanding the railway be rerouted farther north to avoid their homes. But doing so may not be technically and financially possible.
KATHMANDU — On July 14, residents of Bharatpur town on the fringes of Chitwan National Park in Nepal set ablaze a vehicle they thought belonged to a railway survey team.
The vehicle with a mounted camera was taking photos of different places in Ward No. 8 of the town on the banks of the Narayani River when local people confronted it and set it ablaze after the two occupants were forced out.
It had all started when around five people resting under a tree approached the vehicle and started questioning the surveyors, 21-year-old Ajit Basnet, who was operating a camera, told Annapurna Post. Soon they parked their motorcycles right in front and behind the vehicle, immobilizing it. Some people started taking photos and videos. Basnet said he tried to explain to the crowd that they were there to work on a mapping app unrelated to the project, but the crowd didn’t listen to them and set the vehicle on fire.
The eastern areas of Bhartapur have been on tenterhooks following the government’s decision to realign its ambitious 945.44-kilometer (587-mile) east-west railway project to avoid Chitwan National Park, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to 128 0f the country’s 355 Bengal tigers (Panther tigris). The new proposed line now passes through the city.
“The team was attempting to conduct a map survey, which our community vehemently opposes,” said Dibya Nepal, secretary of the Railway Victims Struggle Committee. “We have been highly vigilant to disallow all activities related to the railway, as we can’t allow the railway line to pass through our settlements, as thousands of people will be rendered homeless,” he added.
It was with similar fervor that conservationists and environmentalists from across the country rallied against government plans to build the railway line through the national park, also home to the iconic one-horned rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis).
Several organizations and civil society members protested the decision, which drew a warning from UNESCO in 2017 that proceeding with the railway through the park could result in Chitwan being placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger, putting a black mark on the park’s name for both conservationists and tourists.
Similarly, in February 2019, Nepal’s Supreme Court passed a verdict ordering the government not to build any roads inside the national park without the consent of UNESCO.
As conservationists rejoiced, a fresh problem brewed. The realigned route now cuts through the densely populated areas of Bharatpur Metropolitan City, which continues to lure Nepalis from across the country to its fertile plains. The area is also fast developing as a top destination for those seeking better access to health services, as some of Nepal’s biggest hospitals have set up shop there. The district now has one of the highest population growth rates in the country, according to recent census figures.
According to the latest census figures, wards 4, 7 and 8, through which the railway line is proposed, are home to around 50,000 people.
Devi Prasad Kandel, a local resident, said at a recent protest, “We’ve been hearing about this railway for years, but now it’s come so close to us.”
The government’s compensation offers fall far short of market rates. This isn’t just about money; it’s about our right to property and livelihood, he added. The government should realign the railway to go farther north to avoid the settlement and then move west, he said.
The technical constraints of the project add another layer of complexity. A former senior official at the railway department, who didn’t want to be named fearing reprisals, said that if the surveyors hadn’t changed the route to avoid the national park, the railway wouldn’t have entered Bharatpur at all. “The curvature requirements for the track make it impossible to avoid the city entirely,” he told Mongabay. “Railway tracks aren’t like roads; they have their limitations. It won’t be feasible to take the tracks farther north,” the official added.
Nepal’s plans to build a $3 billion electrified railway line crisscrossing the eastern and western parts of the country have faced numerous hurdles. Work has been divided into several sections, but the government doesn’t have the financial resources to start work on all sections all at once, as it has failed to secure foreign investment. Also, resettlement of people whose homes fall in the planned route has been an uphill task.
Nepal’s government in 2022 approved the Wildlife Friendly Infrastructure Guidelines, which reiterate the “mitigation hierarchy” constantly repeated by conservationists. It states that avoidance — not building any infrastructure inside protected areas — is the best mitigation strategy.
“The government’s decision to realign the railway to avoid the national park is consistent with the guidelines,” said conservationist Roshan Sherchan, who specializes in linear infrastructure and its impact on biodiversity. He said the government shouldn’t backtrack on its decision to keep the railway tracks out of the national park.
Sherchan told Mongabay that the government needs to strike a balance between conservation and its impacts on local communities. “The first thing the government needs to do is sit down with the communities and listen to what they have to say,” he added. “Then it needs to come up with a solution that is acceptable to the people,” he said, adding that this would set an important precedent for the east-west railway project in particular and the whole linear infrastructure development spree in Nepal.
However, that is not going to be easy, said conservationist Pramod Neupane, who also specializes in mitigation measures to safeguard biodiversity from linear infrastructure. He suggested that building and designing high-rise bridges for railway tracks passing through densely populated areas could be one of the options that could be considered. “That would minimize the number of people who would have to leave their land,” he said.
0Such a bridge has been proposed in the Barandabhar area east of Bharatpur, identified as a crucial corridor for the movement of animals from higher elevations in the north to lower in the south. An elevated road is also in the works in the same area. “But we haven’t designed such bridges for Bharatpur,” said Manjul Manandhar, a consultant who worked on the detailed project report of the proposed railway section.
For now, the Railway Victims Struggle Committee continues to demand changes to the current survey plan, asserting that they will not allow the railway line to displace their community.
Discussions between the committee, the Railway Department and government agencies, facilitated by Bharatpur Metropolitan City, have yet to yield a solution that satisfies all parties.
Banner image: Three rhinos in their grassland habitat in Nepal. Image courtesy of NTNC
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