Man Bahadur Bartaula, 58, of Rapti Municipality, was injured in a rhinoceros attack on the afternoon of October 23. Man Bahadur, who has been treated at Bharatpur Hospital and has now returned home, is slowly recovering from his injuries.

But the park is not in a position to immediately reimburse the expenses incurred when injured. If the process of forming the intermediate committee had been completed, he would not have had to suffer much for the expenses.

He is a resident of the Lothar Users' Committee of the park. Where a new committee has not been formed. Lothar had created a relief fund worth Rs 2 million. 'From this fund, the committee would immediately give Rs 20,000 to 25,000 to the injured we are treating. Later, after receiving the treatment expenses from the park, it would be reimbursed,' said Man Bahadur Syangbo, the outgoing chairman of the Lothar Committee.

After the committee's term ended on July 14, no financial transactions of the intermediate have been conducted. The office secretary of the users' committee has only done the work of recording the death of human beings, injuries and damage to agriculture and livestock, preparing the details and sending the recommendations of the ward chairperson and the representative of the municipality's agriculture or livestock branch to the park headquarters. This work has not been done in Nawalparasi. 

Such recommendations are currently being kept on file and the payment process is being taken forward after the committee is formed, said Senior Conservation Officer Ganesh Pant, head of Chitwan National Park.  ‘This is what is happening elsewhere now except when the committee is newly formed,’ said Pant. 

All the intermediate user committees of Chitwan National Park, which have 21 committees and one sub-committee, were to be newly formed by July 14.  But so far, only one-third, or seven user committees, have been formed.  Due to the incomplete formation of the user committees, the process of forming the intermediate management committee of Chitwan National Park has not been able to begin. 

The intermediate user committees are formed by providing budget to carry out conservation, relief and development activities in human settlements connected to the park.  Consumer committees are responsible for protecting people, crops, and livestock from wild animals, providing relief in case of damage, and covering limited medical expenses in case of injury. But due to the lack of formation of the committee, these works have come to a standstill.

Surya Khanal, office secretary of the Rewa Intermediate Consumer Committee in Madi, said that they have not even been able to eat their salaries. Those working in the office are working without receiving their salaries. Many aspects of the daily life of the locals have been affected. ‘Fortunately, no one has been injured or killed during this time. So far, 23 recommendations for damage to crops and livestock have been sent to the park. Other recommendations have been stopped,’ said Jag Narayan Bote, office secretary of the Panch Pandav Intermediate Consumer Committee in Madi.

After the onset of winter, locals start building sheds. Gravel, stones, and sand have to be taken from the streams or rivers of the intermediate area and used in the sheds. But due to the lack of a committee, the recommendations for gravel and sand have come to a standstill. The entire area of ​​Madi Municipality falls within the buffer zone. All types of development in the Madi area require gravel, stones, and sand, and this cannot be done without the recommendation of the buffer zone.

‘Let’s leave aside the issue of our salaries, the problem facing the locals is even worse,’ said Office Secretary Jag Narayan Bote. Chitwan National Park is connected to four districts including Chitwan, Nawalparasi (East of Bardaghat Susta), Makawanpur, and Parsa. 122 wards of 12 municipalities in the four districts fall within the buffer zone.

According to Avinash Thapa Magar, the conservation officer of Chitwan National Park, who is also the information officer, a total of 269,769 people from 54,155 households in the four districts live in the buffer zone. Including the households living in the buffer zone, a total of 1,891 consumer groups have been formed. Households form groups and the groups select a representative committee through elections.

The buffer management committee of the park is formed by having all the chairpersons of the user committee. One chairperson of the buffer management committee is elected from among the chairpersons of the user committee.

Chitwan National Park is the first park in the country. The concept of buffer came about to involve locals in the park, which has been protected only by the park administration and the Nepali Army.

Although the buffer act and regulations came into effect in 2052 BS, groups, user committees and management committees have been formed in Chitwan since 2054 BS. Currently, most parks and reserves in the country have been declared buffers and the committees are active. But the concept of buffer has been implemented for the first time in Chitwan National Park. There is a legal provision that 30 to 50 percent of the income generated by the park goes to the buffer zone.

The park has a budget of up to Rs 120 million per year for the buffer zone of Chitwan. Other partner organizations also provide budget support for conservation work. The budget is allocated by prioritizing the committees affected by the park. The budget received from the park is spent by the user committee under five different headings.

There is a legal practice to spend 30 percent of the budget coming to the buffer zone on conservation programs, 30 percent on community development, 20 percent on income generation and skill development, 10 percent on conservation education, and 10 percent on administrative expenses. The committee that manages these budgets and decides on programs based on priorities and limits is now empty. Recommendations coming in conjunction with the users have stalled.

Out of the 21 committees and one sub-committee, only seven user committees have been formed, including Thori in Parsa, Triveni, Sikhrauli and Nandabhauju in Nawalparasi (East of Bardaghat Susta), Khagendramalli, Patihani and Meghauli in Chitwan. ‘The process of forming groups in 10 user committees had been completed. Committees were formed in seven. While preparations were underway for the formation of others, everything was stopped after the Genji campaign,’ said Panta, the chief of the park.

Panta said that the process of forming groups would be completed by Asad, but there were disputes in some. Prakash Dhungana, the outgoing chairman of the Madhyaprasad Management Committee, said. He is the fifth chairman of the management committee.

It is ironic that even after being the fifth chairman, issues such as the formation and reorganization of the Madhyaprasad committee have not been completed regularly. The demand to abolish Madhyaprasad itself has increased sharply. ‘Especially in Madi, there is disagreement among the locals about the provisions of the park and Madhyaprasad. Because of that, the reorganization of the groups there was delayed. It was agreed to form them later, but after the incident of the death of the rhino, the whole process came to a standstill,’ said Dhungana.

On July 21, a rhinoceros was found electrocuted in a paddy field in Bhairabpur under the Madi Panch Pandav Madhyapra Consumers' Committee. Chitwan National Park took farmer Haribhakta Shrestha under control to investigate the incident. The atmosphere in Madi started to change after the incident. Even before that, locals had raised their voices demanding that Madhyapra be abolished, saying that they were in trouble because of Madhyapra.

The park administration had finally reached an agreement with the help of the parties to start the process of forming a group committee for Madhyapra, which was stalled due to this. But after the death of the rhinoceros and the arrest of farmer Haribhakta Shrestha, the parties in Madi requested in writing to immediately postpone the other processes. In Madi alone, there are four committees, including three consumer committees and one subcommittee of Madhyapra.

'Apart from this, there was a deadlock in some other committees in Chitwan due to disagreements over the formation of groups.' Residents of some committees in Nawalparasi have demanded that elections be held only after resolving land-related issues. All these reasons led to the delay in the formation of the group. The situation became even more different after Bhadra 23 and 24, said Prakash Dhungana, outgoing chairman of the Madhyaprastha Management Committee.