The Yuva Jagran Abhiyan, which is active for the control and protection of wildlife poachers, has also been giving various trainings to its members to make them self-employed.
30-year-old Vikas Paudel of Kawasoti Municipality-7 Sandh has come to Madi in Chitwan to take 'Nature Guide' training. He had previously gone to Dubai for foreign affairs for 6 years. Vikas, who has a house in the central area of Chitwan Park, did not prefer to stay away from nature.
His heart was in forest, wild life and environment conservation. Under the Central Consumer Committee, there are units of the Community Based Poaching Control Yuva Jagran Abhiyan (CBAPU). The home of
development falls under the Lamichour Intermediate Consumer Committee of Chitwan National Park. He is an active member of CBAPU of the said committee. Members of CBAPU should continue to conduct awareness campaigns in the community on forest, jungle, environment and wildlife conservation. They do this work as volunteers. It may be a challenge to sustainably involve young people who are involved in this campaign as volunteers to raise awareness to prevent poaching of rare tigers, rhinoceros and the illegal trade of such animal parts. It is not always practical to employ people of
earning age on a voluntary basis. In order to solve this problem, self-employment training has been started for the youth who have joined CBAPU. The training which started from Sunday will last for 21 days. There is also a fish pond in my house. Also, if I do something personally, it will help financially. I am going to serve nature. As a nature guide, it was seen that this work will also be completed and the income will also be earned,” said Vikas.
24-year-old Savina Khojwar Mahato of Kawasoti-13 is also undergoing training. There was also an opportunity for beauty parlor training. But I thought of becoming a nature guide. I thought that visiting the forest with tourists is a service to nature. If the forest is saved, tourists will come, tourists will come, our business will continue. That is why I have decided to become a nature guide based on my experience at CBAPU,' said Savina. Four of the 24 involved in nature guide training are girls.
Chitwan National Park Office, the Central Area Management Committee of the Park and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in partnership with the Terai Bhuparidhi (Taal) Project conducted by the Government of Nepal have started various trainings to make the volunteers of CBAPU self-employed. Nature guide training is one of them. Along with this, training for 100 youths of CBAPU has started.
Prem Paudel, cluster in-charge of Lake Banke East, took nature guide training as 76 other people took training in cook, waiter, AC repair, coffee making and beauty parlour. The nature guide training course has been prepared in association with Chitwan Park. Other training has been conducted under the two-month course of CTEVT. Four young people from Chitwan Park and one intermediate committee from Parsa Park are involved in this training.
Lamichour Intermediate Consumer Committee of Nawalparasi under Chitwan Park and Meghauli, Panchpandav and Mrigkunj of Chitwan and Manhari Consumer Committee of Makwanpur under Parsa Park are involved in training between 18 and 30 years of age. After the training they will get a certificate. Poudel, the cluster in charge of Tal, said that there is a plan to support machine tools for self-employment. Poonam Periyar of Madi Municipality-1 Pandabnagar has participated in the coffee making barista training. She said that after completing the 60-day training, she plans to set up a coffee shop at a suitable place. Our village is surrounded by Chitwan Park and Someshwar forest. Wild elephants, rhinoceroses and tigers have caused a lot of trouble. These animals should also be protected. We have to take tourists, we have to earn,' said Poonam.
Poonam, who has been active in CBAPU for two years, has seen the coffee shop run well by tourists in the village. Savita Rizal Adhikari of Navalparasi Kawasoti-7 Sandha and Krishna KC of Chitwan Madi Municipality-1 Chainpur are also among the group of 27 people who will undergo barista training. There are only 21 girls in this group. I have been active in CBAPU for five years. It is also possible to start conservation and earn money through tourism development. I have seen that training in coffee making will help in the tourism business," said Krishna KC. Anti Poaching Youth Awareness Campaign (APBC) was started in 2003 to encourage community youth to participate in conservation work when rhino poaching was on the rise in Nepal.
It is this campaign that started in Nawalparasi that CBAPU was formed by staying under the Central Consumer Committee. CBAPU Day has been celebrated since March 3, 2009. Youth between the ages of 18 and 40 who join the CBAPU must express a commitment not to involve themselves and their families and relatives in anti-protection activities. In the same way, about the laws and regulations made for protection and about wildlife protection, we should start a campaign to conduct various activities in the community.
Paudel, the former Banke cluster in charge of the lake project, said that it is necessary to be active to reduce the incidents of conflict between humans and wild animals. He said that he is trying to make the CBAPU sustainable by connecting the youth who work in this way as volunteers with the income.
