As the heat increases, incidents of wild animals including chitals, deer, and wild boars drowning in canals in search of water are recurring.
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The western main canal of the Sikta Irrigation Project under construction in the district is not wildlife-friendly, causing premature death of wildlife.
Wildlife that used to quench their thirst often gets trapped in the canal and dies. The risk is increasing as most of the western main canal of the Sikta Irrigation falls within the Banke National Park area, community forest, national forest and the Chakla forest area managed by the government.
With the onset of summer, wildlife that used to go to the canal to drink water every day have been dying in the canal, said Tanka Gurung, Information Officer of the Division Forest Office. According to him, the last time four chitals got trapped in the canal of the Harlaphanta Community Forest area on a single day was on Saturday. With the joint efforts of local forest officials, locals, forest employees and park employees, they have been rescued safely and released into a safe forest area.
Earlier, three locals were arrested while killing a deer trapped in the water in a canal in Khoriya, Rapti Sonari Rural Municipality-2, on Friday and distributing the meat. While they were going home with the meat, they were arrested by Banke National Park, Division Forest staff and locals in the forest area.
According to Sushil Subedi, Senior Forest Officer of the Division Forest Office, wild animals go to the canal to drink water. Recently, many wild animals have been trapped in the canal due to fires. He said that due to the fires currently raging in Banke National Park and national, community and other forests, there has been an increase in the number of wild animals including chital, deer, nilgai, and wild boar escaping and getting trapped in the canal.
'Most of the western main canal of Sikta Irrigation is forested, and there are various types of wild animals here. The forest area of Banke National Park also falls here,' says Senior Forest Officer Subedi, 'The canal is not wildlife-friendly. Hundreds of wild animals have been trapped in the canal so far. Some incidents have been rescued when they were reported, and poachers have also been caught in secret several times.'
Although ponds have been built in the forest area for wildlife to drink water, there is not enough water. There are ponds with water in Trishakti and Bhagwati community forests, but they are not enough. Although Sikta Irrigation has built ghats in some places in the canal for wildlife to drink water, Madan Wali, head of Rapti Sonari Rural Municipality-2, says that these ghats are not safe and reliable. He says that by building quality ghats and constructing a wire mesh on both sides of the canal in addition to the ghats, this problem will be solved in the long term.
