National park revenues dwindle

National park revenues dwindle
eKantipur.com, 15-Jun-2007
BY PRABHAKAR GHIMIRE

Government revenue from major jungle safaris of the country declined by 18 percent in the first eight months, despite double-digit growth in the number of incoming tourists.

A data complied by Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation has reckoned that three major national parks collected Rs 24.72 million during the period, down from Rs 30.19 millions recorded in the same period last year.

Chitwan National Park (CNP), Bardia National Park (BNP) and Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve (SWR) are the three major national parks in the country.

According to the department, CNP collected Rs 22.08 million in the period and the amount was 22 percent less than last year's collection. However, BNP pocketed Rs 1.85 million, which was 26 percent more than the revenue collected in same period last year. Similar is the story for SWR, which collected Rs 0.78 million as revenue during the period and the amount was almost double the collection recorded in the corresponding period last year.

Of the total revenue collection, almost 90 percent was contributed by CNP, which hosts around 80 percent of tourists enjoying jungle safari.

The popular tourist hangouts witnessed upward in tourist arrivals with the number of tourists increasing to 48,310 as compared to 40,789 of same period last year, despite the fall in revenue collection.

Of the total tourists arriving in these areas, large chunk visited CNP, the most popular wildlife safari destination in last eight months with the numbers reaching at 45,856 while 2,298 and 166 tourists visited BNP and SWR respectively.

Concerned officials attribute mismatch between tourist arrivals and revenue to irregularity in collection of revenues from revenues heads, which are not directly related to tourist arrivals.

“Some heads of revenue have no relation with tourist arrivals," said Shiva Raj Bhatta, ex-warden of CNP and BNP, adding, “Some seasonal revenues vary from month to month and recovery of outstandings of previous years may have affected revenue amount which do not have co-relation with the tourist arrivals.”

Moreover, some of the tourists who pay entry fees to parks prefer visiting community forests to the parks.

The community forests which are emerging as alternative to the parks are also contributing to reduction of park revenue, say park officials.

Tourists with travel package or Fit Individual Travelers (FIT) visit the destinations for wildlife safari activities that include elephant ride, canoe ride, jungle driving, jungle walk, bird watching among others.

Over a decade long conflict had marred tourist arrivals and subsequent revenue collection in those areas.