Subodh Gautam/Pitambar Sigdel
Kathmandu- The Ministry of Forest and Environment has recommended the dissolution of the President's Chure Terai Madhes Conservation Development Committee, which is considered a 'milestone' in Chure conservation.

According to ministry sources, the committee formed by a ministerial decision to prepare a technical report on the Chure Committee has prepared its report to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, including a 'plan to dissolve the committee and bring it under the ministry'. Although the report was asked to be submitted on Wednesday, the report was not submitted till late at night.
Sources claim that Prime Minister Oli is also ready to get a decision from the Council of Ministers to implement the ministry's report. If the government dissolves the Chure Committee, the long-standing plan of a selfish group or gang to demolish Chure and sell its stones, gravel and sand to India will also succeed.

Minister for Forest and Environment Ain Bahadur Shahi Thakuri and Forest Secretary Dr. Deepak Kumar Kharal initiated a committee under the coordination of Administration Division Chief Bhupal Baral about a month ago. The joint-secretary of the committee is Shobhakar Regmi (Member-Secretary), while the members are Joint Secretary Meghnath Kafle, Dr. Maheshwor Dhakal, Badriraj Dhungana, and the then Joint Secretary Dr. Sindhu Dhungana. According to sources, Forest Minister Thakuri and Secretary Dr. Kharal have informally 'briefed' Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli about this. There is talk within the ministry that the ministry's technical committee prepared and submitted a report in a way that confused Prime Minister Oli.

According to ministry sources, among the co-secretaries in the committee, Dr. Dhungana has long been the most lenient towards the Chure Committee. 'He had been thinking about the Chure Committee for a long time, and it became even easier to do this work after he was in the committee,' a ministry official told Nature Khabar. 'When the hopes were high, the administrators also started working against conservation. They could not understand why.' Dr. Dhungana is a forest official who retired from the post of Joint Secretary about a month ago.

The source said that the committee formed by the Ministry of Forests recommended abolishing the Chure Committee and placing it under the leadership of the Forest Minister, while many achievements have been made in the conservation of Chure, the important and youngest mountain range of Nepal, which is considered the backbone of the Terai, since its establishment. The committee had prepared a Chure Conservation Master Plan and was implementing it vigorously.

Due to this, the uncontrolled and unorganized deforestation of Chure had stopped, the work of managing the river system there was being done effectively, deforestation and animal migration had stopped, and the water level was gradually rising. Tree plantation work was being done effectively on the bare hills.

Earlier, hundreds of crusher industries were operating in the Chure area in a haphazard and uncontrolled manner. Some industries were operating without permits and against government standards. Some industries were Chure mountains. These industries were overexploiting Chure. This was also increasing the destruction of Chure, destruction of physical structures (roads, bridges) built in the Terai Madhes, and social crimes. The fertile land of the Terai-Madhes was being covered with sand. The water level was dropping rapidly, and there was a shortage of drinking water, and food production was decreasing.

Meanwhile, parliamentary committees had conducted on-site studies several times and submitted reports. Those reports were prepared after observing all areas including encroachment, condition, damage, and degradation of the Chure. The reports were prepared with factual details that the state was more harmed than benefited by foreign exports.
Problems and challenges were increasing every year. The destruction of the Chure took a serious turn. Then, on Asad 2, 2071, the then government led by Sushil Koirala made three important decisions in favor of the Chure.

On the effective factual proposal of the then Minister of Forests and Environment, Mahesh Acharya, the government decided to form the President's Terai-Madhes Chure Conservation and Development Committee with effect from Shrawan 1, 2071, to impose a complete ban on the export of stone, gravel, and sand abroad and the extraction of Chure, and to declare the Chure area an environmental conservation area. The then Forest Minister Mahesh Acharya had to face great pressure and challenges while implementing these decisions from the government.

Three parties were most dissatisfied and angry with these decisions. And, they still are. After the export of Chure stones, gravel and sand was stopped, neighboring India, after Chure was made a Chure conservation area, the Community Forest Users Federation, which spread rumors saying that ‘now the Nepali Army will manage it’ and stirred up a nationwide movement (it has not been able to control the resources of the community forests within Chure), and the owners of the crusher industry, which is operating in violation of government standards without permission and is actively engaged in destroying Chure and turning the Terai-Madhes into desert. All these three parties were widely dissatisfied with the government decision.

However, the then Forest Minister Acharya did not give up. He had effectively implemented the government decision despite the pressure and challenges. The initiative he took in Chure conservation is still being discussed today. ‘These parties have become more aggressive again. "This must have influenced the ministry and the Prime Minister's Office. If the committee is dismissed, the investment and achievements so far will be wasted and we will return to the previous situation," said a ministry official. "This is unfortunate for the nation."
It is estimated that about 17 billion rupees were spent on Chure conservation after the formation of the Chure Committee and before. Work is also underway to improve the river system of Chure, increase greenery there, build embankments on the rivers, and dig ponds to recharge water.
The positive effects of the three decisions taken by the then government were gradually starting to appear, which was unbearable for the then government. In the then budget brought through an ordinance, Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Poudel had included a program to ease the extraction of stone, gravel, and sand. After widespread and harsh criticism of it, he withdrew from this step.
The Chure range is the youngest mountain range formed by the accumulation of riverine materials during the formation of the Himalayas about four million years ago. The Chure range, which extends from the Indus River in Pakistan in the west to the Brahmaputra River in India in the east, is also known as the Shivalik. In Nepal, it is spread across 37 districts from Ilam in the east to Kanchanpur in the west, and 12.78 percent of the total land area falls in the Chure region. In most places, the Chure Hills are the last mountains encountered when descending from the Terai and the Mahabharata region. Generally, the Chure Hills are composed of loose, uneroded rocks and the rivers flowing from the Mahabharata pass through this Chure region and flow towards the Terai, making this region very sensitive in nature.

After the eradication of malaria, human settlements expanded in the Chure and Bhawar regions. Thereafter, the process of clearing forests for settlement and agriculture gradually increased. Deforestation, excessive use of forest products, open grazing, unscientific land use, etc. have led to a decline in the biodiversity and productivity of the region, which has had a negative impact on the overall ecosystem of the region. As the watershed conditions of the Chure Hills and Bhawar regions are deteriorating, many environmental problems are emerging in the Terai-Madhesh region and water sources are also drying up. Annual floods often deposit sand and silt on the cultivable lands of the Terai Madhes and even affect the villages due to erosion and inundation.

If this cannot be stopped in time, the ecosystem of the Chure region may become further weakened and the life of the people of the Terai-Madhes may become even more precarious. About 50 percent of the total population of Nepal lives in the Terai Madhes. Keeping this in mind, the Government of Nepal launched the ‘President’s Chure Conservation Program’ to conduct the Chure conservation as a campaign from the fiscal year 2066/67. Since the work of Chure conservation is a multi-dimensional, multi-stakeholder and multi-stakeholder issue, the Government of Nepal issued the “President’s Chure-Terai Madhes Conservation Development Committee (Formation) Order 2071” on Asad 2, 2071 BS, exercising the authority granted by Section 3 of the Development Committee Act 2013 to conduct it in a coordinated manner.