RANJHA: Total 72 wild animals in Banke National Park were killed in road accidents while 36 more were injured in road accident last year.

Speeding vehicles along the East-West highway passing through the Banke National Parks killed and injured the animals, according to Banke National Park Information officer, Bishnu Prasad Thapaliya.

The national park lacks adequate drinking water sources. As such the animals need to cross the road to go to the Rapti river to quench their thirst. The highway stretches up to 75 kilometres within the park area.

Frequency of road accidents involving wild animal has increased with the onset of the dry summer season.

Animals like the wild boar, spotted deer, swamp deer and monkey often get killed in road accidents. One or the other animal is found dead in road accident daily.

Statistics provided by the park officials shows that most number of accidents occur along the Obhari to Agaiya of Rapti Sonari rural municipality.

However, the park is not found taking action against the vehicles responsible for killing the wild animals.

Arresting the drivers of errant vehicles is a nuisance since they get the information on the death of wild animals late, according to Thapaliya. Most accidents involving the wild animals occur at night.

Thapaliya informed that the Park is mulling over to implement ‘time card’ system for vehicles and increasing the number of check posts within the park area. It is also planning to install CCTV cameras at several paces along the highway within the park.

The Banke National Park was set up nine years back with the main objective of conserving the endangered, Royal Bengal Tiger. The park is spread on an area of 550 square kilometers.

Wildlife conservation experts say that the tiger’s prey like the spotted deer, swamp deer and other herbivores are facing crisis due to the drying up of grass and vegetation and for lack of adequate water sources.

The Park has the plan of constructing more water ponds inside the park to address this problem, assistant conservation officer Purushottam Sharma said. There are 26 artificial ponds inside the park at present which are insufficient.

KATHMANDU: A total of 61,978 have applied for the Korean langue test (KLT) under the Employment Permit System.  According to the Department of Foreign Employment, EPS section, the candidates will have to fill out forms from March 22 to 31 online.

Human Resource Department under the Korean government has announced vacancies for 10,050 Nepali workers –  7,050 for productive sector while over 3,000 for agriculture and livestock sectors – at the request of the department for the year 2019. KLT will be held on June 8-9.

KATHMANDU: The x-ray machine at the Tribhuvan International Airport, the only of its kind in the country is ineffective in terms of detecting illegal objects.

This came to the fore following the arrest of three Nepali youths repatriated from Malasiya recently. The police seized a huge amount of tobacco products from them.

The police had seized total 2,059 packets of cigarettes from Kamal Narayan Bishwas of Sunsari, Shailendra Majhi of Morang and Prakash Thapaliya of Nuwakot.

However, the x-ray machine did not detect those objects during the airport security clearance procedure, according to Gajendra Thakur, an administrator at the TIA.

KATHMANDU: Minister for Women, Children and Senior Citizen Tham Maya Thapa on Saturday remarked that political change in the county does not suffice for social change. The Minister made such remarks during a program organized by the Women Rights and Development Centre.

Addressing the program, Minister Thapa said that women themselves should be active to end gender discrimination and social malaise.

“Women need more activism also because the society is facing increased violence against women as rape,” she added.

KATHMANDU: Weekly pay system to the employees should be enforced through the enactment of a law, according to Kalyan Gurung, youth Nepali Congress (NC) leader.

This shall facilitate cash flow in the market thereby ever rejuvenating the economy, opined Gurung.

“Our system of monthly pay adopted by the government as well as private sector means that money flows in the market once a month. In case of government school, the teachers get paid on quarterly basis a year which is not good for the market,” he reasoned.

Talking to khabarhub he stressed that this issue should be taken seriously in order to strengthen the health of the economy.

KATHMANDU: Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Gokul Banskota, has urged media not to cover news that promotes violence.

Minister Banskota made the comment while speaking at a program on ‘Community Radio: Policy Discussion’ organized by the Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (ACORAB) on its 18th anniversary here on Saturday.

“The government will take action against media houses spreading news inciting violence,” he warned.

LAHAN: An elderly woman was burnt to death in a fire that broke out at Kalyanpur Municipality-7 in Siraha on Saturday morning.

Area Police Office, Mirchaya informed 65-year-old Banarasidevi Sada was killed in the fire at her house, adding that Sada was sleeping when the incident occurred.

Property worth Rs 100,000 was gutted in the fire, police said.

DANG: A person died when the motorcycle he was riding collided with a tipper (Ra. 1 Cha 346) at Tulsipur Sub-metropolitan City-2.

The deceased is identified as Gorakh Chaudhari, 33, of Dangisharan Ruaral Municipality-6, according to Prem Shahi, the chief of Area Police Office, Tulsipur.

Police said they are investigating the case.

KATHMANDU: A man died while two sustained critical injuries in a road accident at Ghansikuwa of the Prithvi Highway in Tanahun district.

The deceased has been identified as Santosh Rai, 25 of Tandi in Chitwan.

The incident occurred when a truck collided with three vehicles.  The injured are undergoing treatment at Damauli District Hospital.

MORANG: Two people have died in a road accident in Kanepokhari Rural Municipality-7 in the district along the East-West Highway on Saturday morning.

The deceased have been identified as 47-year-old Ram Kumar Achhami of Arjundhara Municipality-4 and Prakasah Magar,35, of Gauradaha Municipality, said Police Inspector Kamal Bajgain of Area Police Office, Pathari.

The incident took place when the east-bound TATA Sumo jeep, Ba 11 Cha 7948, hit a cargo truck, Na 3 Kha 6918 heading to the  same direction

Similarly, Yogesh Neupane, Babita Magar, Prabika Magar, Durga Magar of Gauradaha, Ramesh Tamang of Kavre, Hari Prasad Nembang of Miklajung Rural Municipality, Sumo driver of Damak Municipality -2 Kul Bahadur Regmi and container van driver of Chitwan Rapti Municipality-2 Laxman Adhikari are injured.

The injured are receiving treatment at Biratnagar-based Neuro Hospital.