Nepal royals stole nature conservation money

This video is about wildlife in Nepal.

From the BBC:

Nepal royals ‘stole charity cash’

By Charles Haviland
BBC News, Kathmandu

A controversy has resurfaced in Nepal over one of the country’s major nature conservation trusts.

An investigation has concluded that Nepal’s royal family misused funds belonging to the charity.

The investigation committee said the royals spent large amounts of the trust’s money on themselves, over a period of several years.

The report was written by Maoist former rebels, who are now in government, and who now control the trust.

‘Lavish spending’

Nepal is home to the world’s highest mountains and to a rich diversity of flora and fauna.

But much of the work to conserve them is embroiled in political controversy, thanks to a history of royal dictatorship mixed with communist insurgency.

The National Trust for Nature Conservation was until last year named in honour of a former king, Mahendra, and was chaired by Crown Prince Paras with his father, King Gyanendra, as patron.

An investigative committee has now concluded that the royals spent huge amounts of trust money on travels abroad, lavish parties, and health check-ups for Queen Komal in British clinics.

Its report said the royals were still using computers and cars that rightfully belonged to the trust.

In one notorious royal trip, the prince visited Austria and donated a pair of one-horned rhinos, an endangered species in Nepal, to a zoo.

Nepalese army personnel suspected of involvement in rhino poaching: here.

American writer wanted in Nepal in connections with wildlife and archaeological crimes: here.

Women in Nepal: here.

September 2012. Tigers aren’t known for being accommodating, but a new study indicates that the carnivores in Nepal are taking the night shift to better coexist with humans. The revelation that tigers and people are sharing exactly the same space – the same roads and trails – of Chitwan National Park flies in the face of long-held convictions in conservation circles. It also underscores how successful conservation efforts need sciences that takes into account both nature and humans: here.