Helicopter companies are found to be operating commercial helicopter flights at Annapurna Base Camp without the permission and consent of Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP), which is against their rules.
As per the tourism office at ACAP Pokhara Office, some helicopters company have been found to carry out their flights at the conserved area without the permission of ACAP. Some other helicopter companies have also been known to be frequently carrying out their flights at the area during recent weeks and tour operators seem to be engaged with them. They are jointly operating tour packages in the conservation area as ‘Breakfast at the Basecamp’ packages for the tourists.
As ACAP has cited in their Rule 16 of ACAP Rules, 2053, helicopters are banned in the conservation area without their permission and all the flights at the conservation area, except for the ones for rescue purposes must receive permission from ACAP and pay an amount of NPR 2000/- to carry out their flights.
Thus, ACAP has taken help from Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) and Civil Aviation Office of Pokhara to prevent such illegal flight activities on the premises of the conservation area from now onwards.
Revision at 3rd Nov 2017: Some Parts had been edited and Photo had been changed.
