The Mithila Dream

Nepali men in the border towns of the Tarai are usually content with a well-paying job, preferably in India. Young Dev Narayan Mandal was no different. 

After completing Grade 10, he went across the border to become an office boy. Now 38, Mandal has made a name for himself in Madhes Province for his nature conservation work, and is now moving on to cultural preservation.  

He is behind the Mithila Wildlife Trust that has over the past ten years restored forests in degraded land, conserved the region’s snake population and invested in snakebite mitigation. 

“Though my academic background is very different, it was my personal interest that steered me towards wildlife conservation,” says Mandal who worked as an accountant in the Indian non-profit Wildlife SOS for seven years before returning to Nepal with a keen interest in nature protection. 

At Wildlife SOS, Mandal worked with 200 rescued circus bears. It was not part of his job, but he liked tagging along during the operations in which the bears were. During one vacation back home in Dhanusha, he was aghast seeing the lush forest near his home completely denuded. 

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He quit his job in India and returned to set up Mithila Wildlife Trust, and collaborated with Dhanusa’s Department of Forestry, to Dhanusadham declaring it an 'illicit felling and grazing free zone'. One thing always leads to another, and the snakes returned. 

Mandal realised just what a big toll in human life snake bites were taking, and people were killing even non-venomous snakes out of fear. He started educating people to identify dangerous snakes, their behaviour and habitat. 

“There were many more snakebite deaths than what was being recorded. Every household was suffering,” says Mandal, who recalls villagers calling him every time they saw a snake instead of killing it on the spot, like they did before. Mandal believes firmly in the coexistence of wild animals alongside humans. 

Mithila Wildlife Trust works with the UK-based Pipal Tree Foundation in strategic reforestation, and Mandal has introduced the Miyawaki Method of restoring compact forests packed with native species. Within three years, the Miyawaki plots are now dense jungle. 

“Unlike the Dhanusadham forest, we did not have to wait up to 10-15 years to see the impact of our work here,” a satisfied Mandal told us one recent afternoon. Local villagers are allowed to harvest deadwood, twigs and leaves and they protect the forest. Native birds and burrowing animals have returned.

One animal that made a recent guest appearance was a fox. Mandal stops and points his camera towards the undergrowth, and only his trained eye could see the bushy tailed brown animal in the bushes. 

After bringing back nature, Mandal is now trying to save his native Mithila heritage, for which he has opened a Cultural Village in Dhanusadham. “It will take you back to the Madhesh that was 30 years earlier,” explains Mandal, showing a visitor around mud-thatched huts with vibrant Mithila paintings on the walls, and where guests can savour authentic Mithila thali.  

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The Cultural Village also generates income to sustain the Mithila Wildlife Trust and offers a quiet venue for residencies, workshops and conferences. In fact, everything in the village is authentic and self-sustaining. 

“All the food in the restaurant is sourced from our own vegetable farms, the waste is turned into fertiliser. Nothing is thrown away,” he says.  

Madhes Province ranks one of the lowest in terms of human development in Nepal, but Mandal’s work is a model for other provinces in how to practice development that is sustainable and does not end up destroying nature.

He adds: “Conservation has to be self-sustaining, this model can be replicated in any locality, and even upscaled to the national level.”