Bihari Krishna Shrestha, 88
Bihari Krishna Shrestha transformed the physical, economic, gender and social landscapes of Nepal as a civil servant and anthropologist of the highest order.
Throughout his highly productive career Bihari-ji's belief in, and dedication to, local communities formed the bedrock of his work.
Through policy initiatives, implementation programs, scholarship, and advocacy, Bihari, played a leading role in the greening of Nepal through Community Forestry, the empowerment of women's groups, and the fostering of rural economic development.
During his years as a Member of the National Planning Commission and Secretary of various government ministries, he spearheaded catalytic Parliamentary Acts for User Groups, Decentralisation, and Rural Development.
Along with Prachanda Pradhan, Chandni Joshi and a host of other amazing Nepali and foreign colleagues, Bihari's work directly provided the basis for Elinor Ostrom's Nobel Prize in Economics in 2009. She explicitly acknowledged this debt during her celebratory visit to Nepal in 2010.
I was privileged to know Bihari-dai for over 51 years. We first met in 1972 when he was with the Royal Nepal Academy where he wrote his first ethnography on the Karnali region as one volume in the Karnali Lok Sanskriti series.
As I was headed to Jumla to conduct my PhD research under the auspices of the Centre for Nepal and Asian Studies, I had the pleasure of presenting him with a personally sponsored translation of his book Jan Jivan (People's Lives).
This introductory offering to my future guru and lifelong friend was a complete surprise and gratefully accepted. We clicked intellectually and personally.
Our five decades of collegial partnership began in earnest during my work from 1980 to 1985 with the Community Forestry in Nepal program that was supported by the World Bank and UN.
In an email only a month ago on 7 January 2025, Bihari wrote, ‘I cannot forget the day when you, Gabriel had brought the whole team of consultants to my office in NPC that eventually led to change the face of Nepal in greenery, the grand resurrection of our forest wealth. Thank you.’
Bihari Krishna Shrestha - ji, it is you that the nation, the world, and I thank. When we came to your office, we, including World Bank anthropologist consultant Augusta Molnar and Community Forestry Chief, Prahlad Manandhar, documented how communities only related to forests they considered their own -- and how these did not coincide with the existing Panchayat boundaries and forestry law.
This so resonated with your own experience, and that of pioneering forest officers such as Tej Bahadur Singh Mahat, that you ran with the results in your typically impatient fashion. You instigated new policies and laws to establish User Groups as legal entities that empowered them to take management control of their own natural resources.
Fast forward to Nepal today. Hundreds of inspired forestry officials, international development workers, and NGOs have devoted years to fostering the success of Community Forestry.
Now, there are over 23,000 federated community forestry user groups consisting of about 320,000 households and 16 million members managing 2.4 million hectares of forest area.
As Bihari continued to document and champion to his last day, these user groups empower women and local communities economically and socially and are remarkably resilient despite many challenges.
Bihari Krishna Shrestha, it is a true honour to have known and worked with you. May your legacy continue to inspire us. May your sense of humour and love of life continue to infect us. We will miss you.
J. Gabriel Campbell PhD is former ICIMOD Director General, retired. gcampbell@mountain.org