In July, less than a month after it was first introduced in parliament, Nepal President Ramchandra Paudel authenticated a Bill to amend some laws to spur investment. Among the bill’s provisions is the amendment of the <a href="https://www.forestaction.org/app/webroot/js/tinymce/editor/plugins/filemanager/files/National_Park_Act_1973_Nepal%20(1).pdf">1973 National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act</a>.&nbsp; Section 5A of the Act, which has provisions related to prohibited activities within national parks and reserves, now includes an added clause: ‘The Government of Nepal may designate highly-sensitive areas within protected areas including National Parks, Reserves or Conservation Areas through a notice in the Nepal Gazette if it deems it necessary.’ This could mean that the government is now trying to disingenuously classify areas within <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/does-nepal-need-the-army-to-guard-parks">protected wildlife habitats</a> also as ‘non-sensitive’ to allow private sector investment in resorts, cable cars and other infrastructure. Read also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/More-trouble-in-Chitwan-National-Park,2956">Restoring resorts</a>, Smriti Basnet The 1973 Act lays out definitions of National Park, Strict Nature Reserve, Wildlife Reserve, and Hunting Reserve, and stipulates that those areas are set aside for conservation and management of the natural environment in areas of ecological importance. By designating some parts of these reserves as ‘sensitive’, activists say, the government is trying to defuse criticism of investment by the private sector. &nbsp; The 1973 Act has been critical in Nepal’s conservation success story, ensuring that nearly a quarter of the country’s area is protected, the tripling of Nepal’s tiger population and protection of its habitat, and the doubling of forest cover to 46% in the past 25 years. &nbsp; “Conservation areas are created for biodiversity-sensitive regions, and as such, only a minimal part of such areas can be categorised as not being highly sensitive,” says Rajesh Rai, professor at Tribhuvan University's Institute of Forestry. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/economic-benefits-of-saving-the-ecology">Economic benefits of saving the ecology</a> The amendment also states: ‘Apart from the areas specified under section 5A, the Government of Nepal can approve specified projects of national priority, projects approved by the Investment Board or national pride projects in any intermediate zone within national parks, wildlife reserves, conservation areas while maintaining the co-existence of nature and human beings.’  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240910080928_8f1ae1e1c7acd2f0ebd5ca946a173c492f040844a79dfdb4af75081b0e2d169a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20240910080928_8f1ae1e1c7acd2f0ebd5ca946a173c492f040844a79dfdb4af75081b0e2d169a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1250" height="600" loading="lazy" alt="Tiger conservation in Nepal NT"> <figcaption>Photo: WWF</figcaption> </figure>  This conservationists say, would mean disturbance of protected wilderness areas, and open them up to construction and disturbance by all three levels of government which are not known for transparency and rule of law. In fact, there is such an unhealthy alliance between politicians and their business cronies that it is becoming difficult to tell them apart. Projects under consideration that directly impact protected areas include the Kori cable car proposal in Sikles of Kaski, the 80km Pokhara-Jomsom gondola cable car, new resorts inside Rara, Chitwan and Bardia National Parks.&nbsp; Constitutional experts assert that the Act goes against Nepal’s Constitution, the <a href="https://dnpwc.gov.np/media/publication/convention-on-biological-diversity-e.pdf">1992 United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity,</a> the<a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/convention/"> 1972 World Heritage Convention</a> and the <a href="https://dnpwc.gov.np/media/publication/Convention_ramsar.pdf">1971 Convention on Wetlands</a>. “This Act will destroy wildlife habitats, undermining gains in Nepal’s biodiversity protection,” adds Rai, explaining that ensuing habitat fragmentation will lead to wildlife relocating beyond protected areas, thereby increasing human-wildlife conflict. Even though laws and governance related to conservation areas and wildlife protection fall under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Forests and Environment, it is significant that the bill was tabled by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/business/gambling-on-the-future">Gambling on the future</a>, Sikuma Rai And while it typically takes years for Parliament to pass any law, this bill was passed by both the lower and upper Houses within 26 days, and verified by the President’s office on the same day that it was passed by the National Assembly. All this has given credence to critics who smell a rat.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240910080928_17b880e02db74bbea29bc27e215a80c17aa379d29aa5a63ef0de0e1e29ae27ec.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20240910080928_17b880e02db74bbea29bc27e215a80c17aa379d29aa5a63ef0de0e1e29ae27ec" data-rendition-name="original" width="1400" height="933" loading="lazy" alt="elephant conservation NT "> <figcaption>Photo: WWF</figcaption> </figure>  This is not the first time that corporate groups have eyed development inside nature conservation areas, and have lobbied repeatedly for ordinances, procedures and regulations. This amendment comes at a time when major corruption scandals and have rocked the highest echelons of government. In fact, the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-government-changes-again">coalition reshuffle in June</a> after which the NC-UML government came to power has been attributed to the two parties protecting their top leaders from investigations by the previous RSP home minister into scandals. &nbsp; But even the previous coalition led by Maoist chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal amended the National Parks Act in April by issuing the Ordinance Amending Some Nepal Acts Related to Investment Facilitation 2024. Before that, the government published the Construction of Physical Infrastructure Inside Protected Areas in January, which allows hydropower and other infrastructure within protected areas. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/rivers-be-dammed">Rivers be dammed</a>, Pinki Sris Rana In 2018, businesses bypassed laws to prepare for infrastructure construction including ropeways, hotels, resorts and campsites in conservation areas and buffer zones after the Ministry of Forests published a draft outlining procedures to operate and regulate tourist services within protected areas. Conservationists and analysts have called for the immediate repeal of this Act that puts commercial interests over the protection of Nepal’s wildlife and biodiversity. They say the law is unjust and hypocritical because it punishes villagers for foraging fodder inside protected areas, while giving politically-connected businesses the freedom to build whatever they want inside wilderness areas.&nbsp; “Businesses must not be allowed to operate anywhere in our protected areas, not just biodiversity-sensitive regions,” says Rai. “In the event that such commercial activities are allowed, priority must be given to the indigenous communities and locals who have been historically displaced in the process of creating these conservation areas.”

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Not out of the woods yet in Nepal

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413118/637230549c7e80680e0c255fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"/><figcaption>A wild ox Gaur spotted in Chitwan. Photo: BABU RAM LAMICHHANE</figcaption></figure>On the morning of 4 May, I got a call from the chief warden of Kosi Tappu Wildlife Reserve in eastern Nepal. He wanted me to verify a picture of an animal: if it was a wild ox (गौरिगाई) or a wild water buffalo (अर्ना).The chief warden was tasked by the District Forest Officer of Udaypur with rescuing the animal that had ventured into the Khaijanpur Community Forest in Trijuga Municipality and the nearby village, straying into cowsheds and attacking two people in the process.The team led by a forest ranger reached the site, but was unable to identify the animal in question. When I was sent a photograph they took, I immediately recognised it as a specimen of the wild ox, gaur. The ranger's team finally pushed the animal out of the village to the forest it originally came from.This was a significant sighting because it confirmed the existence of the gaur in Eastern Nepal. We had been looking for evidence of this, but had failed to do so until now.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413118/637230579c7e80680e0c2560jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1352" height="881"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The sighting shows that they must be quite a few of the wild ox roaming around the forests mostly undetected in biodiversity surveys of 2018 and later. This also means how little we know about this, and perhaps even other species in Nepal.Gaur (Latin name: Bos gaurus) is the largest bovine in the world and the third-largest mammal found in Nepal and Asia, after the Asian elephant and the greater one-horned rhinoceros. An adult gaur stands at 1.7-2.2m at its shoulder with a male weighs between 1,000-1,500kg, and a female between 700-1,000kg.Historically, the gaur roamed throughout South and Southeast Asia. But with widespread habitat loss and fragmentation, over 80% of their range collapsed over time. Surviving populations are confined in isolated forest patches mostly inside protected areas in ten countries of South and Southeast Asia.The gaur is in the ‘Vulnerable’ category on the IUCN Red List, and protected by law in Nepal. Globally, the population of this imposing animal is estimated at between 13,000 to 30,000.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413118/6372305b9c7e80680e0c2561jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1329" height="412"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Gaurs play an important ecological role as large grazers, especially in the Chure Range, Inner Tarai and Tarai and are concentrated in Chitwan and Parsa National Parks.  They generally live in small herds of 5-12 animals, but sometimes gather in large groups of over 100 individuals.Given their large body mass and the fact that they travel in herds means they help maintain openings within the forest and create grazing lawns which are used by other smaller herbivores like the spotted deer.Gaurs are also a part of the diet of tigers which prefer the large body size of prey like the gaur, arna, nilgai, sambar and swamp deer, even though they are primarily consuming smaller herbivores like the chital and hog deer.A small population is also found in the Trijuga forest in Udaypur and Saptari districts in Eastern Nepal, which was probably where the Trijuga specimen orginated. One gaur bull was brought in 1993 to Jawalakhel zoo from Jhapa District.A survey to estimate the gaur population in Chitwan was carried out in 2021 and in Parsa this year, and reported 388 and 164 mammals respectively. Population surveys have been carried out on a regular basis in Chitwan which shows a gradual increase of the population from 188 in 1997 to 388 in 2021. Similarly, in Parsa, the population has increased from 105 to164 in the past five years.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413118/6372305d9c7e80680e0c2562jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3509" height="2481"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>However, their presence outside of Chitwan and Parsa National Park is now negligible. Part of the reason is the deterioration and encroachment of its natural habitat, especially outside protected areas. Fragmentation of the Chure and Tarai is further depleting their range.They are also hunted for bushmeat, mistreated and succumb to diseases. Lack of information about their status, ecology and threats also add to the conservation challenge. Nepal's conservation priority now needs to shift from a focus on charismatic mammals like tigers and rhinos to other large but neglected mammals like gaur which are also endangered and important for the ecosystem.The Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation has formulated a Gaur Conservation Action Plan for Nepal (2020-2024) to maintain the population and protect their habitat. The strategy prioritises hunting prevention, reducing disease threats, research and monitoring, protection and management of habitat as well as strengthening cooperation for gaur conservation.Babu Ram Lamichhane is with the Natural Trust for Nature Conservation – Biodiversity Conservation Centre in Sauraha, Chitwan. Read more: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/activists-against-animal-cruelty-at-nepal-temple/">Activists decry animal slaughter at Nepal temple</a>, Sewa Bhattarai

Protecting Nepal’s endangered wild cattle

<img width="800" height="466" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101136/63720c559c7e80680e0b7863jpeg.jpg" alt=""/>3 May 2009 has a special significance for Tulsi Laxmi Suwal, as it was the day she found a mother pangolin with her new-born pup inside the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/who-now-owns-nepals-forests/">community forest</a> area in Bhaktapur.Suwal, who is a researcher of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/protecting-pangolins-from-being-eaten-to-extinction/">pangolins</a> and a conservation activist, took the shy and harmless little creatures to the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/its-a-zoo-out-there-2/">Central Zoo</a> in Jawalakhel where she began to study them. Co-incidentally, her own child was five years of age then, and watching the mother pangolin feed, cuddle and take care of her pup, Suwal felt a growing emotional attachment with the pair.“For 15 days I would go to the zoo every morning,” Suwal recalls. “Then I would observe them all day and return home in the evening.”This experience, Suwal adds, helped her gain a more holistic knowledge of the scaly mammals. Later the mother and the pup were released back to the Bhaktapur community forest.Read more: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/protecting-pangolins-from-being-eaten-to-extinction/">Protecting pangolins from being eaten to extinction</a>, Sonia AwalePangolins are small mammals, between 30 to 100cm in size, with large, protective keratin scales covering their skin. There are eight extant species found in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, all of which are currently <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/lesser-known-endangered-species/">considered threatened</a> by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). They are the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-routes-for-the-worlds-most-trafficked-mammal/">most trafficked mammals in the world</a> because of illicit demand for their meat and scales in China.Nepal is home to two species: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-day-of-pangolins/">the Chinese and Indian varieties</a>. Both species are in Nepal’s protected list and the killing, poaching, transporting, selling or buying of the scaly anteater is punishable with Rs1 million fine and/or up to 15 years in jail.However, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/protecting-pangolins-from-being-eaten-to-extinction/">100,000 pangolins are smuggled live</a> from Southeast Asia and Africa into China every year where its scales are believed to have therapeutic value and its meat is considered a delicacy. Some ethnic groups in Nepal also consume pangolins for their supposed health benefits.<a href="https://www.savepangolins.org/">Save Pangolins</a>, a global organisation that supports conservation actions in Africa and Asia, and raises awareness of pangolins around the world, estimates that one million of the animals have been killed worldwide in the last decade alone. <img width="4000" height="3000" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101136/63720c589c7e80680e0b7864jpeg.jpg" alt="">Suwal was first introduced to pangolins in 2007 when she came upon a picture of the animal in a book. She was at the time a post-graduate student at the Central Zoology department in Tribhuvan University.Curious, she looked for more information on pangolins and discovered the works of conservationists Juddha Gurung and Daniel Challender. As her interest grew, so did her affection for the animals, which appear to her like new-born babies. Then in 2009, along with her studies, Suwal also began her conservation work, joining Nepal's <a href="https://smcrf.org/">Small Mammals Conservation and Research Foundation (SMCRF)</a>.For her dissertation on pangolins, Suwal chose to work in Balthali in Kavre district where the private forest is a good habitat for the animals, studying them for months. This was almost 12 years ago when female students of Zoology would usually choose parasitology as their field of study. <img width="126" height="150" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101136/63720c5b9c7e80680e0b7865jpeg.jpg" alt="">Read more: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-routes-for-the-worlds-most-trafficked-mammal/">The routes for the world’s most trafficked mammal</a>, Nepali Times“When we were studying, even botany and environment were more popular choices among girls,” says Suwal. “But I picked zoology and focused on ecology.”Her passion for pangolins has taken Suwal all over the country, often to identify the different species found in the community and national forests. However, she feels that many people are still unfamiliar with the animal and its significance.She would inform people, wherever she went, about the role of pangolins in our ecology and biodiversity. She even started a campaign to impart relevant news and information about the animal through the social network. <img width="1600" height="1200" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101136/63720c5c9c7e80680e0b7866jpeg.jpg" alt="">Gradually the interest took on momentum and more people have come to join the conservation efforts in recent years. Suwal works with the local people, media, community forest groups, security forces, the Ministry of Forests and Environment, the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, and also conducts discussions and talks in communities, schools, colleges and universities on pangolins to raise awareness.By 2012, there was already a growing interest among locals as well as post-graduate students. So far, the number of studies done by the university on pangolins is 35, which includes the participation of government institutions involved in conservation and habitat protection. Suwal, who is currently pursuing PhD in Taiwan, is nearing the completion of her research, which will make her the first female zoologist from Nepal with a doctorate on pangolins.Taiwan has the highest population density of pangolins in the world. “Taiwan is proof that China can also reduce its demand for pangolins through education, stricter laws, transboundary collaboration and enforcement,” adds Suwal.“I wanted to study,” she says thinking back on her journey. “All of this has been possible because of the support from various people in my life.” Her husband Manoj Bakhunche who is an engineering officer with the Armed Police has been her strongest supporter. <img width="3603" height="2590" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101136/63720c609c7e80680e0b7867jpeg.jpg" alt="">Born in Chochhe of Bhaktapur, Suwal wanted to be a teacher like her father when she was a child. She began to teach at Dipendra Police School in Sankhu when she was 19 after her mother passed away, and continued to teach until she completed her Bachelor eight years later.Even as she took evening post-graduate Sociology classes at Tri-Chandra College, her true interest was Zoology, and promptly returned to it after taking two year’s unpaid leave of absence from teaching.Through her expertise and involvement in pangolin conservation, she was made a member of the <a href="https://www.iucn.org/">IUCN</a>’s pangolin specialist group in 2012. She is among seven Nepalis in the group and this network brings her together with 148 experts from 37 countries. Further, her dissertation is aided by Save Pangolins, which recently recognised and honoured her conservation work. <img width="583" height="443" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101136/63720c639c7e80680e0b7868jpeg.jpg" alt="">“Pangolins are critically endangered in the world,” says Suwal: “But the growing concern for its conservation is promising. It is important that we all work together to keep the mammal from going extinct.”An example of such work is the observation of the World Pangolin Day on the third Saturday in February annually across the world. Another is also the ‘pangolin pavement’ in the Bagh Bhairab Community Forest in Kathmandu’s Machhegaun – a first in Nepal. As conservation institutions expand their work, they are also beginning to include pangolins in their scope and programs.However, Suwal believes that while community and organisations are now taking pangolins seriously, current efforts are not enough. A major concern is that there is no budget allocated especially for pangolin conservation, and nor have regular programs for long-term study and research been decided.She adds: “Conservation work need to be expanded across the country systemically to save more pangolin lives.” Translated from the Himalkhabar Nepali <a href="https://www.himalkhabar.com/news/128424">original</a> by Ashish Dhakal.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/lesser-known-endangered-species/">Lesser known endangered species,</a> Nepali Times

Planet of the pangolins

<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101136/63720c199c7e80680e0b784ejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3264" height="1836"/>Sonam Tashi Lama, a Nepali grassroots conservationist working to protect the country’s endangered <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/red-panda-conservation-nepal,1668" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/red-panda-conservation-nepal,1668&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1646270991147000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2jtH74oSxFFFDgkLcgsz1E">red panda</a> is among 15 activists shortlisted for the prestigious Whitley Award 2022.He has been recognised by the Whitley Fund for Nature for strengthening community-based initiatives to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/tracking-nepals-red-panda-by-satellite/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/tracking-nepals-red-panda-by-satellite/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1646270991147000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3iaw1wEYQqgIOU8EBqOPUy">save the last of the red panda</a>, which is also known as the ‘first panda’ to distinguish it from the Giant Panda in China.Working as a Program Coordinator in <a href="https://redpandanetwork.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://redpandanetwork.org/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1646270991147000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1TLPTzg7ruCQiwInmVzxuC">Red Panda Network</a>, Sonam Tashi Lama is a conservationist from Nepal who has been working for more than a decade in implementing <a href="https://redpandanetwork.org/What-We-Do" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://redpandanetwork.org/What-We-Do&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1646270991147000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3c_T3CZdIfZ9RyPvGWxU4K">community-based red panda conservation</a> approaches in Nepal. His work has created a <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/rescued-red-pandas-from-Rolpa-in-Kathmandu-zoo,2851" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/rescued-red-pandas-from-Rolpa-in-Kathmandu-zoo,2851&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1646270991147000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3o7ZAyNrdafkq0tx8I-wmm">grassroot impact </a>that has fostered red panda conservation stewardship in communities of eastern Nepal.<a href="https://whitleyaward.org/about/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://whitleyaward.org/about/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1646270991147000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0dtmL9UsJEiJqpDtWuioC_">Whitley Fund for Nature</a> (WFN) is a UK fundraising and grant-giving charity founded by <a href="https://geographical.co.uk/people/i-m-a-geographer/item/1620-edward-whitley-conservationist-author" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://geographical.co.uk/people/i-m-a-geographer/item/1620-edward-whitley-conservationist-author&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1646270991147000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2IXZOhkaSpzYNq73h1qBUl">Edward Whitley OBE</a> in 1993. The award winners are local environmental heroes working across countries to create lasting benefits for wildlife, landscapes and people. The flagship conservation awards worth £40,000 are honoured competitively following rigorous assessment by an expert panel.Read more: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/republic-of-nepals-animal-kingdom/">Republic of Nepal’s animal kingdom</a>, Sonam Tashi Lama and Janam ShresthaAn earlier recipient of the award from Nepal was <a href="https://whitleyaward.org/winners/conservation-endemic-bird-species-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://whitleyaward.org/winners/conservation-endemic-bird-species-nepal/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1646270991147000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3mhEiOy3NqfjMMEEKC8QXJ">Dr. Hem Baral in 2005</a> for his work to conserve  endemic bird species through participatory conservation at Phulchoki forest near Kathmandu.This year, the other 15 shortlisted conservationists for the award include Shailendra Singh, Andres Link, David Kwarteng, Pablo Hoffmann from across the world providing various environmental solutions among others.The Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN) is a UK registered charity supporting grassroots conservation leaders in the Global South. Over 29 years it has channeled £19 million to more than 200 conservationists in 80 countries. It was one of the first charities to direct funding to locally-led projects.Its rigorous, and renowned, application process identifies inspiring individuals who combine the latest science with community-based action, to benefit wildlife, landscapes, and people.The <a href="https://whitleyaward.org/what-we-do/whitley-awards/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://whitleyaward.org/what-we-do/whitley-awards/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1646270991147000&amp;usg=AOvVaw28MMgX1MlLAM4JcgKS1vEs">Whitley Awards</a> are presented by patron <a href="https://whitleyaward.org/about-us/patrons-ambassadors/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://whitleyaward.org/about-us/patrons-ambassadors/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1646270991147000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0t6d-UTB2bEwsADUbkiV3v">HRH The Princess Royal</a> at an annual ceremony in London. Winners receive funding, training and profile including short films narrated by Trustee, <a href="https://whitleyaward.org/about-us/trustees/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://whitleyaward.org/about-us/trustees/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1646270991147000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2BGezCPxk0npd4HEy9bxJi">Sir David Attenborough</a>. Whitley Award winners also join an <a href="https://whitleyaward.org/winners-hub/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://whitleyaward.org/winners-hub/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1646270991147000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0TNAryH1UFNKAzHUI0Sw1G">international alumni network</a> eligible for <a href="https://whitleyaward.org/what-we-do/continuation-funding/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://whitleyaward.org/what-we-do/continuation-funding/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1646270991147000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0d5UXOAGDJNj1eUpBmwQzm">Continuation Funding</a>, allowing successful conservation solutions to be scaled up. A portion of WFN’s annual Continuation Funding is directed to nature-based solutions that jointly address the climate and biodiversity crises.‘This year we received applications of an exceptionally high standard, representing a range of conservation approaches benefitting wildlife, landscapes and people across the Global South,’ Whitley said in a statement.Shortlisted candidates and their projects are <a href="https://whitleyaward.org/2022/02/24/2022-whitley-awards-the-shortlist/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://whitleyaward.org/2022/02/24/2022-whitley-awards-the-shortlist/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1646270991147000&amp;usg=AOvVaw32fwxs7Aeim5MI2Ounkm1d">here</a>:Aylin Akkaya of <a href="https://www.dmad.org.tr/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.dmad.org.tr/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1646270991147000&amp;usg=AOvVaw259YcNgeKnuEyezGFRuL7j">DMAD – Marine Mammals Research Association</a> in TurkeyProtecting the sperm whales and Cuvier’s beaked whales of TurkeyEmmanuel Amoah of the <a href="https://www.threscoal.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.threscoal.org/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1646270991147000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0MPX5MexZhdVrje7jI2V5c">Threatened Species Conservation Alliance</a> in GhanaSafeguarding the last stronghold of West African slender-snouted crocodileYara Barros of <a href="https://procarnivoros.org.br/en/home/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://procarnivoros.org.br/en/home/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1646270991147000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0caBYjiOxy7MzGD_Yt-blr">Pró-Carnívoros</a> in BrazilJaguars of Iguaçu Project: conservation of jaguars in the Atlantic ForestMicaela Camino of <a href="https://redaf.org.ar/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://redaf.org.ar/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1646270991147000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3P-Fgj8jTf7EcCrKKXbpg9">Red Agroforestal Chaco Argentina</a> in ArgentinaEmpowering local communities to conserve the Chacoan peccary and the Argentine ChacoVreni Haussermann of <a href="https://www.uss.cl/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.uss.cl/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1646270991147000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1kA5FMFi-kQ0I-ZWol-0Dr">Universidad San Sebastian</a> in ChileWith Sense and Sensibility: gaining a community for conservation in Chilean PatagoniaPablo Hoffmann of <a href="https://www.sociedadechaua.org/en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.sociedadechaua.org/en&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1646270991147000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3KAAAxjtDxxnkgVu48FrWM">Sociedade Chauá</a> in BrazilRescuing and conserving threatened species in the Araucaria Forest regionDavid Kwarteng of the <a href="https://www.inecgh.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.inecgh.org/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1646270991147000&amp;usg=AOvVaw32tiOphqJYocKlcgqSMdIN">Institute of Nature and Environmental Conservation</a> in GhanaScaling up pangolin conservationJonathan Kwiyega of the <a href="https://www.lcmo.or.tz/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.lcmo.or.tz/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1646270991147000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1_tkyIjBHE-v78ZwQINnFK">Landscape and Conservation Mentors Organisation</a> in TanzaniaHalting illegal lion killings in western TanzaniaSonam Lama of the <a href="https://redpandanetwork.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://redpandanetwork.org/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1646270991147000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1TLPTzg7ruCQiwInmVzxuC">Red Panda Network</a> in NepalStrengthening community-based initiatives to save the last of the first pandaAndres Link of <a href="https://proyectoprimates.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://proyectoprimates.org/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1646270991147000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0eNFRlVoY0CBcGBlkmZDUn">Proyecto Primates</a> in ColombiaProtecting brown spider monkeys in a pervasively fragmented Biodiversity HotspotEstrela Matilde of <a href="https://fundacaoprincipe.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://fundacaoprincipe.org/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1646270991147000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0_299Z-XCWaT13fAa7J-f7">Fundação Príncipe</a> in Sao Tome and PrincipeEnhanced marine conservation on Príncipe Island through participatory plastic reduction effortsBadru Mugerwa of <a href="https://www.savingafricangoldencat.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.savingafricangoldencat.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1646270991147000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0b0krrr6Sy6fG9JC54zIx1">Embaka</a> in UgandaPigs, Smiles and Sounds: local community tools against poachingJoshua Rukundo of the <a href="https://pasa.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://pasa.org/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1646270991147000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3hjXMihSp72U8-YCExqojM">Pan African Sanctuary Alliance</a> in UgandaConserving endangered chimpanzees in unprotected forests across western UgandaShailendra Singh of the <a href="https://turtlesurvival.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://turtlesurvival.org/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1646270991147000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3pTIsNi47sKO_YHOV9gWHB">Turtle Survival Alliance</a> in IndiaBringing black soft-shell turtle back from the brink in AssamDedy Yansyah of <a href="http://leuserconservancy.or.id/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://leuserconservancy.or.id/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1646270991147000&amp;usg=AOvVaw32UFRURMW2RQX2QAZJ_TH-">Forum Konservasi Leuser</a> in IndonesiaSaving isolated Sumatran rhinos in the Eastern Leuser ecosystemThe winners of this year’s Whitley Awards will be announced live in London on Wednesday 27 April. Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/red-panda-on-the-red-list/">Red panda on the list</a>, Sonam Tashi Lama

Nepali activist shortlisted for nature award

<figure><img width="1300" height="639" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110151120/636d08cd9c7e80680e0a603bjpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Tigers (left-female/right-male) photographed during the Chure study in the forests of Kapilvastu, Rupandehi, and Palpa</figcaption></figure>A new paper has reported fresh sightings of wild tigers in higher elevations in Nepal, showing that conservation efforts need to be stepped up outside their traditional habitat inside national parks. There have been multiple sightings of at least two tigers in the mountains of Rupandehi, Kapilvastu and Palpa, three districts that have never before seen the presence of the endangered big cats.“We have camera-trapped tigers in forests north and west of Butwal where they have never been seen before. They have been seen in the Chure Hills, outside of protected areas in the Tarai,” says Baburam Lamichhane of the Sauraha Biodiversity Conservation Centre. <img width="940" height="788" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110151120/636d08d09c7e80680e0a603cjpeg.jpg" alt=""><img width="940" height="788" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110151120/636d08d29c7e80680e0a603djpeg.jpg" alt="">The <a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fntnc.org.np%2Fpublication%2Freport-faunal-diversity-chure-region-nepal%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR0o2JxapHijSQKOQ5ga_J9iCkJXojLEFA7YbfBkRsox6s4YhTfD5FDLC44&amp;h=AT0tPbTVadXJG-JGMbqNltUqFCcBGE60u2bPXMoF7r4NBFlYb1IrFyN1clnW65l_4eOjIAIJXjlpfoDmJ0A1xk66C52iPibR5jrF05-wvae8SS7LBg29wyY9ZBwnWDqGFyo-7p3Z-s4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">recently published</a> ‘Report on Faunal Diversity in Chure Region of Nepal’ identified a female tiger in multiple locations on the border of Rupandehi and Palpa. A male was spotted in northern Kapilvastu, about 40km west of the female.  Nepal's five Tarai national parks (Parsa and Chitwan in the east and Banke, Bardia and Shuklaphanta in the west) are considered the traditional habitats of the big cats in Nepal. Kapilvastu, Rupandehi and Palpa districts in Central Nepal are equidistant from Chitwan-Parsa in the east and Banke-Bardia in the west.  Individual tigers can be identified by signature stripes on their bodies, and researchers compared camera trap images of the newly discovered tigers with those previously spotted in Chitwan, Parsa, Banke, Bardia and Shuklaphanta during the censuses in 2009, 2014 and 2018, but there were no matches in the tiger data base. Nine months ago, a newly-identified female tiger was reported to have attacked a villager 25km away from the area where it was spotted. Since these two locations are connected via a forest corridor, conservationists speculate that it may be the same tiger.  Seven conservationists including Lamichhane and Naresh Subedi have tried to find out whether the recently detected male and female tigers have crossed paths and mated. They do not know for sure yet.  Another study carried out by NTNC and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) spotted four tigers this year in a forest in Rautahat bordering Parsa National Park. Apart from these, the big cats have been seen roaming the Brahmadev-Laljhadi corridor of Kanchanpur district in the far-western plains. Another strip of forest in Kailali connecting Shuklaphanta and Bardia National Parks has also recorded tigers. The Kamdi Corridor, which connects Banke National Park with India’s Sohelwa Wildlife Sanctuary and facilitates the movement of wildlife between the two countries, is also home to abundant tigers. They have also started appearing in the hill forests north of Chitwan National Park. In the last census in 2018, Nepal counted 235 tigers in five national parks, becoming the first country to double the population of its big cats, from 121 in 2009. Chitwan National Park had the highest number of tigers at 93, followed by Bardia that registered 87 individuals and Banke 21. There were 18 more in Parsa and 16 in Shuklaphanta.  <img width="1000" height="566" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110151120/636d08d59c7e80680e0a603ejpeg.jpg" alt="">However, the census did not cover areas outside national parks, and the real total number of tigers could therefore be more. Nepal is an international model for tiger conservation but its successes in increasing the big cat population mean protected areas are getting crowded, in turn leading to a sharp decline in prey density. Tigers are now venturing outside of forests in search of food. Researchers have also cited other reasons for tigers venturing up the Himalaya: climate change and the success of Nepal’s community forestry efforts in the mountains.“Tigers do not leave their territory unless it must, so they are out looking for new habitats,” explains Haribhadra Acharya of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC). “While their sightings are proof of our conservation success, it also adds to the challenge. Contact with people outside parks has increased, which is worrying.”The good news is that recent studies have shown the possibility of linking the protected areas in eastern and western Tarai. An article published in the Journal of Animal Diversity recommends expanding conservation efforts outside national parts, and spreading it throughout the country.  In December 2020, Nepal recorded its highest ever tiger sighting at 3,165m in Ilam district. Last April, a Royal Bengal tiger was caught on a camera trap roaming the forested mountains of Dadeldhura at 2,500m. Given that this forest is connected to Shuklaphanta National Park in the Tarai, the tiger may have climbed to the higher elevation from the plains. <figure><img width="796" height="444" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110151120/636d08d99c7e80680e0a603fjpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Records of tigers in Chure during this study in relation to tiger distribution in Nepal based on National Study in 2018.</figcaption></figure><figure><img width="796" height="469" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110151120/636d08db9c7e80680e0a6040jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Close-up of the locations where tigers were camera-trapped in Kapilvastu and Rupandehi.</figcaption></figure>But the tiger found in Ilam is unlikely to have come from the Parsa-Rautahat forest in the eastern Tarai because it is too far, and the stretch in between has dense human habitation.  However, the forest in Ilam is connected with India’s Singhalila National Park, the Neura Valley National Park in Sikkim and protected areas of Bhutan – all of which have forest corridors and have also recently sighted tigers. This has led experts to speculate that the tiger in Ilam may have ventured in from Sikkim, or even Bhutan. Baburam Lamichhane of NTNC however says that the increased sightings should not be understood as habitat expansion: "We are seeing tigers in new places but it doesn’t mean they are permanently moving there. It does mean we have to protect their habitats.”  The sightings of tigers outside parks and in the mountains has also raised the need for cross-border cooperation in tiger and nature conservation.  Says Acharya of DNPWC: “These sightings do indicate tigers have chosen to be in the highlands because they like it there. Our priority now is to protect the habitats also outside national parks, ensure adequate water, and prey.” Translated by Sonia Awale from the <a href="https://www.himalkhabar.com/news/125220" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">original in Himal Khabar</a>.

Tigers move up the Himalaya

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111011110/636ccc0f9c7e80680e08bc00jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"/><figcaption>Rohit Giri uses photographs to capture the audience’s attention and share his knowledge of snakes.</figcaption></figure>Unlike those who recoil from the sight of venomous snakes, Rohit Giri thinks these increasingly endangered cold-blooded reptiles need to be protected.At an age when his friends would either run away from snakes or try to kill them with sticks, Giri was fascinated by these creatures that used to slither around in the fields near his home in Pokhara.He thinks his obsession with snakes started with watching National Geographic documentaries endlessly on cable tv. Once a snake was spotted in a neighbour’s garden and there was panic in the locality, but the 14-year-old calmly hooked the snake with the end of a stick took hold of the squirming reptile and released it into nearby bushes.It was a green pit viper, and the young boy’s courage became the talk of the neighbourhood. For Giri, it was the beginning of a strong bond with the animals that have religious and cultural importance in Nepal. Since then he has been summoned to rescue more than 700 snakes.“At that moment, I was thrilled to be holding this amazing creature,” recalls Giri, who is now 22, and like the shy creatures he handles, hides behind his hoodie almost like he is trying to stay undercover. “The best part was, he was not afraid of me either. He was just curious.”Residents of Kaski and surrounding districts call him up several times a day when there is a snake in the vicinity that needs to be removed and rescued. Sub-tropical Pokhara Valley with its many hollows and boulders is an ideal habitat for snakes. Rohit is among a handful of snake rescuers in the country, and always has a snake hook and bag ready<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111011110/636ccc129c7e80680e08bc01jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="843"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>In March to July, when snakes are more out and about than usual, he usually rescues five to ten snakes a day. Giri comes across as a quiet, withdrawn man, but he is fearless when it comes to snakes, even if they are the deadly vipers, or king cobra.Just watching a video of how he hooks a writhing snake and shoves it into his bag is chilling enough. But to think that Giri is risking his life every time he catches a snake to save it shows his extreme motivation to the task.“It’s not that I am fearless. I take calculated risks. Knowledge is the key. If you know the type of species you are rescuing, you can decide accordingly. Different snakes behave differently,” explains Giri.The first instinct with most people is to kill a snake, but Giri says that is because the creatures are misunderstood by many. Indeed, snakes get a bad press and snake-like attributes are used to describe humans who are cruel, untrustworthy, or slimy.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111011110/636ccc169c7e80680e08bc02jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>“Snakes are labelled as dark and uncharismatic, which has caused confusion about these beautiful creatures. I want to be able to change that,’’ Giri says.On his many rescue missions, he makes it a point to explain the value of snakes in maintaining the ecological balance of nature.“Snakes play an important role in the food chains in ecosystems. Areas where snakes are removed often have a population explosion of rodents, and it affects agriculture,” says Giri, who has YouTube videos in which he counsels people about saving snakes. “When people are made aware of the relation of the reptiles to the ecosystem, they prefer to having them removed rather than killing them.”An undergraduate student of biology at Prithvi Narayan Campus, Rohit Giri uses Instagram, YouTube and Facebook to raise awareness and document his rescue missions. His photographs, videos and research papers on snake conservation have encouraged others to walk the same wild terrain.But he has a note of caution: “I don’t want to influence people to do something that they are not equipped to do. There have been instances when people have lost lives while trying to imitate snake handling for the sake of showmanship. That is very risky.”Giri is a loner, and enjoys being in nature by himself. He says he is not after fame, and had to be cajoled into agreeing to do this profile. His drive for conservation is purely led by his compassion for the species.“Snakes are so striking because they are so seemingly unperturbed about everything around them,” he says. “It is just a creature being itself, a pure soul. It doesn’t know that it is so earnestly hated and loved. Which is why I love them.”

Save snakes to save nature

<figure><img width="2002" height="1250" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b7d9c7e80680e06b2a1jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>The tiger that shot itself with a motion detection camera in the forests of Dadeldhura recently.</figcaption></figure>Never before has a wild tiger been spotted so high in Nepal as the one caught on a camera trap in the forested mountains of Dadeldhura in far-western Nepal – a sighting that has encouraged conservationists.Cameras placed in Dadeldhura’s densely-forested Mahabharat region captured selfies of a Royal Bengal Tiger prowling its domain at an elevation of 2,500m, the Divisional Forestry Office of Dadeldhura reported this week. The photos were part of a month-long campaign to prove the presence of tigers at higher elevations in the Himalaya undertaken with financial and technical assistance from the <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.worldwildlife.org/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1586918667541000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFRSY1XKFDJ8wXa3HUBf7x75N40RA">World Wildlife Fund (WWF)</a>.Altogether 32 cameras were placed by the Divisional Forestry Office in the mountain forests of the Mahabharat Range in farwestern Nepal after locals reported seeing tigers. The Nepali word ‘bagh’ is often used interchangeably to mean tiger and leopard, and wildlife biologists wanted to make sure it was indeed a tiger.They are now examining other images to determine whether the tiger simply wandered into the higher elevation, or lives in the forest. This would also help determine if wildlife like tigers are moving up to cooler areas because of the warmer weather due to climate change in the plains.Ghana Gurung at <a href="https://www.wwfnepal.org/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.wwfnepal.org/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1586918667541000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFUT7OyWBCazvkIOOJDl8SAliiMMA">World Wildlife Fund Nepal (WWF-N)</a> says there is not enough evidence to suggest a link to climate change, and there could be many other factors at play. However, he says the tiger sighting shows that the extension of <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/habitat-destrcution-of-tiger-in-Tarai,3423" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/habitat-destrcution-of-tiger-in-Tarai,3423&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1586918667541000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFaZZbo3F9r2TJg9q0Lnpen51boZw">Nepal’s Tarai Arc</a> project to connect the plains with Chure and Mahabharat ranges is working.“This is a great achievement, and shows that the nature corridors offer connectivity for wildlife,” Gurung says. “It also proves that with a growing tiger population in the Tarai national parks, the animals are dispersing and moving up the mountains.” <img width="640" height="405" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b809c7e80680e06b2a2jpeg.jpg" alt="">Higher-altitude sightings of tigers have been reported in other parts of the Himalayan range. Bhutan has recorded sightings at altitudes between 2,765m to 3,350m in the Royal Manas and Thrumshingla National Parks, away from their more southerly habitats. Bhutanese conservationists also say the tiger sightings in the higher altitudes is proof that their nature corridors are working. Additionally, the Global Tiger Forum has carried out studies to determine the feasibility of high altitude tiger conservation. The study points to factors such as ‘gentle elevation, high forest cover, high drainage density, high temperature variations and moderate dry conditions’ as potential factors in the change of tiger habitats in the western Himalaya.  This could also be the reason in Dadeldhura, although another factor is the increase of prey species in the mountains due to the spread of community forests. Tigers need a stable herbivore population, and research has suggested that there has been a fall in prey density in <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=14581#.XpUgVS8w0Wo" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id%3D14581%23.XpUgVS8w0Wo&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1586918667541000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFu6LO48S7oYDi4IF6FqEUaqmvW9A">Sukla Phanta</a> and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/its-a-jungle-out-there/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/its-a-jungle-out-there/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1586918667542000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHMrm1wLF1veg-ymbntmcJnJ4NIbw">Bardia National Parks</a> in the western Tarai. After the target was set to double tiger populations at St Petersburg Tiger Summit in 2010, Nepal has been the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=16820#.XpUfNS8w0Wp" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id%3D16820%23.XpUfNS8w0Wp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1586918667542000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGeIQeQJIGpeytcWy9dlI6-WnYfeg">first tiger range country</a> to meet the goal. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/how-many-tigers-in-nepal/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/how-many-tigers-in-nepal/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1586918667542000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE7jkLXgFPqWHqi56gBD4VtOWRszQ">A tiger census</a> showed that the population of tigers in Nepal grew from an estimated 121 in 2009 to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-tigers-now-number-235/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-tigers-now-number-235/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1586918667542000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHyEJ5P_bC2HUyGkfVW5bDi3gGIYg">235 in 2018</a>.  Also captured in the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/So-far-so-good/Tigerman-tiger,930" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/So-far-so-good/Tigerman-tiger,930&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1586918667542000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGsJKJT4nutCcnW8EAUkLWQlJllOA">camera trap</a> images in Dadeldhura were red foxes, leopards, civets, porcupines and various species of deer and pheasants. The findings assume more importance because they are not even in a protected national park.Says Bishnu Acharya of the Divisional Forestry Office in Dadeldhura: “This is a region rich in biodiversity and we are now looking to step up conservation efforts.”

Tiger selfie is highest-ever sighting in Nepal

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107111152/6368e37f9c7e80680e033387jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="772"/><figcaption>In 1974 Billy Arjan Singh worked out every morning with weights and kept himself fighting fit - with Prince the leopard and Eelie the dog at Tiger Haven.</figcaption></figure>Maybe it was the only way to save tigers, but Billy Arjan Singh had a fearsome reputation for being crusty, cantankerous, and unwilling to compromise when it came to the protection of the wild places he loved and championed. Possibly India’s fiercest conservation activist, intimidating, impatient with ignorance and contemptuous of bureaucracy, his life was one long battle to save India’s wildlife from extinction.An aging rattling typewriter was Billy’s chosen weapon, barraging politicians, haranguing the forest department, and firing volleys of vehement advocacy in articles and books. He wrote: ‘Some natural resources are simply irreplaceable. It is imperative that man should learn to live with other species on this planet, as these other forms of life must be allowed to exist as part of nature’s evolutionary plan.’<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107111152/6368e3829c7e80680e033388jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3543" height="2282"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Billy’s campaign headquarters was <a href="http://www.tigerhaven.org/index.asp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tiger Haven</a>, a farmhouse on the edge of Dudhwa forest from where he waged war on the authorities in defence of India’s wild places. He believed that as long as the big cats flourished as apex predators, a healthy jungle would be secured – he advocated for Dudhwa to become a sanctuary, and led a controversial experiment to supplement its depleting leopard and tiger population by rehabilitating captive cats back into the wild.I first met Billy when we crossed the Nepal border and visited Tiger Haven in the western Indian Tarai with the Survival Anglia film crew in 1975. He had heard of <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/So-far-so-good/back-to-Chitwan,1075" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tiger Tops</a> but was deeply distrustful of tourism and the media as relevant to his conservation struggle. He told us later he only agreed to meeting because the telegram announcing our arrival read ‘Gin’ <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=15828#.WyjQJ1Uza70" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Edwards</a> instead of Jim -- Billy loved his martinis and the typo melted the ice. Like many on a mission, Billy was hard to approach but once accepted he became a loyal friend with his acerbic humour and shy charm.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107111152/6368e3859c7e80680e033389jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3072" height="2048"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Staying with Billy on the edge of the national park, wild animals had undisputed priority. Humans took breakfast in a cage on the veranda whilst the increasingly boisterous <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/habitat-destrcution-of-tiger-in-Tarai,3423" target="_blank" rel="noopener">big cats roamed free</a> – a precious privilege to be in such close proximity, with our roles reversed. As we sipped hot milky tea behind bars, Billy’s leopard Harriet and her sister Juliette played in the dust with the brown dog Eelie. The python, Monty, snoozed in the granary rafters, and a passing troupe of rhesus monkeys coughed nearby.The clink of Billy’s weight-training regime penetrated the early morning mist -- he kept himself fighting fit. Spruce in shorts, long socks and leather boots, his biceps bulged and he could lift the growing cats into his old green jeep for a drive to acquaint them with their natural prey. He built machan tree platforms deep in the jungle to familiarise the leopards with their new terrain and hone their hunting instincts.Harriet gave birth to two cubs, fathered by Prince, and during the heavy monsoon of 1976 Billy was anxious to bring her safely home from the flooding jungle. Jim Edwards tells how the river was a raging brown torrent, eddying and overflowing its dense tangle-rooted banks. “It was almost impossible for anyone to have controlled the boat against the current to a safe landing, but he wouldn’t allow us to help due to Harriet’s sensitivity. We were all spellbound watching Billy complete this manoeuver. A few hours later he came back with Harriet and her cubs in the punt, again a tremendously dangerous journey.”<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107111152/6368e3889c7e80680e03338ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1666" height="1196"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Billy’s crusade was tireless, adamant and inflexible, but often ended in despair and disappointment – none of the Prince, Harriet, Juliette and Mameena leopard reintroductions ended happily. Stories told of him banging heads together when he encountered jungle poachers and shouting at negligent wardens -- disgruntled forest officials and villagers united against him, accusing him of creating man-eaters and laying down poison.Billy himself had an extraordinary rapport with the semi-wild cats and warned others to stay away, but they had no real fear of humans, and as they reached maturity there were too many domestic animal casualties and human near-misses – a young English guest was scratched in the shower, there were attacks on Billy’s staff, and then on two occasions tragedy struck when a local child was accidently killed straying too close to the farm.But Billy’s dogged persistence won successes and influential admirers. Prime minister Indira Gandhi launched Project Tiger in 1973, writing to the Uttar Pradesh chief minister: ‘It is easy to come by armchair conservationists, but rare indeed to find a man with the dedication and perseverance to act in support of a cause he loves.’<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107111152/6368e38c9c7e80680e03338bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1754" height="1314"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>I accompanied Billy to World Wildlife Fund’s 1976 annual conference in San Francisco where he was awarded the WWF gold medal and a heavy gold watch. It was Billy’s only visit to the States and, with Sunil Roy India’s tourism director general and Leo Le Bon founder of Mountain Travel USA, we travelled to Yosemite National Park. Billy was unmoved by the soaring scenery and spectacular sheer rock, complained petulantly of the lack of wildlife, and was only appeased when he spotted a single deer in a meadow. Powerful friends were also useful when Billy lost the keys to his Godrej-brand safe -- he called on his supporter the Godrej conglomerate chairman in Mumbai to solve the problem.Our trust supported Tiger Haven for many years, and when the time came to try reintroducing tigers to Dudhwa, John Aspinall sourced a zoo-born cub in England. With Pan Am colleagues we helped Billy ship a young tigress named Tara in a steel crate from Twycross Zoo, arriving securely strapped onto the back of his elephant Sitara. We were full of hope and optimism as Dieter Plage filmed Billy crossing the river in the small wooden boat giving Tara her first uncertain glimpse of freedom.On Billy’s death at Tiger Haven aged 92 on 1 January 2010, his relative Rohit Brijnath remembered: “Legacy is not easily defined. But we can say of Billy that he was a first and an original, a tiger explorer who built an entire life around a single cause.”Read also:<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/So-far-so-good/Tigerman-tiger,930" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tigerman</a>, Lisa Choegyal<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/habitat-destrcution-of-tiger-in-Tarai,3423" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Allow tigers to roam more freely</a>, Om Astha Rai

Lisa Choegyal

The cantankerous conservationist

One smoggy winter morning in February 2019, Ekta regretted coming to her sculpture class. It was the first day of her period, and the 19-year-old wished she was home, curled up in bed with a hot water bag to soothe her cramps.
Her class was at Kalapremi Ceramic Studio, a dark room on the ground floor of a house in Maharajganj, and Ekta’s teacher was the artist Gopal Das Shrestha ‘Kalapremi’, a noted sculptor.
Two other students were already there, using all their muscle strength to knead the sculpting clay. Ekta, now 24, recalls how Kalapremi asked her if she was feeling all right. She avoided him, as she did not want everyone to know she was menstruating.
Kalapremi repeatedly asked Ekta what was wrong. She finally muttered that she was having her period, after which he grabbed her hand and led her to a partitioned corner of the studio and sat her on a chair. Before she could stop him, he slid his hand under her dress, and started massaging her abdomen.
“I was horrified,” Ekta recalls. “I told him to stop, but he didn’t listen, asking me not to be shy, saying he knew how to relieve my pain. He stopped only after I protested furiously.”&nbsp;
The art tutor then said, “You’re like my daughter. I’m doing it out of love to make you feel better, but you’re so stubborn.”&nbsp;
“Instead of saying sorry he acted like I was the one having crazy thoughts,” remembers Ekta, adding that from April 2016 to August 2020 beginning the time she was 16, the artist sexually abused and harassed her on several occasions. &nbsp;
Now, Ekta and the artist’s other former students are finally sharing their experiences and some are pressing legal charges against him, hoping that others do not have to endure what they did.&nbsp;
Award-winning artist and teacher Gopal Das Shrestha ‘Kalapremi’ (the name means ‘Art Lover’) is known for his ceramic art, sculpture, and contemporary pottery. He was <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/the-house-of-kalapremi">profiled in Nepali Times after a collaborative exhibition</a>, ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ at the Siddhartha Art Gallery three years ago.&nbsp;
His pieces, titled Gaalis, featured sculpted female figures with the heads of dogs, sheep, and donkeys (pictured) to depict derogatory terms for women. Some critics said the collection was a satire on feminists.
Kalapremi started his artistic and teaching career in 1983 and over the years taught at Bhanubhakta School, Kathmandu University School of Arts, Lalitkala Campus and at his private Kalapremi Ceramic Studio. He has also lectured at Jeonju University in South Korea and recently at Tabor Academy in the United States.
Seven of Kalapremi’s former students were interviewed for this story. Five female students said he touched them inappropriately in his studio or at Kathmandu University. Two male students said they witnessed him abuse and harass the women. In all cases, the students struggled to recognise the abuse when it occurred, and the lack of reporting systems left them to cope on their own for years.&nbsp;
Earlier this year, students shared a social media post hinting at Kalapremi’s history of abusive behaviour following which more students of the artist reached out sharing similar experiences. Some students spoke of abuse that happened as long as 20 years ago.
Kalapremi, 60, has denied the allegations. He told Nepali Times: “Some years ago, there was a movement encouraging people to hug and kiss. I used to do it purely out of friendship and love. But after seeing posts on social media last year calling out my behaviour, I realised my actions may have hurt some people. I understand now that I should have been more mindful.”
He added: “I am also an auxiliary health worker, so I know the exact points to massage to relieve menstrual pain. It’s not just menstruation, I take anyone who is ill to the hospital.”
Sexual abuse is much more rampant than reported given how difficult it is to prove it in court. The law defines sexual abuse as occuring when someone touches another’s private parts, coerces them into touching theirs, uses vulgar language, shows degrading images, or behaves indecently towards them without consent.&nbsp;
Ekta and her fellow students are consulting lawyer Suneeta Regmi Pokhrel, who says they know that even if the court decides in their favour, it is difficult to survive after speaking up, and influential men defend themselves saying they are being framed.&nbsp;
“They are in a lot of pain and weep when recalling how he abused them,” Regmi Pokhrel told us. “They are angry and have filed a case against him, but they are also terrified. They know he is a powerful man and they have seen how our society treats women who speak up against abusers. Unless people speak up, perpetrators will be emboldened.”
Art and academia in Nepal simply reflect the power imbalances in society where people with intersecting identities experience worse forms of abuse. Theatre actors Raj Kumar Pudasaini, Rajan Khatiwada, and Sunil Pokhrel were called out during the #MeToo movement in the Nepali theatre scene in 2019. Even after the allegations Pokhrel went on to receive national awards, while others continued to work without repercussions.
“If you speak up against abusers, you gradually get sidelined from projects,” explained a theatre artist who wished anonymity fearing professional setbacks. “The theatre scene in Nepal is quite small, you just have to make peace with the perpetrators and work with them if you want to sustain yourself.”&nbsp;
In academia there is a history of faculty members sexually harassing students and getting away with it. After Tribhuvan University (TU) lecturer Krishna Bhattachan was accused of harassing women students, the university said it would follow Nepal’s sexual harassment law and set up a reporting mechanism. But nothing happened to the professor, who had already retired. Instead, he counter-accused the students of 'attacking the indigenous people’s movement with baseless allegations' as <a href="https://kathmandupost.com/letters/2019/01/29/bhattachan-responds">he told the Kathmandu Post in 2019</a>. He continues to be featured as a prominent speaker including at TU.
Other faculty members previously accused of sexual harassment include Jagadish Murti Koirala from TU, Bishnu Prasad Acharya from Ratna Rajya Campus, and Bodha Raj Tripathee from Lalitpur Madhyamik Vidhyalaya. A woman staff member from TU also filed a sexual abuse complaint against Dambar Chemjong from TU.
Prominent figures like <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-rise-and-fall-of-nims-purja">mountaineer Nims Purja</a> have been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/31/sports/mountaineering-sexual-harassment-abuse-nims-purja.html">accused of sexual assault</a>, and cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane, actor <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/celebrity-rape-case-spotlights-nepal-laws">Paul Shah</a>, and former speaker of Parliament <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/mahara-arrested">Krishna Bahadur Mahara</a> have been accused of rape, but society-at-large has let off the alleged perpetrators amdist a larger debate about justice for survivors and punishment of perpetrators.&nbsp;
‘Gaushala-26’ is the court name given to the 18-year-old who accused Sandeep Lamichhane, former captain of Nepal’s national cricket team and skipper of Biratnagar Kings in the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/here-comes-the-nepal-premier-league">ongoing Nepal Premier League</a>, of rape. She left the country citing society questioning her character affecting her mental health while Lamichhane got an outpouring of support. In May, the Patan High Court overturned a prior verdict that found Lamichhane guilty of rape and had sentenced him to eight years in prison. During the 23-month legal battle to pursue justice, Gaushala-26 faced threats of gang rape and acid attacks.&nbsp;
Exhausted by the struggle, Gaushala-26 sought to “move to a new world” where she could live free without hiding her identity.
Actress Samragyee Rajya Laxmi Shah in an Instagram video now deleted detailed the harassment she faced from a filmmaker during a movie shoot. She did not name any name but veteran actor Bhuwan KC filed a defamation case against Rana, but the court ruled that the charge lacked sufficient evidence.&nbsp;
Former Kathmandu mayor <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/theytoo">Keshav Sthapit also mocked the #MeToo movement</a>, calling accusations against him by journalists Rashmila Prajapati and Ujjwala Maharjan “a rape of men’s rights”.
Serial Abuse
Back at the Kalapremi Ceramics studio, another former student, 24-year-old Rajiv, says he felt the need to speak out after seeing his female classmates being abused.&nbsp;
“He frequently kissed them on their cheeks,” he told Nepali Times. “Whenever they walked into the studio he flailed his arms like a child asking for a hug. They awkwardly hugged him from the side, but he pulled them closer, held their chin, and kissed their cheeks.”&nbsp;
Rajiv says he also saw Kalapremi pull the women’s bra straps, touch their breasts, and slap their buttocks. The young students would freeze, not knowing how to react, and if they protested, he would say it was “normal in art”. Rajiv, 19 at the time like his classmates, remembers thinking perhaps the well-respected artist was right after all.
Another student, Luna, who took lessons at Kalapremi’s studio from 2020 to 2022 did try to confront the tutor after he made an obscene proposal to her. She recalls: “One day when the other students had left the studio and it was just the two of us, he told me that God had given him special artistic talent and he could transfer those powers to me. But to do that both of us will have to be naked, inside a dark room, and have sex.”
Luna, who was 18 then, was livid and told him she did not want any of his powers, but she says he laughed at her as if he was joking. She did not tell her family about the incident because she thought no one would believe her.&nbsp;
“They were all in awe of this famous artist and felt I should be grateful that to be learning sculpting from him,” she says. “I was scared to be alone with him in case he talked about sex again. My coping mechanism was to be rude so he wouldn’t try to come close to me.”
Seeing how some classmates were standing up to Kalapremi, Ekta too tried to push back against his advances, but she said he found ways to coerce her. Since Ekta, Rajiv, and Luna could not afford Kalapremi’s Rs30,000 monthly fee for lessons, he had offered them all a stipend to assist him in the studio.
“He had spondylosis and took me to his therapy sessions to learn massage techniques, then he often made me and other students massage him,” says Ekta. Whenever she refused, he would feign pain to make her feel sorry for him. “He would insist that I put my hands under his shirt so that I could massage him better,” she adds.
The art tutor often tried to “seduce sympathy” from Ekta by sharing how he had never been loved as a child and was “sexually frustrated” as an adult.&nbsp;
“At 7PM, he would pour himself Signature whiskey and immediately go off again about how he was sex-starved. I didn’t know how to respond. It took me time to realise alcohol was just an excuse to talk about sex,” Ekta says.
If convicted, Kalapremi could face financial penalty and/or a prison sentence of up to three years according to Section 224 of National Penal (Code) Act 2017.&nbsp;
Data suggests that victims of child sexual abuse on average take nearly 24 years to tell someone about their trauma, and some may never disclose it at all.&nbsp;
“In our culture, children are rarely taught about boundaries. They often react, show anger when adults pinch their cheeks. But adults insist they did it out of love, and force the children to accept it,” says Sita Lama, a psychotherapist at Manka Kura. “And even when someone touches them inappropriately they struggle to identify and verbalise it.”
When perpetrators claim to be “acting out of love”, Lama says survivors are likely to perceive it as something safe, rather than recognising it as abuse.&nbsp;
“It may take years for them to realise they were abused,” she explains. "And even when they become aware, the power imbalance with the abuser and the associated shame often prevents survivors from speaking up."
Other former students from the School of Art at Kathmandu University have also come forward years later, saying Kalapremi sexually abused them. As young adults, they felt his behaviour was off but were uncertain if it was inappropriate, illegal, or they did not know how to respond. After having understood that it was indeed abuse, they say they are speaking out now to protect others.&nbsp;
Amina Singh, a visiting faculty member at Kathmandu University, says there is no clause against sexual abuse in contracts of teachers, and there is no formal grievance handling mechanism for the students.&nbsp;
“So the only way students can to deal with sexual abuse is approach someone they trust,” she says.
Eight other former art students of Lalit Kala Campus and Srijana College of Fine Arts of Tribhuvan University and other private art studios in Kathmandu say they were also sexually abused by their art teachers. Three faculty members interviewed from these institutions said they saw the abuse, but felt it was futile to report it given how powerful the teachers were.
In the absence of a formal system, some longtime women artists warned each other about “problematic” artists. They shared &nbsp;a “heads-up” to be more cautious when collaborating with them, and avoided responding to their calls and texts after work hours.
To ensure art institutions are safe for all, galleries, museums, artist studios, and smaller art spaces need to develop policies on sexual harassment. This would include a code of conduct or studio policies that hold the leadership accountable and outline the principles of professional ethics.&nbsp;
Students and employees should inquire about accountability mechanisms for raising concerns, both formally and informally, advocates say.
Three years after Ekta left the ceramics studio, she learnt that Kalapremi had harassed many other women. Still trying to get a footing in the art industry, she attended a workshop in Kathmandu where women artists discussed ways to stay safe in the art sector.&nbsp;
Since it was a close-knit group Ekta opened up about how she felt violated and realised she was not alone, he had been abusing underprivileged students for years, and this was common knowledge among artists in Nepal.
Ekta says that even after she quit, Kalapremi continued sending her text messages like ‘I am thinking of you’, ‘Why have you stopped speaking with me’, or ‘I am waiting for your call’.&nbsp;
But what really forced her to act was when Ekta found out that he was sending similar texts to her younger sister.&nbsp;
“I’ve had enough,” she told us. “He abused me all these years but I won’t let him abuse my sister.” &nbsp;
Ekta, Rajiv and Luna are not the real names of the students.&nbsp;

‘Art Lover’ accused of sexual abuse

It was 8:15 in the evening of 25 March 1968 when everyone in the village of Batulechaur near Pokhara heard a deafening sound like thunder as a bright flashing object hurtled down to land in a field.&nbsp; That field belonged to Kul Timilsina, and the next morning he retrieved a sheet of metal about 2m by 1m and carried it home with the help of a few others, thinking it would be useful for his buffalo shed.&nbsp; Before he died at age 83 three years ago, Timilsina had told photo archivist Sunil Ulak that the black metal sheet was not rectangular and had rounded corners. There are a few witnesses still alive who have a clear recollection of the object that fell from the sky that night.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024120707128_75cc85aac56b9cc4a77366471f058d7b3eb6868776811b0923845c2d0a61f014.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2024120707128_75cc85aac56b9cc4a77366471f058d7b3eb6868776811b0923845c2d0a61f014" data-rendition-name="original" width="1170" height="601" loading="lazy" alt="UFO over Pokhara"> <figcaption>The field in Batulechaur belonging to Kul Timilsina where fragments of a flying object fell from the sky in 1968.</figcaption> </figure>  One of them is Timilsina’s wife Gyanu, who was 22 at the time. She had been at home, and remembers hearing the big bang and the sky becoming very bright. “We saw the thing in the field in the morning,” she told us. “It looked like a lid, a covering of some sort. The way it was stuck in the ground, it must have fallen from the sky. We thought we could use it to dry clothes on, and took it home.”&nbsp; Another witness is Kul Narayan Paudel. “I was only eight then. We ran to the field to see what had fallen. It was a four-sided metal sheet. The elders took it away, and I don't know what happened to it.” &nbsp; Ram Bahadur Baniya, a teacher at the local school, says he had heard the sheet had been brought to the school, and later handed over to the Zonal Commissioner at the time, Nanda Prasad Malla. “But that is all hearsay,” he says.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024120707128_0bf207a12063fb8155b3c8d9a00a94887b126380c9e0627527c84cf5e1101f54.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2024120707128_0bf207a12063fb8155b3c8d9a00a94887b126380c9e0627527c84cf5e1101f54" data-rendition-name="original" width="1170" height="610" loading="lazy" alt="UFO over Pokhara"> <figcaption>Gyanu Timilsina, wife of Kul Timilsina.</figcaption> </figure>  There are two versions of what happened to Kul Timilsina’s metal sheet. One is that an American Peace Corp Volunteer teaching at the nearby Bindyabasini School took it, and another is that it was handed over to the government. Recently declassified Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and US State Department documents from the time say that the US Embassy in Kathmandu tracked down the object two years later and had it shipped back to the US. A telegram from the Department of State and Department of Defense tagged as ‘MOON DUST / Space Fragments’ dated 1 March 1972 stated: ‘1. Restored space fragment will be on board Embassy support flight 115 arriving Kathmandu on or about March 10. Fragment is packed in shipping crate (cargo no. 72-33365) marked in care of DAO.&nbsp; 2. State and Defense representatives examined fragments prior to shipment finding restoration acceptable.’  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241207071212_929d903ee06d41baa4f6040e981cd7c7d7bd75cc9c37c9b617d307fc8538d2df.png" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20241207071212_929d903ee06d41baa4f6040e981cd7c7d7bd75cc9c37c9b617d307fc8538d2df" data-rendition-name="original" width="856" height="568" loading="lazy" alt="UFO over Pokhara"> <figcaption>Declassified CIA documents about the investigation into the object sighted in Pokhara. </figcaption> </figure>  The documents show that the US government, military and intelligence agencies investigated this incident thoroughly when it occurred, and have continued to revisit it ever since, as recently as five years ago. What is even more intriguing is that the object that fell in Pokhara was not the only unidentified space object that fell to earth that year. There were similar sightings of objects falling from the sky in Ladakh, Sikkim and Bhutan between 19 February and 25 March 1968.&nbsp; These mysteries were the subject of a CIA investigation in 1968 titled ‘<a href="https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP81R00560R000100070007-8.pdf">Sighting of Unidentified Flying Objects in Ladakh, Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan</a>’, and the report is part of the recent online declassification of 800,000 top-secret documents from the period.&nbsp; &nbsp;Although unidentified flying objects (UFOs) have a connotation now of being alien craft, it could be pieces of satellite, missile, rocket or even aircraft. The CIA report documents six sightings in 1968 and quotes local sources as describing all of them having similar characteristics: bright blue or red streaks in the sky accompanied by loud sounds like lightning and thunder and objects falling to the ground. Aside from the metallic object that was found in Batlechaur, there were other items also found nearby in Tallakot, Tureypasal, Armalakot and Maidan. Whatever the object was, it seems to have disintegrated even before it hit the ground.&nbsp; The CIA report records the first sighting on 19 February 1968 in various parts of Sikkim and Olangchung Gola and Ghunsa in eastern Nepal. The light was said to be ‘long and thin’ and giving out ‘green and red light’. &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241207071212_c3c825027d966a2aedc846970390eebe063957503c7eacc8e01e0517843f9bbb.png" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20241207071212_c3c825027d966a2aedc846970390eebe063957503c7eacc8e01e0517843f9bbb" data-rendition-name="original" width="892" height="596" loading="lazy" alt="UFO over Pokhara "> </figure>  Two days later on 21 February, a soundless blue object was seen traveling fast across the sky above Thimphu in Bhutan. Then on 4 March there were multiple daytime sightings or white streaks in the sky at Chang La Pass, Fukche and Koyul in Ladakh. There were more sightings in Ladakh on the very day fragments fell near Pokhara on 25 March 1968.&nbsp; After the sightings in Pokhara, rumours started flying in Kathmandu that these were aliens trying to land on Earth, it could be Russian or Chinese spy planes or satellites, and some even say it as a sign from heaven that the end of the world was near. This was at the height of the Cold War. The Russians and Americans were testing their thermonuclear devices as well as intercontinental ballistic missile delivery systems. The Washington-Beijing rapprochement had not yet happened, and China was making quick progress testing atomic bombs. Within two years after its first atomic test, in 1966 China exploded its first hydrogen bomb at the Lop Nur site in Xinjiang, 3,000km to the north from Nepal. After neary six decades, what is still intriguing is that all the sightings within a few months of each other in 1968 were along the Himalayan arc bordering Tibet: from Bhutan, Sikkim Nepal, to Ladakh. The US military intelligence seems to have concluded that this was not a coincidence and there were frequent research trips to the site in Pokhara by American officials in the months after the incident. With the help of the Royal Nepal Army, the region north of Pokhara was thoroughly searched.&nbsp; A confidential memo dated 25 June 1968 by Jerry C Trippy to a ‘Mr Farley’ mentions that the US Air Force’s Foreign Technology Division had decided that the debris could be important because it may be related to a Chinese missile test or a Soviet ‘Vehicle Venik’ rocket.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241207071216_feb5425692dc36b20187de4e4fcc2ce9fd12b6d9e1b8724398e50bcdbf9032fe.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20241207071216_feb5425692dc36b20187de4e4fcc2ce9fd12b6d9e1b8724398e50bcdbf9032fe" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="UFO over Pokhara"> </figure>  On 28 August 1968 the US Embassy in Kathmandu sent a letter to Washington DC saying that the object could be of Soviet origin, possibly from when the rocket carrying the ‘Kosmos 208’ satellite re-entered the atmosphere. But why were the fragments falling to earth several weeks apart, and in the same region? No one knows where the metal sheet that Kul Timilsina recovered is now. It was definitely packed in a crate and taken to the US, and although it is rumoured that it was returned that is not very likely. Archivist Sunil Ulak heard from the Timilsina family that CIA officials had returned to the site five years ago. &nbsp; Interest in UFOs peaked in the US in the 1950s, with the Cold War space race and tests of atomic weapons and delivery rockets. CIA and scientists were being sent to investigate sightings, both publicly and privately. Could the Pokhara fragments as well as the sightings in Ladakh and Bhutan actually be alien craft falling to earth? The renewal in interest in space travel in large part due to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, UFOs and sightings are again subjects of public interest.&nbsp; Even 57 years later, even if there was definitive proof about whether the Batlechaur fragment was from a Chinese missile or a soviet rocket, it has not been made public in documents declassified so far. We may never know.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241207071216_b6938795f40731e7657fd6dcbb3cf460a326186a15eb11d4f832f602201ff598.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20241207071216_b6938795f40731e7657fd6dcbb3cf460a326186a15eb11d4f832f602201ff598" data-rendition-name="original" width="642" height="320" loading="lazy" alt="UFO over Pokhara"> </figure>  Sunil Ulak speculates if the debris actually came from an American aircraft, perhaps on an intel mission upon China. “Which could explain why they were so thorough in collecting the fragments in Pokhara,” he says. But that still does not explain the multiple sightings weeks apart in 1968.&nbsp; Indeed, US military aircraft were at that time flying frequent night-time missions from air force bases in India to supply weapons to Khampa guerrilla camps in Nepal located north of Pokhara in Mustang. It could very well be that the Chinese shot down one such aircraft. The other sightings could have been contrails of US spy planes, or Chinese anti-aircraft missiles.&nbsp; There were quite a few developments regarding UFOs in 2024. In a US congressional hearing in July, former intelligence officer David Grusch claimed that the government had long been involved in a program to investigate and retrieve non-human craft crashes, and then try to reverse engineer them. However Grusch did not show any evidence.&nbsp; The UAP Disclosure Act of 2024 was signed into law by Joe Biden in December 2023. It plans to oversee the public disclosure of UFO information. However, there is a clause in it that prevents disclosure if it would cause threats to military defense, intelligence operations or foreign relations.&nbsp; It is unlikely that the declassified documents about sightings in the Himalayan will cause any real surprise about definite evidence of alien life even if it was found. It seems humanity will continue, at least for now, to wonder about curious lights in the sky and whether there is anybody out there.&nbsp;

UFO over Pokhara

When Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) president Rabi Lamichhane was arrested in October on charges of defrauding depositors of cooperatives, the party’s vice president Swarnim Wagle gifted him Fareed Zakaria’s book, Age of Revolutions.
Since then, Lamichhane has been shunted around from Kathmandu to Pokhara to Chitwan and back to Pokhara to attend police investigations and court proceedings. He was being flown to Birganj via Kathmandu on Buddha Air on Monday. There is another pending case in Janakpur.
Human rights groups and civil society have criticised the government for hounding Lamichhane with inhumane treatment that borders on physical torture. The two parties in the coalition, Nepali Congress (NC) and the UML, see Lamichhane’s RSP as a potentially formidable challenge to their power.
Even if the fraud charges against Lamichhane are true, the Nepali public is increasingly looking at the government’s actions through the police and courts as political vendetta.
Despite all the travelling, sometimes by plane and often by road at night, Lamichhane appears to be in high spirits, waving to supporters who often gather if they know he is going to be driven around. A social media video shows him giving high fives to fellow passengers on a recent flight to Pokhara.&nbsp;
In the past weeks, streets in Pokhara have erupted with parallel protests by Lamichhane’s supporters as well as depositors of cooperatives who lost their savings to the scam.&nbsp;
Although family visits are allowed, prison officials in Pokhara told Nepali Times that not many people visit Lamichhane these days. He added, “When he does get visitors, he asks them to bring him books.”
Lamichhane is currently Nepal’s most high-profile public figure in custody, and highlights the stark difference between how influential prisoners are treated compared to ordinary inmates.
There are six prison cells at Kaski District Police Office’s two-story detention centre, three on each floor. And while authorities pack prisoners into already overcrowded cells, Lamichhane has an entire room on the second floor to himself.&nbsp;
He has also been allowed to call his family every few days. Other prisoners are not permitted phone calls except for emergencies.
Meanwhile, Lamichhane’s former business partner Chhabilal Joshi, an ex-Deputy Inspector General of Police with whom he established his Gorkha Media Network, is in custody under the same charges in the prison cell next to him.
Lamichhane is accused of siphoning off depositors' money to the tv network in which he was part-owner and anchor. &nbsp;
Both Lamichhane and Joshi are able to buy food from the police canteen instead of being served the regular meal like other prisoners. Joshi has also given his statement to authorities in Rupandehi and Kathmandu for his alleged role in the scam. Lamichhane is yet to be presented in Kathmandu for questioning.
While he was in custody at the Kathmandu District Police Complex, Joshi expressed his desire to sleep in a police officer’s office, reportedly assuring authorities that he would not run away and he was entitled to certain facilities as a former officer of the law.
“He seemed to be under the impression that he is still a police officer,” says a source at the Kathmandu District Police. “We made it clear to him that as someone accused of a crime, he was not entitled to special treatment.”
Former ministers Balkrishna Khand and Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, and ex-home secretary Tek Narayan Pandey, who were arrested in connection with the fake refugee scam last year, were similarly housed in the offices of law enforcement officials instead of prison cells. Khand has since been released after six months in jail.
While there is no legal provision to keep high-ranking officials in separate detention centres when they are arrested, authorities granting them special facilities is not uncommon. Law enforcement officials say VIP detainees expect preferential treatment while in police custody.
Among those is former Kosi Province minister Lila Ballav Adhikari, who was arrested from Biratnagar on 10 November over his alleged involvement in human trafficking and brought to Kathmandu. Adhikari had flown to Japan without government approval with three individuals on 29 October to attend a cultural conference, but had been sent back to Nepal from Narita.&nbsp;
His three companions were arrested at Kathmandu airport upon their arrival, but Adhikari was able to exit unscathed from the VIP lounge. Adhikari had resigned as the Kosi Province Minister for Internal Affairs and Law when it became public that his companions had been taken into custody, and was himself arrested shortly after. He has since been cleared by the courts.
Throughout his detention, Adhikari was kept separately from other inmates. Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Basant Rajouri, head of the Bhadrakali complex, says that while there is no separate detention area for VIPs, some detainees are kept separately depending on the nature of their crime.
However, sources say that arrangements were made for retired judges and others to visit Adhikari frequently worked at the office of a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) during his time in custody.&nbsp;
“He used to constantly pester the authorities to let him sit outside in the sun, and to be able to use the police officer’s shower area,” added an officer.
Adhikari was released on 25 November after the government prosecutor’s office decided not to charge him in a move that was seen to expose the government’s double standards.
Over at Kathmandu’s Dilli Bazar Prison, former Kist Bank CEO Kamal Gyawali emerges from his prison cell into the courtyard of the prison’s ‘Ka (क)’ block every morning with a thick book in his hands, ready to give his daily sermon.
With his long beard, Gyawali, who is serving a prison sentence for banking fraud, looks the part of a religious guru as he implores his rapt listeners to “walk the right path, abandon bad thoughts and turn to scripture and spirituality”.&nbsp;
Afterward, the attendees gather to discuss politics and current affairs. Inmates at his daily sermons at the prison include other high-profile detainees, including former MP Ichchha Raj Tamang, who is in jail for money laundering and cooperatives fraud, former joint secretary Chudamani Sharma, who was convicted of corruption, as well as NC leader Chandra Bahadur Lama and Krishna Bahadur Upreti of the UML both of whom are on trial for embezzling billions of rupees.
Victims of the cooperatives scam that former lawmaker Tamang was involved in have made trips to the prison and requested visits, but he has refused to meet with any of them.
“Tamang often complains that the state has prevented him from returning the money to the victims by locking him up,” says a police officer at the Dili Bazar jail.
“All you hear every day from the VIP prisoners is that they have been framed,” adds the officer. “No one admits that they were involved in misdeeds.”
But while most high-profile prisoners complain about prison conditions, one exception is former provincial lawmaker Deepak Manange, who is serving a sentence at Dilli Bazar Jail for attempted murder.
“He is the happiest prisoner here,” says a warden. “Unlike the others, he doesn’t claim to have been framed, in fact he doesn’t seem to care that he is in prison.”
Manange is detained in the ‘Kha (ख)’ block of the prison complex, which he renovated at his own expense. The block previously housed female prisoners, but Manange used his influence to transfer them elsewhere. He faces no shortage of visitors, who range from political leaders to people from the underworld.
Along with Manange, other well-known prisoners in this block include Nepal Telecom Managing Director Sunil Poudel, and former executive director of the Surakshan Printing Centre Bikal Poudel, who are serving time for corruption.
Former prisoners at Dilli Bazar prison include ex-ministers Khum Bahadur Khadka and Shyam Sundar Gupta, NC leader Ganesh Lama, Maoist MP Balkrishna Dhungel, Nagarik Unmukti Party leader Resham Chaudhary, as well as former IGs Ramesh Chand Thakuri, Om Bikram Rana, and Hem Bahadur Gurung.
Section 54 of Nepal’s Prison Act assigns each prison’s internal administration the
responsibility of governing its prisoners, which means the more favourable the jail management is, the more comfortable it is for prisoners.
Dilli Bazar prison has been the prison of choice for many high-ranking prisoners, especially those convicted of white collar crimes, due to its more accommodating administrators. The prison, which has the capacity to house 700 inmates, is also less crowded than other jails.
Anuj Bhattarai, spokesperson of the Department of Prison Management, says that there is no legal classification in Nepal for felons to be assigned prisons based on the nature of their crimes.
“That Dilli Bazar Jail has a higher number of prisoners convicted of crimes like corruption is most likely a coincidence,” says Bhattarai. “There is no provision for influential people to be able to choose where they will be incarcerated.”&nbsp;
Translated by Shristi Karki from the Nepali original published in himalkhabar.com

What Nepal’s VIP prisoners do in jail

As soon as she milks her cow, 52-year-old Punam B K is off, pedaling her bicycle furiously along the highway with a blue milk can in the front basket.&nbsp; By the time she arrives at the Jaya Shiva Ganesh Dairy Producers Cooperative in Gopalganj village, others are already there, their bicycles parked on the roadside. The farmers are all holding on to their blue milk cans, and are chatting away.&nbsp; “We keep what is needed for the family, and sell whatever remains here at the cooperative,” says B K, as the volume, fat and non-fat solid content of her milk is measured. It is then poured into a bigger vat to be mixed with milk from other farmers. B K collects her receipt with the value of her milk, and prepares to head home. The farmers are reimbursed on a quarterly basis.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/a-family-that-works-together-stays-together">A family that works together stays together</a>, Sahina Shrestha “Everyone around here has at least a cow or buffalo to provide milk for the family, the cowdung is used for fertiliser, and we can bring whatever is left over to the cooperative,” says B K who, like the others, brings her milk by bicycle twice a day, once in the morning and again in the evening.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241210081232_0df32c0f6a572aef83eca02dc7a86f75ea5dbc88dc6c2390d42a44ab3cc93395.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20241210081232_0df32c0f6a572aef83eca02dc7a86f75ea5dbc88dc6c2390d42a44ab3cc93395" data-rendition-name="original" width="1700" height="1275" loading="lazy" alt="dairy farmers in Chitwan"> </figure>  All this may seem like nothing special, just an ordinary farmer selling her milk. But it has to be seen in the context of dairy farmers overcoming subsistence and increasing household income. Nearly 200,000 dairy farmers from over 1,200 cooperatives have not been paid by the government-run DDC for their milk for a year or more.&nbsp; The DDC has fixed a quota for buying milk from cooperatives that limits production even during the peak winter months. Farmers in Chitwan are so fed up, they have staged demonstrations in Kathmandu and even poured milk on the East-West Highway in protest.&nbsp; Punam B K’s milk ends up in Bhawani Dairy, a milk processing plant in Chitwan that buys milk from various cooperatives in the district. It was established six years ago by three entrepreneur cousins Devrath Baral, Drishya Baral and Subash Paudel and is now being supported by the Commercial Agriculture for Smallholders and Agribusiness (CASA) project.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241210081232_4e3c65390b9c5345f807b10cbb8c36b006ef6d3cb972e07b5067f4b2db2be32e.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20241210081232_4e3c65390b9c5345f807b10cbb8c36b006ef6d3cb972e07b5067f4b2db2be32e" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1102" loading="lazy" alt="dairy farmers in Chitwan"> </figure>  This UK-funded project implemented by Swisscontact in Nepal has been supporting agro-businesses in 23 countries in Asia and Africa. They focus on improving the capacity of private dairy and vegetable farmers to find markets and build a sustainable supply chain for their produce. It helps dairies like the one in Chitwan with branding and marketing, as well to track business through a Dairy Management System (DMS) digital database.&nbsp; Bhawani Dairy also got support to conduct orientation for cooperative farmers to learn about new ways to boost productivity with breeding, cowshed management and hygiene maintenance. Many commercial farmers in Chitwan, some with up to 60 cows and buffaloes, have benefited.&nbsp; B K says she only has six cows, so not everything she hears at the orientation about increasing cowshed area is applicable. “We are just happy our milk is not wasted, and we can earn some cash from the surplus,” she says.&nbsp; Bhawani Dairy’s clientele is based entirely in Chitwan and in towns along the East-West Highway. But building on its success here, the company is looking to expand nationwide and target the Kathmandu market. Being a perishable product, the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/so-far-so-good/nepal-s-milk-heartland-rebounds">diary business is challenging</a>. Businesses also need investment and technical support to diversify into value-added milk products like cheese, yoghurt, ice cream or powdered milk.&nbsp; “For now, the best thing we as a dairy business can do for farmers is to buy their milk at a decent price and pay them in time,” says Drishya Baral of Bhawani Dairy.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241210081232_6c06efb5674dbcd8679015af543bfda87030755383a13c9269e272af28e85953.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20241210081232_6c06efb5674dbcd8679015af543bfda87030755383a13c9269e272af28e85953" data-rendition-name="original" width="1700" height="1275" loading="lazy" alt="dairy farmers in Chitwan"> </figure>  Another agro-industry supported by CASA since 2018 is Himalayan Supervores, a venture that sources farm produce to supply vegetables and other foods to restaurants and hotels in the city, and even export Halal-certified produce to Gulf countries.&nbsp; CASA helped with cold chain management system to keep vegetable produce fresh so that the products earn trust about quality in the national and international market. Himalayan Supervores is already exporting to UAE and Qatar, and is targeting other Gulf countries next. “The guidance provided by the international expert was invaluable, we could not have bought that knowledge even with money,” says Nelson Shrestha of Himalayan Supervores. “It was not about fancy hardware, but how to minimise wastage, increase productivity, save time and money.”&nbsp; Though Himalayan Supervores collects vegetables from vegetable cooperatives, it indirectly works with a network of thousands of cooperative farmers. Its catchment area therefore is enormous, and it has enhanced their knowledge about organic farming methods, bio-pesticides, and the right way to handle and package vegetables. CASA’s most recent tie-up is with Pokhara-based Poshilo Foods, which specialises in increasing the shelf-life of local nutritional food items. During the Covid lockdown <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p3bparajuli/">Prithwi Kallyan Parajuli</a> saw an opportunity to supply nutritional foods that stayed longer, and set up Poshilo.&nbsp; It took traditional satu flour made from dry-roasted pulse, added more nutrients, and packaged it. Four flavours of satu with nutrient values differentiated for various age groups now line the shelves of supermarket chains like KK Mart, Saleways. Poshilo is now exploring the export market in India.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241210081232_a8dbea8c8d45ac4eff6c37fb47da7ff461989c662ba86d207a008381101acdcf.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20241210081232_a8dbea8c8d45ac4eff6c37fb47da7ff461989c662ba86d207a008381101acdcf" data-rendition-name="original" width="1700" height="1275" loading="lazy" alt="dairy farmers in Chitwan"> </figure>  In the five years of helping Nepali agribusinesses, CASA has already teamed up with 35 established companies. Parajuli heaps fulsome praise on the catalytic support and guidance he got early on, not just for product design, but to explore market viability, branding and marketing.&nbsp; He has participated in government-led programs before, but says those are one-off and focus only on technical solutions and do not pay much attention to the important back-end work with management and sales.&nbsp; Says Devrath Baral of Bhawani Dairy in Chitwan: “We would probably have eventually got to where we are now, but it would have taken years longer without CASA. And now we can share our experience with other agribusinesses in Nepal.”

animal-conservation