Despite lack of resources, war and instability, Nepal’s conservation achievements have won acclaim worldwide. From community forestry, our unique approach to conservation areas in fragile mountain regions, to integrating environmental protection with indigenous knowledge, Nepal has been a model.&nbsp;
As <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/conservation-vs-conservatives">our page 1 story in this edition shows</a>, Nepal has doubled its forest area in the past 30 years, 25% of the land area is protected, tiger numbers have tripled.&nbsp;
But now, Nepal has a forest minister hell-bent on undermining these gains. Forest and Environment Minister Birendra Prasad Mahato has proposed to auction <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-tiger-conservation-too-successful">Nepali tigers</a> through global bidding so they can be trophy hunted to generate revenue because, as he put it, “Nepal now has too many tigers and license to hunt will reduce human-animal conflict”.
Nepal was the first tiger-range country to nearly triple the population of its big cats from 121 in 2010 to 355 in 2022. This increase has indeed led to tigers coming out of parks to hunt livestock, but the solution lies in better management and setting up rescue centres for problematic tigers.&nbsp;
Mahato’s proposal violates international norms and treaties including the International Convention on Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) of which Nepal is a party. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/its-a-jungle-out-there">Tigers</a> are on Appendix 1 of CITES which includes species threatened with extinction. Nepal’s own National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act has listed tigers as fully protected species.
Nepal’s conservation pioneer, Hemanta Mishra, who helped convert Chitwan from a royal hunting reserve to a national park 50 years ago, told us: “The proposal is not just unethical and unscientific, it is irrational, illegal, illogical and unimplementable.”
Mahato claims to have received offers from American and Japanese hunters to pay millions of dollars to shoot a tiger and believes Nepal can finance the entire annual cost of his ministry with that money.
“I fear this kind of loose statement makes Nepal a laughing stock in the global conservation community,” Mishra told us. “It also dilutes the country’s unparalleled achievements in bringing endangered species such as the rhino and the tiger back from the brink of extinction.”
Mahato is from the Tarai-based Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) and has been pushing for other anti-conservation activities including amending EIA laws to allow infrastructure inside parks, the trade of restricted lichens with medical properties to favour businesses, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/who-now-owns-nepals-forests">‘management’ of community forests</a> and the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/guest-editorial/fight-or-flight">Nijgad airport project</a> that would destroy the last remaining native forests of the eastern Tarai.&nbsp;
The government is amending regulations to allow <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/balance-of-power">major hydropower plants</a>, hotels, resorts, paragliding and cable cars to be constructed within the national parks and reserves. The National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Manual 2030 (Fifth Amendment 076) and the regulations of six parks are being repealed and new regulations are being issued.
Now that poaching has been reduced, the biggest threat to Nepal’s national parks and other forests are <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/in-conservation-nepal-is-not-out-of-the-woods-yet">new roads, railways, transmission lines and irrigation canals crisscrossing them</a>. And a greedy government.
Nepal's protected areas are the main <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/wildlife-people-coexistence-in-nepal-national-park">attraction for nearly half the tourists visiting Nepal</a>. Domestic tourism has lifted the economy of villages outside parks, and 90% of the revenue of national parks come from tourism.&nbsp;
Any move to undermine the biodiversity of protected areas will not just hurt tourism jobs and incomes, but also damage the ecosystem. Head of World Wildlife Fund Nepal (WWF Nepal) Ghana Gurung has this to say: “Nepal stands as one of the models for conservation, and any sudden and drastic change will undermine those successes as well as hurt tourism.”&nbsp;
Allowing hotels and resorts inside parks could be an option if Nepal’s regulatory mechanisms were transparent and clean. But given the climate of corruption, poor governance and impunity in Nepal today, it would open the floodgates to the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/naturally-nepal">commercialisation of nature</a>, and destroy hard-earned conservation achievements of the past five decades.
Tiger culling is such a ridiculous proposal that it does not even need refuting. Despite our successes, we are not out of the woods yet in conservation in Nepal. Population pressure in the Tarai, climate change, infrastructure, corruption and incompetent decision-making could unravel everything very quickly.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Sonia Awale

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Don’t fix what ain’t broke

One of the few arenas for which Nepal has got well-deserved international praise is conservation. Nearly a quarter of the country’s area is protected, the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/how-many-tigers-in-nepal">wild tiger population</a> has tripled in 12 years, rhino poaching has been curbed, and forest cover has doubled in the past 30 years to 45% of Nepal’s area.&nbsp; And that makes Forest and Environment Minister Birendra Prasad Mahato of the JSP salivate. He is the architect behind a series of proposals that could undermine Nepal’s hard-earned conservation achievements, forgetting that his portfolio is for protecting forests, not destroying them. Nepal was the first tiger range country to not just double but nearly triple the population of big cats. The minister now wants to auction tiger trophy hunting licenses because Nepal has “too many tigers”.&nbsp; “Beyond just the unethical and unscientific, the proposal to cull tigers is illegal, illogical and unimplementable,” says <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/interview/Hemanta-Mishra-on-eco-tourism-in-Nepal,1029">Hemanta Mishra</a>, one of the founders of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/review/chitwan-national-park-handbook-book-review,1612">Chitwan National</a> Park in 1973, which rescued Nepal’s tigers and rhinos from the brink of extinction.&nbsp; “The proposal violates the CITES treaty and Nepal’s own laws. Even if super-wealthy foreigners shoot tigers in Nepal, they will certainly be breaking the laws of their own countries if they take the trophies back. In short, it ain’t doable,” says Mishra, who is now Global Ambassador at <a href="https://wellbeingintl.org/">WellBeing International</a>. Indeed, many find Minister Mahato’s assertion laughable that Nepal can earn up to $25 million through tiger hunting licenses and that would underwrite the cost of maintaining national parks.&nbsp; The tiger is on Appendix 1 of CITES, and Nepal is among 184 countries to have signed this international treaty. Nearly half of all <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/wildlife-people-coexistence-in-nepal-national-park">tourists coming to Nepal visit national parks</a>, and there are growing numbers of Nepali tourists also contribute to local jobs and income.&nbsp; In fact, 90% of the revenue of the parks is from tourism. Chitwan and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-tiger-conservation-too-successful">Bardia</a> are world class national parks and any loss of biodiversity would undermine tourism. Admittedly, the increase in tiger numbers has affected prey density forcing some to venture outside national parks and leading to contact with villagers outside. Expansion of forests has also led to crop loss from wildlife. There are protocols in place to deal with man-eating tigers, and crop damage by wildlife.&nbsp; The government is trying to dismantle other areas in which Nepal has achieved success, like <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/who-now-owns-nepals-forests">community forestry</a>, by allowing ‘management’ of trees. It is strongly backing the Nijgad Airport project that would decimate the last remaining native forests in the eastern Tarai, and it is drafting a bill to amend laws to allow resorts, hotels and infrastructure inside national parks. &nbsp; “Minister Mahato clearly has no understanding of how conservation works,” says environmentalist Babu Krishna Karki. “Someone who dreams of making a national park a source of revenue doesn’t know the first thing about conservation. How can he consciously spout such nonsense?”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230915050944_6bbe3df3771b76221ad7902060ee1f567309531f4254dc0376238eb56f2e1ed6.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20230915050944_6bbe3df3771b76221ad7902060ee1f567309531f4254dc0376238eb56f2e1ed6" data-rendition-name="original" width="1800" height="1200" loading="lazy" alt="Birenda Mahato Forest Minister"> <figcaption>Forest and Environment Minister Birendra Prasad Mahato. Photo: RSS(Photo: HARRAM BHETUWAL)</figcaption> </figure>  Minister Mahato has accused national park employees of colluding with wildlife poachers, and even blamed international development partners of making money from Nepal’s achievement in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nature-without-borders">tiger conservation</a>. Mahato was appointed forest minister in May by Upendra Yadav’s Tarai-based JSP and has been brazenly trying to find ways to cash in by allowing extractive projects inside national parks. Given this government’s lack of transparency and impunity for corruption, he may well get his way. “We have to be very careful not to kill the goose that lays golden eggs,” warns Ghana Gurung of WWF Nepal. “Tiger culling is an absolute no-no, and any decision to allow resorts inside national parks has to be consultative and transparent.” Indeed, Tarai national parks like Chitwan, Parsa, Bardia already face threats from encroachment, poaching, river pollution, and the climate crisis. Allowing <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/in-conservation-nepal-is-not-out-of-the-woods-yet">infrastructure like roads, railways and irrigation canals inside</a> them will further damage the ecosystem. &nbsp; Mahato has formed a task force under the Director General of the Forest Department Shivkumar Wagle to relax the restrictions to collect Tamarix dioica, a kind of lichen locally known as jhau that has medicinal properties. A ban has been in place in harvesting this shrub since 2010.&nbsp; Botany professor Krishna Kumar Shrestha says that some lichens found in branches of trees or on rocks are <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/between-existence-and-extinction-in-nepal">rare species</a>, and as such should be studied thoroughly first. “We have to ensure the reproduction of those lichen species before lifting the ban otherwise we are destroying biological diversity,” he adds. Experts who have spoken against Mahato’s proposals are being sidelined by his ministry. &nbsp;Forest Secretary Rewati Raman Poudel was transferred after he raised objections and was replaced by Deepak Kharel of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation. Mahato himself has no background in conservation, and his only claim to fame is that he is the brother of Belarussian billionaire of Nepali origin Upendra Mahato, and was the chair of Machhapuchche Bank and has investments in hydropower.&nbsp; As minister, Mahato has also exerted pressure to pass the EIA of the Rs3 billion Pathibhara Cable Car project which is opposed by the local indigenous Yakthung Limbu people. He has also forced officials to ignore EIAs on several <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/balance-of-power">hydropower projects</a> in which he has investments. The National Park and Wildlife Conservation Act has provisions to operate facilities inside the park for tourism, but the regulation stipulates that any decision has to be transparent so it does not impact on the ecosystem. Under Nepal’s current governance climate, that is problematic.&nbsp;

Conservation vs Conservatives

Monday is Nag Panchami, a day dedicated to the mythical serpents that were once said to inhabit the lake that was Kathmandu Valley. But although snakes are worshipped, they are also threatened because of public perception that they are dangerous. Asbin Raj Ojha is out to change that. Growing up in Vorletar, Lamjung close to nature, he was curious about wildlife and as a hobby tried to find out more about the slithering reptiles. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/hisss">Most snakes in the mountains are non-venomous</a>, even so Ojha was struck by how people felt threatened by them and would kill the animals even when they were harmless. His fascination with snakes grew as he watched YouTube videos of conservationists effortlessly catching and handling even dangerous snakes on the National Geographic channel. He started being called to rescue non-venomous grass snakes from people’s houses. By the time he was a teenager, Ojha’s family moved to Rajahar in Nawalpur and his obsession with snakes travelled with him. But the snakes of the plains were more dangerous, and on his own he studied their habitat and habits and ways to identify different species.&nbsp; Two years ago, he got a call about a King Cobra (Ophiophagus hannah) on the loose in Nawalpur. News about his snake expertise had got around, and he successfully trapped the 4m long snake and relocated it back into the jungle.&nbsp; “Cobras are sacred, but they are also feared, and rescuing them was a milestone in my life, and increased my confidence in handling such &nbsp;majestic snake species,” recalls Ojha, 30, who later realised the danger he had put himself in by handling the snake without protective gear. Even 12mg of cobra venom will kill an adult human. Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/save-snakes-to-save-nature">Save snakes to save nature</a>, Tulsi Rauniyar The video of the dramatic rescue went viral, and many more people found out about his work. But Ojha got to work doing more research about safety protocols in handling venomous snakes, and methods in handling non-poisonous ones without harming them using gloves, tongs, safety pads and hooks. After getting married, Ojha’s wife Anjali Thapaliya has also been infected, as it were, by his snake bug. She comes along on every rescue call, and together they have rescued 15 King Cobras from farms and households and translocated them to Chitwan National Park in coordination with the warden’s office.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230821150824_720b9afba2b2bfca972c77b1a8dfe76fad73d3f070ea6dfeb87c53dc99b5db5e.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20230821150824_720b9afba2b2bfca972c77b1a8dfe76fad73d3f070ea6dfeb87c53dc99b5db5e" data-rendition-name="original" width="1080" height="1440" loading="lazy" alt="Snake rescue"> <figcaption>Asbin Raj Ojha and Anjali Thapaliya.</figcaption> </figure>  But such is the fear of snakes that even non-venomous ones are killed or harmed before the couples reach the site. Some are burnt with kerosene or beaten with sticks. Ojha and Thapaliya are chemistry and environmental science majors respectively and are not trained vets, but they do what they can by trading injured snakes with traditional treatments like mustard oil or turmeric.&nbsp; Anjali Thapaliya was initially not too keen about snakes, but understood her husband’s passion for snakes. She supported him from afar. One day, while rescuing a venomous Krait snake which is 10 times more poisonous than a King Cobra, Ojha was bitten on his hand. Thankfully, he was wearing gloves but Thapaliya was worried sick and decided to accompany her husband to the rescue after that. “In the beginning, I used to look at the rescue from afar, but as I started working more with snakes, I developed a soft corner for them,” says Thapaliya, 29. “I’m really happy he is rescuing snakes but by doing so he is also saving lives, not just of snakes but of humans too.” Snakebites are widespread in the Nepal Tarai during the monsoon and can be lethal because antidotes are often not readily available at health posts. As many as 3,000 people are said to die every year from snake bites according to the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9795130/#:~:text=In%20Nepal%20around%2040,000%20individuals,people%20dying%20as%20a%20result.&amp;text=The%20problem%20is%20most%20common,rural%20areas%20of%20the%20Terai." target="_blank">National Institute of Health</a>. Lack of awareness about snakes and snake bites also end up harming snakes, which is why Ojha and Thapaliya have made it their mission to better educate communities by conducting classes to help reduce snake-human conflict. Says herpetologist Santosh Bhattarai: “Their work in King Cobra conservation is really praiseworthy and has directly contributed to reducing death of snakes as well as in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/snakebite-is-treatable-no-one-need-die-from-it">lethal snakebite cases</a>.” Ojha is a teacher by profession and is often interrupted in class to attend to an emergency rescue. But he has trained some young volunteers to also help in rescues.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230821150828_8afffe0e361a7d7d5c0d43eb78de55281db6fc072aff8f687b3ab92f59f81560.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20230821150828_8afffe0e361a7d7d5c0d43eb78de55281db6fc072aff8f687b3ab92f59f81560" data-rendition-name="original" width="1080" height="810" loading="lazy" alt="Snake rescue"> <figcaption>Photo: NATIONAL PARK OFFICIAL</figcaption> </figure>  Ojha says his team needs more support from the Forest Department to spread awareness and invest in snake translocation efforts. The team often faces legal and community issues while relocating snakes. &nbsp; “Sometimes people call us killers because they think we are releasing venomous snakes near their homes,” says Ojha, who wants the same priority in conserving snakes as the protection that tigers and rhinos get. Bishal Prasad Neupane is a zoology undergrad specialising on the amphibians and reptiles of Nepal.

Snakes on plains

The Royal Belum State Park in Perak is the last remaining and largest continuous rainforest in Peninsular Malaysia, and these jungles were also where Nepali soldiers helped the British Army fight Maoist guerrillas from 1948-1960. With some 185,000 species of fauna and 12,500 species of flowering plants, Malaysia is one of the 12 megadiverse countries in the world, and a biodiversity hotspot. The jungle of Royal Belum has existed for over 130 million years, making the park the world’s oldest rainforest. It has a high concentration of large mammals including Asian elephants and Malayan tigers. The park also hosts the endangered helmeted hornbill and all 10 Malaysian hornbill species. &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230820130820_63cc2881d7b7fc88a7cc5e4a055d6acd7f7ea8b73a3471cf9652113c989b667c.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20230820130820_63cc2881d7b7fc88a7cc5e4a055d6acd7f7ea8b73a3471cf9652113c989b667c" data-rendition-name="original" width="4000" height="1800" loading="lazy" alt="Royal Belum State Park"> <figcaption>Royal Belum State Park near the Malaysia-Thailand border is the largest and oldest rainforest in the world that has existed continuously for 135 million years.</figcaption> </figure>  What protected the forest was also the insurgent activity when Malaya was under British colonial rule. The armed wing of Chin Peng’s Mao-inspired Communist Party Of Malaya (CPM) had launched a guerrilla campaign to end British rule. The British Army fought back, and on the frontlines were its Gurkha commandos recruited from the mountains of Nepal, battle-hardened during World War II <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-atom-bomb-saved-my-life">against the Japanese</a> in these same forests.&nbsp; <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/former-gurkha-soldier-turns-author">Tim I Gurung</a> in his book The Gurkhas: A True Story writes, ‘In order to protect those British interests of the early fifties in Southeast Asia (Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak, Sabah and Brunei in Borneo), the first battle the Gurkhas had to fight was the Malayan Emergency and it was a long, nasty and costly guerrilla war that lasted from 1948 until 1960’. Although the insurgency was crushed with a scorched earth policy as well as the spraying of Agent Orange herbicides on the jungles, the guerrilla presence persisted till 1989 and was under tight security. Even today, security posts stop travellers for inspection along the East-West Highway which traverses the jungle. The <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/6176/">Royal Belum State Park</a> was set up in 2007 with a 300,000-hectare forest complex near the Malaysia-<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/lost-village-of-nepalis-in-thailand">Thailand</a> border, and is now a hub for research and eco-tourism. The Park is home to Rafflesia, the world's largest flower, and one of the world’s rarest and most threatened species. A <a href="https://parasiticplants.siu.edu/Rafflesiaceae/Raff.azlanii.page.html">Rafflesia azlanii </a>blossom is featured on the Malaysian 10 Ringgit banknote and was named after the British founder of Singapore, Stamford Raffles.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230820130824_2bbc7f3e935bcc4790484d76c7b65edcb03e7b91c02b34b1d629478791775c47.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20230820130824_2bbc7f3e935bcc4790484d76c7b65edcb03e7b91c02b34b1d629478791775c47" data-rendition-name="original" width="4000" height="1800" loading="lazy" alt="Rafflesia flower"> <figcaption>The author with a rare sighting of the Rafflesia flower in the Royal Belum State Park in Malaysia recently.</figcaption> </figure>  What makes Rafflesia so unique is that it takes nine months to blossom into a flower up to 1.2m in diameter with the smell of rotting meat, but dies within a week after pollination which makes it difficult for anyone to see it. David Attenborough <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxIpl38rsMo">featured the flower for a BBC Earth telecast</a> and called it a “corpse flower” because of its extraordinarily foul odour. Given that the Gurkhas were deployed extensively in these jungles, one cannot help but wonder if the Nepalis saw and marvelled at this enormous flower with a stench strong enough to put off all enemies. Gau Lal Gurung, 96, is a Gurkha veteran of the Malayan campaign and a composer of the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/ghatu-dance-of-lamjung">traditional Ghatu folk songs</a> of his people. He spent much of his youth in Malaya, travelling for months through the remoter parts of the jungle hunting for insurgents.&nbsp; “We found plenty of guerrillas, but never came across a Rafflesia flower,” Gurung says. Since the Rafflesia flower blooms for a day or two, it is a rare sight indeed. One has to be lucky, and be at the right place at the right time.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230820130824_0104573292797c9df0725a99231c976497677eee22684d9cee399f4a2da3cf6e.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20230820130824_0104573292797c9df0725a99231c976497677eee22684d9cee399f4a2da3cf6e" data-rendition-name="original" width="4000" height="1800" loading="lazy" alt="Gurkha veteran"> <figcaption>The author with Gau Lal Gurung, 96, is a Gurkha veteran of the Malayan campaign who traversed the rainforest hunting for insurgents but never once saw the rare Rafflesia bloom.</figcaption> </figure>  The Malaysian Nature Society set up over eight decades ago has been collaborating with the government for biodiversity conservation and environmental education. Programs including the BirdLife-led forest governance project and forest condition are under operation with the engagement of indigenous people Orang Asli. The Royal Belum State Park itself was recognised as an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area in 2004 by BirdLife International. It is also the first to receive CA TS (Conservation Assured Tiger Standards) in Southeast Asia. In 2019, it was also shortlisted on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list. But Malaysia is also one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of palm oil. The multi-billion dollar industry has cost the country much of its rainforest to make way for palm plantations. A win-win plan is needed to safeguard the ecology and green economy — &nbsp;much like in Nepal where planners want to clear 80 sq km of native hardwood forest in the eastern Tarai to build <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/guest-editorial/fight-or-flight">Nijgad airport</a>. Hum Gurung is the Asia Partnership Manager and Former Regional Project Manager of Asia Pacific Forest Governance Project, BirdLife International.

The Malayan rainforest and its rare flower

Patrick Devlin who taught a whole generation of Nepali environmentalists at Lincoln University in Christchurch died on 16 August at age 86.&nbsp; Many of us Nepali students in New Zealand knew him as <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/The-Kiwi,421" target="_blank">‘Pat Guru’</a>, a name that was a mark of our deep respect as well as the closeness we felt to him. For five decades, he was involved in training professionals in his home country as well as Nepal and other Asian countries. Pat’s students now shoulder the burden of continuing his legacy in training national park wardens and professionals managing nature reserves. When the history of the evolution of national park management is written, Pat will be remembered for his immense contribution to professionalising national park and reserve service in his home country as well as in Nepal and South East Asia.&nbsp; Among more than 50 of Pat Devlin’s Nepali students were Lhakpa Norbu Sherpa who helped establish the Qomolangma Nature Preserve in Tibet which shares its border with three national parks on the Nepal side, making it one of the largest protected areas in Asia.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2023081906084_0a0a595107c5002f9fafe6c1e14419eb0f70b0ae86a7b1e4f32b220d61b0dbce.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2023081906084_0a0a595107c5002f9fafe6c1e14419eb0f70b0ae86a7b1e4f32b220d61b0dbce" data-rendition-name="original" width="3648" height="2736" loading="lazy" alt="Patrick Devlin"> <figcaption>Patrick Devlin with Shailendra Thakali in Christchurch in 2010. Photo: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption> </figure>  Other students also hold important positions in international conservation organisations: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/11-day-trek-is-now-a-day-s-drive-in-nepal" target="_blank">Ghana Gurung</a> heads WWF Nepal, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-red-panda-house" target="_blank">Ang Phuri Sherpa</a> is Executive Director of Red Panda Network International, and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/the-man-from-sikles" target="_blank">Hum Gurung</a> is Asia Partnership Manager for BirdLife International. Other Nepali Lincoln alumni that Pat tutored include Shankar Koirala who had a long stint with the Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation and other ministries. Gopal Upadhaya, Megh Pandey and Phanindra Raj Kharel went on to head the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, and Mingma Norbu Sherpa was the head of WWF’s Asia Pacific Program. <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=12581" target="_blank">Mingma Sherpa</a> was among the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/remembering-nepal-s-conservation-heroes" target="_blank">dozen prominent Nepali and international conservationists</a>, officials and journalists who were killed in a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/out-of-the-ashes" target="_blank">helicopter crash at Ghunsa in 2006</a> during the inauguration of the 2,035 sq km Kanchenjunga Conservation Area. <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=18151" target="_blank">Prof David Simmons</a>, another of Pat’s distinguished students, played a central role in establishing Lincoln University's <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=17700" target="_blank">Mingma Norbu Sherpa Memorial Scholarship</a> with support from Pat Devlin, Mingma’s family, WWF Nepal, and New Zealand. Ten Nepali students who got the scholarship have so far <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/so-far-so-good/the-nomadic-nepali" target="_blank">graduated with master degrees</a> from Lincoln.&nbsp; All national parks and reserves in New Zealand, and almost 70% of protected areas in Nepal were once managed by graduates from Lincoln University, Pat’s base camp to educate and train conservation professionals. He was the main supervisor for the majority of Nepali graduate and undergraduate students from the 1970 onwards.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2023081906084_800499bd49d7b7058fcaa861d5c422d26d5bfc16bb6a1dd31424b75cfb285029.jpg" data-media-id="editor_11" data-image-id="2023081906084_800499bd49d7b7058fcaa861d5c422d26d5bfc16bb6a1dd31424b75cfb285029" data-rendition-name="original" width="3303" height="2317" loading="lazy" alt="Patrick Devlin"> <figcaption>Pat Devlin felicitated in 2013 during a visit to Nepal by the Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation and the Lincoln University Alumni Association for his immense contribution to protected area management in Nepal.</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2023081906084_8f43de5f4605c3f113d824e27f85cb31ff7d472773a9240a9af95bbfc3e4e3ee.jpg" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="2023081906084_8f43de5f4605c3f113d824e27f85cb31ff7d472773a9240a9af95bbfc3e4e3ee" data-rendition-name="original" width="1244" height="875" loading="lazy" alt="Patrick Devlin"> <figcaption>Pat Devlin with students he supervised at Lincoln University along with their families during a visit to Kathmandu.</figcaption> </figure>  &nbsp;As a supervisor, Pat was very supportive but non-compromising when it came to the quality of work. Pat inspired his students to produce the best. I had the honour to be the last student he supervised when I went back to Lincoln University to pursue a doctoral program in environmental management in 2008.&nbsp; Pat Guru was more than a supervisor to me. Besides constant encouragement and support, he and his wife, Maureen, were great hosts. They were kind to me and my family as they had been to a generation of Nepali students, made sure we had comfortable and enjoyed our time and experience in New Zealand. During the 1970s and 80s, the majority of rangers working for national parks and reserves in New Zealand had no formal degrees or training. They chose the career out of a love for nature and the great outdoors, and were happy to take remote postings. As national parks and reserves started to become popular, park management grew more challenging and complex.&nbsp; Pat was quick to realise this and devoted his entire life to developing and teaching parks and recreation courses at Lincoln University, and most importantly grooming and mentoring the next generation of managers. &nbsp; He was key to the design of ‘Parks and Recreation’ courses at Lincoln and also condensed the Parks and Recreation syllabus into six-week block courses for in-service park rangers that professionalised New Zealand’s national park and reserve services and management.&nbsp; Lincoln University under Pat also offered block courses to the Park and Forests service in Kuching in Malaysia. Pat also wanted to roll out his block courses in Nepal, but did not materialise. There is an urgent need in Nepal to include multidisciplinary teams to effectively manage emerging challenges related to tourism, buffer zone management, climate change, human-wildlife conflicts, and local aspirations. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2023081906084_3f754bb3595b022546a6413497f192cd05b345b42d8bd4ca49cd151eb2fdb657.jpg" data-media-id="editor_13" data-image-id="2023081906084_3f754bb3595b022546a6413497f192cd05b345b42d8bd4ca49cd151eb2fdb657" data-rendition-name="original" width="2592" height="1936" loading="lazy" alt="Patrick Devlin"> <figcaption>Pat Devlin (with umbrella) in Chitwan National Park in 2013 with his wife Maureen, David Simmons and a park official in 2013. Photo: HUM GURUNG</figcaption> </figure>  Pat was modest and generous to a fault. Despite his accomplishments, he was not one to brag about them or seek the limelight. Always calm and composed, he took all challenges in his stride.&nbsp; My last meeting with Pat was in April this year. Despite failing health, he stood up, shook hands, smiled, tossed a drink, and made us feel at ease. He took immense pride in the achievements of his students, and kept in touch with them as much as possible right till the end.&nbsp; Patrick Devlin’s life work lives on in New Zealand, Nepal, Sarawak and around the world. His funeral will be held in Christchurch on 23 August. Shailendra Thakali, PhD is a freelance consultant in environmental conservation, tourism and livelihoods.

Remembering Pat Guru

While Dutch conservationist and architect Anne Feenstra was giving a presentation ten years ago at a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) event in Kathmandu, Ang Phuri Sherpa was fascinated. This was a whole new way to design modern buildings in Nepal’s mountains that respected heritage, conformed to the climate, and conserved energy using locally available raw material.&nbsp; Sherpa was working for WWF at the time, but when he became Country Director for the Red Panda Network (RPN) he remembered the presentation from all those years ago, and approached Feenstra’s Sustainable Mountain Architecture (SMA) to help design a new resource centre in Taplejung. RPN has been working in Kangchenjunga Conservation Area in eastern Nepal to protect the endangered red panda, and its researcher <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-conservationist-wins-whitley-award">Sonam Tashi Lama</a> in 2022 won the Whitley Award for his work. Feenstra and his Nepali colleague Sapana Shakya at SMA designed the Rs20 million two-storied building at Deurali near Taplejung airport which serves to provide information about the red panda and the need to protect its habitat.&nbsp; The tastefully designed and functional multi-purpose resource centre is also supposed to pay for its own upkeep by offering accommodation and dining to trekkers, researchers, students and other visitors.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230310110348_da88f94ba8af650b6f87708ba62bc24a18ea146b8759ec29e80d400e97b2be03.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20230310110348_da88f94ba8af650b6f87708ba62bc24a18ea146b8759ec29e80d400e97b2be03" data-rendition-name="original" width="2204" height="1257" loading="lazy" alt="Red Panda House"> <figcaption>The Red Panda Research Centre is located on a ridge top near Taplejung. All photos: SUSTAINABLE MOUNTAIN ARCHITECTURE</figcaption> </figure>  Since it is located on the route to Pathibhara, it could also be a comfortable stopover for pilgrims. And all guests will also automatically learn about the need to preserve the red panda habitat Known as हाब्रे in Nepali, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/red-panda-on-the-red-list">the red panda is critically endangered</a> and lives on the canopy of broadleaf in mixed temperate forests from western Nepal to Sichuan. The mammal is not related to the giant panda, and is not a bear but is closer to racoons and squirrels. There are now less than 10,000 wild red pandas, with 800 in zoos around the world. In Nepal, there are about 1,000 of the animals living in bamboo and rhododendron forests in 24 of the country’s mountain districts, mostly in eastern Nepal. But their population is in decline because of poaching and habitat destruction. Despite not having any medicinal, cultural, or religious value, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/republic-of-nepal-s-animal-kingdom">red pandas</a> are being poached for their pelt.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230310110352_59ba2f0eaddb108b8897728eb29fee6f2d538b1cb009698f6f6ed921e9e495b1.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20230310110352_59ba2f0eaddb108b8897728eb29fee6f2d538b1cb009698f6f6ed921e9e495b1" data-rendition-name="original" width="774" height="744" loading="lazy" alt="Red Panda distribution and habitat"> <figcaption>The Red Panda range spans Nepal to Sichuan in China. There are about 1,000 of the rare mammals remaining in Nepal's forests, mainly in the east.</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230310110348_d5d82659a79df8c8e52600433492b352505d9026d161428e9ef53c8e8e1eba3c.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20230310110348_d5d82659a79df8c8e52600433492b352505d9026d161428e9ef53c8e8e1eba3c" data-rendition-name="original" width="3000" height="2000" loading="lazy" alt="Red Panda in Nepal"> <figcaption>Photo: JAMES HOUSTON/RED PANDA NETWORK</figcaption> </figure>  Anne Feenstra has designed more than 50 similar sustainable buildings in mountain regions across the world in the past three decades, including a structure in an Afghan national park that is home to snow leopards. “As a student of architecture, I have always been a proponent of climate-friendly construction,” explains Feenstra. “When rainfall, the sun, and other topographical and environmental elements are not taken into account, a building will not be sustainable.”&nbsp; Indeed, Feenstra explains, every mountain region is different, and requires a specific <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/foundations-for-sustainable-buildings-in-nepal">building approach</a> from the type of roof, windows and height of the ceiling based on local climate and available local materials. The Red Panda Centre in Taplejung sits on a forested ridge 2,600m in Deurali near Taplejung. The wood-and-stone structure is conceptually modelled on a mountain lodge, is built to withstand heavy winter snowfall, and is earthquake resistant. The floor is made of local stone, while the second floor is timber. The roof is up-cycled tin coated in tar. Feenstra and Shakya studied indigenous building materials and construction techniques which are disappearing because of cement and concrete.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230310110344_58e29764a142eacdb722dfa79377a49bafefcc2c1d47403f34cda70e3cee2486.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20230310110344_58e29764a142eacdb722dfa79377a49bafefcc2c1d47403f34cda70e3cee2486" data-rendition-name="original" width="1776" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Red Panda House"> <figcaption>Architectural renditions of the interior of the structure which has been designed with local materials and to also serve as a visitor centre and a lodge to generate income. Photos: SUSTAINABLE MOUNTAIN ARCHITECTURE</figcaption> </figure>  &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230310110344_451328764ac8314a2517a5cd43139c94ca6df4b47b6889d6954d69d59fa546d6.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20230310110344_451328764ac8314a2517a5cd43139c94ca6df4b47b6889d6954d69d59fa546d6" data-rendition-name="original" width="1776" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Red Panda House"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230310110344_1ed7be0772d331be7a4286563f49ac5098109060391e86b86afd4bcef711f826.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20230310110344_1ed7be0772d331be7a4286563f49ac5098109060391e86b86afd4bcef711f826" data-rendition-name="original" width="1776" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Red Panda House"> </figure>  “When we use indigenous resources, we must always pay the utmost attention to native skills and materials,” says Shakya, who helped design new school buildings in Makwanpur and other districts after the 2015 earthquake.&nbsp; “It is the combination of local skill and resources that makes any building stronger,” she says. For Ang Phuri Sherpa of <a href="https://redpandanetwork.org/">Red Panda Network</a>, the building is exactly what he had hoped for. He says the use of cement for construction would have been costlier and less climate friendly. “The reduction of our carbon footprint and the use of local skill and resources were our primary objectives in the construction of this resource centre,” says Sherpa. The research centre also serves as a place where knowledge about water harvesting, smokeless fuel-efficient use of firewood, and other techniques will be shared with local people who are suffering a scarcity of water in the dry season. As the number of trekkers to the Kanchenjunga region grows, villagers will also be given practical knowledge about running homesteads and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/eco-tourism-in-gadi-siraichuli">promoting ecotourism</a>.&nbsp;

The Red Panda House

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230208140216/63e3a0a09c7e80680e0d7047jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"/><figcaption>Pleione humilis. Photos: KUMAR PAUDEL/GREENHOOD NEPAL</figcaption></figure>There are about 30,000 species of orchids found in the world, and of them 500 are found in Nepal.There are different types of orchids: they are called epiphytes if they cling to trees, lithophytes if they grow on rocks, terrestrial if on the ground, and there are even saprophytes which are orchids found underground.The unusually-shaped Foxtail (Rhynchostylis) grows on trees in the Nepal Himalaya, as do the highly-protected Pachaule (Dactylorhiza hatagirea) orchid known for its medicinal properties. The Himalayan Slipper (Cypripedium himalaicum) are collected for their shoe-shaped flowers.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/saving-nature-by-protecting-orchids/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Saving nature by protecting orchids</a>, Reshu Bashyal and Jacob Phelps <figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230208140216/63e3a0a49c7e80680e0d7048jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>These and other 100 orchids are believed to have medicinal value in Chinese, Ayurvedic and Amchi traditional medicine to treat everything from pain relief to serving as aphrodisiacs.Many are also harvested as ornamental plants and as fodder for livestock. Nepal has a long history of harvesting and trading wild orchids: supplying a significant amount of raw material to meet local and international demand both through legal and illegal channels.The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) lists orchids as an endangered flora. In fact, among its listed species of plants and animals, around 70% are orchids, and apart from a couple species of Paphiopedilum, also known as Venus Slippers, all orchids are listed under Schedule 2.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/saving-the-treasure-trove-of-nepals-orchids/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Saving the treasure trove of Nepal's orchids</a>, Kamal Maden<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230208140216/63e3a0a89c7e80680e0d7049jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>As Nepal is a signatory party to CITES, it is responsible for stopping the illicit trade, collection and export of these flowers. Nepal’s own CITES Act 2017, which follows the Convention, states that there must be necessary plans in place before the orchids listed can be harvested.Yet, in practice plant conservation is neglected. <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=5648#.Y8vkRuxByCQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Orchids</a> have made it into legislation, but only on paper. All harvesting of orchids is illegal in Nepal. While attention is paid to identifying orchid habitats, detailed research into their trade and conservation is still lacking.Our relationship with plants is often different from that with animals. Endangered species of animals, such as the tiger and rhino, are protected strictly by law, but the same commitment is not extended to plants.In Nepal, flora connoisseurs consider orchids special for their kaleidoscopic colour patterns and shape. Beyond the aesthetics, many Nepalis consume orchid petals to alleviate stomach cramps, as tonic, and even against cancer, often without identifying the plant and its properties.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/between-existence-and-extinction-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Between existence and extinction in Nepal</a>, Sonia Awale<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230208140216/63e3a0ac9c7e80680e0d704ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="1051"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Noting serious concern about the sustainability and legality of commercial harvesting and the collapse of some populations, Nepal banned the harvest of Pachaule orchids as far back as 1993. Further regulations were introduced, through monitoring of quotas and revenue payments to control harvest and trade of other species of orchid and their bulbs.Yet, smuggling continues. In 2017, 75kg of the highly prized Dactylorhiza hatagirea were apprehended in Gorkha. There have been over 35 seizures of wild orchids in the last decade, nearly half of them bound for China.Yet, only a few are caught. And if they are, it is by chance in police spot-checking a truck or bus and finding wild plants in them. Further, harvesters have also been selling orchids under different names, for instance: Pleione orchid bulbs are often smuggled as Himalayan gooseberries.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230208140216/63e3a0af9c7e80680e0d704bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="853"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The pressing challenge to orchids has been its illegal harvesting and trade, that too in huge amounts done especially without proper training. This has raised concerns regarding the conditions of harvesting and collecting as well.In Nepal orchids are found in remote areas and present regulations look primarily at their types and shapes. Regulations that explore their trade are separate, few and are not readily available.Besides smuggling, e-commerce and sales through social media sites has made it more difficult to control. A few months ago, we found the Dactylorhiza hatagirea being sold online at £394/kg.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230208140216/63e3a0b39c7e80680e0d704cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="6000" height="4000"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>In addition, it is also necessary to conduct regular monitoring and baseline research into the socio-economic benefits of the plant, seeing as we have surprisingly little information on them, about their trade and distribution, and their numbers in the wild.There are still questions about the effects of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-climate-crisis-is-a-water-crisis-in-the-himalaya/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">climate change</a> on wild orchids, and its cultivation has to be made more sustainable and profitable for local communities, as it is central to their culture, rural livelihoods and exports, while stopping smuggling.Nepal has made progress in recent years to conserve its charismatic mammals like tigers and rhinos, but similar attention now needs to be paid to orchid conservation. Otherwise, we may soon find that these flowers will only exist in pictures.Orchid conservationist Reshu Basyal is a Research Fellow at Greenhood Nepal.

Save Nepal’s orchids

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022120710124/6390571a9c7e80680e0ce140jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="6000" height="4000"/><figcaption>All photos: Anil Rai</figcaption></figure>Colin Smith lies in his hospital bed dressed in a blue button-up, and the trademark Dhaka topi perched on his head. The short sleeve of his shirt reveal slender arms, as he holds on to a cushion, eyes closed.His caretaker Min Bahadur Pariyar calls his name softly to signal visitors. Smith opens his eyes and gives a wan smile. Then he closes his eyes and dozes off.The 85-year-old researcher known fondly in Pokhara as Putali Baje obtained honorary Nepali citizenship after decades of work on Nepal’s butterflies. He has been in the palliative care wing of Green Pastures Hospital here since May, following a bout with Covid-19.Smith was born in 1936 at Highgate in London and learned about butterflies as a young boy through his uncle, who was a butterfly and moth collector. In 1966, he came to Nepal as an educator working for United Mission to Nepal (UMN) and taught at schools in Pokhara, Gorkha and Kathmandu.Smith taught math and science at the Gandaki Boarding School in Pokhara, walking north from his room in Nadipur every day to reach school.Read more:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/%E0%A4%AA%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%B2%E0%A5%80-%E0%A4%AC%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%9C%E0%A5%87-and-the-metaphor-of-metamorphosis/"> पुतली बाजे and the metaphor of metamorphosis</a>, Shristi Karki"There were hardly any roads at the time —let alone vehicles,” Smith recalled during a recent visit. “Only one foreigner had a bicycle."Smith then taught at the Luitel School in Gorkha, where among his students was former Prime Minister and Maoist ideologue Baburam Bhattarai, and the late neurosurgeon Upendra Devkota.“Even during classes, Colin used to talk about and show us photographs of butterflies,” recalls Bhattarai, "Nepal should be proud to have someone with such passion towards butterflies, the knowledge of which has helped preserve the species.”It was when Smith taught at the Prithivi Narayan Campus that he met Dorothy Merow, who had started a small natural history museum there. She persuaded him to collect butterflies for the museum, and by 1974 Smith had begun to direct his attention to the study of butterflies in Nepal fulltime, collecting specimens as he travelled across Nepal.Smith went on to work at Kathmandu University, focusing primarily on moths. Later, he worked at the International Mountain Museum in Pokhara by which time he had stopped collecting specimens, and would only take photos of butterflies."I didn’t like to kill butterflies anymore, but we needed photographic specimens,” he explained.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022120710124/639057219c7e80680e0ce141jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="4080" height="3072">Between 1983 to 2015, Smith travelled across 40 districts of Nepal, studying and collecting butterflies and moths for various museums in Nepal and the UK.As he collected butterflies, Smith also began writing articles for academic journals, which led to his first attempt at making a comprehensive checklist of butterflies in Nepal. His booklet Beautiful Butterflies was a bestseller in Kathmandu and is now out of print. He would go on to write four more books about butterflies and moths as well as journal articles.Smith made postcards out of the butterfly photographs he took to raise money for conservation. When the postcards didn’t sell anymore, he began handing them out to children during his butterfly walks. As he aged into his work, it earned him the endearing moniker Putali Baje, butterfly grandpa, in Nepal.But as his knowledge about butterflies in Nepal grew, so did his attachment and love for the country and the people he had met here. One of those is Min Bahadur Pariyar who met Smith as a young boy in Pokhara. Pariyar became interested in collecting butterflies and in the process, the two formed a deep bond.Pariyar has been by Smith’s side for 36 years, accompanying Smith on all his forays into the wild. And it is Pariyar’s family which has been taking care of Smith for more than 25 years.At present, Smith receives £175 from his UK pension along with Rs4,000 per month as elderly allowance as a Nepali citizen – barely enough to cover his medical expenses.“Colin has been struggling with health issues brought on by his age, as well as financial issues,” says Pariyar. “He needs to buy medicines and needs frequent visits to hospital.”In 1995, Smith bought a small plot of land in Pokhara’s Lamagaun for Rs40,000, where he built a one-room cottage everyone calls Musako Dulo (mouse hole) because it is so tiny and frugal. The property is registered in Min Bahadur Pariyar’s name because Smith did not have Nepali citizenship at the time."I was maybe the richest man in Pokhara in my prime,” Smith likes to joke, before adding, "But now I’m probably the poorest, and cannot even afford the basic necessities.”<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022120710124/639057269c7e80680e0ce142jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1333" height="2000">It was in 2019, after a long, drawn-out process and much lobbying by friends, that Nepal finally granted him honorary citizenship following a Cabinet decision.Smith's body of work is on display at the Natural History Museum in Swayambhu, The Annapurna Butterfly Museum at Prithvi Narayan Campus in Pokhara, the Nature Science Museum at Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu University in Dhulikhel and across museums in the UK. They, along with his various publications over the years, are his legacy, a testament to his indefatigable spirit and passion for his work.Of the approximately 17,500 species of butterflies in the world, 660 are found in Nepal, and 20 of them are on the endangered list. In 1968, Smith collected the Autumn Leaf (Doleschallia bisaltide) and the Blackvein Sergeant (Athyma ranga) butterflies, two species recorded for the first time in Nepal. Smith is passionate of the need for ecosystem conservation for all species, including insects like butterflies, dragonflies and moths.In 2020, Smith contracted Covid-19, and he would continue to be treated for various complications for free at the Green Pastures Hospital until he needed to be admitted for palliative care.Smith has a brother in New Zealand, one of few relatives that remain. They last met when Smith returned to England in 2007 to visit. The brothers have lost touch, and although he wants to visit his brother's two grandsons, he knows that is not a possibility at his age.His wish of obtaining Nepali citizenship fulfilled, Putali Baje says he now wants to live out his days in peace and have his ashes scattered on the Seti River that flows down from the Annapurna mountains.Read more: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepali-artists-butterfly-effect/">Nepali artist’s butterfly effect</a>, Kunda Dixit

A life dedicated to Nepal’s butterflies

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131144/637238f69c7e80680e0c73b4jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1149"/><figcaption>All photos: RAJENDRA N SUWAL/WWF</figcaption></figure>12 February 2017. I will remember this date for the rest of my days. I was on a tour of Chitwan National Park with my team inspecting successful conservation work to protect rhinos, tigers, gaur and a wide variety of bird species.We took a leisurely walk through Amaltari village, location of an outstanding <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/homestay-brings-locals-home/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">community homestay</a> run by the local Tharu community. We met a farmer running the homestay who had lost a leg in an encounter with a rhino, and yet was dedicated to conservation.Was that an omen? Indeed, it was a foreboding of what was to transpire later that day.Back in the mid 1980s I worked as a naturalist in Chitwan and I have had few close encounters with the wildlife. I had also met survivors and knew some who had succumbed to their injuries. This is a stark reminder of the dangers of the Chitwan jungle, given that <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/how-many-rhinos-is-enough-rhinos/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the number of rhinos has increased</a> more than seven-fold to over 752 in the past five decades.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131144/637238f99c7e80680e0c73b5jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1510" height="1000"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>I saw a rhino for the first time in 1974 as a teenager when I accompanied my father the late Prof Emeritus Dr Parasar Narayan Suwal. The 1970s were a tipping point for biodiversity conservation in Nepal, securing the habitat, and preventing loss from poaching.The setting up of Chitwan National Park was instrumental in bending the curve for its conservation success. The unique revenue sharing mechanism introduced by Buffer Zone Regulation empowered communities, while security forces were deployed to curb <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/what-drives-wildlife-poaching/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wildlife trafficking</a>.The park also increased its grasslands and wetlands to accommodate more rhinos while using various gadgets to monitor illegal activity and translocating the mammals when required.Chitwan alone today hosts 694 rhinos, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/where-have-bardias-rhinos-gone/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Bardia</a> 38, Suklaphanta 17 and Parsa 3. Nepal also managed to mark a total of eight years of zero rhino poaching between 2011-2022. The rare incidents of poaching in 2014, 2017 and 2022, however, is a reminder that poachers are still active.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131144/637238fc9c7e80680e0c73b6jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1601" height="629"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>It was late in the afternoon when we went for a walk that fateful day in 2017. We walked along the riverine forest on the Narayani River, and on the last leg, we noticed a fresh tiger pugmark on the riverbank (pictured above).Next, we saw a <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/more-rhinos-means-more-encounter,4045" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rhino</a> walking along a dry creek with her calf. They were too close, beyond the comfort range. I immediately signalled my guide DB to go inside the forest escorting my guest assuming the rhino would continue to the river for a drink.But the rhino stayed in the open and close by. I continued to follow my guide and guest, no words were exchanged as rhinos may have poor sight but possess sharp hearing. The calf was just a few feet away from me, with the mother closely watching me intensely.Baby rhinos are frisky and are attracted to any moving objects. On the other hand, mother rhinos are fiercely protective of their young ones. An angry rhino that weighs over one ton can accelerate from stationary to 30km per hour in no time. These are all-terrain, armoured plated, four-legged tanks that can crush anything on their path.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131148/637239009c7e80680e0c73b7jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="4032" height="3024"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>We naturalists believe that men are afraid of animals and animals of men, and in most cases, animals run away. So I chose to scare the rhino by hurling a branch, but to no avail. I looked around for trees, but could not find one big enough to hide behind. Now I was left with three options: follow my friends and make all of us a target, wait and watch, or run away in the opposite direction.I chose the last one but was no match to the angry rhino. Her first blow on my left shoulder knocked me to the ground, and it charged over, again and again using her horn and two sharp lower incisors which can rip off muscles, and their sheer force can disembowel a person.She grunted and charged me with mighty force, rolled me over several times and even tossed me into the air after which I landed flat on my back. While suspended in the air, I thought I saw heaven – a very bright place and in that fraction of second I saw faces of my wife and two sons.After landing on the ground, the rhino was all over my chest and stomach. I could smell the freshly chewed grass in her breath while patting her bony cheek. But the very next second, she suddenly decided to leave me, and vanished into the forest, and I crawled to gather my broken camera lens and hat.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131148/637239049c7e80680e0c73b8jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1486" height="968"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>I was covered in bruises, bleeding from my right leg and back. I tied my handkerchief on the wound to stop further bleeding. I tried to stand but could not. DB came and I borrowed a walking stick and straightened myself, and felt a sharp pain shoot up. I could feel my hipbone was dislocated from its socket which I managed to push back.Luckily, our jeep was within 100m which took me to the hotel for first aid and then to BPK Cancer Hospital in Narayanghat.I got six stitches in my lower back and four below the knee, while the morphine killed some of the pain. Upon my return to Kathmandu a surgeon noticed my broken right acetabulum in a CT scan. It took me six months to completely recover.My colleague DB visited the place of the encounter in Chitwan four days later. He found my bird book covered in a thick layer of soil, and my sunglasses nearby. He also noticed a vertical vine with fresh bruises where he found me. From this I concluded that I was saved because the rhino was tangled in a vine that prevented further damage.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131148/637239079c7e80680e0c73b9jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1125"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>This encounter is the closest I’ve been to death, but it also brought me closer to the rhinos and the overall mission of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/in-conservation-nepal-is-not-out-of-the-woods-yet/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">conservation</a>. Reflecting on the day reminds me of a mother simply trying to protect its child from harm. Humans have been encroaching on wild habitats since millennia but my job as a conservationist is to help find a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/in-conservation-nepal-is-not-out-of-the-woods-yet/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">balance between human ambitions and survival of wildlife</a>.Our government has a mission to stabilise the endangered rhino populations while benefiting communities from its survival. The earlier negative attitude toward conservation has shifted, and much credit goes to our flagship rhino tourism. <a href="https://www.wwfnepal.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">World Wildlife Fund (WWF)</a> has been privileged to partner with the Nepal Government since 1967 in Nepal’s conservation efforts. And despite my rather unlucky encounter, I still have a deep respect for the well being of these magnificent mammals.Rajendra N Suwal is the Head of Partnerships Development at WWF Nepal. All the expressions in this write up are of the author himself.

Rajendra N Suwal

Close encounter of the wild kind 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>Gaur population trend in Chitwan and Parsa National Parks.</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>Gaur in Trijuga, came into settlement and stayed at the cowshed of locals. Photos: KUMAR RAJ SHRESTHA</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>Distribution of Gaur in Nepal based on the surveys in Chitwan and Parsa National Park and a record from Trijuga forest in Eastern Nepal.</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

conservation