For the people of Dolpo, the Covid years marked a turning point. In 2021/22, more than Rs10 million in government relief was granted to the communities for livestock killed by wild carnivores, notably the snow leopard and the wolf. This was a stark increase from five years ago when there was no relief despite existing provisions. A community leadership program combined with efforts of dedicated officials helped bridge this divide, creating a model for Nepal wherein remote communities benefit from the federal government’s welfare schemes. Like other mountainous regions, Dolpo relies largely on livestock rearing for livelihood. But they are also an easy meal for the elusive big cat compared to the more agile wild prey such as the blue sheep. While some livestock lifting is accepted given the region's Buddhist faith and values, severe cases - known as ‘surplus killing’ – are understood to attract ire and occasional retaliation against the snow leopard which are among the gravest threats to this vulnerable species with their worldwide population limited to a few thousand. In one instance of surplus killing last year, 98 goats and sheep, belonging to one household in Lhuri - a remote upper Dolpo village, were killed in a single night. Such incidents mostly occur when herders stow their animals in open corrals that allow snow leopards to enter and trap the livestock within. The wild cat’s hunting instincts then drive it to bring down the scurrying prey, one after another. Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/snow-leopard-redux/">Snow leopard redux</a>, Tayama Rai Shey Phoksundo National Park’s (SPNP) relief records show that 1,334 livestock were killed last year. The Park authorities granted Rs10.4 million to nearly 387 households, including around Rs300,000 to the Lhuri household. In 2018, SPNP, supported by WWF initiated a snow leopard conservation project under the leadership of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation. A baseline assessment which included a survey among 124 herders found that 96% of them were facing livestock loss to wildlife. Community-managed livestock insurance schemes (LIS) had been initiated more than a decade ago through a similar collaboration, but sustainability had remained as elusive as the predator it tried to save. The schemes had been initiated following a similar effort in Kangchenjunga Conservation Area (KCA), where community-run LIS was found to have successfully contributed to zero retaliatory killings of snow leopards. However, despite nearly Rs10 million in cumulative investments till 2018, high conflicts combined with low strategic management capacity in SPNP caused the LIS to remain unfeasibly reliant on constant external investment. Alternatively, Nepal government’s Wildlife Damage Relief Guidelines (WDRG, 2069) promised relief up to Rs30,000 for livestock killed by protected predator species. However, awareness about the guidelines and the process to access it was low. Moreover, locals reported that taking the necessary documents to SPNP Headquarters in Suligad required weeks of travel and often cost them more than the relief they received. Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/trekking-to-save-nepals-snow-leopards/">Trekking to save Nepal’s snow leopards</a>, Sonam Choekyi Lama <div class="embed-block"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230112100128/63bfd36b9c7e80680e0d305djpeg.jpg" alt="" width="978" height="640">SPNP Chief Conservation Officer Lal B Bhandari teaches locals about WDRG. Photo: SHEREN SHRESTHA</div> With these two relief provisions running parallelly but neither delivering the objective of sustainable relief to community, the SPNP-WWF project saw an opportunity to integrate the two. Then began the process of restructuring the community-run LIS to access the WDRG relief. SPNP-WWF had been training and mobilising community youth as citizen scientist members of Snow Leopard Conservation Committees (SLCC). Working closely with them, the reinitiated SPNP-WWF project began making adaptations, and a pathway to reform the LIS. A major step included retrieval of LIS funds started through an earlier Northern Mountain Conservation Project that had since been distributed among the community households or used for other purposes. This was encouraged with commitments of additional fund support for the LIS from the SPNP-WWF project. Alongside, discussions were held to generate acceptance for individual contribution by community members as ‘premium’, which would collect in LIS coffers to support the cost to access WDRG. Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/satellite-tracking-snow-leopards-in-nepal-to-study-climate-impact/">Satellite tracking snow leopards in Nepal to study climate impact</a>, Nepali Times <div class="embed-block"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230112100128/63bfd36f9c7e80680e0d305ejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="640">Pic: SLCC members during a reflective workshop on conflict relief management.</div> Reflective trainings were held about twice a year to identify challenges and develop capacity of SLCC members to manage the reformed LIS. Learnings were incorporated into the project cycle in the form of adapted activities or approaches. To make LIS relevant locally, a model guidelines document was prepared for adaptation in five blocks - Bhijer, Saldang, Dho, Phoksundo and Dolphu. Yet, they all had a common objective - to aid respective communities in accessing relief, and a common approach - requiring individual household contributions. Not all previous funds have been retrieved, and the LIS are in different stages of functionality. Bhijer has begun implementation, collected premiums, and retrieved all funds belonging to its beneficiaries. Remaining four have reached out to their respective communities, generating increasing understanding and interest in owning this community welfare initiative. For now, LIS management costs borne by SPNP-WWF project are showcasing what could be done with their own funds when systematically managed. Nearly 270 households of mid and upper Dolpo were among the beneficiaries of WDRG relief receiving over Rs8.2 million of the Rs10.4 million granted by SPNP last year. The communities’ SLCC and LIS leadership has contributed to this success. SPNP teams under the leadership of several Chief Conservation Officers, including young officers who reached the remotest regions of SPNP, blending with the community, to seasoned senior officials with years of experience in protected area management, have played a key role. With their knowledge of policy and understanding of the community, they have mobilised their authority to draw national WDRG funds to help the people here access their rights. Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-leads-in-snow-leopard-study/">Nepal leads in snow leopard study</a>, Sonia Awale Likewise, local government authorities, such as the Shey Phoksundo Rural Municipality, have facilitated strengthening this bridge. Among their key contributions to this initiative has been improvement in communication. Five years ago, without satellite phones, connecting the remote upper Dolpo with the rest of the world including NP authorities required physically traversing these extreme terrains. Now most villages are connected through telephones and even the internet. Without clarity of context, one may be tempted to criticise the nominalism of the relief provided. After all, the last fiscal year’s relief from WDRG provisions, averages just about Rs8,500 per livestock lost. Yet, for the community that only five years ago were excluded from this benefit, the change has been transformational. Whether this has benefited snow leopards is a matter of further research. Subjectively however, knowing what was then, what is now, and what has gone on to reach this state, the WWF team is privileged to have been a small part of this change to help the communities that live with and protect the snow leopard. The LIS are far from perfect; learning, adapting, and improving is the only constant. Yet, as we celebrate this mountain day, we honour these community leaders and government officials who have used this scheme to bridge the divide and taken us another step closer to secure the future of the magnificent snow leopard together with the mountain communities. Read Also: <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/The-comeback,836" target="_blank">The comeback cats,</a> Kashish Das Shrestha

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Bridging the divide

<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

<figure><img width="1438" height="958" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101128/63720a549c7e80680e0b5597jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photo: THAI NATIONAL PARKS/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS</figcaption></figure>When the government announced a lockdown at the height of the second wave in the summer of 2021, our plans to visit eastern Nepal were put on hold indefinitely. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-leads-in-snow-leopard-study/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Wildlife surveys</a> must be conducted at a specific time of the year. The monsoon is the worst time in the field, whereas during the breeding season researchers can cause undue disturbances to endangered species.So we were able to resume our plans to monitor small cats in the remote villages of Jhapa and Ilam districts only in October of 2021. Nonetheless, I was excited to be back in the field, and there was a possibility of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/first-of-its-kind-raspberry-in-nepal/">new discoveries </a>but also of disappointment. I was prepared for both.After flying from Kathmandu to Bhadrapur and an hour-long bus drive later, with team member Amir Basnet we reached Budhabare of Jhapa. This was our second field targeted at finding elusive small cats in Nepal's Eastern Himalaya.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/yes-there-are-flying-squirrels-in-nepal-too/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Yes, there are flying squirrels in Nepal, too</a>, Bashu BaralThe next day, we ventured into the forest with local guide Binod Dahal to install 14 camera traps with their GPS points. Then, as we were traversing a dense sal forest, my eyes caught two graceful figures emitting a unique but harsh crackle from the upper canopy. This was the largest squirrel in the world, the Black Giant Squirrel (Ratufa bicolor) in its natural habitat. The two squirrels watched us from their perch atop a branch high up in the tree, and we did the same from the ground. They had a black body and buffy yellow in ventral pelage at the neck region -- exactly like a photograph of a Black Giant published by the group Small Mammals Conservation and Research Foundation (SMCRF) in its field guide Squirrels of Nepal (2016).  <figure><img width="752" height="423" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101128/63720a589c7e80680e0b5598jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>A binocular view of Black giant squirrel resting on the branch of a sal tree. Photo: AMIR BASNET </figcaption></figure>This was our second encounter with squirrels in Eastern Himalaya. Previously, we had encountered a juvenile Hodgson's Giant Flying squirrel on a rhododendron tree at an elevation of 1,920m. This Giant Black was much lower at 380m. We were eyeball-to-eyeball, and after a while the pair started taking swift leaps from one tree to another and quickly disappeared from view. The Black Giant Squirrel is the largest squirrel in the world found between 210-2,000m above sea level in tropical, subtropical montane evergreen and dry deciduous forest to subtropical and temperate <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=4345#.YhyLaS8w3u0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">deciduous forest</a>. Read also: <a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=15588#.YhyKky8w3u0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Not so charismatic mammals</a>, Kunda DixitTree squirrels are diurnal, as opposed to the nocturnal habits of gliding squirrels. They have a variable body size, ranging from the tiny African pygmy squirrel Myosciurus at 16g to the largest giant squirrel, genus Ratufa at 2kg. Their diet consists of fungi, seeds, nuts, flowers, leaves, sap/bark and opportunistically, animals like insects, birds and eggs. According to Squirrels of the World (2012), the genus Ratufa includes four species of giant squirrels, two of these are restricted to India and Sri Lanka, and the other two are found from Nepal and southern China to Borneo, Java, and Sumatra.  <figure><img width="603" height="655" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101128/63720a5a9c7e80680e0b5599jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Map modified from Duckworth and Molur, 2016.</figcaption></figure>The habitat of the black giant squirrel in Nepal is primarily outside protected areas including Ilam, Morang, Sunsari, Terhathum, Sankhuwasabha, Panchthar and Chitwan districts. We were told by locals how lucky we were to have spotted the Black Giant Squirrel, they said the animal is hunted for bush meat and often mistaken for the Asian Palm Civet, which it resembles and is considered a pests by farmers.More worryingly, and much like other endangered small mammals, the numbers of Giant Black Squirrels is declining in the wild and their habitat is being encroached upon as forests are cut for agriculture or housing.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 width="725" height="408" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101128/63720a5c9c7e80680e0b559ajpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>A morning view showing the habitat of Black giant squirrel in Ilam. Photo: BASHU BARAL </figcaption></figure>The Black Giant Squirrel is categorised globally as near threatened in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/tracking-nepals-red-panda-by-satellite/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Red List</a>.  The National Red List Series of mammals of Nepal has assessed the squirrel as endangered and it is also in CITES Appendix II List.Tree squirrels are an integral part of the forest ecosystem, they play a significant role from seed dispersal to pollination and they are indicator species as their presence represents good forest health.But with most conservation attention focused on charismatic mammals like <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/villagers-step-up-to-protect-nepals-tigers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">tigers</a> and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/where-have-bardias-rhinos-gone/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rhinoceros</a>, there are very few anecdotal records about them and the researchers have largely ignored these elusive animals. These forest-dwelling squirrels demand dedicated conservationists, continuous monitoring and an educated local community involved in their protection.After completing the camera trap installation we returned through the same forest and looked for the squirrels but we could not locate any. We wonder if they are leaping from one tree top to another in the jungles of Ilam, or have been hunted down for someone’s dinner.The Eastern Himalaya of Nepal is a wildlife treasure trove but it is in a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/in-conservation-nepal-is-not-out-of-the-woods-yet/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">dire need of dedicated research</a> and the SMCRF is leading the way by continuously trying to explore the status of different species in this region. On Small Mammals Conservation Day on 28 February, we pledge to continue to do so.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepals-unequal-wildlife-laws/">Nepal’s unequal wildlife laws</a>, Kumar PaudelBashu Baral is pursuing a master’s degree from the Central Department of Zoology, Tribhuvan University and is with the group Small Mammals Conservation and Research Foundation (SMCRF). bashubaral4@gmail.com

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Protecting the world’s largest squirrel in Nepal

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141152/636d02669c7e80680e0a367bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"/><figcaption>All photos: RED PANDA NETWORK</figcaption></figure>When British naturalist Sir <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Dalton_Hooker">Joseph Dalton Hooker</a> first made his ecological expedition in eastern Nepal from October through December of 1848, a flock of mountain sheep was grazing around the Tumling-Jaubari area of Ilam district.One hundred and seventy-two years since then, the region has witnessed a tragic loss of the mountain sheep, called Argali. Encroachment of natural habitats and human activity have also depleted other mammalian species.Hooker’s expedition travelled northwards from Taplejung to the valleys of Yangma and Yalung, and his <a href="https://books.google.com.np/books?hl=en&amp;lr=&amp;id=sCYKAQAAIAAJ&amp;oi=fnd&amp;pg=PR1&amp;dq=Himalayan+Journals%3B+or+Notes+of+a+Naturalist:+In+Bengal,+the+Sikkim+and+Nepal++Himalayas,+the+Khasia+Mountains&amp;ots=SEYKOSxhCN&amp;sig=oBIVKZrPZG4L9IlT_DKymulgvcM&amp;redir_esc=y#v=onepage&amp;q=Himalayan%20Journals%3B%20or%20Notes%20of%20a%20Naturalist%3A%20In%20Bengal%2C%20the%20Sikkim%20and%20Nepal%20%20Himalayas%2C%20the%20Khasia%20Mountains&amp;f=false">Himalayan Journal</a> account of the trip is the first ecological documentation of eastern Nepal’s rich biodiversity. He was accompanied by shooter and specimen collectors of <a href="https://books.google.com.np/books?hl=en&amp;lr=&amp;id=sCYKAQAAIAAJ&amp;oi=fnd&amp;pg=PR1&amp;dq=Himalayan+Journals%3B+or+Notes+of+a+Naturalist:+In+Bengal,+the+Sikkim+and+Nepal++Himalayas,+the+Khasia+Mountains&amp;ots=SEYKOSxhCN&amp;sig=oBIVKZrPZG4L9IlT_DKymulgvcM&amp;redir_esc=y#v=onepage&amp;q=Himalayan%20Journals%3B%20or%20Notes%20of%20a%20Naturalist%3A%20In%20Bengal%2C%20the%20Sikkim%20and%20Nepal%20%20Himalayas%2C%20the%20Khasia%20Mountains&amp;f=false">Brian H. Hodgson</a>, a pioneer naturalist and ethnologist who later became the British resident in Kathmandu.Since then, the landscape of eastern Nepal has metamorphosed, forest coverage and weather patterns have altered, socioeconomic and cultural values have been transformed. Yet, there is still a lack of systematic study of mammalian diversity in this neglected but biologically diverse part of the eastern Himalaya.The eastern Himalaya is one of the world’s <a href="https://www.environmentbuddy.com/endangered-wildlife/list-of-biodiversity-hotspots-examples/">34 Global Biodiversity Hotspots</a> and has been identified among the six transboundary landscapes to be protected. The region spans a wide spectrum of ecological zones containing parts of three Global Biodiversity Hotspots and is the meeting place of three biogeographic realms: the Kangchenjunga Landscape, which extends across eastern Nepal, Darjeeling, and Sikkim of India, and western Bhutan.Kangchenjunga Landscape with an area of more than 25,000 sq km includes 19 protected areas, including the Kangchenjunga Conservation Area (KCA) in Nepal, India’s Khangchendzonga Biosphere Reserve, Singalila National Park, and Barsey Rhododendron Sanctuary.The Kangchenjunga Landscape in Nepal represents four eastern Himalayan ecoregions ranging from the Himalayan alpine meadows and subalpine conifer forest to the eastern Himalayan broadleaf, and the Tarai-Duar savannas and grasslands stretching across four districts – Taplejung, Panchthar, Ilam, and Jhapa.The landscape comprises 11 bioclimatic zones, 23 forest types with 32.15% canopy cover, exhibiting a vast variation in physiography, and altitudinal and climatic conditions resulting in rich faunal and floral diversity. And it provides habitat to about 160 types of mammals, 580 bird species, and more than 1,400 flowering plants, some of which are globally threatened, endemic, rare or endangered.Inside the broader region of the Kangchenjunga Landscape in Nepal, there is an important forest corridor dominated by human settlements, a network of community forests, private and public lands stretched along with Panchthar-Ilam-Taplejung (PIT) districts. The unprotected forest patches in those districts have much biological significance as they provide connectivity between the protected areas of Nepal and India, harbouring important species diversity and movement.These forest patches contain approximately half of the PIT area suitable for the red panda, of which 85% is unprotected. The Red Panda, Habre in Nepali, is a flagship species of eastern Himalaya and a permanent dweller of the unprotected forest of the three districts. The PIT region also includes globally Important Bird Areas: Upper Mai-Valley Forests and Tamor Valley.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141152/636d02699c7e80680e0a367cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1125">The PIT region has high endemicity in terms of species richness and they require extensive habitat areas with high-quality corridor linkages between the habitats for their long-term survival.But of late, the region has suffered from over-extraction of resources, haphazard market-driven land-use practices, intensive agriculture, overgrazing, unmanaged tourism, and unplanned infrastructure development. These have lead to habitat destruction and fragmentation in an already neglected forest habitat.The <a href="https://redpandanetwork.org/">Red Panda Network (RPN)</a> initiated its conservation journey in 2007 with its efforts in eastern Nepal, and with a commitment to conserve wild red pandas and their habitat through the<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/red-panda-conservation-nepal,1668"> education and empowerment of local communities</a>.To fill the knowledge gap of locals in the region on its mammalian diversity, the RPN has been conducting surveys mobilising local youths as forest guardians for systematic camera trap studies with a network of approximately 200 community forests.The research is the most comprehensive after Hooker’s travel to the region nearly 200 years ago, and has already succeeded with the ground-breaking discovery of <a href="https://natureconservation.pensoft.net/article/29740/list/8/">wildlife species for the first time in Nepal</a>, and the <a href="https://redpandanetwork.org/post/Press-Release-Tiger-Photographed-for-First-Time-In-Nepal-s-Red-Panda-Habitat">highest-ever Bengal tiger sighting in Nepal</a>. The longest run community-based monitoring of wildlife in the region has been able to document and photograph 25 mammal species from five orders and fifteen families, among them, were six cat species indicating higher diversity of felids in the PIT.Some of the noteworthy species that have been photographed in the region include red panda Ailurus fulgens, Bengal tiger Panthera tigris, common leopard Panthera pardus, marbled cat Pardofelis marmorata, Himalayan serow Capricornis thar, Himalayan goral Naemorhedus goral, Assam macaque Macaca assamensis and Himalayan black bear Ursus thibetanus. The PIT is also home to the Critically Endangered Chinese pangolin Manis pentactyla and White-rumped Vulture Gyps bengalensis. <img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141152/636d026c9c7e80680e0a367djpeg.jpg" alt="" width="750" height="563">Eastern Nepal also has an ethnically diverse population mix, many of whom rely on the forests for traditional healing practices, unfortunately the very reason endangered animals and their body parts are smuggled across the border. The porous border of the region to Tibet and India has also made illegal trade easier for various wildlife including the Chinese pangolin — the world’s most trafficked mammal. A <a href="https://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/article/view/2181">study</a> has inferred a possibility of an organised network of poachers and traders in the region often involving local unemployed youth.This rich assemblage of the wild mammals demonstrates the significance of eastern Nepal as an important ecological zone. The recently <a href="https://checklist.pensoft.net/article/69208/list/11/">published paper</a> on photographic evidence of the Bengal tiger, Nepal’s first marbled cat, among others has highlighted the importance of Panchthar, Ilam and Taplejung as an important biological corridor for tigers, red panda, and other sympatric species at a transboundary level.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141152/636d026f9c7e80680e0a367ejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="940" height="788">Likewise, the paper suggests the need to prioritise the region for community-centric conservation designation of national and transboundary importance.This International Red Panda Day on 18 September is a timely reminder to prioritise the protection of the ecologically rich and biodiverse Panchthar-Ilam-Taplejung region before we stand witness to the loss of many more species.Sonam Tashi Lama and Janam Shrestha are with the Red Panda Network.

Republic of Nepal’s animal kingdom

<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 width="1500" height="1000" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110151112/636d077a9c7e80680e0a5fc2jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photo: WWF</figcaption></figure><ul><li>The decomposed body of an adult tiger was found in Banke’s Gokul Community Forest in May. It was difficult to say how it died, but four missing canines gave a clue.</li><li>Last September, a tiger was found dead inside Bardia National Park, and it looked like it had been hurt in a territorial fight with another tiger.</li><li>Three years ago in Bardia, a tiger had been electrocuted in a fence set up by villagers to prevent predators from killing livestock.  </li><li>Two tigers have been killed in the past two years after being hit by speeding trucks on a highway that cuts through Bardia. </li><li>A tiger drowned in 2018 in an irrigation canal that also goes through the park, bringing the total number of tigers lost in Bardia to six. </li></ul>Nepal’s <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/how-many-tigers-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">tiger conservation efforts</a> in the past decades appear to have been too successful. Overcrowding within national parks is driving tigers out of sanctuaries in search of territory, leading to increasing contact with humans. With fewer ranger patrols during the Covid-19 lockdown, there has also been a worrying increase in poaching of wild animals inside parks, including tigers. Former guerrillas from Nepal’s Maoist conflict who have not surrendered their arms are also found to be involved. In March, a wounded tiger was found dead near the Indian border in Suklaphanta National Park with a wire trap embedded deep into its neck.  Since 2015, the Wildlife Crime Division of Nepal Police’s Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) has apprehended <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/wildlife-smuggler-caught-in-kathmandu-after-15-years/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">smugglers</a> and seized 37 tiger pelts and other body parts (31 new and six old). Although most of them are believed to be from Indian tigers being trafficked via Nepal to China, some of them could be tigers from Nepal. Earlier this year, two poachers, Chakra Bahadur Bista, 34 and Ganesh Tiwari, 24 of Surkhet district were arrested within the Bardia park premises when they shot at Nepal Army soldiers on patrol.They had set up a tent 6km northwest of the park where officials found three loaded guns, 17 rounds of ammunition, slingshots, nets and sickles. The two are awaiting trial. “Tigers are known to prey on livestock here. Villages must have poised the carcass anticipating the tiger to return to feed on its kill and fearing an attack on humans in the process,” says Ramesh Budathoki of the Division Forest Office in Banke. Unlike Chitwan National Park, where there are relatively fewer cases of tiger-human contact, Banke and Bardia districts in Nepal’s western plains have reported an increasing number of tiger attacks, and a spike in retaliation killings of the cats. "Poaching is still rare, but tigers are being killed in electrified fences and traps by villagers trying to prevent tiger attacks,” says Asim Thapa of Bardia National Park. “Nonetheless this is a setback in our conservation efforts.”Nepal is the first tiger range country to attain the international target of doubling the number of its tigers by 2022. A census three years ago counted 235 tigers in parks across the country, up from 121 in 2009. But Nepal may now be a victim of its own success -- overcrowding in protected areas and a decrease in prey density means the tigers are venturing out of the forests for food and coming into contact with humans.  Wildlife poachers have also <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/wildlife-poachers-active-during-lockdown/">used pandemic-induced lockdowns</a> to actively smuggle endangered animals. Collectively, they are undermining Nepal's success in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/unsung-heroes-of-nepals-tiger-recovery/">tiger conservation</a>. “Whether it’s a case of wildlife smuggling or locals poisoning the tiger, it adds challenges all the same in our efforts to protect the endangered species,” says the head of National Nature Conservation Fund Bardia Rabin Kadaria. In July 2020, the Regional Investigation Bureau of Lumbini Province posed as buyers to arrest three poachers who were in possession of tiger pelts and 10kgs of bones.Based on their statements, the Division Forest Office Banke filed a case against them in the district court. It emerged that Prakash Lamichhane with his brother Manoj had shot one of the tigers in the Banke National Park on 2 April 2020. Manoj confessed to skinning the tiger right after the kill, and implicated seven others.The crime came into light only three months later when one of the culprits, Nawaraj Ghartimagar, was jailed in another wildlife crime. The CIB then analysed his cellphone call details and found out that he was in touch with Surjit Ramja Budha. The CIB had earlier arrested Budha in 2020 from a hotel in Tulsipur with Um Bahadur Rana and Ramit Sunar for trading in tiger pelts. Rana and Sunar are former Maoist guerrillas and have confessed to killing a tiger in Banke. "Wherever a tiger is killed, it is a matter of great concern because these are endangered species. Earlier we used to nab poachers smuggling tigers from India, but there has been a worrying rise in tigers killed in Nepal’s parks also," says ecologist Haribhadra Acharya with the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation.Nepal is on the traditional route for wildlife trafficking from India to China but most of the smugglers arrested are lowly traders transporting the contraband across the border. The big fish are usually never caught.Leaders of organised crime often go unpunished or use legal loopholes and judicial corruption to escape. However, the prosecution and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/tiger-poacher-gets-7-years-jail/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sentence of the notorious smuggler Konjuk Lama</a> earlier last month by a Nepali court has set a precedent.The CIB suspects the involvement of Indian smugglers behind the recent deaths of tigers in western Nepal. An illegal trader named Fariyad ‘Lambu’ of Sampurnanagar in India’s Bihar state is known to be active in national parks along the Nepal border. Fariyad has time and again escaped the CIB and has been named in several seizures in Nepal. He is also accused in four cases on trial in Kailali and Kanchanpur district courts.  “Two tigers were shot dead. But smugglers also use poison and traps so we shouldn’t stop the investigation assuming that the locals killed them in retaliation,” says a CIB official.Recent tiger sightings at 2,500m and 3,165m in Dadeldhura and Ilam mean that tiger protection should not be restricted to national parks. The sightings at such high altitudes could be an effect of climate change, and tigers seeking territory outside crowded parks. Says Dil Bahadur Purja, warden of Shuklaphanta National Park: "We are regularly coordinating with national parks in India on joint patrols against transboundary poachers.” <figure><img width="1340" height="894" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110151112/636d077d9c7e80680e0a5fc3jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Photo: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption></figure>Crime and punishment A High Court in Hetauda recently ordered the release of three people charged with hunting and selling rhinoceros horns from animals killed in Chitwan National Park. Justices Raj Kumar Wan and Hari Pratap KC ordered the release of Kailash Ale Magar, Som Bahadur Gurung and Mekh Bahadur Nepali on bail of Rs500,000, stating that the accused denied any involvement even though all three confessed to their crimes during CIB investigation.  Chitwan National park had marked zero rhino poaching for nearly four years, until last August when a rhino was found killed. Since then there have been four additional kills, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/climate-change-new-threat-to-nepals-rhinos/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">all of them during the Covid-19 lockdown last year</a>. An adult rhino was found shot dead in Bandarjhula area on 2 September, but with its horns and hooves intact. This was the first poaching incident of a rhino since 2017.  On 4 November, two more rhinos were found dead, an adult female and a three-year-old baby in the Narayani River. This was followed by another kill on 6 November when a hornless skeleton of the animal was recovered from Chitwan National Park.  The news of these poaching incidents shocked Nepal's conservationists, who had been proud of the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/in-conservation-nepal-is-not-out-of-the-woods-yet/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">zero-poaching record</a>  Even more discouraging has been that the smugglers use political clout or judicial corruption to get themselves released.   A case in point is the arrest of 14 people in February from across the country involved in the poaching incidents during the lockdown.   Jit Bahadur Kumal alias Rana, his wife Indra Kumal, Hari Magar, Hari Tharu, his wife Vishnu Mayalu, Shiv Narayan Mahato, Birman Singh Praja and Shuk Bahadur Gurung alias Ashok Kale were arrested for selling rhino horns to two traders in Humla for transport across the border to China. Six members of another group from Mugu active in smuggling rhino horns to Tibet were also detained: Mekh Bahadur Nepali, Som Bahadur Gurung, Durga Harijan Sarki, Kailash Ale, Yongdan Tamang and Nanche Tamang. The Chitwan National Park then filed cases against them in the District Court where judge Gayatri Prasad Regmi remanded them in custody for trial on charges of poaching, assisting with hunting and transport of the horns.  But Regmi also ordered their release on bail. Karma Tamang, considered to be the main trader, however, is on the run. The district court remanded Nange Tamang, Yonden Tamang and Ram Kumar Shrestha alias Kavi to Rs500,000 bail on 9 March. Similarly, on 23 April, Gyan Bahadur Rumba alias Jwala and Sudip Giri were released on bail. Yonden is also the main accused in a sandalwood case pending in the Patan High Court. The police had seized 73 kg of red sandalwood from his residence in Kathmandu on 28 August 2019.  The Hetauda bench of the Patan High Court also ordered the release of three more middlemen implicated in the poaching. Of them, one had earlier served two years for gold smuggling from China. Jit Bahadur Kumal, considered the main hunter, had been sentenced twice before for 15 years, also for killing rhinos. Another poacher, Birman Singh Praja, was in jail for four years. His parents are also serving their 15-year sentence for killing rhinos. The court released them all on bail.

Nepal’s tiger conservation ‘too successful’?

Four years ago, teenager Anish Magar heard about a pangolin being killed close to his home in Yangshila, in the forested Chure Hills of eastern Nepal.At the time the village community leaders and local organisations urged the youngsters to actively start to raise awareness so they would not poach the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/protecting-pangolins-from-being-eaten-to-extinction/">rare and elusive animals</a>, the most trafficked mammal in the world.The team then went from village to village showing videos of <a style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0i9HjbdcTM" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DG0i9HjbdcTM&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1622828864806000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH7zmvRCyn7r4mLvk-mT51JapWD5A">Jackie Chan</a> and organising painting workshops developed by <a style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="http://onemoregeneration.org/louise-fletcherpangolin-conservation-expert/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://onemoregeneration.org/louise-fletcherpangolin-conservation-expert/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1622828864806000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFtYQvNSDYB2nVSIJfAEvZ3sSR3Yg">One More Generation and Louise Fletcher</a>.Pangolins are shy, nocturnal scaly mammals that look like reptiles. They quietly function as ecosystem engineers, burrowing under the soil, eating termites and other harmful insects. But pangolin scales and meat are prized in Chinese traditional cosmetics, and they are smuggled from Africa and South Asia to China by the tens of thousands.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121136/636b913d9c7e80680e06f0d8jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="535" height="279"/><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121136/636b913e9c7e80680e06f0d9jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000">Yangshila is located in the Chure Hills up to 1,950m elevation. Due to its topographic and climatic variation, it is home to rich biodiversity including over 500 plant species and three of the most endangered mammals, reptiles and trees — pangolins, the golden monitor lizard and rosewood.After Yangshila, the youth team with Ganga Limbu as the team leader and Shristy Thapa, Sushila Bishwakarma, Nishan Bista and Sabita Bhujel as the pangolin fellows.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121136/636b91419c7e80680e06f0dajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1106"><figcaption>Ganga Limbu training youth activists in film-making to spread awareness about pangolins.</figcaption></figure>The members went from community to community conducting pangolin classes in local schools, where the most popular item was always the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0i9HjbdcTM" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DG0i9HjbdcTM&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1622828864806000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH7zmvRCyn7r4mLvk-mT51JapWD5A">Jackie Chan Kung-fu Pangolin</a> video. The awareness had an immediate impact, it fired the imagination of students, including 13-year-old Khadga Bahadur Magar.The boy was returning home from school one day when he saw a family of pangolins scurrying towards the Budhikhola River. Worried that they would be poached, he quietly scooped them up and released them at a location where they could not be seen.The boy then guarded the pangolin burrow, spending precious time on conservation that could have been spent on earning to augment his family income.So, last year on <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-day-of-pangolins/">World Pangolin Day on 20 February</a> young Khadga Bahadur Magar received the ‘Young Pangolin Protector Award’ from the chief guest Province 1 Minister of Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment Jagdish Kusayait.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121136/636b91449c7e80680e06f0dbjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="970"><figcaption>Young activists learn to fix a camera trap.</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121136/636b91489c7e80680e06f0dcjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="980"><figcaption>Youngsters take part in an exercise to depict pangolins in art.</figcaption></figure>Supported by experts and zoologists, the young group then got in touch with 16 community forest user groups and students in seven community schools. Using their multimedia campaign, they informed locals about the role of pangolins in nature, the condition of their habitat and the reason behind their decreasing numbers, and about poaching laws.“If you had done this workshop before, then we would’ve saved more pangolins, but I promise from now on to ensure that in our community forests pangolins will be protected,” Ghanshyam Paudel, Chairperson of Ekata Community Forest User Group told the young activists.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121136/636b914b9c7e80680e06f0ddjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><figcaption>The 'Scrappy News Reporting' team who interviewed local people about pangolins for a video.</figcaption></figure>This year, the group provided grants and awards to the community forests that had helped <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/lesser-known-endangered-species/">spread awareness about pangolin protection.</a> The activity did not just help in conservation, but its young members also learnt basic photography and filmmaking techniques. Called 'Scrappy News Reporting', they interviewed local people and edited the videos on indigenous knowledge about nature conservation in Kerabari of eastern Nepal.The role of biodiversity conservation is seen as the job for experts, PhD holders, or foreign consultants. This pangolin conservation initiative has shown that young local activists can be more persuasive in spreading the conservation message.

Young Nepali activists protect pangolins

Four years ago, teenager Anish Magar heard about a pangolin being killed close to his home in Yangshila, in the forested Chure Hills of eastern Nepal.At the time the village community leaders and local organisations urged the youngsters to actively start to raise awareness so they would not poach the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/protecting-pangolins-from-being-eaten-to-extinction/">rare and elusive animals</a>, the most trafficked mammal in the world.The team then went from village to village showing videos of <a style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0i9HjbdcTM" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DG0i9HjbdcTM&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1622828864806000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH7zmvRCyn7r4mLvk-mT51JapWD5A">Jackie Chan</a> and organising painting workshops developed by <a style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="http://onemoregeneration.org/louise-fletcherpangolin-conservation-expert/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://onemoregeneration.org/louise-fletcherpangolin-conservation-expert/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1622828864806000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFtYQvNSDYB2nVSIJfAEvZ3sSR3Yg">One More Generation and Louise Fletcher</a>.Pangolins are shy, nocturnal scaly mammals that look like reptiles. They quietly function as ecosystem engineers, burrowing under the soil, eating termites and other harmful insects. But pangolin scales and meat are prized in Chinese traditional cosmetics, and they are smuggled from Africa and South Asia to China by the tens of thousands.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110131144/636cf21b9c7e80680e09d8e7jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="535" height="279"/><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110131144/636cf21c9c7e80680e09d8e8jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000">Yangshila is located in the Chure Hills up to 1,950m elevation. Due to its topographic and climatic variation, it is home to rich biodiversity including over 500 plant species and three of the most endangered mammals, reptiles and trees — pangolins, the golden monitor lizard and rosewood.After Yangshila, the youth team with Ganga Limbu as the team leader and Shristy Thapa, Sushila Bishwakarma, Nishan Bista and Sabita Bhujel as the pangolin fellows.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110131144/636cf21f9c7e80680e09d8e9jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1106"><figcaption>Ganga Limbu training youth activists in film-making to spread awareness about pangolins.</figcaption></figure>The members went from community to community conducting pangolin classes in local schools, where the most popular item was always the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0i9HjbdcTM" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DG0i9HjbdcTM&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1622828864806000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH7zmvRCyn7r4mLvk-mT51JapWD5A">Jackie Chan Kung-fu Pangolin</a> video. The awareness had an immediate impact, it fired the imagination of students, including 13-year-old Khadga Bahadur Magar.The boy was returning home from school one day when he saw a family of pangolins scurrying towards the Budhikhola River. Worried that they would be poached, he quietly scooped them up and released them at a location where they could not be seen.The boy then guarded the pangolin burrow, spending precious time on conservation that could have been spent on earning to augment his family income.So, last year on <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-day-of-pangolins/">World Pangolin Day on 20 February</a> young Khadga Bahadur Magar received the ‘Young Pangolin Protector Award’ from the chief guest Province 1 Minister of Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment Jagdish Kusayait.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110131144/636cf2229c7e80680e09d8eajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="970"><figcaption>Young activists learn to fix a camera trap.</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110131144/636cf2259c7e80680e09d8ebjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="980"><figcaption>Youngsters take part in an exercise to depict pangolins in art.</figcaption></figure>Supported by experts and zoologists, the young group then got in touch with 16 community forest user groups and students in seven community schools. Using their multimedia campaign, they informed locals about the role of pangolins in nature, the condition of their habitat and the reason behind their decreasing numbers, and about poaching laws.“If you had done this workshop before, then we would’ve saved more pangolins, but I promise from now on to ensure that in our community forests pangolins will be protected,” Ghanshyam Paudel, Chairperson of Ekata Community Forest User Group told the young activists.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110131144/636cf2289c7e80680e09d8ecjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><figcaption>The 'Scrappy News Reporting' team who interviewed local people about pangolins for a video.</figcaption></figure>This year, the group provided grants and awards to the community forests that had helped <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/lesser-known-endangered-species/">spread awareness about pangolin protection.</a> The activity did not just help in conservation, but its young members also learnt basic photography and filmmaking techniques. Called 'Scrappy News Reporting', they interviewed local people and edited the videos on indigenous knowledge about nature conservation in Kerabari of eastern Nepal.The role of biodiversity conservation is seen as the job for experts, PhD holders, or foreign consultants. This pangolin conservation initiative has shown that young local activists can be more persuasive in spreading the conservation message.

Ornithologists Carol Inskipp, Rupendra Karmacharya and Prem Thapa with a follow-up about how their lobbying has halted a controversial road project in a northern Chitwan forest, and restored hope for the rare Spiny Babbler and other endangered wildlife.  <figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111124/636cd1f99c7e80680e08f8e6jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1125"/><figcaption>Gadi village. Photo: CAROL INSKIPP</figcaption></figure>In April 2019 our report in Nepali Times highlighted the serious threat posed by a new road through the Gadi-Siraichuli watershed and its rich wildlife habitat in the Mahabharat Range. Last week, the Ichakamana Municipality in Chitwan district halted its construction and re-routed the road to save the forest.The road serves the remote, under-developed region inhabited mostly by <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Chepang-living-edge,3136">the Chepang people</a>, and the road had been forcefully constructed by the people of Mathlo Kaule to Chisapanitar and Gadi.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/protecting-the-last-home-of-the-spiny-babbler/">Protecting the last home of the Spiny Babbler </a><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111124/636cd1fc9c7e80680e08f8e7jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1622" height="1000"><figcaption>View of Himalchuli and Manaslu from Mathlo Kaule. Photo: PREM THAPA</figcaption></figure>The region also has historical significance because of an 18th-century fort and is exceptionally rich in biodiversity. In fact, the Gadi-Siraichuli forest has been designated an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area by BirdLife International and Bird Conservation Nepal.It is one of a network of sites around the world which are of international value for birds and other wildlife. Gadi-Siraichuli is a stronghold of the Spiny Babbler (Turdoides nipalensis), the elusive bird found only in Nepal and nowhere else.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111124/636cd1ff9c7e80680e08f8e8jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="668" height="1000"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111124/636cd2029c7e80680e08f8e9jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1125">The forest is the home to the rare Spiny Babbler and the Himalayan Cuita. Photos: SAGAR GIRI, BIMITA BHANDARILocal people from Gadi objected strongly to the new road because it would destroy their only water source, and result in landslides. Indeed, rockfalls from the new road have already damaged the forest. If construction had continued, it would have dried up the only two remaining water sources for eight villages.A 2015 survey in Chitwan after the earthquakes concluded that the geology of the region had been disturbed, and the slopes were too unstable for unplanned road building.Now, there is good news. Last week, Ichakamana Municipality halted the construction of the road, and passed the budget for an alternative alignment suggested in this newspaper two years ago for the road to go via Thapthali and Mayatar to Gadi. This new route will be far less damaging to the environment, as well as connect more villages to Gadi.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111124/636cd2059c7e80680e08f8eajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="684" height="843">The Ichakamana Municipality acted with foresight to protect both the watershed and the environment. It also opens up opportunities for Gadi-Siraichuli to develop low-intensity sustainable tourism through nature and culture tours.Such small-scale ecotourism could bring great advantages including additional income to the Chepang, Magar, Gurung and Chhetri communities here, and could be a model for similar areas in other parts of Nepal.If the Municipality designates the area as ‘Gadhi-Siraichuli Watershed and Bird Sanctuary’, it will be a recognised destination for tourists interested in pristine forests with rich wildlife. Indeed, it would be the first bird sanctuary in Nepal.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111124/636cd2079c7e80680e08f8ebjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><figcaption>Now that construction of a road cutting through the forest has been halted, ecotourism and birding has a future in Gadi-Siraichuli forest. Photo: PREM THAPA</figcaption></figure>Local youths could be trained as guides by the <a href="http://www.besnepal.org/">Bird Education Society (BES),</a> a Sauraha-based NGO that has been monitoring the district’s birdlife since the 1990s and has recorded sightings of 320 species of birds, with new ones continually being added to the list.Some of these are very rare birds like the Red-faced Liocichla, sighted here four years ago for the first time after the 19th century. There are also 15 mammal species including the splendid Black Giant Squirrel and Assamese Macaque. The richness of birds and other wildlife will undoubtedly attract naturalists from overseas as well as many from Nepal.The region’s other attraction is the historic Upardangadi Fort, located above Gadi village, which was built by the Shah kings 250 years ago to protect Nepal from attacks from the south by the British East India Company. The fort lies on the top of a 1,275 m mountain top with a sweeping panorama of Himalchuli-Manaslu to the north as well as a magnificent view of the Chitwan Valley to the south.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111124/636cd20b9c7e80680e08f8ecjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1700" height="1048"><figcaption>The 18th century Upardangadi Fort on a mountain top above the forests of Gadi-Siraichuli, which has thick forests rich in biodiversity. Photo: PREM THAPA</figcaption></figure>The rich traditional culture of the Chepang, Gurung and Magars inhabitants can also be a draw, and provide additional income to the indigenous people of the region. There are already new homestays in Gadi and Tallo Kaule, that offer visitors a place to stay and immerse in local traditions and wildlife tourism.BES is providing homestay training in a sustainable and eco-friendly way for local people, many of whom are from marginalised communities. The Municipality will now have to invest in proper homestays, improve trails, and train locals. Bird and biodiversity conservation and would be highly beneficial to ecotourism development here.When local villagers find they are benefitting financially from such grassroots tourism, they are much more likely to actively protect their wondrous forests with its bio-diversity. And this is also the kind of post-Covid tourism model Nepal should strive for.Carol Inskipp is a UK conservationist and author of books on Nepal birds and their conservation, who has been coming to Nepal since 1977. Rupendra Karmacharya runs a lodge in Gadi village, and works to preserve the local culture and biodiversity.Prem Thapa is an avid birder, trekker, life member of Bird Education Society, and works at Samsara Trekking &amp; Safari in Kathmandu.

Model for post-Covid ecotourism

<figure><img width="1500" height="1000" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111124/636cd1439c7e80680e08f8a3jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Loss of their favourite grass due to the spread of invasive vines have forced rhinos to venture outside Chitwan National Park, like this one in Sauraha in 2019. Photo: SAGAR GIRI</figcaption></figure>Between 1986 to 2017, as many as 100 rhinos were translocated from Chitwan to Bardia National Park. Three decades later, only 37 remain.The rhinos were taken to Bardia because the animals were dying due to overcrowding, increase in infrastructure, human-animal conflict, and frequent territorial fights among males in Chitwan National Park. Among the translocated animals, 55 were male and 45 female rhinos, and transferring them to Bardia was also an insurance in case disease felled rhinos in Chitwan, or they were washed away in floods as happened in 2017.A 2005 census put the rhino population in Bardia National Park at 67, but the number had slumped to 22 by 2008. Authorities at the Park say 34 rhinos fell prey to poachers. In 2020 alone, 4 rhinos were killed by ivory traffickers, dashing Nepal’s hopes of achieving a five-year streak of zero rhino poaching.“The population of the rhinos had been increasing prior to the surge in poaching last year,” says Bardia National Park conservation officer Bishnu Prasad Shrestha. “Poaching goes up whenever the attention is diverted, as happened during the conflict or the pandemic.”During the 1996-2006 insurgency, the Nepal Army that guards parks was deployed to fight the Maoists, and this became a boon to poachers. The number of the one-horned rhinos nationwide plunged during that period from 612 in 2000 to less than 375 by the end of 2005.Until the 1950s, Nepal boasted an estimated population of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/how-many-rhinos-is-enough-rhinos/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/how-many-rhinos-is-enough-rhinos/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1609914505013000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHcaYrs6YwmjKnMqlrrq64_CE7Z9g">close to 1,000 Greater One-horned Rhinoceros</a> in the Chitwan region. At that time, the numbers dwindled because of habitat loss as Tarai jungles were cleared for settlements, hunting, and poaching.After the national parks were established, the military guarded the parks and brought poaching under control. The comeback of the rhinos and tigers in Nepal was regarded as an international success story. <figure><img width="966" height="1032" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111124/636cd1469c7e80680e08f8a4jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>After watering holes inside Chitwan National Park started drying up, rhinos often saunter around Sauraha for a drink. Photo: CHITWAN NATIONAL PARK </figcaption></figure>However, with the pandemic, security was relaxed and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/what-drives-wildlife-poaching/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/what-drives-wildlife-poaching/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1609914505014000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEWDBsSgSYDrCnp4ysQerUTW-9sVA">poachers took advantage</a> of this. After five years of zero rhino poaching, Chitwan alone has lost four rhinos to poachers in the past year. This was of serious enough concern for the Nepal Army to launch ‘Operation Maha Hunt’ to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/wildlife-poachers-active-during-lockdown/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/wildlife-poachers-active-during-lockdown/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1609914505014000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFZ1JxTs04zu09hxrt8Z8WzFoFpeg">track down poachers.</a>“While there was a surge of poachers during the pandemic, the rhino population in the region is increasing again,” says Shrestha. But there is enough evidence on the ground that points to continued threats faced by wildlife in Nepal.In April 2020, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/7-musk-deer-killed-by-poachers-during-lockdown/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/7-musk-deer-killed-by-poachers-during-lockdown/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1609914505014000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFJUHWDShB6iRqEC74CERaCBXcFZA">poachers killed six endangered Himalayan musk deer</a> inside the Sagarmatha National Park, a protected area. Police in Bajura district seized wildlife contraband including tiger and leopard pelts, bones, bear gall bladders, and deer antlers from poachers intending to smuggle them into China in June 2020, providing evidence to the killing of animals in the conservation areas that were going unchecked.In Chitwan, rhinos prefer the western floodplain grasslands and riverine forests near the Rapti, Narayani and Reu rivers, and are relatively fewer in number on the eastern side of the park. A similar lack of watering holes and suitable grassland habitat along the Babai Valley in Bardia could be one reason for the decline of translocated rhinos. <figure><img width="1500" height="1000" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111124/636cd1489c7e80680e08f8a5jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>The rhino’s favourite grasses are being over-run by invasive mikania micrantha, locally known as banmara. Photo: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption></figure>Bardia National Park is constructing and managing artificial ponds and grasslands for rhinos and other wildlife, but it seems this not enough of an incentive for them to thrive.“Rhinos require watering holes in riverine areas as well as suitable grassland to rest and graze, both of which are lacking in Bardia,” says Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Forests and Environment Dr Ramchandra Kandel. “Bardia’s natural habitat is not suitable for rhinos.” <figure><img width="848" height="784" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111124/636cd14b9c7e80680e08f8a6jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>A rhino washed down to India in a flood in 2017, being tranquilised and returned to Chitwan National Park three years later in August 2020.</figcaption></figure>Their preference of habitat makes rhinos especially vulnerable to floods during the monsoon. Moreover, the species face an increasing threat of inhospitable changes in their living environment brought about by calamities due to climate change.Massive flooding on the Rapti and Narayani rivers in Chitwan National Park swept away 11 rhinos along with other wildlife to India in August 2017—the last rhino was <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/india-returns-nepali-rhino-swept-away-by-flood/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/india-returns-nepali-rhino-swept-away-by-flood/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1609914505014000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEPVUGIJQJ9FDiE6ERhHaaSp6DTWw">repatriated</a> to Nepal in August 2020.Last year, 13 rhinos died due to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/climate-change-new-threat-to-nepals-rhinos/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/climate-change-new-threat-to-nepals-rhinos/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1609914505014000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHpZMYldyLYcOO9pIxRfH3ltbmiTQ">flooding amid record-breaking rainfall</a> across much of Nepal. Chitwan—the primary sanctuary of the Greater One-horned Rhinoceros in the country—recorded 3,130mm of rain, significantly higher than the annual average in the region. According to the 2015 census, the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/how-many-rhinos-is-enough-rhinos/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/how-many-rhinos-is-enough-rhinos/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1609914505014000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHfknBmXXX2WcTsmgaIWONr1tsPhw">wildlife population in Nepal surged back</a>, over the years upping the total rhino population in the country to 645. Of these, at least 620 are in Chitwan National Park alone, with the rest scattered in Parsa, Bardia, and Shuklaphanta reserves.  Conservationists say that the tale of Bardia’s missing rhinos is an important reminder that suitablility of the habitat, food supply, and adequate water should be important considerations before translocating wildlife.

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Young Nepali activists protect pangolins

Young Nepali activists protect pangolins

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