Deep in the fog-drenched forests of Nepal lives the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/clouded-future-for-the-clouded-leopard#">clouded leopard</a>, a cat so mysterious, so rare and elusive, that it is thought to be a creature of myth. &nbsp; Known as धुवाँसे चितुवा, the clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) is named for its unique cloud-like fur pattern distinctly different from a tiger’s stripes, or a leopard’s spots. Its coat is a perfect camouflage for the underbrush of Himalayan cloud forests. It hunts stealthily by night, has strong limbs and flexible ankles allowing it to climb and descend trees with ease. Many Nepalis, including villagers who live close to the habitat of this enigmatic species of cat, do not even know it exists.&nbsp; The clouded leopard was once thought to be extinct in Nepal, but was <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180728053043id_/https:/www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/CE1B1FFD5D898189EB99B0E0D4316271/S0030605300023024a.pdf/div-class-title-the-clouded-leopard-in-nepal-div.pdf">rediscovered</a> in 1987, and since then it has been sighted in regions ranging from eastern Tarai’s lowland forests to the subtropical hills of western Nepal at elevations between 301m to 3,498m.&nbsp; But unlike the tigers and rhinos in Nepal’s plains, or the snow leopards that stalk the Himalaya, the clouded leopard rarely makes headlines or draws public attention.&nbsp; The clouded leopard is listed as Vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and protected under CITES Appendix I. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/356255825_Mapping_distribution_and_identifying_gaps_in_protected_areacoverage_of_vulnerableclouded_leopard_Neofelis_nebulosa_in_Nepal_Implications_forconservation_management">It is found </a>in dense tropical, sub-tropical and temperate forests of south and south-east Asia.&nbsp; In Nepal, sightings in previously undocumented areas like Sunsari, Udayapur, and Jhapa suggest the cat may be more widespread than previously thought. Most of what experts know about these cats comes from chance sightings or camera traps in protected areas.&nbsp; In 2018, an amateur photographer sighted a clouded leopard in Sunsari, making it the first ever non camera-trap photograph of a wild clouded leopard in the country. Indeed, vast regions within their habitat range remain unsurveyed, and there’s no comprehensive data on clouded leopards since no census to determine its number has ever been conducted. The Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) estimates a population range of <a href="https://dnpwc.gov.np/en/species-detail/64/">300 to 400 clouded leopards</a> in Nepal. “Despite its relatively wide habitat distribution, the clouded leopard remains one of Nepal’s least studied wild cats,” says Karan Shah, wildlife researcher and educator. Globally, clouded leopards have lost <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345976587_Strongholds_under_siege_Range-wide_deforestation_and_poaching_threaten_mainland_clouded_leopards_Neofelis_nebulosa#fullTextFileContent">34% of high-quality habitat</a> and nearly 20% of moderately suitable areas across their habitat range between 2000 and 2018. &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250522230552_3429caf7617b24caa52c2e0987172de9ef4e897943e3a419e74e62ee65007f45.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20250522230552_3429caf7617b24caa52c2e0987172de9ef4e897943e3a419e74e62ee65007f45" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Clouded leopard map"> <figcaption>Map of the potential distribution of clouded leopard in Nepal. Source: Mapping distribution and identifying gaps in protected area coverage of vulnerable clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) in Nepal: Implications for conservation management / Researchgate</figcaption> </figure>  In Nepal, the forests that clouded leopards depend on are being cleared for roads, agriculture, and other development work, much of this habitat loss occurring outside protected zones. The expansion of roads and human settlements has led not just to habitat destruction, but has also opened the door to human wildlife conflict and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989420308957">poaching</a>. Between 2006 and 2020, at least 26 clouded leopard pelts were confiscated across Nepal with seizures reported in nine districts including Dang, Kanchanpur, Kathmandu and and Taplejung. The clouded leopard’s pelt and bones are traded illegally for decoration and traditional medicine while live animals are sold in the black market as exotic pets. These numbers may seem small in comparison to the figures of other endangered animals, but it is deeply concerning given how rare and elusive the species is. Experts say the data likely represents only a fraction of illegal activity involving clouded leopards due to the lack of active monitoring of the species. Clouded leopards feed on monkeys, rodents, and deer. And although these cats, unlike other carnivores, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1472-6785-6-16">avoid human settlements</a>, they are known to feed on livestock in rare cases, especially as the destruction of their habitat has affected their prey density.&nbsp; “It is rarely in direct conflict with humans and is not usually a target for persecution. Yet, it suffers indirectly from <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/between-existence-and-extinction-in-nepal">habitat degradation</a>, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/wildfire-season-starts-early-in-nepal">forest fires</a>, trapping, and carcass poisoning, activities often aimed at other species or driven by broader environmental pressure,” says Shah.&nbsp; But despite the challenges, there have been some improvements in conservation efforts. Improved technology and survey efforts have helped researchers detect the presence of clouded leopards in new areas.&nbsp; However, awareness and policy must catch up. To protect the species, Nepal needs long-term research, camera trap studies, genetic monitoring, and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-unsung-heroes-of-conservation">community-based conservation efforts</a>. A systematic nationwide survey is urgently needed to establish the species' true population and distribution. And perhaps most importantly, there needs to be just as much dedicated attention directed towards the conservation of clouded leopards that has been demonstrated towards rhinos and tigers so that there can be similar success in preserving the species. Saving the clouded leopard is not just about <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/protecting-lumbini-s-rare-cranes">protecting a rare species</a>, but also preserving the forests that filter our air, protect our water, and support countless other wildlife.&nbsp; But without accurate population data or understanding of their habitat needs, there is a risk of losing the species forever.

original

674x448

610x380

500x500

400x266

400x240

400x203

301x200

1250x600

1084x550

thumbnail

viewImage

Leopards in the clouds

The Gharial Breeding Centre in Chitwan National Park has for decades played a critical role in saving the endangered fish-eating crocodile from extinction. Now, the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=364">gharial faces a different set of challenges</a>. Climate breakdown is raising the temperature of Nepal’s plains. The Narayani and Rapti Rivers that flow through Chitwan National Park are increasingly polluted. Gharials are often trapped in fishing nets and die. And the reptile has a sex problem. In nature, the gharial’s sex ratio is already skewed, with 8 females for every male gharial. Now, climate change may be widening this gender gap. In fact, during a recent visit the breeding centre had only one male among 32 adult gharial. The male gharial has a distinct bulbous growth at the tip of its snout, which only develops when the reptile reaches adulthood.&nbsp; “It is as if the gharial as a species is predisposed to struggle in its natural habitat,” says Prem Poudel of WWF Nepal, whose Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) program supports conservation in protected areas. "The eggs hatch in July, right in the middle of the flood season.” Gharials lay up to 90 eggs at a time in deep pits along the sandy banks of the Narayani and Rapti in spring. It is only later when growths appear on their snouts that breeders can confirm if they are male or female.&nbsp; Research has shown that if gharial eggs are incubated at higher temperatures, more of them are female when they hatch. This is how global warming could be skewing the sex ratio even more towards female. The breeding centre in Kasara hires Bote fisherfolk indigenous to the area as nest watchers to locate and collect eggs. The eggs are then incubated until they hatch.&nbsp; This year, the breeding centre collected 247 eggs, out of which 195 hatched. The gharial are released when they are five years old. Over the years gharials have been released into Chitwan’s rivers, but also in the Karnali and Babai that run through the Bardia National Park. In 2019,<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/gharial-found-breeding-in-nepal-after-37-years"> conservationists discovered the first nesting site</a> of 100 gharials hatchlings in the Babai, and in 2022, 28 baby gharial were found in a tributary of the Karnali.&nbsp; Besides the 32 adults at the breeding centre, there are currently 759 hatchings, sub-adults and juvenile gharial. Meanwhile, 265 gharial were counted last December in their natural habitat inside Chitwan National Park, 152 in the Rapti and 113 in the Narayani. Of them, only six are male, three in each of the rivers.&nbsp; “When we opened the national park, we directed our attention almost exclusively on Nepal’s declining tiger and rhino populations,” recalls Ram Prit Yadav, who was a ranger in the late 1960s even before Chitwan National Park was established, and became its first warden. “It was only later that we realised the wealth of the biodiversity here, including the gharial.” Yadav subsequently led efforts to launch the Gharial Breeding Centre, which was established in 1978. Since then, the gharial population has rebounded but their numbers have declined in the Narayani River mainly due to upstream pollution.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241026131052_934ab1b3a6c3a1b53013b9618459543544065e35c958743382022e3425b20a97.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20241026131052_934ab1b3a6c3a1b53013b9618459543544065e35c958743382022e3425b20a97" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1500" loading="lazy" alt="There are only few male gharial in nature, and they can only be distinguished by the bulbous growth on their snout. Photo: JUSTIN GRIFFITHS"> </figure>  Meanwhile, in the Rapti, the gharial population has been increasing because the river flows mostly inside the national park where illegal fishing and pollution is monitored. Translocated gharial have not fared as well in the Kosi and Kali Gandaki. Despite this, Yadav considers Nepal’s efforts to save this unique crocodile a success. “The government has put a lot of effort into protecting the gharial, now it is up to us to help,” says Yadav. “Gharials have now established a strong presence in the Rapti, and in Bardia, Banke and Suklaphanta. This is a testament to Nepal’s conservation effort. ”&nbsp; The Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) and the Department of Forests collaborated with conservation partners and local communities, to draw up the Gharial Conservation Action Plan (2018-2022) to further breeding research. Even so, conservationists worry about Nepal’s ability to maintain and increase the country’s gharial numbers because of the accelerated destruction of Nepal's riverine habitat from sand-mining, factory effluents, and competition with humans for fish.&nbsp; Says WWF’s Poudel: “There were gharials in all major river ecosystems in the past. Human settlement, river pollution, and dams contributed to them becoming critically endangered.” Gharial often get tangled in the traditional nylon fishing nets used illegally by locals. In 2023, a male gharial was found dead in a tributary of the Rapti River after it was snagged on one such net.&nbsp; The construction of dams and barrages like the one on the Gandaki on the Indian border prevent gharials from swimming back upstream when they are swept down in the monsoon.&nbsp; Says Yadav. “In the long run, we must ensure that these critically endangered animals have clean rivers to thrive in, plenty of fish to feed on, and are not at the risk of being swept downstream.”&nbsp; National park officials here worry that tigers and rhinos get all the media attention, overshadowing gharial conservation — which means the budget for the breeding centre does not get a priority. “We are tasked with the responsibility of rearing and conserving these animals, but funds are decreasing,” a conservation official told us. “We even have to ration meals for the gharial.”&nbsp; Even Yadav acknowledges that Nepal cannot go it alone to protect these rare reptiles for much longer: “Climate change is throwing the sex ratio out of balance, so our conservation effort must extend beyond Nepal’s protected areas to the international stage.” &nbsp;

Crocodile Chronicle

In the summer of 2018, on the very first trip to Dolpo, I saw a wild snow leopard as it cat-walked along a slope before vanishing into the icy vastness of the Himalaya. Our team was there to learn more about this elusive animal and understand its inter-relationship with communities, as well as assist conservation efforts of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) and Shey Phoksundo National Park (SPNP). Along with SPNP staff and local citizen scientists, we rolled out various assessments that had been over half a year in planning. The challenges of this extreme trans-Himalayan terrain were aggravated by unpredictable weather and unfulfilled commitments. Perseverance, adaptive management by a dynamic local colleague and the support of local partners were crucial in protecting the snow leopard, which has been called ‘God’s Pet’.&nbsp; Our ecological and socio-economic surveys identified challenges and also opportunities to strengthen work by our predecessors, laying the foundation for the integrated project by the DNPWC, SPNP and World Wildlife Fund Nepal (WWF) to benefit both people and cats. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/trekking-to-save-nepals-snow-leopards">Trekking to save Nepal's snow leopards</a>, Sonam Choekyi Lama On International Day of Mountains on 11 December, we realise that so much has been achieved, despite challenges including our collective confinement during the Covid pandemic. Here are five milestones to mark five years of the project: 1. A global snow leopard conservation hotspot Snow leopards and their ecosystems are among the least studied of the big cats, globally. The Nepal government prioritises research to better understand the species for informed conservation.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231211031228_35a857dd5be2953c13836508cb272e5d8e17eb3c688e3950f4e3534887edc655.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20231211031228_35a857dd5be2953c13836508cb272e5d8e17eb3c688e3950f4e3534887edc655" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Shey Phoksundo National Park snow leopard NT"> <figcaption>Karma Tarkey is a former SLCC Chair whose conservation efforts culminated in his unopposed election as the Ward Chair in 2022. Photo: SANJOG RAI /WWF</figcaption> </figure>  With the crucial engagement of local youths as citizen scientists, there is diverse research and periodic monitoring to guide and improve conservation efforts. We know more about snow leopards than ever before, strengthening the conservation prospects of this flagship species of mountain ecosystems. The SPNP hosts about 90 individuals, and is a global hotspot for snow leopard conservation – a matter of immense pride, opportunity, as well as responsibility for Nepal. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/snow-leopard-redux">Snow leopard redux</a>, Tayama Rai 2. Integrated conflict management More snow leopards translate to increased human-animal contact leading to livestock loss. But by integrating knowledge of snow leopard behaviour, the local socio-economic context and by addressing practical challenges, livestock losses have been reduced and communities affected have been compensated. Pastoralists have been trained in mesh wire fabrication and improving livestock corrals to avert surplus killings – instances when snow leopards kill multiple livestock without eating them. &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231211031228_2a4315df8fe5dd5d8274ed8c6e166f6947d9872d71a62f157ea45edef501f7bb.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20231211031228_2a4315df8fe5dd5d8274ed8c6e166f6947d9872d71a62f157ea45edef501f7bb" data-rendition-name="original" width="2110" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Shey Phoksundo National Park snow leopard NT"> <figcaption>Parliamentarians visited SPNP in 2020 to understand grassroots issues. With tireless efforts of many institutions including the DNPWC, a recent win was an amendment to the government’s Wildlife Damage Relief Guidelines, including doubling the ceiling of relief amount and explicit inclusion of mountain livestock varieties. Photo: WWF NEPAL</figcaption> </figure>  If snow leopards are unable to enter livestock corrals, surplus killings can be virtually eradicated, as has been reported by the community from piloted improved corrals. With most households owning yaks and mountain goats, there are efforts to scale this out to benefit the wider community. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/bridging-the-divide" target="_blank">SPNP has played a catalytic role to capacitate community leadership</a> and granted over Rs20 million of government relief to local households in the past five years. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepali-conservationist-among-rolex-awardees">Nepali conservationist among Rolex awardees</a>, Nepali Times <div class="embed-block"><div><div style="left: 0; width: 100%; height: 0; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%;"><iframe src="//cdn.iframe.ly/api/iframe?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FkiIwR3LeEtM%3Fsi%3DEe_JLzUaRDGT6Q9x&key=87ca3314a9fa775b5c3a7726100694b0" style="top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; border: 0;" allowfullscreen scrolling="no" allow="accelerometer *; clipboard-write *; encrypted-media *; gyroscope *; picture-in-picture *; web-share *;"></iframe></div></div></div> 3. Secure livelihoods Safeguarding livestock is crucial to secure local livelihoods. Which is why it is even more important to diversify livelihood options but these are inherently limited for mountain communities more so now due to heightened geopolitics and the increased impact of the climate crisis.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231211031228_44bbf6b2ce52bb4938fbe84b217f32053c7edc7b4a64aa9269d247dd1b87ab1b.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20231211031228_44bbf6b2ce52bb4938fbe84b217f32053c7edc7b4a64aa9269d247dd1b87ab1b" data-rendition-name="original" width="737" height="1217" loading="lazy" alt="Shey Phoksundo National Park snow leopard NT"> <figcaption>Tshiring from Dho Tarap village is a trained veterinary technician. By saving injured animals, he is busting local myths that livestock injured by wildlife are doomed to die. Other local youth are trained in disease surveillance and control, which is becoming an increasing risk. </figcaption> </figure>  We supported livelihoods that have immediate returns but also long-term prospects that benefit the wider community, and preserve local cultures and nature while also enhancing their resilience as best we can. 4. A bright future As remote as SPNP is, it is never far from the impact of globalisation. There are new roads in Dolpo, and local governments have been leading efforts for electrification in remote parts of SPNP. The project has been contributing to their larger initiatives to assure clean energy access to local communities.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231211031228_570c4c29ebe6508330899263bd673112162cfa449eb598967c14cb1e66dd4f9e.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20231211031228_570c4c29ebe6508330899263bd673112162cfa449eb598967c14cb1e66dd4f9e" data-rendition-name="original" width="1152" height="768" loading="lazy" alt="Shey Phoksundo National Park snow leopard NT"> <figcaption>Technicians install panels of a solar mini-grid in Kugaon – a remote village in upper Dolpo, that could easily take us 10 days to reach from Kathmandu. Now, 36 households here have the first solar mini-grid connection facilitated by the local government which has prioritised clean energy connection. Photo: PEMA TSHERING GURUNG</figcaption> </figure>  Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-leads-in-snow-leopard-study-6bo3zybk">Nepal leads in snow leopard study</a>, Nepali Times 5. Conservation stalwarts Engagement of the community is key to snow leopard conservation. Local knowledge in planning and implementation is mandatory, but it also creates new expertise in environmental protection. The project supports education and has helped form and capacitate diverse youth groups, including one with aspirations for sustainable tourism management and stronger linkages to the local economy. One of the challenges, however, has been effectively engaging women. Even so, last year, women groups of Dolpo led a massive undertaking removing nearly 8,000kg of solid waste from rangelands.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231211031228_a3ea977d3ad71b0f2968dd8974eae7a854054898f07be45cec69744807ee29a1.jpg" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="20231211031228_a3ea977d3ad71b0f2968dd8974eae7a854054898f07be45cec69744807ee29a1" data-rendition-name="original" width="1498" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Shey Phoksundo National Park snow leopard NT"> <figcaption>SPNP youth and the WWF team at WWF headquarters in Kathmandu. Photo: SNEHA TAMRAKAR/WWF NEPAL</figcaption> </figure>  These milestones are an expression of the immense effort by government officials from Kathmandu to the remotest parts of Dolpo most notably DNPWC, SPNP and various rural municipalities, communities and youth who have worked tirelessly, and all the experts and donors. This is also a call for help. This is still a work in progress and needs further intervention to help the SPNP protect the snow leopard and its ecosystem.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/bridging-the-divide">Bridging the divide</a>, Sheren Shrestha and Ghana Shyam Gurung Sheren Shrestha is Manager of Wildlife Programs with the WWF currently overseeing planning and management of Snow Leopard programs.

Nepal brings back the snow leopard

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

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

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

Fenerbahçe Beko won the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague finals in Abu Dhabi, held 23-25 May, defeating Monaco 81-70 in the final. Olympiacos, who defeated Panathinaikos 97-93, finished the series in third place. The Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the final match, Nigel Hayes-Davis from Fenerbahçe Beko, received a prize of 1,000,000 Miles&amp;Smiles from Turkish Airlines’ Chief Commercial Officer Ahmet Olmuştur. The carrier has been the title sponsor of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, a top tier tournament, since 2010.

Turkish Basketball

In the black and white photograph, General Wangdu smiles broadly in front of the dusty cactus garden in Kathmandu’s Annapurna Hotel. With an ill-fitting jacket and shaggy hair he looks benign enough, but this was the last leader of the Tibetan freedom fighters who led the resistance against the Chinese from their remote mountain hideouts in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/comings-and-goings-in-mustang">Mustang</a>. Five months later, Wangdu was dead. Snapped in March 1974, I had only recently arrived in Nepal. How did I meet this legendary fighter? Possibly with his devoted camp follower, Lynne Klapecki, and probably in the Om Restaurant near Freak Street which was the preferred <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/hippie-trail-nostalgia-in-kathmandu">hippie hang-out</a>. Om Lobsang and his brother Yeshe were <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/earthquake-brings-back-memories-of-camps-for-tibetan-refugees">refugees from East Tibet </a>whose cafe offered a friendly welcome and<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/momo-loco"> the best momos</a> - they became my in-laws after I married their eldest brother Tenzin, but that was a decade later.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_4573b34282b0f5395c007243d6bef12c7ba76bfd520419e994cdcea048d795a1.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="2025052403054_4573b34282b0f5395c007243d6bef12c7ba76bfd520419e994cdcea048d795a1" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="1583" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>Photo: LISA CHOEGYAL</figcaption> </figure>  Wangdu’s English was enthusiastically rudimentary, but even riding around town with him on the back of an aging <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/kathmandu-s-new-motorbike-museum">motorbike</a>, he was a commanding presence. Always flanked by armed outriders, impressive scars marked his forearms and a pistol hung from the cord around his neck. A charismatic guerrilla leader, Wangdu was celebrated by his followers for his tough commitment and respected for his measured pragmatism. He seemed so young to have shouldered such a responsibility of command, leading hundreds of hardened <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/50-years-after-the%20raid-into-Tibet,1012#google_vignette">Khampa combatants </a>through what had been a particularly <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/heavy-snowfall-over-nepal-himalaya">brutal winter in Mustang</a>, the last bastion to hold out against the Chinese invasion of their Tibetan homeland.&nbsp; The freedom fighters of Tibet, known as the Chushi-Gangdruk, had emerged to resist the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/territorialism">Chinese takeover</a> of Tibet during the 1950s. Estimated to be 80,000-strong at the time of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/what-or-who-after-the-dalai-lama">the Dalai Lama</a>’s final escape to India in 1959, the sheer number of Chinese deployed into Tibet eventually forced the Chushi-Gangdruk to retreat to Mustang, From this high Himalayan stronghold, they continued cross-border raids on the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) throughout the 1960s.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_8a4a935ba25ae79dc3a63bb5c14626927020e5ec098093c45ccb9a5982e009fd.jpg" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="2025052403054_8a4a935ba25ae79dc3a63bb5c14626927020e5ec098093c45ccb9a5982e009fd" data-rendition-name="original" width="1114" height="676" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>Guerrillas known as the Chushi-Gangdruk emerged to resist the Chinese annexation of Tibet during the 1950s. Photo courtesy: MIKEL DUNHAM</figcaption> </figure>  Their Kathmandu base was a small discreet lodge in a back lane near Rani Pokhari. Sipping sweet tea from a blue mug with a chipped lid, I sat bemused in a corner of the Mustang Hotel room whilst Wangdu and his cohorts received a battered brown suitcase from their CIA connection, a tousle-haired American in a leather jacket. Heaved onto the dingy bedspread that covered the thin mattress, it was clicked open to reveal piles of neatly stacked dollar bills.&nbsp; I cannot think why Wangdu allowed me to witness this handover but I was clearly no threat, a newly arrived world traveller with no understanding of the stakes nor any Nepali or <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/tibetan-music-in-nepals-sacred-valley">Tibetan language</a>. Despite armed guards in the corridor,Wangdu radiated confidence and bravado, and there was a practiced familiarity to the tense transaction. This deadly dance for many years had been funded by the Americans, tolerated by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-kingdom-within-a-republic">Mustang’s residents</a>, and permitted by King Mahendra and the Nepali authorities who it suited to turn a blind eye.&nbsp; But Mahendra died in 1972, and times were changing. Richard Nixon’s ping-pong diplomacy thawed the cold war and signalled a fresh entente with China. Nepal’s yet-to-be-crowned <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/if-birendra-was-alive-nepal-could-still-be-a-monarchy">King Birendra </a>was under pressure to curb the irritating incursions against the PLA launched from the Nepali territory of Mustang. Keen to appease his northern neighbour, on several occasions the King summoned Wangdu for peace talks but, despite increasingly overwhelming odds, Wangdu refused to surrender.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_a8efd5cfb92cd997bd7cb74296a936fef46e2f7428f9cd642b03f1ac4ea11ecb.jpg" data-media-id="editor_14" data-image-id="2025052403054_a8efd5cfb92cd997bd7cb74296a936fef46e2f7428f9cd642b03f1ac4ea11ecb" data-rendition-name="original" width="1055" height="885" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>General Wangdu flanked by two Tibetan resistance fighters in Mustang in the 1970s. Photo courtesy: MIKEL DUNHAM</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_75969125a745847a2ef82b6fe8b9106c0b21a116d85b8efdf5d2ee89a347bb31.jpg" data-media-id="editor_15" data-image-id="2025052403054_75969125a745847a2ef82b6fe8b9106c0b21a116d85b8efdf5d2ee89a347bb31" data-rendition-name="original" width="1044" height="792" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>King Birendra with General Wangdu (right in dark glasses) taken in 1974 possibly in Mustang after one of their few attempts at negotiation. Photo courtesy: RAJRNDRA KUNWAR</figcaption> </figure>  While I naively rode pillion around Kathmandu in the spring sunshine, Wangdu was in the midst of what turned out to be his final round of negotiations with the Nepal government. Refusing to cease hostilities with the Chinese, Wangdu must have suspected the cost of his decision, making his cheerful smile in the photograph all the more poignant and brave. It was only much later that I appreciated the significance of the moment. Wangdu had been sent to replace the first resistance leader in Mustang, Baba Gen Yeshe, a much derided corrupt character who stole money meant for his troops and exploited fleeing refugees by seizing their treasures. Baba Gen Yeshe never forgave Wangdu,and sought revenge in May 1974 by betraying him and his commanders to the Nepal authorities. Renewed Chinese incursions from the north, active PLA collusion with the Nepali forces under the new King, and treachery from within the Chushi-Gangdrukranks combined to seal their fate.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_e0987a7c90d76431b0d7d5e6115ebfe3dbda7ab939e5941e079c18d722e884c0.jpg" data-media-id="editor_16" data-image-id="2025052403054_e0987a7c90d76431b0d7d5e6115ebfe3dbda7ab939e5941e079c18d722e884c0" data-rendition-name="original" width="1400" height="769" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>British television journalists George Patterson and Adrian Cowell embedded themselves with Khampa guerrillas and accompanied them from Tsum Valley on a cross border raid on a Chinese Army convoy in 1964. Photo: ESSAYS ON NEPAL / SAM COWAN</figcaption> </figure>  Mikel Dunham, renowned author of Buddha’s Warriors, writes: ‘It is possible that Wangdu was waiting for some cue from the Dalai Lama’s government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India. It is equally possible – during that last, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/the-human-cost-of-nepal-s-yarsa-gold-rush?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR31-Cqw8oyIwMPzf_35e4Skr0ululJvLf3_vDkzHn-AYG2h8uPw2rqqErg_aem_tGVn5coY1-jA7fze_xqhew">desolate winter </a>– that he made the decision to go out in glory rather than admit defeat. Over the last fifteen years, Wangdu had experienced Tibet’s organized resistance being squeezed and shoved around by every conceivable outside force.&nbsp; First they had been pushed out of their own country by the PLA; then they had been refused sanction while on <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/borderlines/nepal-india-trans-boundary-bonds?fbclid=IwAR0PpJ5zUEbwdug3g_U3ar6FUugngRY0S8Tl2v_7wqzrsHmXWcXsKjvL4t4">Indian soil</a>; then they were abandoned by the Americans because, apparently, Nixon wanted to make friends with Wangdu’s mortal enemies, the communists; then they had been betrayed by the vampiric Baba Gen Yeshe – a Tibetan and, even worse, a fellow Khampa; and now, finally Wangdu’s army was being evicted by the Nepalis. One thing was certain: Wangdu was a warrior. To imagine Wangdu simply giving up and settling down in the pacific squalor of a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/elderly-left-in-bhutan-refugee-camp">refugee camp </a>was unthinkable.’  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_8fc1ffef4ae751628b90ae781b66e11e51e4fdde2787207c9042efbee345ce49.jpg" data-media-id="editor_20" data-image-id="2025052403054_8fc1ffef4ae751628b90ae781b66e11e51e4fdde2787207c9042efbee345ce49" data-rendition-name="original" width="500" height="746" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>The much derided Baba Gen Yeshe, the first Tibetan resistance leader in Mustang, who betrayed Wangdu for personal gain. Photo courtesy: MIKEL DUNHAM</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_b1d833cdb00d3ac4416b844d8730475cd88c238caaaf8da69889a584eea229a3.jpg" data-media-id="editor_21" data-image-id="2025052403054_b1d833cdb00d3ac4416b844d8730475cd88c238caaaf8da69889a584eea229a3" data-rendition-name="original" width="500" height="656" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>Aditya SJB Rana of the Royal Nepal Army whose team ambushed Wangdu and his cohorts at the top of Tinker Pass in Darchula, West Nepal. Photo courtesy: GAUTAM SJB RANA</figcaption> </figure>  By August 1974 the game was up. Wangdu and six of his exhausted party were killed on their horses by <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=7270">the Royal Nepal Army</a> on the brink of escape. The officer in charge, Aditya SJB Rana, cleverly predicted their route into India after they failed to silence a police radio in Yari. A carefully laid ambush trapped them near the summit of the Tinker Pass in Darchula,at 5,000 meters the highest military operation of its time. Wangdu’s body was helicoptered to Kathmandu, and a big show made of the royal Nepal victory.&nbsp; The Tibetan armed insurgency against China had reached its end.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250524030520_3ff9c6fc85a65bc9a2c3afe9736d9f5f9413de752e790a5d9dca0981ea94f9b4.jpg" data-media-id="editor_23" data-image-id="20250524030520_3ff9c6fc85a65bc9a2c3afe9736d9f5f9413de752e790a5d9dca0981ea94f9b4" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> </figure>

The Last Days of the Khampa

Starting 17 September Turkish Airlines will fly daily to Seville, one of Spain’s major tourist draws. This is Turkish’s sixth destination in Spain after Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Malaga, and Bilbao. Seville is in the Andalusia region on Spain’s south coast with a rich Moor history. There are approximately 30,000 Nepalis living in Spain.&nbsp;

Turkish to Seville

The newly-formed Himalayan Art Council is set to launch Nepal’s National Art Protection Platform that seeks to preserve <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/the-history-of-heritage">Nepal’s unique cultural heritage </a>using<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/artificial-censorship"> AI-powered tools</a>. The Council seeks to safeguard <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepali-art-going-places">Nepali art works</a> from neglect, theft and counterfeiting as well as preserve existing artwork and celebrate living masters by giving them a cultural space to continue the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/sacred-survival">sacred art traditions</a>. "We are introducing a new digital platform designed to preserve, verify and elevate <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-new-generation-of-alternative-artists">Nepal’s art for generations to come,</a>” says a statement from the Council, adding that the digital platform will use AI told for authentication and blockchain to keep track of works of art. Artists can now be protected by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/ayo-ai?fbclid=IwAR1uwmTVq4gUB70ljfRezjzukD9ArWXPuMnUikopeQ8PoiZMjicToPSwhKE&amp;=1">AI tools</a> that detect forgeries, identify their work even when unsigned, and ensure they receive proper recognition and credit. The archives will be searchable with translated inscription and interactive guides. Says curator Meena Lama: “AI and blockchains are tools that give us the power to detect fakes and identify unsigned paintings and track every piece. With these tools we can restore trust, secure authorship and give artists the dignity they deserve.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250514170544_2ab58f6313c0458f75114a692b0016bd9efb3b59d5f8f07f0da72e1e37b82f53.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20250514170544_2ab58f6313c0458f75114a692b0016bd9efb3b59d5f8f07f0da72e1e37b82f53" data-rendition-name="original" width="1300" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Artwork at the Traditional Art Exhibition at Patan Museum."> <figcaption>Artwork at the Traditional Art Exhibition at Patan Museum.</figcaption> </figure>  The Council is also holding an exhibition of Nepali cultural masterpieces with 50 historical <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Buzz-the-art,671">thangka and paubha </a>by past masters and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/between-the-sacred-and-everyday">contemporary works by current artists</a>. This curated collection is a living tribute to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/when-yaks-go-so-does-culture">Himalayan culture</a> with economic depictions of deities, mandala and sacred narratives. The exhibition at <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/a-portal-into-patan-s-past-and-present">Patan Museum</a> also provides an opportunity to meet painters and custodians of art and culture. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/golden-deities">Golden deities</a>, Sewa Bhattarai ‘The exhibition is only the first step in a long journey to ensure that Nepali art is no just seen but fully understood, <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Narratives-of-Faith-and-Memory-Remembering-the-Lost-Sculptures-of-Kathmandu-exhibition,987">protected and remembered</a>,’ the Council says. Artist Kailash K Shrestha of Artudio has spent decades promoting thankha and paubha traditions because of their beauty and devotional meaning. But he also says artists are underpaid, exploited and ignored. He adds, “AI and blockchain are not just buzzwords, they are powerful tools that can protect Nepal’s artists from fraud, verify authenticity and build a permanent record of provenance.” Traditional Art Exhibition Till 17 May Patan Museum

endangered-species