February 2021

Pangolin Conservation in Province No.-2, Nepal

Eight species of Pangolins are found in the world, among them, two species are found in Nepal; Chinese pangolin (Mani spentadatyla) and Indian pangolin (Manis crassicaudata) are found in Nepal. In Nepali, Chinese pangolins called Kalo salak and Indian pangolin is called Tame salak. In Terai, Pangolins are locally known as Sal Machhari. Pangolins hold the title of most trafficked animal in the world. Its scale is largely used in China and Vietnam for various purposes from meat, medical to luxury, and many more. Pangolins are very elusive mammals and like to live inside the burrows and are more active at night. They are solitary animals and hard to see in the wild. They are a very slow breeder and gives birth to a single baby in a year. When we talk about the conservation of wildlife people have more interest and inquiry a lot about its importance in day-to-day life. As we know, Nepal is an agricultural county and the majority of people still depend on farming. Pangolins are a boon for them, Pangolins not only nourished the soil but eat the insects that feed on our crops. One adult Pangolin consumes more than 70 million ants and termites in a year. Which is immensely useful for crops and vegetation. Data from the paper of Tulshi Laxmi Suwal (2020) describes that among eight districts of Province No:-2, Saptari has been confirmed to have Chinese pangolin and Parsa has confirmed to have Indian pangolin, and reaming all five districts have evidence of the presence of pangolin. Habitat destruction is a major problem in forests of lowlands these days. Lack of awareness about wildlife conservation is another challenging work. Our work should be a focus on documenting the evidence of Pangolin with the motto to think globally and act locally, we celebrate World Pangolin day to create awareness about this elusive creature. Join us to conserve Pangolin and other wildlife in Province No.-2 of Nepal.

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Inception of “Stewardship and Rural Development for Poor and Marginalized Frontier”

The inception Program of “Stewardship and Rural Development for poor and marginalized frontier communities living alongside protected areas and high conservation value species” has been conducted successfully at Hotel Baba Ko Dhaba, Janakpur. The program was chaired by Sh. Ganesh Ray, Advisor, Mithila Wildlife Trust, Chief Guest was Hon’ble Ram Chandra Kandel, Secretary, Ministry of Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment, Special Guest was Jagarnah Jaiswal, Forest Director, Forest Directorate Province No.-2, Janakpur, And guests included Nand Lal Ray Yadav, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment, Sunil Karna, DFO, Dhanusha, Shom Prashad Sharma, Chairman, FECOFUN, Province No.-2, Shiv Narayan Sah, Retired Assistant Warden, Janakpurdham-8, Madhav Bhandari, Chairman, Doodhpani Community Forest User Group, Durga Lama, Chairman, Sunakhari Community Forest User Group, Shyam Lama Gole, Chairman, Bhatighari Community Forest User Group and team members of Mithila Wildlife Trust including Treasurer, Rasilal Pandit.   Host, Mr. Dev Narayan Mandal, Chairman, Mithila Wildlife Trust, and Subhash Sharma, Social Mobilizer for the project has presented the organizational and program overview.   The project is supported by UKAID through Zoological Society of London, Nepal, and will be implemented in close coordination and guidance of Divisional Forest Office, Dhanusha in Doodhpani Community Forest User Group, and Sunakhari Community Forest User Group, Mithila Municipality-11, Dhanusha, Province No.-2. The main objective of the project is to train Dalit, Janajati, and Financially marginalized members of both CFUGs and provide them with seed money through the establishment of community banks. Several intensive trainings, interactions with community members, and joint patrolling are the essence of the project which will ensure that the fund is properly utilized and dependency on community forests is reduced, thus, providing secure natural habitat to the wildlife in both community-managed forests.   The inauguration program was very successful. Everyone was very happy for organizing this and ended with beautiful remarks and suggestions from all the guests.

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