Nepal Traveller’s guide to Dhanushadham forest
A visitor’s guide to the 360-hectare forest: sal woodland, the Baluwa River wildlife corridor, and MWT’s work with the District Forest Office restoring Parshuram Lake and Rani Pokhari.
Mithila Wildlife Trust · Dhanusha, Nepal
News & stories
Rescues, restored forests, classrooms and community work across Madhesh Province, from our latest news back to 2013. Every card opens outside coverage of the story or its background.
- stories
- 32
- years of work
- 13
- outside sources
- 19
Coming up
Snake Festival and Garud Mahotsav, our stork festival, are planned for later in 2026. Dates will be announced soon.
Showing all 32 stories
2026
A leopard rescue, an Asian conservation award and a rare breeding record.
7 stories
Photo: shankar s. from Poona… · CC BY 2.0 (opens in a new tab) 
Photo: Charles J. Sharp · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab) Brown Rock Chats breed in Janakpur
During a bird walk, our team photographed three newly fledged Brown Rock Chats with their parents near brick buildings in Janakpur, the first confirmed breeding record for the area. The sighting is logged on eBird. BirdLife describes the species as scarce in Nepal.
Photo: Anup Sadi · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab) Honoured at the 6th Conservation Asia Congress
MWT was one of six awardees honoured at the congress in Kathmandu. We thank the Society for Conservation Biology Asia Section and the organisers, and dedicate the award to our team, volunteers, partners and the communities of Mithila.
Photo: Tisha Mukherjee · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab) A leopard rescued after months of community effort
MWT, forest officials, local leaders, community forest groups and wildlife rescue specialists from Parsa National Park and the National Trust for Nature Conservation worked together to rescue a leopard in Dhanusha. Onlinekhabar reported the leopard, caught in a wire fence in Mithila Municipality, the same day.
Photo: DFID - UK Department for… · CC BY 2.0 (opens in a new tab) Training for 96 women through the corridor project
Through the Dhanushadham Wildlife Corridor Project, 96 women were trained in livestock rearing and other livelihood skills to help them become financially independent.
Photo: Dr. Raju Kasambe · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab) Thanks to the team behind the third Nepal Snake Festival
Save The Lives Society, MWT and Bigyan TV organised the third Nepal Snake Festival, and we thanked the students, teachers and others who helped run it.
Photo: Rohit Sharma · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab) Asian Waterbird Census 2026
This year’s waterbird count ran from 3 to 18 January 2026 (19 Poush to 4 Magh 2082).
2025
Pangolin Day, Miyawaki planting along the corridor, and our learning centres.
6 stories
Photo: Ben Hemmings · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab) 4,872 Miyawaki saplings on World Environment Day
We planted 4,872 native saplings with the Miyawaki method in the Dhanushadham Wildlife Corridor, the start of a ten-day community planting campaign.
Photo: Sahil Dhiman · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab) Fieldwork on the Dhanushadham Wildlife Corridor
The corridor team surveyed the protected forest, looked for wildlife and traced the course of the Ban Ganga river.
Photo: Bijaya 2043 · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab) A partner’s visit to Janakpur
Advertising company Ocean Outdoor, a Pipal Tree supporter, describes visiting Janakpur in October 2024 to see Pipal Tree’s work with MWT in the Kamala River basin, including Miyawaki reforestation.
Photo: DFID - UK Department for… · CC BY 2.0 (opens in a new tab) Why our community learning centres matter
Many children from poor families in Madhesh Province miss out on school. Our learning centres give them extra lessons and support.
Photo: Kritzolina · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab) World Pangolin Day in Bhatighari Chure forest
Mithila Municipality-4 marked the 14th World Pangolin Day with a discussion and a peace rally.
Photo: Bijay Chaurasia · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab) SBS Nepali on Nag Panchami and snakes
Australia’s SBS Nepali interviews Dev Narayan Mandal about rescuing snakes from snake charmers at Nag Panchami and the Nepal Snake Festival we hold to challenge myths. He says he has personally rescued about 97 king cobras.
2024
A women’s community bank, and coverage from the World Economic Forum and Nepali Times.
4 stories
Photo: Unknown authorUnknown… · CC0 (opens in a new tab) Nepali Times profiles Dev Narayan Mandal
The profile follows our founder from office boy in India to conservationist, covers our snakebite work and Miyawaki forests with Pipal Tree, and visits the Mithila Cultural Village in Dhanushadham that helps fund the trust.
Photo: Siddharthgupta1112 · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab) A women’s community bank opens
The Dhanushadham Wildlife Corridor Project set up its first women’s community bank, offering group-approved microloans at 4–6% interest so women can start their own livelihoods.
Photo: Sunuwargr · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab) Our founder’s case study for the World Economic Forum
Written with Restor, it explains how more than 100 community meetings made Dhanushadham free of grazing and felling at no cost, how 65 hectares were replanted with native trees, and how more than 14,800 days of wages went to local people.
Photo: Tisha Mukherjee · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab) Winter birds arrive in Dhanushadham
The Rising Nepal reports on Himalayan birds wintering in the forest and its wetlands. Forest staff say 282 of Nepal’s 888 bird species have been recorded there, and Dev Narayan Mandal explains why the Kamala River and Janakpur’s ponds attract them.
2022
Our mini forests and learning centres in the national press.
2 stories
Photo: Tisha Mukherjee · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab) How a boar attack led to our learning centres
Pipal Tree founder Philip Holmes tells how a 12-year-old Musahar boy gored by a wild boar in 2016 survived with Dev Narayan Mandal’s help, and how his community then chose to fund their children’s schooling over hunting. By 2022 the centres had 286 students.
Photo: Vijayanrajapuram · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab) Nepali Times on our Miyawaki mini forests
The paper calls MWT the first in Nepal to use the Miyawaki method successfully and reports the 2,580 sq ft plot we planted in Janakpur in December 2021. It also notes Dev Narayan Mandal’s International Environment Warrior and World Neem Warrior awards.
2021
Paid forest work during Covid, a waterbird count and a national award for Bhatighari.
6 stories
Photo: Robirob4433 · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab) Bhatighari named Nepal’s best-managed community forest
The Bhatighari community forest user group in Dhanusha, which we work with closely, was ranked first in the country and received the Ganeshman Singh Conservation Award.
Photo: Manjithkaini · CC BY-SA 3.0 (opens in a new tab) Dhanusha Bird Park planted with the Miyawaki method
With Pipal Tree, we turned a degraded river bed in Mithileshwar into Dhanusha Bird Park, a dense Miyawaki planting of native species grown from seed supplied by the Department of Forests.
Photo: Raviranjanravi31 · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab) Nepal Now podcast: save a forest, empower a community
Journalist Marty Logan’s podcast tells the story of Dev Narayan Mandal’s fight to save the forest of his childhood, and how the communities around it have prospered alongside it.
Photo: Department of the… · Public domain (opens in a new tab) Nepali Times: paid work restoring forest during Covid
The paper reports on our second-wave plan to prepare 32 hectares of Bhatighari forest for planting, giving Dom, Dalit and Musahar families paid work. The District Forest Office supplied saplings of 22 native species.
Photo: Yung-Lun Lin · CC BY 4.0 (opens in a new tab) Pangolin conservation in Province 2
Nepal has two of the world’s eight pangolin species, the Chinese and the Indian pangolin. We set out how to protect them in the province.
Photo: Charles J. Sharp · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab) Winter waterbird count 2021
Our team, the Sub-Division Forest Office and volunteers counted waterbirds at Dhanushadham and the surrounding area.
2020
White kraits, Covid-19 relief and Nepal’s first Miyawaki campaign.
3 stories
Photo: Davidvraju · CC0 (opens in a new tab) White kraits: a world first, published
Ganesh Sah rescued a white (leucistic) Wall’s krait in Dhanushadham on 25 April 2020 and a white greater black krait in Kishanpur on 3 June, the first reported cases in their species. Kamal Devkota, Dev Narayan Mandal, Ganesh Sah, Mark O’Shea and Hinrich Kaiser described them in Herpetology Notes.
Photo: Bijay Chaurasia · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab) Turn Janakpur Green: Nepal’s first Miyawaki campaign
With support from ChoraChori, we launched a ten-year urban reforestation programme using the Miyawaki method of dense native planting, the first campaign of its kind in Nepal.
Photo: AMISOM Public Information · CC0 (opens in a new tab) Lockdown relief reaches 2,250 families
When the Covid-19 lockdown stopped work across Nepal, we began distributing food. By 26 May our relief and nutrition packages had reached 2,250 extremely poor families, with support from Chora Chori, Last Night a DJ Saved My Life, Gandys, the NGO Bhore and individual donors.
10 updates
- Getting ready to distribute relief
- Food relief for marginalised communities
- Response update, 18 May 2020
- Food for destitute families
- Our Covid-19 response so far
- Relief and nutrition packages for 2,250 families
- Relief in Sabaila Municipality
- Food relief in Kamala Municipality
- Working with Bhore against hunger and malnutrition
- Across the pandemic: relief for 18,000+ families in 17 districts
2018
A golden turtle and the world’s first community-managed pangolin area.
2 stories
Photo: Charles J. Sharp · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab) A golden turtle, a first for Nepal
MWT’s Chandradeep Sada rescued a golden-coloured Indian flapshell turtle in Dhanushadham, and Dev Narayan Mandal identified it. It was Nepal’s first recorded case of chromatic leucism in the species, and the turtle was returned to the wild. Global Voices covered the find in August 2020.
Photo: Jerome Ko · CC BY 4.0 (opens in a new tab) Helping set up the world’s first community-managed pangolin area
On World Pangolin Day 2018 the Chuchchekhola community forest group near Hetauda, Makawanpur, declared the world’s first community-managed pangolin conservation area. MWT was one of its supporters, with ZSL, the national parks department, NTNC and Himalayan Nature. Dialogue Earth reported on it in February 2020.
2016
Dhanushadham is declared free of illegal felling and grazing.
1 story
Photo: Shadow Ayush · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab) Dhanushadham declared free of illegal felling and grazing
On 30 May 2016 the Secretary of the Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation declared the protected forest an illicit felling and grazing free zone. It took more than 100 community meetings and no budget.
2013
MWT is founded to save the Dhanushadham forest.
1 story
Photo: Pratiyush009 · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab) Mithila Wildlife Trust is founded
Dev Narayan Mandal came home to Dhanusha after years with conservation NGOs in Delhi and found the Dhanushadham forest almost gone. With experienced people from his community he set up MWT in 2013 (2069 BS), registered in Dhanusha and affiliated with Nepal’s Social Welfare Council. One of the first services we offered was snake rescue, then new to Nepal.
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Further reading
Coverage of our work by newspapers, broadcasters, journals and partners.
In the news
- Nepal Traveller’s guide to Dhanushadham forestNepal Traveller · 10 Sep 2026 (opens in a new tab)
- A leopard rescued after months of community effortOnlinekhabar · 6 May 2026 (opens in a new tab)
- A partner’s visit to JanakpurOcean Outdoor · 17 Mar 2025 (opens in a new tab)
- SBS Nepali on Nag Panchami and snakesSBS Nepali · 23 Jan 2025 (opens in a new tab)
- Nepali Times profiles Dev Narayan MandalNepali Times · 30 Dec 2024 (opens in a new tab)
- Our founder’s case study for the World Economic ForumWorld Economic Forum · 2 Jul 2024 (opens in a new tab)
- Winter birds arrive in DhanushadhamThe Rising Nepal · 5 Jan 2024 (opens in a new tab)
- How a boar attack led to our learning centresNepali Times · 29 Jul 2022 (opens in a new tab)
- Nepali Times on our Miyawaki mini forestsNepali Times · 12 Jan 2022 (opens in a new tab)
- Nepal Now podcast: save a forest, empower a communityNepal Now · 16 Jun 2021 (opens in a new tab)
- Nepali Times: paid work restoring forest during CovidNepali Times · 12 May 2021 (opens in a new tab)
- Two white kraits found in NepalGlobal Voices · 23 Nov 2020 (opens in a new tab)
- A golden turtle, a first for NepalGlobal Voices · 14 Apr 2018 (opens in a new tab)
- Helping set up the world’s first community-managed pangolin areaDialogue Earth · 17 Feb 2018 (opens in a new tab)
Research
All links checked on 7 October 2026. Card photos are illustrative images from Wikimedia Commons that show each story’s subject, not the event itself; each is credited on the photo.