KATHMANDU — Raju Acharya, a Nepali conservationist, has been namedof the six winners of this year’s prestigious Whitley Awards, also known as the “Green Oscars,” in recognition of his work…
KATHMANDU — On an early spring morning in the western forests of Chitwan National Park in Nepal, a cacophony of birdsongs resonates through the air, mingling with the rustling of…
KATHMANDU — Nepal’s government has bypassed the country’s parliament to issue a controversial ordinance facilitating foreign investment in different sectors of the country, including protected areas, in a move that…
KATHMANDU — Whenever 60-year old Saraswati Adhikari goes for a morning walk in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, she says she feels a certain unease in her chest. “I get a burning…
Orchids (members of the family Orchidaceae) are diverse flowering plants with colorful and fragrant blooms and are often described as neglected plants in Nepal, where an estimated 500 or so…
As winter bids adieu to the Northern Hemisphere and the mercury peaks and humidity plummets, most of Nepal’s plains and hills become tinderboxes awaiting a spark. As officials face a…
This is the third story in a three-part miniseries on Nepal's development plans around protected areas. Read Part One and Part Two. KATHMANDU — Nepal’s government has proposed zoning of…
This is the second story in a three-part miniseries on Nepal's development plans around protected areas. Read Part One and Part Three. KATHMANDU — Nepal’s Ministry of Forest and Environment…
This is the first story in a three-part miniseries on Nepal's development plans around protected areas. Read Part Two and Part Three. KATHMANDU — Nepal’s Ministry of Forest and Environment…
KATHMANDU — On March 21, Nepal’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation completed the relocation of six vulnerable one-horned rhinos (Rhinoceros unicornis) from the western part of Chitwan National…
KATHMANDU — In February, river conservationists and tourism entrepreneurs gathered on the banks of the Trishuli River in central Nepal to voice concerns about a proposed hydropower project. They warned…
KATHMANDU — Nepal’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) released 25 critically endangered gharials (Gavialis gangeticus) into a tributary of the transboundary Mahakali River (also known as Sarda…
KATHMANDU — Nepal’s government remains undecided on how to manage tigers captured after attacking or killing humans, even as different stakeholders make varied suggestions on dealing with the urgent issue…
KATHMANDU — New rules that were supposed to make it easier for Nepalis affected by human-wildlife conflict to receive relief and compensation have created a bottleneck in the process instead.…
KATHMANDU — Until four decades ago, villagers in Nepal’s mountains would likely name Himalayan wolves as their primary concern among the wild animals native to their region. Lower down in…
KATHMANDU — The Bagmati River, coursing through Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, has transformed into a sewer canal in recent decades, with untreated raw sewage discharged into its waters. Officials are now…
KATHMANDU — Nepal's pioneering landscape-level ecosystem restoration initiative, aimed at creating dispersal space for tigers, has been globally recognized for its efforts to fight and reverse ecosystem degradation. Yet sustaining…
KATHMANDU – In July 2022, Tujin Rai, an undergraduate biology student, saw a dead snake outside his home in Dhankuta in Nepal’s eastern hills. He was curious to identify it.…
KATHMANDU — The start of 2024 has brought some good news, tempered with warnings, for Nepal’s critically endangered gharials, the fish-eating crocodiles with the comically bulbous snouts. Officials at Chitwan…
Chitwan, NEPAL — Rajendra Aryal (45) likes visiting the tourist town of Sauraha on the fringes of Chitwan National Park in Nepal. He enjoys the wilderness, the jungle safaris and…
LALITPUR, Nepal — As the gates to the vet clinic at the Central Zoo in Lalitpur opened, more than two dozen photojournalists thronged the facility and surrounded a metal cage…
KATHMANDU — Until Tuesday afternoon for residents of Urlabari town in the eastern plains of Nepal, snow leopards (Panthera uncia) were animals they knew little about. The leopards they knew…
KATHMANDU — The Nepali government has approved a controversial proposal allowing the construction of large-scale hydropower plants inside the country’s protected areas, in a move conservationists have slammed as a…
KATHMANDU — Think of big cats in Nepal, and the majestic tiger likely springs to mind, or maybe even the elusive snow leopard. But Nepal is also home to a…
KATHMANDU — As Nepal, one of the least industrialized countries in the world, invests in hydropower and roads to lift its people’s living standards, balancing public aspirations with conservation has…
KATHMANDU — Nepal’s much-lauded achievement of nearly tripling its tiger population between 2010 and 2022 made headlines all over the world. Officials hailed the milestone as proof that with concerted…
KATHMANDU — A rich diversity of life abounds across Nepal, from iconic big cats like the tiger and the snow leopard, to less celebrated creatures like vultures and macaques. And…
KATHMANDU — A year after nearly tripling its population of tigers (Panthera tigris) in just 12 years, Nepal’s conservation authorities and stakeholders decided in 2023 to change their approach from…
Nepal’s community forestry program has been hailed as a success for helping increase the country’s forest cover from 26% to 45% in 25 years. As part of the program, pioneered…
KATHMANDU — Hari Prasad Sharma recalls being astonished when he visited the Chure region in Nepal’s southern Madhesh province to study sloth bears. Sharma, an associate professor of zoology at…