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		<title>Mongabay India</title>
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		<link>https://india.mongabay.com/list/nepal/</link>
		<description>India&#039;s environmental science and conservation news</description>
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					<title>Nepal&#8217;s flood claim tests whether a nascent climate fund can deliver</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2026/09/nepals-flood-claim-tests-whether-a-young-climate-fund-can-deliver/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2026/09/nepals-flood-claim-tests-whether-a-young-climate-fund-can-deliver/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Sep 2026 15:25:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kundan Pandey]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Aditi Tandon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[climate action]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hindu Kush Himalaya]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Loss and damage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Loss and damage fund]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2026/09/14125738/AP26251387871560-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=40892</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Climate Finance]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Nepal]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Climate Change Adaptation, Extreme Weather Events, Floods, Glacial Lake Outburst Flood, and Impacts of Climate Change]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[More than 1,386 people have died and over 5,130 more missing, as of September 12, following the August 26 floods in Nepal. In the wreckage along the Bhote Koshi river lie two unresolved questions: Is climate change linked to the disaster? And, can a nascent global fund, built to help vulnerable countries in such crises, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[More than 1,386 people have died and over 5,130 more missing, as of September 12, following the August 26 floods in Nepal. In the wreckage along the Bhote Koshi river lie two unresolved questions: Is climate change linked to the disaster? And, can a nascent global fund, built to help vulnerable countries in such crises, actually deliver? Soon after the floods, the Government of Nepal wrote a letter to the Board of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD), a financial mechanism of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) established in 2022 to help vulnerable countries cope with climate disasters. In the letter signed by the country’s Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle and Minister for Agriculture, Forest and Environment Gita Chaudhary, Nepal requested the board to take a special decision to respond rapidly, directly and effectively. Signed on August 31, the letter emphasised that a prompt response would “demonstrate that the Fund can translate international solidarity into timely support for vulnerable countries and communities when it is most urgently needed.” Nepal contributes roughly 0.027% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The mountainous country is in the &#8216;least developed country&#8217; category designated by the UN and is a highly climate-vulnerable country that &#8220;continues to bear disproportionate and escalating climate impacts,&#8221; the letter states. It argues that the Bhote Koshi disaster demonstrates how extreme events in the cryosphere can rapidly cascade and compound from high mountains to densely populated downstream areas, affecting water, food, energy, health, infrastructure and ecosystems. Though&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2026/09/nepals-flood-claim-tests-whether-a-young-climate-fund-can-deliver/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://india.mongabay.com/2026/09/nepals-flood-claim-tests-whether-a-young-climate-fund-can-deliver/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>Farmers see red as blue bulls raid their fields</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2025/03/farmers-see-red-as-blue-bulls-raid-their-fields/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2025/03/farmers-see-red-as-blue-bulls-raid-their-fields/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Mar 2025 10:43:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mukesh Pokhrel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Crop loss]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[farmers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[herbivores]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nilgai]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2025/03/11140517/15-2-e1741363588350-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=31800</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[India and Nepal]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Three years ago, Ram Chandra Kurmi, a farmer from the village of Gaidahawa in south-western Nepal, abandoned his small vegetable plot. The 39-year-old, who once supported his family of five through farming, now struggles to make a stable income. The culprit, he says, is the uncontrolled proliferation of nilgais, or blue bulls (Boselaphus tragocamelus), a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Three years ago, Ram Chandra Kurmi, a farmer from the village of Gaidahawa in south-western Nepal, abandoned his small vegetable plot. The 39-year-old, who once supported his family of five through farming, now struggles to make a stable income. The culprit, he says, is the uncontrolled proliferation of nilgais, or blue bulls (Boselaphus tragocamelus), a large antelope species native to this region. “Nilgais come at night when no one’s around to shoo them away and munch on the vegetables,” he said. “I couldn’t do anything about it, so I had to quit farming altogether.” Kurmi’s story is echoed across the Indo-Gangetic plains that straddle the Nepal-India border region, where marginalised farming communities complain of government inaction to address the problem. The nilgai is typically found at elevations ranging from 75-300 meters (about 300-1,000 ft). It’s been described as having the body of a horse and head of an antelope. Making it even more distinctive is the fact that adult males are iron-blue to light gray in color, hence the name nilgai (“blue cow”). It’s also been said to have the “appetite of a cow, the speed of a horse, and the alertness of a dog.” Nepal’s government lacks official data on nilgais outside the country’s national parks, but a 2018 Ministry of Forests and Environment assessment estimated 300-350 individuals across several border districts, such as Rupandehi (where the town of Gaidahawa is located), Kapilvastu, Nawalparasi, Rautahat, Sarlahi, Dhanusha and Siraha. Nilgai antelopes in Rajasthan, India. Image by vil.sandi via Flickr (CC&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2025/03/farmers-see-red-as-blue-bulls-raid-their-fields/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://india.mongabay.com/2025/03/farmers-see-red-as-blue-bulls-raid-their-fields/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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					<title>A border village learns to live with migratory elephants</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2025/02/a-border-village-learns-to-live-with-migratory-elephants/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2025/02/a-border-village-learns-to-live-with-migratory-elephants/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Feb 2025 13:00:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Deepak Adhikari]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[human elephant conflict]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Human-wildlife conflict]]></category>
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					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=31480</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Nepal]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Elephants, Mammals, and Migration]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The heavy thud against the glass window sent Krishna Bahadur Rasaili’s heart racing. Stepping outside, he saw his granary lay in ruins, and an elephant was feasting on his hard-earned paddy harvest. For years, this has been a terrifying reality in Bahundangi, a village along Nepal’s eastern border with India along the Mechi River. Wild [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The heavy thud against the glass window sent Krishna Bahadur Rasaili’s heart racing. Stepping outside, he saw his granary lay in ruins, and an elephant was feasting on his hard-earned paddy harvest. For years, this has been a terrifying reality in Bahundangi, a village along Nepal’s eastern border with India along the Mechi River. Wild Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), following their ancient migratory routes, frequently storm farms, devour crops and even ransack granaries. Desperate, village residents, including Rasaili, were accustomed to banging their tin drums and waving flaming torches in a futile attempt to drive them away. On the evening of December 8, 2021, Rasaili even contemplated resorting to the old methods. But his family members remembered what local campaigners had told them about elephants and did something different. Instead of shouting or fighting back, they quietly stayed indoors. With half of its body inside their home, the elephant devoured the rice and then moved on. “We no longer fear elephants nor are we angry at them,” Rasaili says. “When they come, we stay inside. If we don’t disturb them, they walk their path. If we shout, they create trouble.” Once a hotspot for human-elephant conflict, this village has transformed itself into a model of peaceful human-wildlife coexistence through a combination of innovative strategies, conservationists say. The communities in the last decade adopted crops that are unappealing to elephants and have changed their attitudes toward the animal, thanks to the effective implementation of government support. “Bahundangi has demonstrated that coexistence&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2025/02/a-border-village-learns-to-live-with-migratory-elephants/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://india.mongabay.com/2025/02/a-border-village-learns-to-live-with-migratory-elephants/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>New study proposes roadmap to conserve the clouded leopard</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2025/01/new-study-proposes-roadmap-to-conserve-the-clouded-leopard/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2025/01/new-study-proposes-roadmap-to-conserve-the-clouded-leopard/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Jan 2025 15:21:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sneha Mahale]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shailesh Shrivastava]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Clouded leopard]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Himalayas]]></category>
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					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=31042</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Almost Famous Species]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Himalayas, India, and Nepal]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Endangered species, Mountains, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Across some of Asia’s ancient forests roams an elusive and enigmatic predator—the clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa). Known for its striking, cloud-shaped coat patterns, this species inhabits a vast range in Asia. However, its population is declining rapidly in mainland Asia due to multifaceted threats, including habitat destruction, direct exploitation, targeted hunting, and incidental deaths from [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Across some of Asia’s ancient forests roams an elusive and enigmatic predator—the clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa). Known for its striking, cloud-shaped coat patterns, this species inhabits a vast range in Asia. However, its population is declining rapidly in mainland Asia due to multifaceted threats, including habitat destruction, direct exploitation, targeted hunting, and incidental deaths from snares intended for other animals. The species is classified as &#8216;vulnerable&#8217; by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). “Climate change is expected to worsen habitat suitability, potentially causing up to 41% habitat loss across its current and historical range, according to the IUCN. This will likely lead to increased habitat fragmentation, with a projected reduction of viable habitat patches (number of patches) by up to 23.29% in the future,” says Imon Abedin, a wildlife biologist and PhD scholar, Department of Zoology, Bodoland University. Abedin and four other researchers recently conducted a study to address critical gaps in understanding the species’ habitat suitability, fragmentation, and connectivity across its historical and current ranges, in order to formulate a conservation roadmap. Land locked The clouded leopard’s range spans the Himalayas in Nepal, Bhutan, and India, extending across south China and down to Peninsular Malaysia. However, the species is extinct in Taiwan, and populations are critically low, nearing extirpation in Vietnam, China, and Bangladesh. Additionally, population trends in other range countries, including Nepal, Bhutan, India, Malaysia, and Thailand, remain poorly documented. Given the threats it faces, the IUCN has repeatedly revised the clouded leopard&#8217;s range, categorising it&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2025/01/new-study-proposes-roadmap-to-conserve-the-clouded-leopard/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://india.mongabay.com/2025/01/new-study-proposes-roadmap-to-conserve-the-clouded-leopard/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>Climate change affects mating in yaks; breeding season shifts</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2024/08/climate-change-affects-mating-in-yaks-breeding-season-pushed-in-the-himalayan-highlands/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2024/08/climate-change-affects-mating-in-yaks-breeding-season-pushed-in-the-himalayan-highlands/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Aug 2024 14:45:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nidhi Jamwal]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Kundan Pandey]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[climate change impact]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Himalayas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nepal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yak]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2024/08/07114004/Chencho-Dema-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=28913</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Climate Connections]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[India and Nepal]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behaviour, Biodiversity, Climate Change, and Impacts of Climate Change]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A steep climb from Namche Bazar, a village of the Indigenous Sherpa community, leads to the undulating grasslands of Syangboche in the Everest region of Nepal. Right in the middle of the patan (grassland), at an altitude of 3,885 metres above mean sea level, is the stone and tin-shed structure that is the Yak Genetic [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A steep climb from Namche Bazar, a village of the Indigenous Sherpa community, leads to the undulating grasslands of Syangboche in the Everest region of Nepal. Right in the middle of the patan (grassland), at an altitude of 3,885 metres above mean sea level, is the stone and tin-shed structure that is the Yak Genetic Resource Centre. The grassland around the resource centre, which comes under the Nepal government’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, is fenced with a barbed wire mounted on a low cemented wall. It is early May and a herd of domesticated yaks (Bos grunniens) and their calves are grazing meditatively. “Yaks are the lifeline of this region. The centre has about 155 yaks and we conduct research and maintain a high variation in the genetic makeup of this high-altitude species, commonly found in the Everest region,” Ramlallan Yadav, technical officer at the Yak Genetic Research Centre for 24 years, tells Mongabay India. Yadav says climate change is closely linked to the state of the yak population. “For the past 10-11 years, there has been a shift in the breeding season of yaks.  The mating season was in the months of June and July, but that has now shifted to September,” he says. The mating season depends on the availability of grasses and nutrition for yaks. But the grasslands are getting degraded and encroached, temperatures are rising, and rainfall patterns are erratic. There has also been an increase in invasive alien plant species.  Yadav fears that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2024/08/climate-change-affects-mating-in-yaks-breeding-season-pushed-in-the-himalayan-highlands/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Kancha Sherpa, a member of the first successful expedition to Everest, is worried. Here’s why.</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2024/06/mount-everest-climber-surge-climate-change-tourism/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2024/06/mount-everest-climber-surge-climate-change-tourism/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Jun 2024 13:48:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nidhi Jamwal]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Kundan Pandey]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[climate change impact]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Everest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Glaciers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kancha Sherpa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Summit]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2024/06/25110657/everest-base-camp-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=28265</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Climate Connections]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[India and Nepal]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Glaciers, Himalayas, Impacts of Climate Change, and Tourism]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Kancha Sherpa was barely 20 years old when he became a part of the climbing team that accompanied Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, the first people to summit Mount Everest, on May 29, 1953. Today, at 92, Kancha is the last living member of that team. From his home in Namche village in Khumbu [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Kancha Sherpa was barely 20 years old when he became a part of the climbing team that accompanied Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, the first people to summit Mount Everest, on May 29, 1953. Today, at 92, Kancha is the last living member of that team. From his home in Namche village in Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality, Kancha watches hordes of mountaineers and trekkers making their way to the world’s tallest peak. The May 1953 expedition he was part of had opened the doors of Mount Everest to the world. Since then, annually, hundreds of climbers from across the globe crowd into the Solukhumbu district of Nepal to scale Mount Everest, locally known as Sagarmatha. The Sherpas, a Tibetan-origin ethnic community of Nepal, revere Sagarmatha as a goddess and worship her. She is also known as Chomolungma (Qomolangma) in Tibetan, meaning ‘Mother Goddess of the World.’ “The number of climbers and travellers is growing by leaps and bounds. Anyone who has money to pay the government can try to summit Sagarmatha. All that the government wants is money,” worries Kancha. “For the Sherpas, Sagarmatha is our Devi; she is our Provider. We set our foot on Her only after seeking her forgiveness first,” he tells Mongabay India. Nepal is home to eight of the world’s ten highest peaks, and foreign climbers are a major source of revenue for the Himalayan nation. In 2023, the government earned around $5 million in revenue from Mount Everest alone in one climbing&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2024/06/mount-everest-climber-surge-climate-change-tourism/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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					<title>Nepal&#8217;s traditional healers push for recognition and licensing of their age-old practices</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2024/01/nepals-traditional-healers-push-for-recognition-and-licensing-of-their-age-old-practices/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2024/01/nepals-traditional-healers-push-for-recognition-and-licensing-of-their-age-old-practices/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jan 2024 10:28:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Traditional Knowledge]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2024/01/02173614/Lo-Manthang-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=25914</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Knowledge]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Himalayas, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Community based conservation, Conservation, Himalayas, and Indigenous Peoples]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Along Tibet&#8217;s border in Nepal, where tall ancient structures stand in the arid landscape, is the isolated kingdom of Lo Manthang where tourists have been allowed only since the late 1990s. Here, 65-year-old Gyatso Bista is trying preserve the ancient Tibetan medicinal system of Sowa Rigpa. He lives in a small settlement of Loba Buddhists [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Along Tibet&#8217;s border in Nepal, where tall ancient structures stand in the arid landscape, is the isolated kingdom of Lo Manthang where tourists have been allowed only since the late 1990s. Here, 65-year-old Gyatso Bista is trying preserve the ancient Tibetan medicinal system of Sowa Rigpa. He lives in a small settlement of Loba Buddhists whose children have now migrated out, practicing the ancient science of healing. This traditional knowledge and practice, relying on both scholarly and religious texts, has been used in highland Asian communities for more than 2,500 years. Throughout the millennia, healers gathered, observed and tested a vast array of local endemic species, varieties of plants, fungi and lichens and dozens of minerals, working them into formulas with the hope, and satisfaction, that they could treat certain physical and mental illnesses. The right quantity of herb ingredients is the key to the medicinal formula, Bista says. Myrobalan (Terminalia chebula), baheda (Terminalia bellirica) and amala (Phyllanthus emblica), which all have a sour taste, are considered the king of herbs and are common ingredients used among hundreds. Plant and pharmacognosy studies also attest to their healing, therapeutic and cardioprotective benefits, as well as the herbal properties of other plants, fungi and minerals that healers have documented in their pharmaceutical system. “Healers are trained to not only recognise herb potency and healing benefits but also to put together the required quantity of ingredients to develop a medicine,” Bista says. Although this knowledge dates back to before the first millenium, it&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2024/01/nepals-traditional-healers-push-for-recognition-and-licensing-of-their-age-old-practices/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Researchers in Nepal still puzzled over the super flock of pigeons last winter</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2023/11/researchers-in-nepal-still-puzzled-over-the-super-flock-of-pigeons-last-winter/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2023/11/researchers-in-nepal-still-puzzled-over-the-super-flock-of-pigeons-last-winter/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Nov 2023 11:36:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Nandithachandraprakash]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pigeons]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2023/10/31115034/common-wood-pigeon-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=25094</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behaviour, Birds, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Three reasearchers in Nepal, Hiru Lal Dangaura, Vikram Tiwari and Subam Chaudhary, were conducting a routine check on a vulture colony in the western plains of Nepal in December 2022. They witnessed an extraordinary spectacle here: a huge flock of pigeons. The swarm that stretched across the sky formed a dynamic canvas of gray and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Three reasearchers in Nepal, Hiru Lal Dangaura, Vikram Tiwari and Subam Chaudhary, were conducting a routine check on a vulture colony in the western plains of Nepal in December 2022. They witnessed an extraordinary spectacle here: a huge flock of pigeons. The swarm that stretched across the sky formed a dynamic canvas of gray and white. The air filled was with the rhythmic flapping of wings and the soft cooing of the birds, the researchers recall. The discovery of the flock, estimated at some 6,500 pigeons on December 14, and 7,500 the next day, has been touted as a rare phenomenon that has puzzled local researchers and bird-watchers alike, Dangaura and his colleagues wrote in a recently published study in the Nepalese Journal of Zoology. A large flock of common woodpigeons seen in western Nepal in December 2022. The flock dispersed in a few days. Photo by Hiru Lal Dangaura. “We had never encountered such a large assembly of pigeons in our careers,” Dangaura, a project field officer at the NGO Bird Conservation Nepal (BCN), told Mongabay. The observation coincided with the period when in the plains started irrigating their land for their winter wheat crop. “When water enters the fields, bird prey such as worms and insects come to the surface. The pigeons we saw were feeding on those types of prey,” Dangaura said. The flock was made up of the South-Central Asian subspecies of the common woodpigeon, Columba palumbus casiotis, which the study authors identified from the birds’&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2023/11/researchers-in-nepal-still-puzzled-over-the-super-flock-of-pigeons-last-winter/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://india.mongabay.com/2023/11/researchers-in-nepal-still-puzzled-over-the-super-flock-of-pigeons-last-winter/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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					<title>In Nepal, vulture colonies seen to hold stable amid old and new threats</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2023/10/in-nepal-vulture-colonies-seen-to-hold-stable-amid-old-and-new-threats/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2023/10/in-nepal-vulture-colonies-seen-to-hold-stable-amid-old-and-new-threats/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Oct 2023 16:58:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Nandithachandraprakash]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Birds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vulture]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2023/10/02162216/vultures-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=24691</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Birds, Conservation, Endangered species, Environmental Law, and Extinction]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In Nepal, the lower mountains are covered by chir pine trees (Pinus roxburghii). On a bright morning, a pair of white-rumped vultures (Gyps bengalensis) can be seen building a nest among the green needles and brown cones of a tree. They choose a sturdy trunk, high enough to avoid predators and low enough to catch [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[In Nepal, the lower mountains are covered by chir pine trees (Pinus roxburghii). On a bright morning, a pair of white-rumped vultures (Gyps bengalensis) can be seen building a nest among the green needles and brown cones of a tree. They choose a sturdy trunk, high enough to avoid predators and low enough to catch the warm breeze. They collect twigs and branches and weave them into a platform; they add some feathers and grass to make the floor of the nest comfortable for their egg, which will hatch into a chick—after all, vultures are known to lay only one egg every year. A vulture guards its nest in Arghakhanchi, Nepal. Photo by Krishna Prasad Bhusal. The two individuals of the now critically endangered species, which was once known as the world’s most abundant large bird of prey, are not alone. Around two dozen vulture pairs also nest nearby. A new study documenting the two colonies located in the Arghakhanchi district published only a few days ahead of International Vulture Awareness Day (Sept. 3) and on the heels of the launch of Nepal’s new Vulture Conservation Action Plan (2023-2027) has found that the numbers of vulture nests, chicks and chicks per nest in the colonies haven’t changed much in the last decade. The findings come as a respite for conservationists as South Asian vultures recover from the “diclofenac crisis” (in which the birds died from feeding on the carcasses of cattle that had been given the painkiller diclofenac) but continue&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2023/10/in-nepal-vulture-colonies-seen-to-hold-stable-amid-old-and-new-threats/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>The endangered gharial&#8217;s conservation crisis highlighted after death of a male in Nepal</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2023/08/the-endangered-gharials-conservation-crisis-highlighted-after-death-of-a-male-in-nepal/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2023/08/the-endangered-gharials-conservation-crisis-highlighted-after-death-of-a-male-in-nepal/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Aug 2023 11:38:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Nandithachandraprakash]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gharials]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2023/08/18191106/male-gharial-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=24130</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Beyond Protected Areas]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Nepal and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Endangered species, Reptiles, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On June 26, in Nepal&#8217;s Chitwan National Park, a male gharial, one of the world&#8217;s most endangered crocodilians, was found dead. A fishing net was found wrapped around the animal&#8217;s snout and a hook pierced its abdomen. The death of the gharial (Gavialis gungeticus), a fish-eating crocodile with a long, narrow snout, is a major [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On June 26, in Nepal&#8217;s Chitwan National Park, a male gharial, one of the world&#8217;s most endangered crocodilians, was found dead. A fishing net was found wrapped around the animal&#8217;s snout and a hook pierced its abdomen. The death of the gharial (Gavialis gungeticus), a fish-eating crocodile with a long, narrow snout, is a major blow to the conservation of the species, which has only a few hundred individuals left in the wild. Male gharials are especially rare and vital for the survival of the population, as they mate with multiple females and fertilise their eggs. “The natural sex ratio in gharials is already heavily skewed towards females with only a handful of males for a hundred females,” said conservationist Ashish Basyal. “Any unnatural death of a gharial is a serious threat for conservation, but the death of a male can have even severe consequences on the population.” The gharial was discovered on the banks of the Budhi Rapti stream, a tributary of the Rapti river that flows through the park. According to Chitwan National Park officials, it was one of only four or five adult males in the Reu, Rapti and Narayani rivers, which are home to about 219 gharials. A 2019 survey of the Rapti river spotted 99 gharials, but only one was confirmed as an adult male. The gharial uses its slim snout for fishing. Photo by Josh More/ZSL. Gharials were once abundant in the Ganges river and its tributaries that flow through the plains of Nepal&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2023/08/the-endangered-gharials-conservation-crisis-highlighted-after-death-of-a-male-in-nepal/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Flooding caused the greatest economic damages in Asia in 2022, says WMO report</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2023/08/flooding-caused-greatest-economic-damages-in-asia-in-2022-says-wmo-report/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2023/08/flooding-caused-greatest-economic-damages-in-asia-in-2022-says-wmo-report/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Aug 2023 13:05:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Simrin Sirur]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Simrinsirur]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[floods]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[south asia]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2023/08/02100009/1024px-People_returning_home_as_soon_as_the_water_recedes_enough_5330986750-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=23880</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Climate Connections and Flood and drought]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[India, Nepal, Pakistan, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Extreme Weather Events and Floods]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Asian region was battered by extreme events driven by climate change, with flooding emerging as a particularly frequent and damaging threat, a new report by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) released at the end of July, shows. India suffered the third highest losses in the region on account of flooding, amounting to over $4.2 billion, the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Asian region was battered by extreme events driven by climate change, with flooding emerging as a particularly frequent and damaging threat, a new report by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) released at the end of July, shows. India suffered the third highest losses in the region on account of flooding, amounting to over $4.2 billion, the report found. The warming trend in Asia between the years 1991 and 2022 was almost double the warming trend during the 1961 to 1990 period, says the WMO report. In 2022, mean surface temperatures were either the second or third warmest on record over Asia, at about 0.72 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average and 1.68 degrees Celsius above the 1961-1990 average, which is the WMO’s reference period for assessing climate change. Global mean surface temperature reached 1.15 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels last year. While these rising temperatures have brought with them worsening heatwaves, precipitation, sea level rise and drought over the last year, flooding was the leading cause of death and damage in the region in 2022, according to the report. The Asian region experienced a total of 81 natural hazard events last year, according to the WMO’s Emergency Events Database, of which over 83% were flood and storm events. “Normally, high land surface temperatures should pass onto the sea. But because ocean temperatures are also rising at a faster rate, it is causing heat to trap,” explained Abinash Mohanty, an expert reviewer for the IPCC’s sixth assessment report on climate change and Sector&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2023/08/flooding-caused-greatest-economic-damages-in-asia-in-2022-says-wmo-report/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>Himalayas losing glaciers and snow: more hazards in the offing, a new study finds</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2023/07/himalayas-losing-glaciers-and-snow-more-hazards-in-the-offing-a-new-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2023/07/himalayas-losing-glaciers-and-snow-more-hazards-in-the-offing-a-new-study-finds/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Jul 2023 14:16:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Arathi Menon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Aditi Tandon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[climate change]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[disasters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Glaciers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global warming]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hazards]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Himalayas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[snow]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2023/07/25140650/31971448231_330429310b_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=23778</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Climate Connections]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Himalayas, India, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Glaciers, Global Warming, and Impacts of Climate Change]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“As scientists, what worries us the most is the scale at which the glaciers are melting in the Himalayas,” said Jakob F. Steiner, a fellow at the Himalayan University Consortium (HUC). “For instance, there is a glacier in the Himalayas that has been monitored for the longest time. It is almost dead now. What remains [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“As scientists, what worries us the most is the scale at which the glaciers are melting in the Himalayas,” said Jakob F. Steiner, a fellow at the Himalayan University Consortium (HUC). “For instance, there is a glacier in the Himalayas that has been monitored for the longest time. It is almost dead now. What remains is a patch of ice hanging up there. We don&#8217;t even call it a glacier anymore because it&#8217;s just a piece of ice,” he shared. The long-term observations and assessments of the cryosphere of the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) by scientists, including Steiner, have culminated in a report titled Water, ice, society and ecosystems in the Hindu Kush Himalaya or the HI-WISE report. Released by Nepal-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in June this year, the HI-WISE report follows the HKH Assessment Report (2019), which assessed literature published till 2017, focusing on aspects of climate change, cryosphere, water and biodiversity. The latest report puts additional focus on the mountain-dependent societies and ecosystems and uncovers the cryosphere-hydrosphere-biosphere-society linkages in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region. Philippus Wester, lead editor and coordinator of the report said that they wanted to broaden the scope of the study by including societies and ecosystems as well. “We know the cryosphere is changing but we don’t fully know what that implies to the mountain-dependent communities and the ecosystems,” Wester said. The HI-WISE report aims to inform the people of the Hindu Kush Himalaya, as well as decision-makers, practitioners and the global&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2023/07/himalayas-losing-glaciers-and-snow-more-hazards-in-the-offing-a-new-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Tigers struggle to move within Nepal even as they cross borders: study</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2023/07/tigers-struggle-to-move-within-nepal-even-as-they-cross-borders-study/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2023/07/tigers-struggle-to-move-within-nepal-even-as-they-cross-borders-study/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Jul 2023 13:50:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Nandithachandraprakash]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2023/07/19131416/tiger-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=23710</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Connected Environments]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, India, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Endangered species, Tigers, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[India&#8217;s latest national tiger census announced in April this year also revealed a new habitat for tigers in the country with photographic evidence of the big cat: the Suhelwa Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh, which borders Nepal. Researchers had captured images of two tigers in the sanctuary, one of which had the same stripes as [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[India&#8217;s latest national tiger census announced in April this year also revealed a new habitat for tigers in the country with photographic evidence of the big cat: the Suhelwa Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh, which borders Nepal. Researchers had captured images of two tigers in the sanctuary, one of which had the same stripes as a tiger photographed in Nepal&#8217;s Banke National Park, suggesting that it had crossed the border. “This was a sign that the transboundary corridors connecting tiger populations in India and Nepal were functional and that tigers could move from one protected area to another,” said conservationist Hem Sagar Baral, co-author of a recent modelling study to identify and assess both domestic and transboundary potential tiger corridors. It also highlights the landscape-based approach that the two countries adopted in the early 2000s to save the tigers in the Terai Arc Landscape (TAL), a flatland region along the Ganges and its tributaries, said Tek Raj Bhatt, lead author of the study. But while tigers can cross borders, they face more challenges moving within Nepal, conservationists say. “We have invested so much in transboundary corridors, protected areas and buffer zones, but not adequate attention has been paid to domestic corridors,&#8221; Bhatt told Mongabay. The TAL in Nepal used to be a continuous forest where tigers roamed freely until the 1960s, when an east-west highway was built across it. The forests were cleared for the highway, which brought migration and made human travel easy but blocked the tigers&#8217; movement. In&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2023/07/tigers-struggle-to-move-within-nepal-even-as-they-cross-borders-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>Nepal comes next in line to Sri Lanka to debate exporting ‘problematic’ monkeys</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2023/05/nepal-comes-next-in-line-to-sri-lanka-to-debate-exporting-problematic-monkeys/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2023/05/nepal-comes-next-in-line-to-sri-lanka-to-debate-exporting-problematic-monkeys/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 May 2023 11:42:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Nandithachandraprakash]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2023/05/16110338/rhesus-monkeys-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=22848</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Beyond Protected Areas]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Human Wildlife Conflict, Monkeys, People, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[At the break of dawn in Taplejung in eastern Nepal, as a rooster crows, two men grab their slingshots and head out to work. They have a long day ahead of them. Their job today, as most other days this season, is to guard the orange trees from the hungry monkeys that roam the forests. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[At the break of dawn in Taplejung in eastern Nepal, as a rooster crows, two men grab their slingshots and head out to work. They have a long day ahead of them. Their job today, as most other days this season, is to guard the orange trees from the hungry monkeys that roam the forests. These staffers at the orange research center in Taplejung aren’t alone in their struggle. Across Nepal’s central hill country, thousands of farmers face the same problem: troops of rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), accustomed to human food, enter their fields, leaving behind a trail of destruction and exasperated farmers. “Sometimes we feel that we are farming not to feed ourselves, we are doing it for the monkeys,” says Ram Prasad Timsina from Pokhara. “They are not afraid to attack us if they find us alone.” Fed up with the monkeys, everyone from farmers to government officials at the municipal through to national levels have long been looking for quick-fix solutions to the issue. Then recent reports emerged from another South Asian country, Sri Lanka, that’s also dealing with crop-raiding macaques. That country’s agriculture minister announced the proposed export of 100,000 toque macaques (Macaca sinica) to China in a bid “to control their population.” While the government in Colombo said the monkeys would be sent to zoos in China, animal rights activists and environmentalists raised concerns they would be used for medical research or killed for food. The proposal met with a huge outcry from the public&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2023/05/nepal-comes-next-in-line-to-sri-lanka-to-debate-exporting-problematic-monkeys/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>The love for momos in Nepal is threatening endangered wild water buffaloes</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2023/04/the-love-for-momos-in-nepal-is-threatening-endangered-wild-water-buffaloes/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2023/04/the-love-for-momos-in-nepal-is-threatening-endangered-wild-water-buffaloes/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Apr 2023 17:11:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Nandithachandraprakash]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2023/04/17133544/buffaloes-nepal-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=22489</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Beyond Protected Areas]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Endangered species, Food, and Poaching]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Momos, the popular bite-sized dumplings filled with spicy minced meat and accompanied by spicy sauces, originated in Nepal and Tibet. It is a beloved staple for Nepalis both at home and abroad, and serves as a favoured option for lunch, dinner and comfort food. The most sought-after momos in Nepal, are made with buffalo meat, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Momos, the popular bite-sized dumplings filled with spicy minced meat and accompanied by spicy sauces, originated in Nepal and Tibet. It is a beloved staple for Nepalis both at home and abroad, and serves as a favoured option for lunch, dinner and comfort food. The most sought-after momos in Nepal, are made with buffalo meat, leading to a high demand for this meat in urban areas of the country. However, this high demand could pose a threat to the endangered wild water buffaloes (Bubalus arnee) in the eastern plains of Nepal. “We have seen that up to 70% of the meat sold in the market in Nepal comes from buffaloes,” says Bhojan Dhakal, researcher at the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC). “People are willing to pay more for the buffalo meat if it comes from a crossbreed between wild water buffaloes and domestic water buffaloes [Bubalus bubalis],” he adds. “Also, local communities believe that hybrid females produce more milk than other domesticated ones.” In Nepal, the most sought-after momos, due to their taste, are made with buffalo meat, leading to a high demand for this meat in the urban areas. Photo by areta ekarafi/Flickr. That’s why people from as far as India, on the other side of the border, leave their domestic water buffaloes out in the open near the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve in eastern Nepal, the country’s last remaining habitat for wild buffaloes. “Just the other day we caught some people who were trying to sneak in their&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2023/04/the-love-for-momos-in-nepal-is-threatening-endangered-wild-water-buffaloes/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Manul, the ‘grumpiest cat,’ confirmed on the world’s highest mountain</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2023/03/manul-the-grumpiest-cat-confirmed-on-the-worlds-highest-mountain/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2023/03/manul-the-grumpiest-cat-confirmed-on-the-worlds-highest-mountain/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Mar 2023 09:57:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Nandithachandraprakash]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2023/03/27142202/manul-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=22222</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Connected Environments]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Cats, Mountains, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[David Attenborough once described the elusive manul, the world&#8217;s grumpiest cat. If you were a grumpy cat, you’d probably want to avoid company, too. And what better place for solitude than the slopes of the world’s tallest mountain? This appears, at least, to be the newest-known haunt of the manul, or Pallas’s cat (Otocolobus manul), [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[David Attenborough once described the elusive manul, the world&#8217;s grumpiest cat. If you were a grumpy cat, you’d probably want to avoid company, too. And what better place for solitude than the slopes of the world’s tallest mountain? This appears, at least, to be the newest-known haunt of the manul, or Pallas’s cat (Otocolobus manul), a cold-adapted species, about the size of a domestic cat. Its range is already known to include other parts of the Himalayas, stretching east to Siberia and west to the Iranian Plateau. Habitat where Pallas&#8217;s cat scat was collected. Photo © Anton Seimon/National Geographic. This image does not fall under Mongabay’s Creative Commons License and is not available for republishing. A recent study published in the journal CATnews that analysed scat samples in the region around Sagarmatha (also known as Mount Everest) found evidence of at least two of the cats living in the region, going undetected for many years by the tourists and mountain climbers who pass through. “When we found a scat, we didn’t know which animal it belonged to. We just collected the samples and brought it to our lab,” Tracie Seimon, who led the study under the 2019 National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Everest Expedition, told Mongabay. Collecting scat wasn’t the primary objective of Seimon’s team, who worked in the Khumbu Valley on the southern flank of the mountain for more than four weeks. They were actually collecting water samples to analyze environmental DNA, or eDNA — trace amounts of genetic&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2023/03/manul-the-grumpiest-cat-confirmed-on-the-worlds-highest-mountain/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>Climate change and catfight in the Himalayas: tigers, leopards venture into snow leopard land</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2023/03/climate-change-and-catfight-in-the-himalayas-tigers-leopards-venture-into-snow-leopard-land/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2023/03/climate-change-and-catfight-in-the-himalayas-tigers-leopards-venture-into-snow-leopard-land/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Mar 2023 12:24:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Nandithachandraprakash]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[big cats]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[climate change]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Himalayas]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2023/03/13111930/snow-leopard-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=22054</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Beyond Protected Areas and Climate Connections]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Himalayas, India, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Climate Change, Climate Change Adaptation, Endangered species, Environment, Habitat Loss, and Tigers]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[An undated video believed to be from an Indian forest recently went viral. A tiger, sitting quietly among trees observing something in the distance, roars and darts towards its target. It&#8217;s a leopard that jumps down from a tree. The confrontation ends with the leopard taking a submissive stance by lying on the ground, and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[An undated video believed to be from an Indian forest recently went viral. A tiger, sitting quietly among trees observing something in the distance, roars and darts towards its target. It&#8217;s a leopard that jumps down from a tree. The confrontation ends with the leopard taking a submissive stance by lying on the ground, and both cats backing off. This video led at least one social media user in neighbouring Nepal to ask: As tigers, leopards and snow leopards bear the brunt of climate change, is it possible that their habitats will overlap in the future, pushing them into direct competition for prey and habitat? There’s no easy answer, conservationists say. “We don’t have enough research to answer the question clearly,” says conservationist Bikram Shrestha. “But we have seen that whenever the habitats of big cats overlap, they tend to avoid each other, and the stronger one displaces the weaker one.” Conservationists have traditionally considered &#8216;endangered&#8217; tigers (Panthera tigris) the apex predators of Nepal’s southern plains; &#8216;vulnerable&#8217; leopards (Panthera pardus) as reigning in the country’s hill region; and &#8216;vulnerable&#8217; snow leopards (Panthera uncia) lording it further north in the mountains. This, at least, is the way it’s taught in the country’s schools. But various studies have shown that climate change is increasingly pushing tigers and leopards further north in search of suitable habitat, encroaching on the territory of snow leopards. There’s already an overlap in the range of the three species, especially at higher elevations. Camera traps have recorded tigers&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2023/03/climate-change-and-catfight-in-the-himalayas-tigers-leopards-venture-into-snow-leopard-land/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://india.mongabay.com/2023/03/climate-change-and-catfight-in-the-himalayas-tigers-leopards-venture-into-snow-leopard-land/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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					<title>[Interview] &#8220;South Asia needs its own regional plan to sustain Bengal tiger population&#8221;</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2022/10/interview-south-asia-needs-its-own-regional-plan-to-sustain-bengal-tiger-population/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2022/10/interview-south-asia-needs-its-own-regional-plan-to-sustain-bengal-tiger-population/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Oct 2022 13:02:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Nandithachandraprakash]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2022/10/12111226/bengal-tiger-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=20203</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Connected Environments]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, India, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Endangered species, Interviews, Tigers, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The tiger population in Nepal nearly tripled over the past 12 years. As part of global efforts to double the wild tiger population, the country&#8217;s target was to have 250 tigers by this year, but the figure of 355 surpassed that. Despite the applause, various concerns have emerged, especially about the maximum number of tigers [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The tiger population in Nepal nearly tripled over the past 12 years. As part of global efforts to double the wild tiger population, the country&#8217;s target was to have 250 tigers by this year, but the figure of 355 surpassed that. Despite the applause, various concerns have emerged, especially about the maximum number of tigers that can live in the country, and the escalation of human-tiger conflict. On September 11, a man was killed in a tiger attack near Bardiya National Park in western Nepal. According to government figures, three people were killed on average every month in encounters with tigers during the last fiscal year, which ended in July. No agency is more central to both the successes and shortcomings of Nepal’s tiger policy than the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, the country’s primary and frontline body when it comes to advising the government on conservation and implementing its policies and programs. The department, whose officers such as wardens and game scouts work in various protected areas of the country alongside the army, has been credited for the success of Nepal’s tiger conservation program. However, it has also been criticised at times for its inability to address the concerns of Indigenous peoples and local communities living close to protected areas. Maheshwar Dhakal, who holds a Ph.D. in valuation of forest products in community forests from the University of Tsukuba, Japan, was recently appointed the head of the department. He previously served as member-secretary of the President Chure-Terai&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2022/10/interview-south-asia-needs-its-own-regional-plan-to-sustain-bengal-tiger-population/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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					<title>The elusive and endangered Sikkim grass lizard makes a rare appearance in Nepal</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2022/09/the-elusive-and-endangered-sikkim-grass-lizard-makes-a-rare-appearance-in-nepal/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2022/09/the-elusive-and-endangered-sikkim-grass-lizard-makes-a-rare-appearance-in-nepal/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Sep 2022 13:05:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Nandithachandraprakash]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2022/09/14091440/Takydromus-sikkimensis-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=19880</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Beyond Protected Areas and Connected Environments]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Nepal, Sikkim, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Reptiles, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2020, zoologist Bivek Gautam and members of his team were exploring the forests of eastern Nepal on an expedition to look for the Himalayan salamander (Tylototriton himalayanus). That&#8217;s when they encountered a lizard different in appearance from others they had seen before. It was an entirely new creature in the regions. “We only managed [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2020, zoologist Bivek Gautam and members of his team were exploring the forests of eastern Nepal on an expedition to look for the Himalayan salamander (Tylototriton himalayanus). That&#8217;s when they encountered a lizard different in appearance from others they had seen before. It was an entirely new creature in the regions. “We only managed to get a glimpse of it,” Gautam told Mongabay, adding he was left wondering about the identity of the lizard. “A year later, when we returned, we managed to get a much closer look at the lizard.” This time the researchers managed to capture, observe and take measurements of the lizard similar to the one they had spotted a year before. In a recently published study, they concluded that what they had was a specimen of an elusive lizard species, Takydromus sikkimensis, previously thought to be found only in Sikkim in India (hence the specific name sikkimensis). “After observing the scales and its four pairs of femoral pores, 12 rows of ventral scales, and a tail more than 3.6 times longer than snout-vent length, we came to a conclusion that it was the Sikkim grass lizard,” Gautam said. “After identifying the species, our excitement increased when we learnt about its history,” he added. There’s so little known about the species that researchers have at times even doubted that it exists. The Sikkim grass lizard was first described in 1888 by German-British zoologist Albert Günther on the basis of a description of grass lizards from Sikkim&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2022/09/the-elusive-and-endangered-sikkim-grass-lizard-makes-a-rare-appearance-in-nepal/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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						<item>
					<title>[Interview] &#8220;There are many Sherpas, not known to the outside world, who regularly summit the mountains&#8221;</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2022/08/interview-there-are-many-sherpas-not-known-to-the-outside-world-who-regularly-summit-the-mountains/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2022/08/interview-there-are-many-sherpas-not-known-to-the-outside-world-who-regularly-summit-the-mountains/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Aug 2022 13:38:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Nandithachandraprakash]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2022/08/22120431/A-Sherpa-and-a-yak-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=19622</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Beyond Protected Areas]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Himalayas, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Impacts of Climate Change, Indigenous Peoples, Interviews, Mountains, and People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Sherpa Indigenous community in Nepal has lived in the lap of the world’s tallest mountains for centuries. Ever since Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay and New Zealand climber Edmund Hillary became the first recorded individuals to summit Sagarmatha, the Nepali name for Mount Everest, in 1953, the Indigenous community’s ability to endure treacherous high-altitude conditions [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Sherpa Indigenous community in Nepal has lived in the lap of the world’s tallest mountains for centuries. Ever since Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay and New Zealand climber Edmund Hillary became the first recorded individuals to summit Sagarmatha, the Nepali name for Mount Everest, in 1953, the Indigenous community’s ability to endure treacherous high-altitude conditions has gained an almost mythical status. Every year, Sherpas, who have now become synonymous with mountaineering in the Himalayas, guide hundreds of foreign adventurers on their excursions to Earth’s highest peaks, both in Nepal and elsewhere around the world. Every spring and autumn, the two mountaineering seasons in the Himalayas, religious leaders from the community offer prayers to the mountains, seeking their permission to start the climbing season. Teams of elite Sherpas, also known as the “icefall doctors,” clad in their climbing gear, trek up mountains such as Sagarmatha to fix the ropes and ladders that make it easier for their clients to climb the mountains. Other Sherpas carry heavy loads on their back so that the clients can travel light. A Sherpa guide and a climber. Teams of elite Sherpas, also known as the “icefall doctors,” clad in their climbing gear, trek up mountains such as Sagarmatha to fix the ropes and ladders that make it easier for their clients to climb the mountains. Photo by McKay Savage/Flickr. This service industry that has developed around mountaineering has ensured a much-needed stream of steady income for the people living in harsh conditions, in a climate&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2022/08/interview-there-are-many-sherpas-not-known-to-the-outside-world-who-regularly-summit-the-mountains/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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