During another busy schedule for World Fish Migration Day, Mahseer Trust Education and Outreach Officer, Steve Lockett visited Kathmandu in Nepal.
Over the course of a weekend, there were three events at National Trust for Nature Conservation’s Central Zoo. These started with a delivery of local mahseer, Tor putitora, to open what is hoped will be a very popular educational attraction; a Himalayan river ecosystem tank, in the zoo aquarium.
Later that same day, a large number of delegates from many different fields of freshwater environmental science and education gathered in the zoo’s education centre to discuss how best to conserve the important rivers of the country. Steve opened on the theme ‘Building Capacity for Holistic Conservation’, and was followed by other guest speakers before an open discussion determined which is the best way ahead: to extend protection of pristine habitat, or rehabilitate denuded rivers?
For more details of the conference, download the output report below:
Nepal Conference outputs 383.37 KB
Finally, despite a torrential downpour, a group of hardy kids gave up an early morning to learn about the role of mahseer in river habitats, and then had the chance to try fishing in the zoo’s lake. To finish the programme, all had the chance to dry out in the education centre while drawing and colouring copies of the WFMD mascot Happy Fish.
As the next stage of a series of planned projects for Nepal, MT will be reaching out to young biologists in the country in a bid to run some vital field work study. An appeal is to be published on the local website http://wildlifenepal.org/category/stories/
Mahseer Trust would like to extend thanks to Chiran Pokharel and his staff at NTNC Central Zoo for hosting the events, and to all the Himalayan Anglers group for support and organisation during the visit.