Mithila Wildlife Trust

Dev Narayan Mandal is the Founder and Executive Chairman of our partner NGO Mithila Wildlife Trust (MWT) which is based near his home in Dhanusha District, south Nepal.

Dev is a leading conservationist – and national expert on snakes – whose focus is on the overlooked areas outside the national parks where biodiversity has crashed. His philosophy is that environmental restoration initiatives on Nepal’s southern plains (‘The Terai’) are inseparable from upliftment of the poor communities who live there.

Early work

After ten years of working in Delhi with SOS Animal Rescue, Dev decided to return to live in his home area in south Nepal, to set up The Mithila Wildlife Trust, and begin to restore his beloved Dhanushadham Protected Forest that had been so damaged by illegal felling. You can read this story here. [LINK TO https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-mithila-dream]

One of his first initiatives was to set up a Community Learning Centre at Dhanushadham for the benefit of ‘Dalit’ (‘untouchable’) children. The project received an early boost after he saved a boy’s life after he was gored by a wild boar. Read that story here.[LINK TO https://nepalitimes.com/banner/the-boy-and-the-boar]

Philip first met Dev in February 2020 during a research visit to Madhesh Province. Soon afterwards we launched our first project that involved the afforestation of a former river bed at Bhatighadi. The ground consisted entirely of sand and gravel and all the experts said that nothing would grow there. But by applying a special ‘pitting’ approach Dev achieved a 93% sapling survival rate – the national average is around 20%!

These days, MWT implements our joint projects at the Dhanushadham Nature Reserve, the Dhanushadham Wildlife Corridor, the Kamala River and in snake rescue. We’re particularly impressed not only with how MWT is so embedded in the local community but also its networking with the local, regional and national authorities and within academia. MWT regularly publishes research papers in leading scientific journals.

Watch Dev telling his story in the video.